Marketers are almost always concerned with how our tactics and strategies are holding up. We care about metrics like the number of people who are reading our emails and clicking through to our site, and how many qualified leads our landing pages are generating. And it comes from a good place–ultimately, we just want to make sure we’re constantly improving our techniques and can report back on those successes.
So, what marketer wouldn’t be thrilled with the ability to use dynamic content? The dynamic content feature allows us to deliver different copy or images to prospects based on criteria we determine. We can personalize content to align with buyer personas and increase the overall effectiveness of our messaging. When the top concern is improving click-through rates and form conversions, these insights into content performance and consumption is invaluable.
From my experience, many Pardot users don’t take advantage of this feature even though it’s available in the Plus and Advanced editions. In this post, I’ll demonstrate just how easy it is to configure, and I’ll provide a few use cases so you can try on your own.
Creating and configuring dynamic content.
If you already know how to configure dynamic content, I suggest skipping to the next section.
The first step is learning how to create and configure dynamic content. In Pardot, go to Marketing > Content > Dynamic Content or, if you’re in the Lightning app, click the Content tab and then click Dynamic Content. Click “+ Dynamic Content” and you’ll see a screen similar to this one:
After naming the content, you can:
- Set the default content that the prospects see if they don’t match a variation.
- Determine the field on which to base the variation.
- Add a variation dependent on the criteria you set.
Keep in mind you can only have up to 25 variations per piece of dynamic content, which is plenty in most scenarios. Also, you’ll want to order variations by the restrictiveness of the criteria. If a prospect matches multiple criteria, the prospect sees the first matched variation.
Once you configure, all you need to do is paste the embed code into your email template, landing page template, or website. Click on the “View Embed Code” button and copy/paste where you want to display:
Use dynamic content in email templates to improve click-through rates.
When it comes to email marketing, open and click-through rates are two KPI’s I’m very interested in tracking. By using those KPIs, I’m able to draw insight into whether my content is resonating with prospects and customers.
Let’s assume your company takes advantage of Engagement Studio (although this example could apply to a List Email) and has a nurturing drip program to help move prospects through the buyer’s journey. In this example, we’re selling cybersecurity services. Prospects enter the drip program by downloading your whitepaper on the importance of network security in a digital world. In order to download the whitepaper, we present them with a form asking for their name, email and job title.
We’re going to use the job title we gathered to tailor our email messages and hopefully encourage more click-throughs to our site and drive interest in relevant product offerings. In the example, we shared a link to the asset the prospect requested, but also offered additional services or assets that someone with their job title may be interested in:
Opportunities to insert dynamic content into emails are plentiful. You just need to take the time to really understand your buyer personas. Then you can flex your marketing muscles and get creative with messaging.
Use dynamic content on landing pages to improve conversion rates.
The name of the game is lead generation and I want to win. That means doing anything in my power to help encourage prospects interested in our services to fill out landing page forms. Most marketers will scrutinize page copy and the length of a form, but many miss an opportunity to personalize.
One way to personalize is by using case studies or testimonials from companies in the prospect’s geographic region. For instance, if my company sells medical devices, showing prospects a testimonial from a hospital administrator in their neck of the woods will establish a more intimate level of trust. Not saying this will be a make-or-break effort, but it could move the needle.
Additionally, you should modify landing page content based on the industry a prospect is in. If I’m selling brand monitoring software, I can show different content to site visitors in higher education as opposed to financial services.
Use dynamic content to increase email list subscribers.
In a lot of circles, the number of email list subscribers represents the general level of interest in your company or service area. Many will browse your site, but only some will give up their email address. Those who do are the ones who trust you to send quality content and want to hear what you have to say.
The truth is that things change or email marketing efforts go wrong. People unsubscribe from your content entirely, especially in larger databases. But just because someone wants to break up with you, doesn’t mean you still can’t be friends. How can you woo them back though?
You will need to rely on a little bit of luck here, but the hope is that these prospects will eventually return. They may follow you on social networks, or you will come up in their web searches. One way or another, we’re hoping they come back on their own. Once they are back, we can show them a new email sign up form, and this time, rather than a general subscribe to all emails, we will offer the ability to opt back into email communication for specific areas of interest.
In Pardot, create a new piece of dynamic content and base the variation on the value of the field “Opted Out”.
Then, place a form similar to the following in the variation where “Opted Out” is “on”.
Next, you will configure what you want to show when a prospect is already opted-in (this is a good opportunity to upsell or share relevant assets). Then, you can then place the dynamic content code right into the sidebar of your site. When you’ve taken these steps, you’ll have clear reporting as to how effective this effort is by viewing the number of form submissions.
TIP: Better inform your marketing efforts by capturing why prospects unsubscribe from your emails.
Don’t stop there. Dynamic content can be used in many other scenarios.
There are plenty of other applications where you can take advantage of dynamic content. For instance, imagine an existing customer visits your contact page. Using dynamic content, you can improve the customer experience by showing them contact information for their assigned user (or the rep for their particular region).
My hope is that you now have usable examples to improve KPIs using dynamic content in your own organization. Get the creative juices flowing and come up with some solutions of your own.
Remember, personalizing content is the holy grail of content marketing. It’s an incredibly effective way to get your message to resonate with your prospects and customers.
I’d love to hear how you’re using dynamic content. Post in the comments below and let me know!
