Dynamic content allows you to create a single email message that delivers multiple versions based on recipients' demographic profile or other data. The possibilities are limited only by the data you have for your subscribers and the content you have that is relevant to that data. Messages can be customized based on variables such as:

• a recipient's personal data (state, status, etc.),
• past purchase history,
• past email activity, or
• any other data you have about your email recipients.

Rather than sending a generalized message to an entire list, dynamic content gives you the power to send very specific, tailored messages to each person - messages that are more likely to generate profitable action.

Dynamic content and personalization

A phrase you may hear along with "dynamic content" is "personalization." Personalization can be viewed as a simple execution of dynamic content, inserting text held in your database into a message. At its most basic, personalzation inserts a salutation such as "Dear First Name." We encourage you to think beyond first name. Personalization allows you to insert any text for which you have a data field. Here are some other examples for using personalization:

• User-specific information, like customer number
• Contact information for a salesperson in the recipient's region
• Location information for the store closest to the recipient

Dynamic content takes personalization to the next level, enabling you to replace groups of text or images based on recipient data. For example, an electronics retailer could use dynamic content to deliver an email newsletter with an opening paragraph about computers on sale or a paragraph about new MP3 players. The actual paragraph that was delivered would depend on the recipient.

How can you use dynamic content?

The possibilities for customizing messages with dynamic content tools are almost endless. Here are some real-world challenges that email marketers are already using this powerful technology to solve:

• Customizing updates by state, province or other geographical characteristics
• Substituting entire paragraphs of text or graphics based on demographic data
• Creating cross-sell offers based on previous purchases
• Alerting customers of consumable products (items or components that need to be replaced on a regular schedule) or recurring services (which need to be performed at specific intervals, such as oil changes and tune-ups).

Dynamic content tips to keep in mind

In general, the more audience segments and variations of your message that you want to create, the more compelling dynamic content becomes. Dynamic content can save you many hours that you would otherwise spend creating, managing and sending numerous variations of your email message to your list segments. However, if you don't have content that makes sense for each segment, or you don't have a list that can be segmented on specific data, dynamic content may not fit a need for you.

Dynamic content is a powerful tool that requires planning. Here are a few areas to address before sending your first message using dynamic content.

• Do you have the ability and bandwidth to create content tailored to each of your key audience segments?
• You'll need to assign rules to the content. (This is easy to do in SubscriberMail.) For example, to deliver paragraph "A" to a recipient if she is an existing customer, you'll need to create a rule for existing customers and assign paragraph "A" to that rule.
• Before sending your dynamically generated messages, you'll need to test the varying message versions to ensure each scenario and audience segment will receive messages that are cohesive and make sense.

Dynamic content can help deliver improved results from your email marketing efforts. SubscriberMail makes it easy for you to create and manage dynamic messages and campaigns. Additionally, our reporting capabilities enable you to view the results of your overall campaign, as well as drill down to see how each audience segment performed so you can further sharpen the effectiveness of your dynamic messages.