Dynamic content in email marketing allows you to show different products, messages, offers or calls to action to different recipients, based on information such as their interests, browsing behaviour or previous purchases.
Instead of creating multiple versions of the same campaign, you can build one email that automatically displays the most relevant content to each individual recipient.
It’s a simple and effective way to deliver more personalised communications that reflect what matters to each customer, without multiplying your workload.
Why Use Dynamic Content?
When customers receive emails that reflect their interests and needs, it creates a much better customer experience, where communications feel tailored to them, rather than generic. They’re more likely to find the content useful, engage with your brand and develop stronger relationships over time.
For marketers, dynamic content is a simple yet effective feature that enables you to deliver more targeted campaigns at scale, tailoring communications to different audiences without adding unnecessary complexity or increasing your workload.
And for businesses, this increased relevance and engagement can lead to higher click-through rates, and ultimately more conversions, helping you get more value from you remail marketing campaigns.
Examples of Dynamic Content in Email Marketing
Dynamic content can be used in any industry where you have customer information that can help make your emails more relevant. Here are three examples of how a single email campaign could display different content, depending on who’s receiving it.
Ecommerce: Recommend products based on browsing behaviour
Imagine a Home Furnishings Retailer sending a promotional email to its entire customer database.
Without dynamic content: Everyone receives the same featured products, regardless of what they have previously browsed or purchased.
With dynamic content: Customers who have recently been browsing sofas see the newest living room ranges, whereas customers browsing wallpaper see the latest decorating products.
The retailer can promote different products within the same campaign, making the email more relevant based on what that customer has recently shown an interest in.
Leisure & Attractions: Tailor content to the experience booked
A Theme Park might send an email to customers ahead of their pre-booked visit.
Without dynamic content: Every visitor receives the same general information about the attraction.
With dynamic content: Families booked onto a Christmas event receive information about the festive activities, whereas visitors with standard admission tickets see recommendations for additional experiences they could enjoy during their visit.
Both customers receive useful pre-visit communications, but the content reflects the ticket and experience they have actually booked.
B2B: Share content relevant to each subscriber’s interests
A Marketing Publication might send a monthly newsletter to subscribers with different editorial interests.
Without dynamic content: Everyone receives the same feature articles.
With dynamic content: Subscribers interested in see articles about improving customer retention, whereas those interested in travel see content about increasing repeat bookings.
The publication can send one newsletter to its entire subscriber base while displaying different content to different audiences, increasing the likelihood that each subscriber receives articles relevant to their interests.
How to set up Dynamic Content in Email Marketing
ation, promotional offer, image, article or call to action.
You don’t need to personalise the entire email. Even changing one content block can make a difference.
- Identify the customer data you’ll use:
Decide what information will determine which content someone receives. This could include previous purchases, browsing behaviour, membership type or interests they’ve shared with you.
Make sure the information is accurate, up to date and available within your email marketing platform.
2. Create your content variations:
Build the different versions of the content you want to display. For example, a retailer might create one product block featuring sofas and another featuring wallpaper.
Each variation should be relevant to the audience it’s intended for.
3. Set your dynamic content rules:
Using your email marketing software, define which recipients should see each version of the content. For example, customers interested in sofas see the living room collection, while those interested in wallpaper see decorating products.
Most importantly, set a default version for recipients who don’t match your rules or where customer information is missing.
4. Preview, test and launch:
Before sending, preview your email for each audience to check that the correct content appears. Test your default content too and make sure all links and calls to action work.
Once your campaign is live, review engagement and conversion results to understand which content resonates with your audience.
Remember the goal isn’t to personalise every single element of your email, but to make meaningful changes that genuinely improve the customer’s experience.
With dynamic content capabilities in Spotler Mail+, marketers can tailor content within a single email campaign using customer data and targeting rules, without needing to build separate emails for every audience.
The Future of Dynamic Content in Email Marketing
Dynamic content continues to evolve, with advances in AI and better access to customer data making it increasingly possible to deliver more relevant and individualised experiences.
Rather than relying solely on predefined audience segments, marketers can now draw on real-time behaviour and predictive insights to anticipate what customers might be interested in next, using these insights to determine which dynamic content they receive.
But while the technology is becoming more sophisticated, the principle remains the same: delivering the right content to the right customer at the right time.
Ready to make your email campaigns more relevant?
Discover how Spotler Mail+ can help you deliver personalised content to your customers.
