Have you ever received emails from your frequent merchant recommending new items that you might be interested in purchasing? It’s amazing how retailers can deduce your interests after a couple of transactions and recognise that you are a return visitor is completely amazing.
A lot of companies have started dabbling into date-driven personalisation, especially after giants like Amazon seems to be raking in a lot of profit just by simply suggesting items a visitor might want to buy. However, it still hasn’t caught on in terms of marketing best practice. So let’s explore what dynamic content is and how you can use it in your marketing strategy.
Defining dynamic content
Dynamic or smart content refers to an advertisement or email content which changes based on who the visitor is and their past behaviour on the website. This is why when you buy a fantasy book on an online bookstore, the next email you will receive from them are other fantasy books from different authors.
The objective is to create an experience customised for the specific user. Other than recommending items to purchase, dynamic content is also used to personalise email subjects or featured promos on the website which differs per user who is visiting.
Key to dynamic content is creating content that is more targeted or relevant to the recipient. According to Jupiter Research, targeted emails drive 18x more revenue than general, broadcast emails. And according to Annuitas Group, leads who keep receiving targeted content yield a 20% increase in sales.
To achieve relevancy, you need more than just your customer’s demographic and contact information. You need to look into their history on your website, how they have interacted with you, their downloads, and more. These are information that summarises your relationship with your customer, and that is what will matter to your marketing.
Dynamic marketing strategies
Remove availed offers
When a visitor has purchased or downloaded from your website, remove it from their view. Instead, replace it with an item or an ebook that is similar to their previous purchase. There are smart content generators that can help you set rules on your website. This is a great opportunity for you to show new products to your customers as well as create a customised shopping experience for them.
Study your customer’s buying cycle
A customer’s buying cycle refers to the process they go through before they make a purchase. It starts with research, then first-time visiting your website, evaluating options, until they finally decide to buy from you. Knowing the general behaviour of your customers will help you avoid over-selling to them.
For instance, you might have noticed that a visitor on a hotel website went as far as picking a schedule but abandoned the cart. One of the things you can do is send them an email that if they do push through with their booking, they can use a promo code for a 10% F&B discount. The next email shouldn’t happen until the week after because they are probably on the early stages of their research.
Make the process easy for repeat customers
Remove the unnecessary steps in the buying process like filling out information fields for a repeat customer. Instead, using smart content, recognise that they are repeat visitors and provide a call-to-action button which they can click on so they can go about their purchase hassle-free.
These are some of the easiest strategies you can start exploring in your online business. However, you have to protect the data you’ve extracted from your customers so that none of their sensitive information gets stolen. An SSL certificate will protect the information being exchanged between you and the user. So learn more about SSL here and make sure you’ve activated it on your website.