It's a fact: Personalization drives better email results. According to the Aberdeen Group, personalized emails create a 14% increase in click-through rates and a 10% increase in conversions. So why isn't every marketer personalizing every email before sending? Perhaps it's because some are stuck in the era when turning data into 1-to-1 email experiences was cumbersome and time consuming. If that situation sounds familiar, it's time get acquainted with dynamic content. I promise-you'll never look back.

What is Dynamic Email Content?

Dynamic email content allows marketers to leverage all of their audience data and create personalized messages for each subscriber segment. It makes it possible to deliver content with pinpoint precision-and best of all, it scales.

Here are three simple steps to how dynamic email content works.

1. The first step is to understand your subscriber data. What are your audience segments? How can you divide your list by factors like geography, gender, or loyalty status? Identify segments that truly matter to your marketing efforts and clearly distinguish one group from another.
   
   
2. Next, look at all of your content and decide how it can vary for each audience. Perhaps the segment in the southern half of the country receives content different from those in the north. Or males get content different from females, or premier loyalty members receive discounts unique to their status. Or better yet, males who live in the south and have premier status get certain offers while females without premier status who live in the north...well, you get the idea. The possibilities are endless.
   
   
3. The final step is to build your email template--a vessel that defines who gets what and when. It marries together your business rules with your audience segments. Templates are where the 'magic' occurs-they put the 'dynamic' in dynamic content. It's best to start with two or three segments, then test, measure, and expand.

How Does Marketing Cloud Power Dynamic Email Content?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud makes leveraging dynamic content incredibly simple.

To start, within the Content Builder Editor, drag the dynamic content block into the template. Next, open the Content Block to start matching your audience and content. ↓

Then, select your default content. This is the content any subscriber that doesn't match your rules will receive. Now select your business rule and content. In the example below, we've selected rules based on loyalty status. ↓

Now drag over our corresponding content. ↓

In this case we are using an image, but this could be text, image, code, or any type cont content block. Repeat this process for each of your different content and audience pairings.

Congratulations! You have just created a targeted email leveraging dynamic content in one email. Now you can test all of your business rules and logic against your subscribers so you can ensure that everything is setup correctly. ↓

How to Get Started with Personalized Emails

The benefits of dynamic content are clear. You can target specific audience segments with precision, without the hassle of manipulating data. Not only does dynamic email content provide scale, it delivers the personalized customer experience your customers want and expect.

Interested in learning more email marketing tips and tactics? Download 4 Email Practices of Marketing Masters for valuable email marketing statistics-and how to apply them to your marketing strategies.