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Issue: October 2008

Dynamic content marketing campaigns have instant impact, help brands develop a better connection with their customers and, most importantly, they generate a much greater response.

But what do you need to know to make this a reality.

  • 1. The decision to use dynamic contact marketing should be driven by a business issue and not by novelty – have a clear understanding of what you want the campaign to achieve rather than doing it simply to be different

  • 2. Start with a blank sheet of paper when planning your campaign and develop the creative for your campaign in-conjunction with your data – dynamic content marketing requires a new approach to planning. The response rate will be greater and your campaign should be developed with this in mind. Your creative also needs to work with your data and any personalisation and dynamic content. So, build these factors in to your design brief because trying to force it in to an existing creative treatment is less effective

  • 3. Integration across direct mail, email and online significantly increases response – our experience (and common industry knowledge) indicates that integrated campaigns achieve a much better response. This is especially so with dynamic content marketing and particularly when personalised URLs (PURLS) are used as the main call to action

  • 4. Think beyond just using contact details. Relevancy is king. Look at your data and decide how you can personalise the information, messages and content - developing messages and content with customer/prospect profiles is very important. Personalisation will create the impact but the dynamic content will provide the relevancy and it is this combination that generates the greater response

  • 5. Confidence in your data is essential. Dynamic content marketing is very unforgiving and open to far greater scrutiny – don’t leave it to chance. Know your data. Its strengths and weaknesses. Make sure it’s clean and that the information you use is correct

  • 6. Copy should be written as if you are having a one-to-one conversation – dynamic content marketing is personalised and personal. You will be sending out a communication that is unique to the recipient, so communicate with them on a one-to-one basis

  • 7. Proof a reasonable size sample of each activity making sure that they cover all eventualities including the longest and shortest example – again, don’t leave it to chance. Each communication is unique, so check a broad range of samples that cover all of the different aspects of your dynamic content. Plus, most of the time, you will have limitations on the space available. So, where you have used personalisation i.e. name, job title, company name etc make sure that you look at the longest and shortest examples, so you can make sure that it works across all scenarios

  • 8. Campaign analysis and tracking is critical. Make sure you are provided with the means to do this in real-time – this speaks for itself because just like any direct marketing campaigns, measuring effectiveness and return-on-investment are essential

  • 9. If you’re collecting data, then make sure you look at ways to pre-populate forms to save time – where possible, use dynamic content and personalisation throughout the communication cycle. The recipient will know that you have their details anyway, so if you can save him/her time, then the experience for them will be better and you are more likely to get a response

  • 10. The more time you spend planning, the quicker and easier the process is and the better your experience – this might sound obvious and is true of any direct marketing campaign but how your different messages and content work with your data is critical. So, the more time you spend understanding this and then planning it in to your campaign, the greater your success is likely to be

For more information about how Lorien Unique can help you and your business, please contact Antonia Fielding, Senior Account Manager at:

Tel: +44 (0)1753 768489
Mobile: +44 (0)7595 400871
Email: antonia.fielding@lorienunique.com

Alternatively, click here and complete our 'Find out for yourself' enquiry form and we will contact you.