By Martin H. Morrissette, Sirocco CMO – Book time with me
Hello fellow marketer. Is your inbox a graveyard of ignored emails, too? We’ve all been there. Generic greetings, irrelevant offers – it’s no wonder emails often go straight to trash or remain untouched. But what if you could craft emails that feel like a one-on-one conversation, speaking directly to your customers’ needs and interests? Enter Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, your secret weapon for email personalisation. This powerful platform acts as a central hub, gathering customer data from every touchpoint – website visits, social media interactions, purchase history, and more. By harnessing this data, Customer Insights lets you create dynamic content for your marketing emails, boosting engagement and conversions. But the magic doesn’t stop there. We’re a proud Microsoft partner and our marketing automation experts look forward to working with you!
Why dynamic content matters
Did you know that personalized email messages can improve click-through rates by an average of 14%? Targeted personalization also leads to 6x higher transaction rates. So, when crafting your email campaigns, consider adding that personal touch – it pays off! 74% of email marketers say targeted, personalised messages noticeably improve customer engagement. Personalisation is the gold standard in marketing. Think about it: wouldn’t you rather receive an email that speaks directly to you, mentions your name, and recommends products you’d genuinely love? That’s the magic of dynamic content. Say goodbye to generic greetings and irrelevant offers. Customer Insights lets you craft emails that feel like a one-on-one conversation.
Customer Insights elevates your marketing game by enabling targeted emails based on customer behaviour. Segment your audience based on interests, past purchases, and interactions. This ensures each email resonates with the recipient, leading to higher engagement and conversions. For sales teams, Customer Insights predicts customer needs, allowing them to provide laser-focused recommendations. Imagine suggesting complementary products based on past purchases or sharing success stories relevant to their industry. Dynamic content turns sales interactions into personalised conversations. Even customer service emails benefit from this approach. When someone reaches out for support, Customer Insights ensures they receive responses that acknowledge their specific issue. Think relevant solutions, targeted resources, and a feeling of being truly understood.
Making dynamic content work for you
As your digital agency partner, Sirocco’s here to guide you through the process of using dynamic content effectively. However, if you’re inclined to set things up independently, here’s a breakdown:
Content settings act as repositories for standard and required values in your marketing email messages. These values can be dynamically inserted into your emails using the personalisation feature. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys comes with a preconfigured default content-settings record, including essentials like a subscription-centre link and a forward-to-a-friend link. Customise this record as needed, or create additional content-settings records to ensure consistency across all messages sent by each customer journey. Content settings are evaluated at send time, so you can edit them anytime, and all pending and future email messages will automatically use the latest values. Publish them by choosing “Go Live” to make your content settings available to marketing services which handle email assembly and delivery.
Within Customer Journeys, you’ll create personalised emails that resonate with your recipients. Select your data source (e.g., contact details and purchase history) to fuel your dynamic content. Identify dynamic text within your email content using special labels, allowing you to insert personalised information seamlessly. Highlight the sections where dynamic content will shine, making your emails stand out. If you need to tweak your dynamic content, head to the “Personalise” tab in the email designer and make intuitive edits to ensure your emails hit the right notes.
Creative use cases for dynamic content? Yes, please!
Your email personalisation opportunities are only limited by two things – your data (accuracy, availability, accessibility etc.) and your imagination. We can help with both, though the second one is a bit easier. Here are some ideas for your dynamic content use cases:
Gamified Engagement:
- Reward programs: Welcome emails can include a personalised message highlighting the customer’s current reward points and enticing them to make a purchase to reach the next tier.
- Interactive quizzes or polls: Segment your audience and send emails with dynamic quizzes or polls tailored to their interests. Offer exclusive discounts or early access to new products based on their quiz responses.
Location-Based Personalisation:
- Weather-triggered emails: For clothing retailers, send emails with dynamic content showcasing jackets and rain boots when the recipient’s location experiences a sudden downpour. This works great for media companies too, triggering a binge-watch campaign when there’s rain in the forecast.
- Travel recommendations: Target emails with personalised travel recommendations based on a customer’s recent browsing activity or past purchase history (e.g., suggesting beach essentials after they buy swimwear).
Dynamic Product Recommendations:
- “Because you loved X, you might also like Y” emails: Recommend complementary products based on a customer’s recent purchase history. For example, if they bought a camera, suggest a camera case or memory card.
- “Limited-time offer on products you viewed” emails: If a customer abandons their cart, send a follow-up email with a discount on the viewed item(s).
Dynamic Social Proof:
- Personalised testimonials: Include customer testimonials in emails, dynamically selecting testimonials from customers with similar demographics or purchase history to the recipient.
- Dynamic “Trending Now” sections: Showcase products that are currently trending within the recipient’s location or demographic.
Interactive Content:
- Countdown timers: Create a sense of urgency with dynamic countdown timers highlighting limited-time sales or promotions.
- Dynamic surveys: After a customer makes a purchase, send an email with a short, dynamic survey embedded. The questions and answer options can be personalised based on the specific product purchased. This allows you to gather valuable feedback tailored to each product and improve customer satisfaction.
By incorporating these creative use cases, you can craft truly engaging emails that resonate with your audience and drive results. Want to explore even more ideas or discuss how Customer Insights can help your specific business? Get in touch, we’re here to help!
Dynamic content, also a marketing team’s dream come true
We’ve seen how personalised messages can captivate your audience. Now, let’s check out some of the benefits dynamic content offers marketing teams specifically. Crafting personalised emails at scale used to be a marketer’s nightmare. Forget crafting countless, slightly tweaked emails for different segments. Dynamic content lets you create a single, dynamic customer journey within one email. This also helps your platform performance, automation efficiency and sometimes even your marketing costs. A single email template that transforms for each recipient – dynamic greetings, personalised product recommendations, and exclusive offers based on individual customer profiles – all woven seamlessly into one efficient journey. Nice! This eliminates the need to build and manage separate journeys for each segment, saving you significant time and resources. Here’s how dynamic content becomes a marketing team’s secret weapon:
- Effortless personalisation at scale: Dynamic content allows you to personalise communications with ease, even for a vast audience. Create a single email template with multiple variations, ensuring each recipient feels valued with targeted greetings, offers, and product recommendations.
- Deeper customer understanding: Dynamic content goes beyond just sending personalised emails. It acts as a feedback loop, providing valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences. By analysing which dynamic elements resonate most with different audience segments, you gain a deeper understanding of their interests and purchase triggers. This data becomes your secret weapon for crafting future marketing campaigns that are laser-focused on what your audience truly wants.
- Boosted engagement & conversions: Personalised emails with dynamic content are inherently more engaging. Imagine the difference between a generic “Dear Customer” and an email that greets you by name, recommends products you’ve shown interest in, and highlights exclusive offers based on your past purchases. This level of personalisation fosters a sense of connection, leading to increased click-through rates, conversions, and overall campaign effectiveness.
- A/B Testing on autopilot: Dynamic content allows for a form of A/B testing within a single email. You can test different greetings, subject lines, calls to action (CTAs), or product recommendations to see which resonate best with your audience. The beauty lies in the automation – Customer Insights automatically sends the most effective variation to each recipient based on their profile, constantly optimising your campaigns for peak performance.
- Improved data management: By centralising customer data within Customer Insights, you eliminate the need to juggle information from multiple sources. This not only saves time but also ensures consistency and accuracy across all your marketing efforts.
Sirocco – Your strategic partner
At Sirocco, we understand the complexities of marketing automation and the potential of dynamic content. Our team is dedicated to helping you make the most of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. We work with you to develop a tailored marketing strategy that aligns with your goals and audience demographics. Our experts handle the technical setup, ensuring seamless integration with your existing data sources, building comprehensive customer profiles, and connecting them with other Dynamics 365 modules for a holistic view of your audience. We provide thorough training on creating personalised customer journeys and designing compelling emails that delight your prospects and customers. From crafting targeted campaigns to monitoring performance, we’ll be by your side every step of the way. Analysing results and iterating based on insights is crucial for continuous improvement. So yeah, dynamic content and personalised customer journeys aren’t just trends – they’re the presence & future of marketing. By harnessing the power of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Sirocco’s expertise, you too can build lasting relationships with your audience and watch your marketing efforts soar. Ready to personalise your emails and unleash the power of Customer Insights? Let’s chat!
