What is dynamic content?

Dynamic content, also referred to as personalization in the email designer, is content that changes from person to person. It allows you to pull information related to the contact or lead receiving an email and automatically display that information within your message. Dynamic content can use fields directly from the contact or lead, information from related records, and, in Real-Time Marketing, data from journey triggers. This is a useful way to create more personalized emails and make your communications more relevant to individual recipients.

Dynamic content in Real-Time Marketing

The process for adding dynamic content differs slightly between Real-Time Marketing and Outbound Marketing. In the Real-Time email designer, select the text you want to personalize and choose the Personalization option from the text toolbar. Dynamics 365 provides several preset personalization options, including First name. When you insert dynamic content, it appears in the designer inside double curly brackets. These indicate where the personalized information will be loaded when the email is sent. The preset options can cover many common personalization needs. When you need something different, select New dynamic text to access the attribute selector.

Using the attribute selector

The attribute selector gives you access to a wide range of information associated with the recipient. You can use:

• Fields from the contact or lead receiving the email.
• Fields from related records, such as an associated account.
• Business information from your brand profile.
• Compliance information.
• Data associated with Real-Time journey triggers.

For example, instead of using only the recipient's first name, you could add their job title or information from their related account. The search feature can help you locate fields when working with a large number of available attributes.

Add a default value

When creating dynamic text in Real-Time Marketing, you can define a default value. The default value appears when the recipient does not have information populated in the field you're using. For example, if you're personalizing content with a field that may occasionally be blank, you could provide a general fallback such as "valued customer." Using default values helps prevent personalized emails from displaying awkward gaps when CRM data is incomplete. You can also adjust the display name of your dynamic text. The display name is primarily for your own reference and can make personalized elements easier to identify when CRM field names are unclear or similar to one another.

Use brand profile and compliance information

Personalization isn't limited to recipient information. You can also use information from your brand profile and compliance settings. This can include items such as:

• Social media links.
• Your company's address.
• Preference center information.
• Unsubscribe links.

Personalization can be applied to more than regular text. You can also use personalized information within links and buttons.

Review the personalization in your email

The Personalized area of the email designer provides a convenient way to review dynamic content you've included in your email. From here, you can see the personalized elements being used and confirm that compliance information, such as your preference center and company address, is properly configured.

Preview dynamic content with sample data

Before sending an email, you can preview how your personalization will appear for a real contact. Navigate to Preview and Test and select Edit Sample Data. You can then select an example contact from your system. Dynamics 365 uses information from that record to populate the personalized content in the preview. For example, if your email contains dynamic fields for first name and job title, along with your company address, the preview can show how those values will appear when populated. This is a helpful way to verify your personalization before using the email in a live journey.

Dynamic content in Outbound Marketing

Outbound Marketing provides similar dynamic content capabilities, although the interface is different. When you select personalization in the Outbound email designer, you can choose between dynamic and static content. Dynamic content contains information that can differ for each recipient, such as a contact's first name. Static content uses information that isn't directly related to an individual recipient and therefore remains the same across the audience. Examples include event registration links or information from content settings, such as your social media links and business address.

Working with relationships in Outbound Marketing

When adding dynamic contact information in Outbound Marketing, you're asked to choose a relationship. If you want information from the contact record itself, select No relationship and then choose the field you want, such as First name. If you want information from a related record, select the appropriate relationship first. For example, you can follow the relationship between a contact and their account to retrieve information from the associated account record. Outbound Marketing also provides preview and testing capabilities so you can check your personalization before sending. One important difference is that Outbound Marketing does not provide the same default-value option described for Real-Time Marketing. If the selected field is empty on a recipient's record, nothing will be displayed for that dynamic field.

Moving personalized emails from Outbound to Real-Time Marketing

If you're moving existing emails from Outbound Marketing into Real-Time Marketing, use the built-in Import Emails option. Do not simply copy the email's HTML into Real-Time Marketing. Dynamic content may not transfer correctly when the HTML is copied manually. Even when using the built-in importer, review your dynamic content afterward to make sure everything transferred and is working as expected.

Create more personal marketing emails

Dynamic content gives you a practical way to personalize marketing communications using information you already have in Dynamics 365. Something as simple as adding a recipient's name can make an email feel less like a generic mass communication. From there, you can expand your personalization by using contact and lead information, related records, business details, compliance data, and Real-Time journey information to build emails that are more relevant to your audience.