{"id":5882,"date":"2016-07-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-use-live-content-to-create-contextual-relevant-email-campaigns\/"},"modified":"2023-07-12T18:16:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T22:16:31","slug":"how-to-use-live-content-to-create-contextual-relevant-email-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-use-live-content-to-create-contextual-relevant-email-campaigns","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Live Content to Create Contextual Email Campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

To achieve the goal of converting our subscribers into buyers, we have to send email that is relevant and contextual to them. Subscribers now view anything to the contrary as spam<\/a>. You must send communications that are interest of them\u2014or else you risk ending up in the spam folder.<\/p>\n

So how do you create personalized, relevant campaigns? The short answer: not by using someone\u2019s [first_name]<\/a>. It\u2019s so much more than that. You need to understand what drives a person\u2019s decision-making process, where they are in that process, and place all of it within the context of their specific challenges.<\/p>\n

One way to create these contextual, relevant email experiences is through live content. Justin Foster, co-founder of LiveClicker<\/a>, a provider of real-time email solutions, shares his insights on the benefits of live content, its use cases, and how it adds context and relevance to campaigns in this interview.<\/p>\n

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Justin Foster, LiveClicker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What is live content?<\/h3>\n

Live content is image, animation, or video-based content that is conditionally displayed in email using data that isn\u2019t known until the message is opened by the recipient. The foundational data \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d of almost all live content are the opener\u2019s location, device, and time of open.<\/p>\n

How does live content work?<\/h3>\n

Live content is added to the final email HTML just as regular \u201cnon-live\u201d content is\u2014via a standard < img > tag. The email is deployed as normal by the sender, using a standard deployment process. Once the email is opened by the recipient, the live content < img > is requested from the live content provider\u2019s servers. That request contains information that can be used to change the content at open time.<\/p>\n

How is it different from dynamic content?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m of the belief that live content is a subset of dynamic content. When I refer to \u201cdynamic content,\u201d I am referring to any content rendered in an email that is dependent on recipient-level data. What makes live content unique is that it\u2019s dependent on data that isn\u2019t known in advance of the send. What makes it exceptionally powerful is when it\u2019s used in conjunction with other known data, whether that data is expressly provided by the recipient (e.g. interests, demographics) or behavior (e.g. cart abandon, page browse).<\/p>\n

Is live content supported in all inboxes?<\/h3>\n

Is anything in email supported in all inboxes? I want to add a \u201cLOL\u201d to that response. For most senders, the vast majority of inboxes support live content. For those mail clients that have limitations, it\u2019s possible to display fallback content so the email doesn\u2019t break.<\/p>\n

What are some use cases for live content? Why would a brand want to use it in their email campaigns?<\/h3>\n

At Liveclicker, we refer to live content use cases as the \u201cRealTime Email Universe.\u201d Like the actual universe, the range of applications is constantly expanding. Core and common uses include countdown timers (time-targeted), embedded video (device-targeted), and local maps (geo-targeted). As I mentioned earlier, the most robust and sophisticated use cases combine live data with other known data. For example, a sports team selling tickets to an event can look up at open time<\/em> how many seats are still available for the event, what the current pricing is for those seats, and whether the email recipient is eligible for a discount on the tickets based on his or her guest or loyalty status.<\/p>\n

For those who are curious and would like to send actual live use cases to their inbox, we\u2019ve set up a sample gallery<\/a> on our website.<\/p>\n

Are there some use cases that are inappropriate for live content?<\/h3>\n

In general, live content is most valuable for businesses that operate in an environment where things change frequently. Travel is a poster child industry for live content due to constantly changing prices, availability, loyalty tiers, etc. However, even simple businesses can benefit from live content, though the benefits are more likely to be concentrated in live device and geo-targeting rather than live time-targeting.<\/p>\n

Are there ways that you\u2019ve seen marketers use live content that you think are unwise or simply just not very effective?<\/h3>\n

I see a lot of email marketers that view live content as the next shiny toy to incorporate into their program rather than as a strategic tool to drive personalization and enhance the inbox experience. When live content is viewed purely as a tactical tool, it can easily fail.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, countdown timers are a perfect example of this. Timers are ineffectively used by most senders that employ them because marketers don\u2019t take the time to understand the proper use context. For example, should a timer be used with a discount offer vs. a flash sale or free shipping? Should one be deployed with email the day before an event expiration or ten days prior? On the speaking circuit, I refer to the solution for this problem as the need to \u201cget meta\u201d about context. It\u2019s a wordplay on live content\u2019s synonymous label: contextual marketing.<\/p>\n

How does live content help add context and relevancy to an email campaign?<\/h3>\n

In my view, the purpose<\/em> of live content is to drive context and relevancy. The applications enabled<\/em> by live content (e.g. scratch-to-reveals, video, carousels, etc.) are there to enhance the inbox experience<\/em>. Two very different things.<\/p>\n

When I talk about how live content drives relevancy, marketers will often hear me refer to the \u201c80\/20 Rule of Personalization.\u201d The 80\/20 Rule of Personalization simply states that most marketers are only able to richly personalize content in email for about 20% of the database. The other 80%? That\u2019s the \u201cbatch and blast\u201d group. With live content, it\u2019s now possible to easily personalize content for that previously untouched 80% while enhancing the personalization possibilities for the 20% of openers that already are associated with rich data sets.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, this is a truly revolutionary development in the industry. The problem today isn\u2019t lack of knowledge<\/em> about the effectiveness of email personalization. It\u2019s lack of ability to execute on the vision of mass personalization<\/em> because the data either isn\u2019t there or the data is too hard to access. Live content is an important step toward achieving the vision because it enables mass personalization, quickly and easily. It\u2019s every email marketer\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

Is there any chance of error when it comes to using live content (ie. the wrong thing displaying for the wrong person at the wrong time)?<\/h3>\n

By far, the limitation marketers need to be most aware of when using live content are the geo-targeting limitations. Live geo-targeted content relies upon IP geo-targeting, which is less accurate than GPS-based geo-targeting. For example, let\u2019s say you\u2019re a retailer and you want to display a live map in an email you\u2019re sending that displays the locations of the closest stores based on the recipient\u2019s on-the-ground location at open time. With GPS targeting, it\u2019s possible to determine someone\u2019s location within feet. With IP targeting, it\u2019s possible to determine someone\u2019s location with about 90% accuracy within a 25-mile radius. For this reason, I generally recommend keeping map zooms pulled out at this range to minimize the possibility of showing the wrong content.<\/p>\n

Another geo-targeting limitation to be aware of is the lack of ability to geo-target Gmail openers<\/a> that are opening email in the Gmail web app or Gmail mobile app. For B2C senders, that can be as many as 50% of Gmail openers and as much as 15% of the overall database. Fortunately, it\u2019s possible to detect this situation and display fallback content.<\/p>\n

Does live content affect email deliverability? Are certain kinds of live content problematic?<\/h3>\n

No. Using live content does not impact deliverability.<\/p>\n

When determining the success of a campaign that uses live content, are there any key metrics on which marketers should focus?<\/h3>\n

Most marketers use live content to boost email program engagement. For that reason, it\u2019s important to not only measure standard KPIs on a campaign-by-campaign basis (e.g. revenue, orders, click through rate, conversion rate) but also over time. For example, we\u2019ve seen senders that have improved open and click rates by 5% and 2% respectively over a year\u2019s time with regular use of live content. That may not sound like much, but for large programs, it can be significant.<\/p>\n

How do you think live content will change in the future? What innovations in live content do you think we\u2019ll see in the near future?<\/h3>\n

I believe live content is only a part of the overall personalization revolution taking place in the email industry right now. We\u2019ll continue to see more cases where live content is integrated with behavioral targeting and even predictive targeting. On the applications front, we\u2019ll continue to see more innovations.<\/p>\n

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One way to create contextual, relevant email experiences is through live content. Justin Foster, co-founder of LiveClicker, a provider of real-time email solutions, shares his insights on the benefits of live content, its use cases, and how it adds context and relevance to campaigns in this interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[206],"blog_category":[53],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dynamic-content","blog_category-tips-resources"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Use Live Content to Create Contextual Email Campaigns - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One way to create contextual, relevant email experiences is through live content. 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