VARIABLE CONTENT

Variable Content Not Tower of Babel

To be effective, variable content documents rely on four things:

• A Consistent Design Framework – document size, columns, margins, styles
• Interchangeable Content – message, graphics, data
• Tags & Rules for content variation
• Information about the recipient(s) 

The Old Way

One size fits all - A fabulous title for Frank Zappa’s 1975 album but increasingly not such a great way to craft your messages for the purpose of selling prospects on the value of your company’s product or service. As the volume of communications we receive each day increases, our natural filters tune out those messages that don’t appear relevant or interesting. One of the best ways to keep your communications fresh is by using variable content that resonates with the recipient’s interests. But what is “content”? These days content includes text, graphic images and data. 

Executed poorly, variable content communications truly do take on the qualities of the tower of Babel. Paragraphs that don’t flow, mismatched styles, pictures that don’t support the copy – or no picture at all where there should be one. These are all hallmarks of poorly designed variable content campaigns. 

The Innovative Way

A good variable content campaign begins with the final structure of the communication in mind, including which media will be used for delivery, segmentation of variable and static sections etc. Using this framework, content, including text, data and images can be created and selected to work harmoniously in combination with the static content. By tagging the structure, automation techniques can be used to effect computer-based editing such that each document is created on-the-fly and is unique to the recipient.

It’s not enough to have a consistent design framework, interchangeable content and rules for creating content variation. The effectiveness of a variable content marketing program depends on good information about the recipient(s). Usually this information is stored in a database. Increasingly, the data used to tailor content for the recipient comes from the web. Your website can provide a wealth of information about the people who visit and that information in turn can be used to drive variable content response communications in multiple channels to help move a suspect to a prospect and a prospect to a customer.