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For as long as most email marketers can remember, the mantra of a successful email marketing program has been "The right message for the right recipient at the right time." The challenge with executing such a program is that it takes a great deal of effort and time to do correctly, and those are commodities in short supply for most email marketers. Additionally, email marketers typically have to go outside of their area of expertise in order to accomplish. This raises the barrier for getting the program off the ground, as well as making changes to modify it over time.

Instead of abandoning the opportunity because it is too big or too difficult or too time-consuming, try breaking it up into phases. Not only can this provide an incremental improvement to your marketing program, but by dividing the larger goal into manageable pieces, you can focus on the key aspects of that phase and insure that you have sufficient time to plan and execute effectively.

For now, I am going to discuss the first part of the triad, the right message (stay tuned for articles on the other two parts in the future). Static email content that is sent to your entire email list will certainly resonate with some recipients, but in order to maximize the effectiveness of your mailing, the content HAS to be tailored to the recipient in some fashion. It could be based on past behavior (clicking on a link in a previous email or making a purchase on a website), profile data (demographic, subscription settings or status), or profile analysis (Nearest Neighbor or Market Basket).

Historically, creating this type of content required managing multiple email templates with advanced database queries and scripting or building complex, inflexible and expensive dynamic content engines. However, with the new Rules capabilities in Message Studio 4.0, the cost and complexity of building out such a program disappear.

Business users can create rules that govern what content is inserted into the template or if the content is displayed at all. There's no need to go to a DBA to write a SQL query or to ask your application development team to script up some code that addresses only your current content requirements. You can create sophisticated rules right in the Message Studio 4.0 UI that give you both direct control over the rules and access to modify them (or create new ones) on the fly.

Here's all you have to do start using rules:

1. Go to the CONTENT LIBRARY module in the left-side navigation bar
2. Click on the RULES link
3. On the RULES screen, click the CREATE button at the top of the screen
4. On the CREATE RULE screen, first, select which data sources you want the rule to consider.
5. Then configure the criteria for your rule using the pull down menus (add as many criteria as you need)
6. Next, select what you would like to happen when the rule criteria is met. You can insert a text string, a value from a data source, or a content from a content block.
7. If desired, you can select an action to occur if the criteria is NOT met. This part is optional. If you want nothing to be inserted if the criteria is not met, then do not select this option. If you want an alternative action to occur, check the box for ELSE, USE ALTERNATIVE VALUE OR RULE. In addition to the three actions available in the positive case, the negative case lets you run another rule in addition to inserting values. The rule applied in the negative case must be created before you can assign it, so it's a good idea to map out all of the rules you want to use and create the negative case rules first.
8. Now you are done with creating the rule(s). Click the TEMPLATE link in the left-side navigation bar and open up the template that you want to use the rule in.
9. Use either the WYSIWYG or Source editor to edit the template.
10. Place your cursor in the area of the template that you want the rule to execute.
11. Click the PERSONALIZE button and select the RULES tab in the Personalization pop-up wizard.
12. Select the rule you want to use and click the INSERT button. Repeat as necessary to add all of the elements to the template that you want.
13. Voila! Dynamic content created specifically for individual recipients.

The steps described above illustrate how to implement rules to easily insert dynamic content into a template, but there are many ways that you can use rules to make your messages more relevant. Start off simple and see what works (or doesn't). With the Rules editor, it's easy for business users to add and modify how the dynamic content is inserted. The only limit is your own imagination.