Would be great if we had Dynamic Content functionality for emails

Hi,

Yes, this is on our roadmap but may not be available in next two quarters.

Hey there GS! 

Any chance this is scheduled for a release date already :)

Can’t wait for this feature to replace my use of “template versions” and eventually having to break out over multiple programs :) 

Thanks!

Any updates on this?

Keep in mind that you can also use calculated fields to tokenize elements of your template email. Check out the details here: https://support.gainsight.com/SFDC_Edition/Journey_Orchestrator_and_Email_Templates/Programs/Programs%3A_Using_Calculated_Fields#Email_Steps

.Calculated fields or use case statements in your source query.

Hello @kelly 

This is in our roadmap, may not be available in next two quarters.

Checking back on this thread, given the functionalities afforded by the new beta editor. This relates to my recent question about an easier way to re-order the versions of a template. For certain emails, simply having a block (or section) that we could apply variant logic to only show certain blocks if a participant met the requirements would be very useful, and would allow us to send emails without having to send multiple variants.

One big use case for us is an event roundup email sent to a global audience. We would prefer to send different text depending on a user’s region so we only invite them to the webinars they would be most interested in attending, rather than those they wouldn’t be able to attend (middle of the night).

I wanted to follow up on this idea following the beta for the upcoming Email Template Editor. We would love to see conditional statements for dynamic content blocks so we could send emails where the bulk of the content is the same (including the subject line), but depending on certain variables (specific product modules, global region, billing country, webinar attendance status, etc.), a specific block of content (event paragraph, banner, etc.) would either be hidden or visible.

The only way for us to accomplish this right now is by building multiple variants, but that doesn’t allow us to create truly personalized emails with content that matches every possible scenario, so we end up sending emails that are not applicable to a broad swath of our user base. It’s not practical (or an efficient use of time) to create, edit, and map that many variants for our emails.

To @dan_ahrens post: 

Keep in mind that you can also use calculated fields to tokenize elements of your template email. Check out the details here: https://support.gainsight.com/SFDC_Edition/Journey_Orchestrator_and_Email_Templates/Programs/Programs%3A_Using_Calculated_Fields#Email_Steps

Unfortunately tokens can’t replace entire content blocks, which is what we’d be looking to do.

Following up on this thread, as we’re in the midst of a perfect use case for conditional statements with dynamic content blocks in an email template.

Is there any update you can provide on when dynamic content functionality may be available?

We’re in the creation stages of a monthly report, which includes several tokenized fields (number of specific actions taken, seat allocation, etc.) AND two embedded reports (charts). We have four variants, based on certain products the users may have licensed.

While we ARE able to use case expressions for the tokenized fields if there is a null value, we are CANNOT do the same for the embedded reports, and the current visualization if there is no data for a report… doesn’t look great.

Our only option if we want to include the participants who would have an email that didn’t show that “No Data Found” image would be to create a variant that included that logic -- but if we did that, we’d have to create three additional variants for each of the aforementioned variants, so it would look like:

• Variant 1a: organization meets criteria 1
  • 1b: first report has no data
  • 1c: second report has no data
  • 1d: neither report has any data
• Variant 2b… and so on… with 16 total variants

Unfortunately, this would be too much manual edits and mapping of tokens (with too much room for error), so our current best option is to restrict the eligible user list in our query and remove participants for whom either report had a null value.

Ideal scenario

Ideally, we would be able to send this email to the full audience that shows up in our query, and simply have conditional logic statements on a container surrounding the relevant report that excluded it if the associated data had a null value, thereby eliminating the need to either exclude the participant or create and map an additional three template variants per report.

THIS

Would be dope to calm down on email versions in my case, and would ease up maintenance: we’d maintain blocks which would update emails in which they are use, or at least have the ability to decide if it should and select the emails that should auto-update. Or just make it so that by using blocks we know that whatever update will cascade across all templates.

THIS!

At the most basic level, header and footer blocks that utilize company logos or preference center / support site / legal info. Having to make a single change to 10s (or triple digits) of emails when a site structure or image is changed is not practical. Hosted images help (over embedded images), but links or text that have to be updated everywhere (especially if there’s an urgent need to update) are not practical.

This concept is outlined in this idea: 

• Saved Custom Content Blocks in Email Template Builder? New Idea
• 22 Votes

It would be awesome if we could have an editable library of saved content blocks, where any edits that were made would not only be made to the custom content blocks in the library, but would ALSO be pushed live to any emails those blocks were used in WITHOUT having to manually go into each program containing those blocks and clicking “Republish” on a template.

Could we get an update on where this idea is on the roadmap, now that it’s been two years since this comment? We’re continuing to ramp up the number of emails that are perfect use-cases for dynamic content.

Last month it was our usage report email, where we had to just exclude participants if they had no data in a graph (not ideal), and today’s use case is an email where we have multiple tokenized data points in a table, where some data points show up as “1/1/1900”.

We would prefer to be able to just set each of those data points as a content block with a filter that just hid that row if the corresponding data point was equal to that incorrect date. Unfortunately, our best solution is to create an additional variant, and instead just send a generic email if any of the four data points is incorrect.

I know we aren’t the only ones who want to have dynamic content available. Is this on the timeline?

Hi @dayn.johnson 

Between saved content library & dynamic content , which would be more pressing need.

TL/DR: Dynamic content just barely takes the win, from my perspective.

From my perspective as just one user (I’m very curious to hear what the rest of the community would think), that’s like asking whether we need food and water to survive.

If I had to put numbers to it, I’d probably have to say:

• 51% -- dynamic content blocks that can be added/hidden based on variant-style logic
• 49% -- saved content blocks 

Part of this 👆 assumes that a saved content block library would allow for blocks to either:

• be imported into a template as a pre-configured placeholder
  (such as a those content blocks seen in the screenshot below 👇)
• be updated within a “content library” so to speak, and have those changes automatically be published across Gainsight in whichever assets they were used in
  (such as a footer, header, signature block, etc. we used across JO programs)

Because of the complexity I can see surrounding the saved content block idea, I would think that it would be easier to build out the dynamic content, given the block-based designs possible in the new email template editor. It seems that it should be very easy to add a logic option (similar to the variant logic system) to a block or a container that would control whether or not that block was visible -- which could theoretically be used to control whether a block displayed when viewed on a mobile device. It would also be a very compelling reason for people to fully make the switch from the current (old) editor to the new experience.

This does not mean that saved content blocks are not important -- a saved content library would be HUGELY helpful, not just for headers or footers, but for making it far easier to build out emails reliant on heavily stylized, templatized content blocks.

We currently have at least a dozen saved email templates (for both the classic AND the new beta editor) whose names literally start with [TEMPLATE], and we’re forced to clone those emails every time and delete out the blocks we don’t want to use (buttons, images, etc.) in a variety of single and multi-column configurations.

We ALSO have a newsletter email template that we clone and then replace the content in each time (a necessity for the reporting that’s tied to that specific email template). I’m not looking forward to having to convert that one to the new template editor, as the padding gets broken whenever I try. I’m very hopeful that the editing that particular template is easier when the new template editor is a bit more refined, at least when it comes to editing templates created in the old editor. It would make it SIGNIFICANTLY easier if we were able to literally drag-and-drop pre-configured content blocks in from a saved content library and just start dropping content in without having to worry about tweaking the padding and styling for each and every block.

@ssamarth Is there any update you can share on the roadmap placement for dynamic content and saved content blocks?

Sharing another use case for dynamic content, since we’ve had to find another workaround here.

In a product usage email (with four variants since we can’t change what is displayed based on conditional filters), we’re looking to include MoM information as to whether the number of actions performed is higher or lower than the previous month.

Yep, we’d like to make the tokenized number green or red if it was higher or lower than the previous month. The program currently runs on a query, but we can’t add color to the case expressions.

If we could have conditional rules that showed a green token if the value was higher, and a red token if it was lower, that’d be easy!

Unfortunately, we cannot add a script block to the HTML file for custom colors in a case expression, so our workaround is to use arrows to give context (ex: ⬇1 / ⬆2 / no change, compared to previous month).

Now that the February 2024 release is live with the system templates, can we get an update on when in the 2024 release roadmap we might see dynamic content be released?

We continue to run into use cases where dynamic content would significantly simplify our programs, especially given the limitation in the new dynamic JO to only run one query.

For instance, some of our emails are created with regional variants. We’d then want to be able to use dynamic content to show them certain product or event information based on which product(s) and/or industries they were in, or if they were in the public or private sector.

Considering the capability already exists to filter the variants within a specific template based on participant data, it seems it should also be possible to filter content blocks to do the same.

Hi @dayn.johnson 

Thanks for the feedback. This is on our medium term roadmap.

Thank you @ssamarth! I’ll definitely keep my eyes on the release notes and roadmap information, this is something we’re looking forward to using in our programs. 😀

Hi @ssamarth, curious if you have any updates on where dynamic content might live on the roadmap? While building out a template, was struck by an idea (just below), and turns out it was posted 2 years ago -- there should be an easy way to control whether individual content blocks are visible or hidden in an email template. We frequently want to test different tokenization layouts or reports prior to sending them, and when we have a multi-version email (each with approximately 20-30 different mappings and a few reports) it can be incredibly frustrating to have to rebuild and remap each time.

Relatedly, we should be able to easily adjust visibility and display settings for both desktop AND mobile viewing on a PER BLOCK basis. Just making a container responsive is not enough -- if we designed our email to have two (or more) blocks side-by-side… that’s what we want it to look like. We shouldn’t have to resort to external email editors to create templates that look the same across desktop and mobile. 

• Mobile Settings for Images are a thing! Can we get Mobile Settings for Content Blocks too? New Idea
• 3 Votes

And while I’m at it -- is there any update on this other related idea (saved custom content blocks)? It’d make life so much easier if when we designed an email footer (especially one with multiple buttons and complex stylying), we were able to save it just like we can save survey questions to a library.

• Saved Custom Content Blocks in Email Template Builder? New Idea
• 22 Votes

@ssamarth This company, Dyspatch’s, product is a great example of the type of feature that @kelly is asking for. My company looked into using this as a third-party tool to craft our email templates, but Gainsight wasn’t able to integrate properly due to the incompatibility of the language used in the html make-up in the templates.

FYI @dayn.johnson 

Good to know, thank you @bytor104! Stripo is very HTML-based, so I’m hopeful their builder will work for our purposes!