Custom Content for Your Marketing Automation

Email platforms such as Inxmail, Mailchimp, GetResponse, Episerver, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud can automate personalized messages. Complex relationships and content, however, often reside in external systems. This is where the heureka Custom Content Framework (CCF) comes in.

Dynamic Content with XML and XSLT

The CCF receives structured data in XML format and transforms it into the required output using XSLT. The result can be HTML, plain text, or another XML structure. Content preparation therefore remains independent of the target system and can be used for newsletters, landing pages, PDFs, or other delivery channels.

Parameters can be supplied with each request. Content is generated when it is needed and can be tailored to the recipient, language, product, or campaign.

Dynamic content is generated from source data and delivered to the email platform.

Intelligent Caching

Dynamic generation does not need to compromise performance. An intelligent cache retains previously calculated results and invalidates them whenever the source data changes. Frequently requested content is delivered quickly while updates continue to propagate reliably.

Specialized Output Formats

PDF Documents as Email Attachments

In one customer project, personalized comparisons of technical devices were generated as PDFs. Technical data was passed to the CCF, transformed into HTML with XSLT, and then rendered in the required layout by a PDF library. The completed document could be sent as a personalized attachment through Inxmail.

The PDF is assembled from structured data and sent as an individual attachment.

Dynamic Images

HTML in email is more constrained than HTML on a regular website. Some personalized presentations are therefore better rendered as images. The CCF can turn HTML into JPEG or PNG files through a WebKit-based rendering process. It can output an entire page, a region, or an individual element.

This makes it possible to generate energy labels, personal information, reviews, or language-specific graphics from XML data. The resulting image paths are then embedded in the mailing like any other dynamic content.

A newsletter graphic generated from HTML and external data.

CCF for Marketing Automation

The Custom Content Framework adds flexible, scalable, and robust content preparation to marketing-automation platforms. Through its REST API, campaigns can access data and presentations that the email platform itself cannot model or render.

Personalization is therefore not limited to text. Complex documents and graphics can also be generated automatically, reproducibly, and for the individual recipient.