Create Dynamic Fields for Site Customization

Context

Dynamic Fields for Site-Customization allow you to use your own fields as part of your personalized content. When you use a dynamic field as a site element, the field updates automatically for the current visitor. For example, if you want your site to mention the state the visitor is from, you may have a state or billing_state dynamic field. Demandbase recognizes the visitor and displays the visitor’s state. If your database doesn’t have the data, or if the visitor is unknown, Demandbase just leaves it empty. For example, with company data, your site could say, Hello! IBM. Without company data, it would simply say Hello!

Adding a dynamic field to your customized site experience makes your site more flexible, so that it’s unnecessary to create multiple experiences for each purpose. It allows you to use your own data for one or multiple dynamic fields. You can use any field that is available in Demandbase or appended from a .csv file or a CRM.

Common use cases for a dynamic field are:

• Greeting the visitor by company name
• Mentioning who the text is from, maybe their CSM
• Product’s shipping state
• Visitor’s billing country

You can update your dynamic fields outside of site-customization, in  Settings > Fields, so that the update doesn’t require the experience to be updated again.

Creating a dynamic field is a two-step process:

• Activate a dynamic field in the Account Connector
• Add the dynamic field to the site experience

Preparation/Prerequisites

Before you try to execute the steps below, consider planning for the following:

• Is your dynamic field for an existing customized site experience, or will you create a new site experience?
• What is the use case for your dynamic field?

If you have not yet been introduced to the value of fields in Demandbase, see:

• Understanding the Demandbase Database 
• Understanding Fields

Steps

1. Activate fields in the Account Connector.
   a. From the left navigation bar, go to  Settings > Account Connector > Create New Integration.
   b. In the Integration Name field, select Site Customization Dynamic Fields.
   Site Customization Dynamic Fields displays in the Account Connector in the Integration Name column.
   c. Click into Site Customization Dynamic Fields.
   Account Connector displays any mapped dynamic fields that already exist.
   d. Continue within the General tab for the Site Customization Dynamic Fields and click in Select a Value.
   All fields are available, regardless of the source, including Demandbase, csv imported, and CRM.
   e. To activate the field, go to the Field Mapping tab and click the Inactivate/Activate toggle on, and click Save.
   Demandbase maps the field from the Site Customization to the Demandbase field. Data Field is the name of the Demandbase field and Attribute Name is what we use to pass it to Site Customization.
   
   f. On the General tab, click Generate API Token.
   Demandbase notifies our Professional Services team to approve the new fields. It takes about 24 hours to populate in our API. You will be notified via email when the integration has been approved.
   
   
2. Add the dynamic field to your site customization experience.
   a. From the left navigation bar, go to  Personalization > Site Customization and click an existing experience or create a new one. (To create a new experience, see Create a Customized Site Experience.)
   b. Select the Experience Builder tab.
   c. Select the element to which you would like to apply the dynamic field.
   d.From the Element type drop-down list, select text content.
   e. In the Text content field, enter a curly bracket where you want to add a previously created dynamic field.
   
   f. From the drop-down list, select the dynamic field you want to add.
   The editor appends two curly brackets before and after the dynamic field name. 
   g. Click Apply.
   
   h. Make any remaining edits to your site customization and click Save.
   i. To see the site customization, click Preview. 
   The Dynamic Field editor opens in a new browser window and pulls in a random value for the dynamic field. If you need to update the field value or the field is blank due to insufficient data, you can make changes before sharing the preview. 
   Important: The field value added are for preview purposes only. Your customers will see field values that are relevant to them.
   
   j. To save any changes, click Save.
   k. To get a link to share the preview with, click Share Preview.
   

Outcome

Your site is updated and reflects the value of the dynamic field. If Demandbase finds an empty field for a visitor, it doesn’t show anything for that field, only the non-dynamic text on the page.