What is conditional content?

Conditional content is email content that appears or hides based on specific criteria being met. Unlike simple personalization that swaps text values, conditional logic evaluates rules at send time and includes or excludes entire content blocks accordingly. For example: \"Show this 20% VIP coupon ONLY if the subscriber's loyalty tier equals 'Gold'\" or \"Display the free shipping banner ONLY if the recipient's location is domestic.\"

The power of conditional content lies in sending one campaign that dynamically adapts for different audience segments. Instead of creating five separate emails for five customer types, you build one template with conditional blocks that render differently based on each subscriber's attributes. This reduces production time while enabling hyper-relevant messaging-showing new subscribers onboarding tips while showing veterans advanced features, all from the same send.

Implementation varies by ESP, but typically involves if/else logic syntax within your template. The catch is complexity: each condition multiplies your testing requirements. If you have three conditional blocks with two variations each, you theoretically have eight possible email versions to verify. Conditional content is powerful, but only when paired with disciplined testing-otherwise you're just creating new ways for emails to break.