How to Use Dynamics 365 Sales for marketing without buying Dynamics 365 Marketing (Customer Insights)
Includes
HTML email editors
Marketing automation
Analytics
In the first blog post in this series we looked at marketing campaign management in Dynamics 365 sales. In this blog we’ll look at some of the marketing features you might not know about in Dynamics 365
Using the enhanced email editor for email templates in Dynamics 365 Sales
If you want to regularly send bulk emails, you’ll want to create email templates.
Recently Microsoft upgraded the Dynamics email editor, but many of you will still be using the old, legacy editor.
Which email editor do I have?
In the Sales Hub app, from the area chooser, choose Personal settings
Select Email templates from the menu and click New – Start with a blank template
Choose the permission level, either individual if you alone want to see it or organisation to share it among your colleagues
In the category drop down choose the table you’ll be including merge data from (most likely lead, contact or account)
Click create
If you’re using the Enhanced email editor, you’ll see this
If you’re using the legacy editor, you’ll see this
Using the legacy email editor to create templates
The editor lets you use simple formatting like you might use in Microsoft Word or Outlook
- Add a subject in the Subject field
- Type, or copy text and images into the editor.
Adding dynamic text
The power of email templates in Dynamics is personalisation. A simple example of personalisation would be to include the recipient’s name in a greeting.
To add dynamic text (aka mail merge in Dynamics)
- Place your cursor at the point you wish to insert the text
- Click insert dynamic text
- From the Edit dynamic text dialogue, select the Record type and Field name you wish to insert
- To personalise a contact email, choose Record type Contact and Field name First Name
- Click Insert
You’ll see some text like this appear {!Contact:First Name;}
When you use the template to send an email, it will replace this token with the contact’s first name.
There’s lots more you can do with dynamic text – see Microsoft’s guide here
When you have finished your template, click Save.
Using the enhanced email editor to create templates
If you’re using the enhanced editor you’ll see the Editor tab on the email template editor page
Select the editor tab and you’ll see the enhanced editor window
From the elements toolbox on the right, you can drag and drop components on to your email.
To create more advanced layout, drag and drop a Layout section type on to the email to create a multi column layout. In each column you can add components as before.
You can style each section and column individually with background colours, images, borders and padding.
If you’re a power user you can edit the HTML of the newsletter, by clicking the HTML button
Better merging in the enhanced editor
As well as the Insert Dynamic text button, you can add merge fields using the Personalization button
This feature allows you to insert dynamic text from the category table (i.e contact) and all its related tables (lead, user, case etc)
Upgrade to the enhanced email editor
The enhanced editor is a big upgrade to the editor, depending on your system you may be able to upgrade, follow these instructions to find out. Find out whether you can upgrade to the enhanced email editor
Marketing Add-ons for Dynamics 365 Sales
Microsoft have released add-ons and improvements for Dynamics to improve marketing. Microsoft don’t enable these by default. Here’s a run down
Sales Accelerator
Sales Accelerator has lots of features to make the sales process easier. If you’re interested in sales as well as marketing, take a look at the sales features here
You’ll need a Sales Premium or Sales Enterprise licence to get Sales Accelerator
Marketing features include
Sequences
A series of triggered activities for leads, contacts, accounts and opportunities.
Sequences allow users to create marketing automation sequences for Dynamics, without needing Dynamics 365 Marketing. The features are similar between the two platforms
Actions you can use in sequences
- Send automated emails
- Schedule an email task
- Schedule a phone call task
- Send a SMS message
- Schedule a SMS task
- Update a field
Conditions
You can take sequence members down different routes depending on any these items.
- Value of a Dynamics field
- Business process stage
- Whether someone opened an email or not
You can either add each member manually, or assign a segment to the sequence.
To find sequences in the Sales Hub, go to Sales Insights Settings > Global Settings > Sequences
To learn more about sequences look at Microsoft’s guide here
Segments
Segments are an alternative way to create lists. In a similar way to Marketing lists you build a criteria for member’s inclusion in the list.
Unlike Marketing Lists, you can connect segments to sequences to allow full marketing automation
For example, you could have a sequence like this
- New UK lead created (a segment)
- Alert a seller (using a task)
- Send the lead a welcome email
- If the lead clicks a link in your email
- Send another email 3 days later
- Schedule a follow up call with a seller
This sequence runs without any user input.
This example would work for all new future leads
More about managing segments at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/sales/manage-segments
Sales Insights
Email Engagement
This add on for Dynamics 365 Sales, let you:
- See when and how many times people opened your message, clicked a link, opened an attachment, or replied
- Get an alert the first time someone opens your message
- Set reminders for when it’s time to follow up on an email
You’ll need a Dynamics 365 Sales Premium or Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise licence
To enable Email Engagement in Dynamics 365 Sales
- In the Sales Hub app, go the Change area menu at the bottom left of your screen
- Choose Sales Insights settings
- In the overview section click Grant Permissions next to the Email Engagement section.
- If you don’t see Grant permissions, then Sales Insights already has the required permissions
- Now click Set up and you’ll see the turn on Email engagement switch
Using Email engagement
When you enable email engagement, your email editor in Dynamics will look like this
- You can add tracked attachments here
- You can choose whether to track this email
- Schedule email
- Set a follow up reminder
Email Engagement Analytics
If you choose to track (follow) an email, you’ll see stats about it in the recipient’s timeline
You’ll see engagement information in the email record
And you’ll also see information in the email record list, which you can report on or filter
Managing opt-outs with Sales Accelerator
When a recipient clicks the unsubscribe link in an email, you must update their marketing preferences in the corresponding Dynamics record. This ensures that no more emails will be sent to this recipient.
To set up the opt out settings for Dynamics emails
If you have a Sales Premium or Sales Enterprise licence
- In the Sales Hub app, go the change area menu at the bottom left of your screen
- Choose App settings
- In the Sales Administration section, choose Marketing settings
- Select “Set Do Not Send Marketing Material option when an unsubscribe email is received”
- Now when a recipient clicks an unsubscribe link in a marketing email, the value for Do Not Send Marketing Material on their record is set to Do Not Send
If you have a Sales Professional licence
- In Dynamics, go to Settings > Advanced settings
- Go to Settings > Administration
- Select System settings > Marketing settings
- Look for the setting Set “Do Not Send Marketing Material” option when unsubscribe email is received
- Now when a recipient clicks an unsubscribe link in a marketing email, the value for Do Not Send Marketing Materials on their record changes to Do Not Send
FAQs
What is the difference between Dynamics 365 Marketing and Dynamics 365 Sales?
Briefly, Dynamics 365 Marketing is a fully featured marketing platform which competes with other commercial platforms. Dynamics 365 Sales has some marketing features, but lacks a lot of the flexibility and automation. See the table above
What are campaigns in Dynamics 365?
Campaigns in Dynamics 365 contain collections of marketing activities and information about budgeting and time spent. They’re useful for reporting on RoI (return on Investment)
What is the difference between Quick Campaigns and Campaigns in Dynamics?
Quick Campaigns are used to create one-off activities which aren’t part of a wider marketing campaign. Quick campaign lack a lot of the reporting features of Campaigns
