I work with many people either considering Dynamics 365 or new to Dynamics 365. These people often ask about the nature of native email functionality. One of the most common questions is, “Can we do email marketing in Dynamics 365 for Sales?”
The answer is, sort of
Answering this question requires some nuance. First off, I would not describe Dynamics 365 for Sales as a marketing automation solution. Robust marketing automation requires an add-on. However, you can do quasi-email marketing out of the system. More specifically, you can send a personalized email template to a list of Leads or Contacts simultaneously. The term for this is Bulk Email. For example, let’s say you want to email customers a notification for a trade event. Technically, we are promoting an event. So yeah, that’s marketing. What we are going to perform is a Bulk Email.
Please note: strictly speaking, sending a Bulk Email is not the same as working with a Marketing List.
I advise you to keep Bulk Email simple, e.g., stick with standard fonts and don’t go crazy with graphics. If you want to include a signature or link to a registration page–that’s fine.
There are three steps to this process
Let’s assume we’re attending a conference in a large metropolitan area. We want to invite Leads and Contacts based on their geo. We’ll create a personalized email template. We’ve created one named Marketing Event Notification. If you need help creating an email template, check out this blog. We’re using a simple, personalized template. Personalization inserts the Contact’s first name in the greeting and inserts the company’s city into the body. If the company address is missing, the words “a city near you” will appear instead.
Next, select the Contacts that you’re targeting for this invitation. You can choose individual Contacts by clicking and placing a checkmark to their left. Or, select everyone from a filtered Contact list–whatever works.
Next, click “Send Direct Email.”A panel opens with a lookup. Search for and select the template named “Marketing Event Notification.”
Press “Send.” The personalized email template gets sent to the Contacts above highlighted in blue.
Here’s what the Bulk Email looks like in the Contact’s Timeline. The greeting includes Brian’s first name and the body contains Houston, his city.
That’s a way to do quasi-email marketing in Dynamics 365 for Sales. If you’re missing the Send Direct Email button, ask your admin or contact your partner for help. Looking for more robust marketing automation? Consider add-ons such as ClickDimensions or Dynamics 365 for Marketing. We can help you with questions about with those.
Mark Abes, Vice President, Dyn365Pros, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego.
