Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing

Category: Blog

  • D365 Marketing and Customer Insights

    D365 Marketing and Customer Insights

    Microsoft merges Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Marketing

     

    On September 1st, 2023, Microsoft announced the merger of D365 Marketing and D365 Customer Insights into a single app called Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The main reason was to combine the potential of these two modules into one. With precious customer data, marketers can create and run impactful marketing campaigns with personalized offers and excellent customer experiences. This app has all the powerful features of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Marketing to help marketers enrich their campaigns with data-driven insights.  

    The app is split into two sections:   

    1. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (CI) – Journeys (formerly D365 Marketing)  
    2. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (CI) – Data (formerly D365 Customer Insights)  

    What is The Reason for The Change? 


    You might wonder why these two modules merge. We all know that Microsoft D365 Marketing is one of the most influential and comprehensive CRM tools, enabling marketers to run data-driven, automated marketing campaigns to improve efficiency and ROI.   

    However, Microsoft’s rebranding addresses customers’ evolving behavioral patterns and expectations. Customers are looking for more personalized experiences from brands. Traditional outbound marketing methodologies might not answer these needs and expectations. Marketers also need to change their approach toward new, advanced technologies, such as AI, ML, IoT, and advanced data analytics. By integrating these technologies into their campaigns, they can get superior results while engaging customers with personalized experiences and emotional appeal.   

    Say Bye-Bye to Outbound Marketing Strategies 


    New clients can now access the Dynamics 365 Customers Insights Journeys module. Old customers using D365 Marketing don’t need to panic, as they can retain access to the app. However, they must work with the available features in D365 Marketing, as Microsoft has stated that no new updates will be launched for D365 Marketing. Microsoft is working on the new D365 Customers Insights app to make it more scalable, robust, and feature-rich.   

    This transition means the end of outbound marketing, as it does not address marketers’ current pain points. The new app focuses more on real-time marketing based on data-driven insights.   

    Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys 


    D365 Customer Insights Journeys is an end-to-end CRM application that empowers businesses to improve customer experiences by offering data-driven, personalized offers and services. It also helps marketers communicate and interact with customers with a pinch of personalization. With data-driven insights available to marketers, they can offer tailored services and personalized messages and emails to customers to add some value. At each stage of the customer lifecycle, this personalization helps to improve customer experiences and trust.   

    By unleashing the power of generative AI and other technologies, businesses can drive their marketing campaigns based on real-time marketing with the mapping of real-time customer journeys. This empowers businesses with segment-based marketing efforts to run effective and ROI-focused marketing campaigns.   

    Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data 


    This module enriches businesses with massive customer data and derives valuable insights. Businesses can have a comprehensive, 360-degree customer overview to understand their expectations, likes, interests, and buying patterns. Businesses can make data-driven, informed decisions that perfectly align with customer expectations.   

    Functionalities of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights 


    • Real-Time Marketing    

    D365 Customer Insights allows businesses to respond to queries and concerns in real-time through various communication channels, such as emails, SMS, push notifications, and messengers.   

    • Event Management   

    The module has an in-built Event platform that allows marketers to create online or offline events, manage participants, promote events to the target audience, develop a landing page for webinars, and share potential leads with the sales department.   

    • AI-Driven Module   

    With generative AI, marketers can automate routine tasks. Mundane tasks, such as writing emails, audience segmentation, new content ideas, etc., take too much time. With AI, marketers can focus more on campaigns rather than these repetitive tasks.   

    • Data Analytics   

    D365 Customer Insight and Analytics helps businesses achieve superior data visibility across all channels and make more informed decisions. Data analysis helps them identify bottlenecks in their marketing campaigns and amend them based on insights.   

    • Personalized Communications   

    This is the most significant feature of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Journeys. You can woo your customers with personalized messages and emails. With more impactful email subject lines, based on A/B testing, you can maximize the overall impact of your emails.   

    • Data Collection Forms   

    D365 Customer Insights has built-in tools to create different types of data collection forms that can be added to your website’s landing page. Customers can sign up for newsletters or fill out surveys or questionnaires.   

    What Is the New License Cost for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights?  

    For existing Dynamics 365 customers, the discounted price is $1,000 per tenant per month.   

    For new D365 customers, the price is $1,700 per tenant per month.   

    Conclusion   

    The new Dynamics 365 Customer Insights app is a combination of two apps- D365 Marketing and D365 Customer Insights. This powerful app has advanced features and functionalities that can help design and run customer-centric marketing campaigns and increase ROI. With generative AI, you can personalize communications to make the relationship more trustworthy. In short, Microsoft’s decision to merge these two tools can bring new hope for marketers who want to address the changing dynamics of customer relationships.   

  • D365 Marketing CRM Tips

    D365 Marketing CRM Tips

    Tips and Tricks to Unleash the Potential of Dynamics 365 Marketing CRM

    Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing is one of the most powerful CRM software that can help give a new dimension to your marketing efforts. With robust features and functionalities, you can automate your marketing campaigns, offer personalized customer services, and run campaigns across various channels. We present a comprehensive Dynamics 365 Marketing guide that has some powerful tips and tricks for using D365 Marketing for your business. Stay tuned, and we have redefined marketing campaigns to boost ROI and efficiency.

    Superlative D365 Marketing Tips and Tricks

    Use Automated Lead Scoring

    One of the most valuable Dynamics 365 Marketing tips and tricks is the ability to create an automated lead scoring model within your D365 Marketing module. This powerful feature can significantly enhance your marketing strategy. Here’s how to set it up.
    • Define your lead scoring model
    • Assign appropriate values
    • Keep in mind negative and decay scoring
    • Create lead scoring tiers.

    It is crucial that marketing and sales teams come together and define their goals before creating the model. Also, they must regularly review the model and amend them based on received data. For example, negative scoring leads must be left as they offer no value.

    Use Templates

    Dynamics 365 Marketing module offers a wide range of pre-built templates for businesses. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. You can use these templates for emails, customer journeys, segmentation, and other purposes. Also, these templates also help businesses to ensure brand consistency across marketing campaigns.

    D365 Marketing

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    In addition to that, D365 Marketing also allows you to create customized templates that cater to your specific business requirements. Create business-specific content blocks with text, images, CTAs, and other branding elements to lead marketing campaigns with a personal touch. 

    Go For Segmentation for Targeted Campaigns

    Segmentation for Targeted Campaigns

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    Rather than going for mass marketing campaigns, segmentation helps businesses target audiences with specific characteristics. D365 Marketing allows you to utilize the power of segmentation to build targeted campaigns. Analyze data and find segmentation patterns, such as demographics, buyer personas, firmographics, website behavior, etc. Also, a phenomenal feature called “Explore Related Entities” empowers businesses to find hidden connections within data to create exact audience segments. 

    Use “Customer Voice” for Customer Insights

    Customer Voice for Customer Insights

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    Another Tip for Dynamics 365 Marketing is to use pre-built Customer Voice to get real-time customer insights for informed decisions. This feedback management tool by Microsoft is used to create, send, and track customer surveys. You just need to integrate it with your D365 Marketing module to send surveys directly to customers from the marketing app. This tool allows you to create segments for campaigns, embed surveys into emails, and create and map customer journeys based on survey data. 

    Use Copilot for Various Tasks 

    Microsoft-powered Copilot can help marketing teams in many ways. For example, do you want to have a creative tagline for your new marketing campaign on Facebook? You just need to ask Copilot and consider the job done. You will have plenty of creative taglines to choose from. 

    Copilot has a new and advanced AI feature called Query Assist, which helps businesses find their target audience while saving time and effort. All you need to do is define your target audience in words and let Copilot do the rest. You will have new suggestions for further editions and optimization to rock your marketing campaigns. 

    Copilot also helps marketers send highly personalized emails to customers with new content ideas. By unleashing AI’s potential, Copilot can help write creative email drafts with pre-determined keywords and ideas. 

    Share Personalized CRM Views

    Do you want to track priority-based marketing tasks on the dashboard? D365 Marketing allows marketers to have personalized views with filters to track specific marketing activities. Not just that, you can also share the same dashboard view with your colleague as well. 

    Create Records Using Automated Workflows 

    With massive data pouring from various sources, businesses might need help managing information. However, you can use automated workflows to create new records and run these workflows in the background.  

    Test and Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns

    This is another trick from our Microsoft Dynamics 365 user guide for you. D365 Marketing allows you to test and optimize your marketing campaigns. You can run A/B testing to amend various marketing campaign elements, such as keywords, headlines, CTAs, landing pages, etc. You can have valuable insights to determine which variations work in your favor. You can optimize your campaigns based on these insights to increase leads and ROI. For example, you can test two subject lines to run a successful email marketing campaign. You can choose which subject line to use for the campaign based on the testing results. 

    Conclusion 


    This Dynamics 365 Marketing Guide helps businesses use the module more efficiently to achieve better outcomes. Microsoft D365 Marketing comes with robust features to automate campaigns, make data-driven decisions, and improve customer experiences. Use these tips to maximize the impact of your campaigns.