Marketing

Take advantage of e-mail communication methods

Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes several ways to connect with your customers using e-mail.

Which of these approaches you choose depends on the specific Microsoft Dynamics CRM features you want to take advantage of.

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Four ways to send e-mail using Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Four sample scenarios

Four ways to send e-mail using Microsoft Dynamics CRM

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can send e-mail using one of four methods:

Direct e-mail
Mail Merge with Microsoft Office Word
Quick Campaign

Full campaign

Note

The following table lists some of the differences between each of the four e-mail communication methods.

	Direct E-mail	Mail Merge	Quick Campaign	Full Campaign
Templates	Yes	Yes	No	No
Response Tracking	Yes (as an activity)	Yes (as an activity) - CRM for Outlook only	Yes (as a campaign response)	Yes (as a campaign response)
Unsubscribe Request Tracking	No	No	Yes	Yes
Return on Investment Tracking	No	No	No	Yes. Return on investment (ROI) can be tracked based on the cost of the campaign and its activities. The Campaign Performance and Campaign Comparison reports can be used to track and compare ROI.
Automatically Send E-mail Messages	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Use Marketing Lists for Recipient Selection	No	No	No	Yes

Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Communication Methods

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Four sample scenarios

Based on the differences between these e-mail communication methods, here are sample scenarios that may help you choose between these methods:

Direct e-mail: Your organization's marketing team sends out a newsletter to existing customers at the end of each month. The newsletter uses a specific template stored in the Settings area. Detailed response tracking and reporting are unnecessary, and you don't need to use marketing lists to refine or filter the complete list of your customers.
Mail Merge with Microsoft Office Word: As with direct e-mail, the newsletter uses a template. In this case, a Microsoft Office Word template library (for Mail Merge) is also stored in the Settings area. Microsoft Office Word templates allow you to use more formatting and images. As with direct e-mail, detailed response tracking and reporting are unnecessary, and you don't need to use marketing lists to refine or filter the complete list of your customers.
Quick campaign: Your organization's sales team wants to send out a last-minute, 50 percent-off sale notice to a group of leads they've discovered by using the Advanced Find feature. Response tracking is necessary, but detailed reporting is not required. As a one-time campaign, it isn't necessary to save the group of leads as a marketing list for future reuse.
Full campaign: Your organization is launching a new product six months from now. The marketing campaign will include many types of activities – telesales and events as well as e-mail. You may have purchased a targeted marketing list to use in your campaign. Careful tracking and reporting is crucial to measure the campaign's progress. It is also important to customize each activity to a specific audience and save those groups of accounts, leads, or contacts as marketing lists for future reuse.

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