Creating and managing e-mail newsletters in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

One of the most basic marketing tools is a periodic newsletter. A business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-customer (B2C), or even business-to-government (B2G) newsletter lets you market your products and services directly to subscribers, people who have expressed an interest in what you are selling. E-mail newsletters can be sent and responses tracked using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. But there are some special considerations:

1. Setting up subscriber data. When you create a marketing list just for e-mail newsletters there are several issues to resolve:
   • In Microsoft Dynamics CRM you need three newsletter marketing lists: one for accounts, one for contacts, and one for leads, all of which are record types. The reason for three lists is that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is structured to handle each record type in specific ways. Therefore, you cannot create a single list that includes all three record types. This means that if your subscription list includes accounts, contacts, and leads, you will have to send it three times, not just once, when you publish.
   • Some subscribers may prefer the choice to opt out and not receive your newsletter. Currently in Microsoft Dynamics CRM you can manage unsubscribe requests in the Settings area by configuring System Settings under Administration. You also need to configure e-mail permissions for each account, contact, and lead you will be including on your newsletter marketing list.

   Note

   Be sure to give subscribers the opportunity to unsubscribe by providing an unsubscribe link in your e-mail. For this to work, you must configure the System Settings to enable the auto-unsubscribe option.

   • Navigate to System Settings, click System Settings, and in the System Settings dialog box, click the Marketing tab. Locate the Set the auto-unsubscribe options area and make the correct selections.

   You can provide an unsubscribe link by completing the following steps:

   1. Open a newsletter marketing list and then click Create Quick Campaign from the menu to open the Quick Campaign Wizard. Follow the wizard's steps. On the E-mail form, in the Email body, paste in your newsletter. Then add to the body the text string you want, such as "Click here to unsubscribe from this newsletter". This works only for e-mail newsletters. For Mail Merge printed newsletters you will need to decide on another way to allow subscribers to opt out.
   2. Highlight the text you have written.
   3. On the toolbar, click Unsubscribe. This will create a hyperlink for the newsletter e-mail recipient to click to send an unsubscribe reply back to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.
   4. After an unsubscribe reply is received, you must manually update the donotsendmm property on the parent customer to No. It is possible that a plug-in for the workflow using the SDK could be created to automatically update the appropriate setting to turn off a newsletter subscription for a customer. But no out-of-the-box solution is currently available.
   • To create lists of those who have opted out or in, you can use Advanced Find. For example, when querying for accounts, you would set the query to include the following:
     • Fields: Send Marketing Materials = (Yes or No)
     • Fields: Do Not Allow Emails = (Allow or Do Not Allow)
     • Fields: Do Not Allow Faxes = (Allow or Do Not Allow)
     • Fields: Do Not Allow Mails = (Allow or Do Not Allow)
     • Fields: Do Not Allow Phone Calls = (Allow or Do Not Allow)
   • There are several system prerequisites for distributing e-mail newsletters. For accounts, contacts, or leads be sure each subscriber is also configured on the Administration tab of the entity to Allow E-mail and Bulk E-mail. Also, be sure that the Send Marketing Materials check box is set to Yes.

   Note

   When you distribute an activity, you might see the error "This account, contact, or lead has refused communication of this type" because the account had Send Marketing Materials set to No, or the Do Not Allow contact method on the Administration tab of the Account matched the Distributing Activity and the contact method value was set to No.

   Important

   If your newsletter will be distributed by e-mail, you need each subscriber's e-mail address. If distributed using mail, you will need their street addresses.

2. Composing and distributing a newsletter. You can compose your newsletter using several different tools. There are also several methods of distributing your newsletter.
   • While Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not a word-processing tool, you can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM e-mail templates to create a text-only e-mail newsletter for distribution by direct e-mail, or through a quick campaign. For instructions about using the e-mail templates, see the Help topic "Send Direct E-mail to Customers". The article Take advantage of e-mail communication methods explains basic functionality, provides a comparison of e-mail methods in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and has some sample scenarios.
   • In you want more flexibility, compose your newsletter using Microsoft Office Word and use the E-mail via Mail Merge function for distribution. E-mail templates for newsletters are available at the Microsoft Office US templates. The templates for International English are located at: Microsoft Office UK templates.

     Word templates can have an XML (.xml) extension. You can add Word templates to Microsoft Dynamics CRM by navigating to System Settings, Templates, Mail Merge Templates, and then New and follow the wizard's instructions to make them available for use in Quick Campaigns.

   Important

   You can use the mail merge function to address newsletter lists for electronic newsletters. See the Help topics "Work with Mail Merge Templates" or "Save a Microsoft Office Word Template for Mail Merge" or "Create Customer-Ready Documents and Messages" or "Create a Microsoft Office Word mail merge document" for specific instructions. Microsoft Office Online has a Mail Merge lesson that explains how to use this feature in detail. Also, when you use the mail-merge function you can create activities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. A copy of the merged letter is attached to the activity providing you with a record of what you sent each subscriber.

   • You can also compose and distribute your newsletter in Microsoft Office Outlook, if you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook. Newsletters composed and sent using Outlook can be tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Address it using a distribution list that is the same as the accounts, contacts, and leads in your newsletter marketing lists in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Once sent, you can track the e-mail in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Read the Help topic "Save Outlook Contacts, Tasks, and E-mail Messages as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Records" for instructions.

   Note

   Outlook e-mail templates have the OFT (.oft) extension. While it is possible to add OFT e-mail templates to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, because the default e-mail templates in Microsoft Dynamics CRM are limited exclusively to text OFT templates will not work in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Use your OFT e-mail templates only in Outlook.

   • Another simple newsletter composition and distribution idea is to publish your newsletter as HTML on a Web site and use an e-mail template in Microsoft Dynamics CRM to send a link to the page to all subscribers.
3. Including images in newsletters. You cannot paste or copy images in e-mails generated from Microsoft Dynamics CRM by direct e-mail, or through a quick campaign, unless you use Web-based images. Here's how:
   1. Open a new compose e-mail form. Type a subject.
   2. Next, go to a Web site, and right-click an image you see on the page, and then click Copy.
   3. Next, return to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM compose E-mail, click the Email body. On the menu bar of the compose e-mail form, click the Paste button.
   4. Your image appears in your e-mail.

   Web-based images can also be used as described in the article Set your e-mail messages apart with a signature. The article explains how to include a Web-based image (for example, the logo from your company Web site) in a Microsoft Dynamics CRM e-mail template.

   However, if you are using Word to create your newsletter, embedded images will be retained if you paste the Word content into an Outlook e-mail or create a mail-merge printable newsletter. If you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook, just follow the directions provided in Outlook Help to insert images.

   Note

   Attachments can only be made to single e-mails sent from Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Bulk e-mails and e-mails sent using mail merge cannot currently accept attachments.

4. Using customer responses. For successful marketing, you want to obtain customer responses to your efforts. While newsletters can be a one-way communication tool, they are much more effective marketing tool if you find ways to get your subscribers to respond to something in each issue. The following articles describe ways to create and react to customer responses:
   • Connect with campaign respondents in 4 steps
   • 4 ways to put campaign responses to work for you
   • Campaigns from start to finish
   • Take advantage of e-mail communication methods

   Of course, there are a number of third-party products that can extend Microsoft Dynamics CRM functionality to help you solve the issue of generating additional metrics around customer responses. Search the Internet for a string like "Microsoft Dynamics CRM Marketing Automation E-mail" using Bing.com to find third-party products that will meet your particular tracking and metric needs.

Summary

You can create and use newsletters as part of your Microsoft Dynamics CRM marketing strategy. This article has demonstrated how to overcome the major challenges marketers encounter when first attempting to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for this purpose.

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