Introducing…The Marketing Module in Dynamics CRM

Louise Alderton, 24 July 2010

Okay, I’m going to be perfectly honest - I get bored easily. From the array of majors I could have chosen from at University - Marketing appeared to be the least boring one. Not only that, as it happens, it is not boring at all. Marketing is ever-changing and always challenging. Just look at the evolution of marketing over the past few decades…it has gone from the product-focused mass marketing to the group-focused market segmentation and now to the customer-focused relationship marketing. I love having the opportunity to be creative, craft new ideas and push the boundaries. But, marketing is not all just imaginative brainstorming (to my dismay), as marketers we are also required to implement these ideas and get results. That’s where Dynamics CRM can lend a helping hand.

The marketing process is a cycle with three major areas of focus, each just as important as the next and each requiring the others to be successful.

To attract customers you need to do some research. Learn about your customer, the competition and market situation. Here, you need to consider the ‘Four P’s’ – product, price, place and promotion with regard to capturing customer attention.

Then you need to win the customer. What is important here is to understand what the customer needs and leverage your product in a way that convinces them that it will fulfill their needs. Customers don’t buy products - they buy the benefits they believe products deliver.

To keep the customer boils down to impeccable customer service. If you build a positive relationship with your customer it will prompt repeat business and generate referrals to other potential customers.

And so the marketing cycle continues round and round.

So how exactly can Dynamics CRM help you achieve all three?

Well, first of all you can maintain a detailed profile of each customer and then leverage this information to your advantage. The ability to define each customer as an ‘account’, ‘contact’, ‘lead’ or ‘opportunity’ allows you to adjust communications effectively.

Once you have the information, there are tools in Dynamics CRM that will let you take advantage of this data. One of the first things you can do is creating ‘Marketing Lists’. These are lists of accounts, contacts or leads that match a particular criterion for targeting marketing initiatives. For example, you may make a list of all you customers that buy a specific product or a list of your consistently loyal customers. These lists are useful for separating different marketing initiatives to target appropriately.

You can use Dynamics CRM to create, develop, implement and analyse campaigns. There is the option to create a ‘Quick Campaign’ which is a single activity to be distributed to a Marketing List or impromptu group of accounts, contacts or leads. This is an instant marketing effort of one activity, for example, a phone call or an email. A ‘Marketing Campaign’ represents marketing efforts over a period of time which will most likely consist of multiple steps and activities.

Both types of campaigns are strongly assisted by Dynamics CRM tools. You can create activities, use pre-established Marketing Lists and then measure the success of the campaign by viewing campaign responses. Having all the campaign information in one place gives you a view of the whole picture allowing informed and effective decisions to be made. You can save a lot of time by having easy access to pre designed Campaign Templates and Marketing Lists and having the ability to automate activities and assign them to the appropriate person.

When a Campaign is complete a very important and handy tool in Dynamics CRM is analyzing the Campaign. This can help determine which Campaigns were successful, which activities generated positive responses and what needs changing. Attaining this knowledge will help make future Campaigns more effective.

Step by step processes in Dynamics CRM break down campaigns into manageable tasks. It is clear what has been done and what needs to be done next. This visibility can be incredibly helpful for multi-tasking marketers. Overall, the Dynamics CRM Marketing Module when used correctly can make a huge difference to your marketing productivity and success.

Coming up in my blogging agenda I will delve deeper into the various features within the Marketing Module and endeavor to teach (and learn) the finer details of its functions.