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Personalize Bulk Email with CRM 2011 Information

Post Author: Joe D365 |

Sending bulk email with CRM 2011 is already a piece of cake using the PowerMailChimp add-on. Now, you can personalize your bulk email message, and even images in your bulk emails, making the content of the email more relevant to your customers. When the information is more relevant to your customers, they are more likely to open the bulk email, click on links within it, and forward the information on to their fellow colleagues or friends.

The first thing we have to do is set up merge tags for the marketing lists we will be sending to, so that the information gets synced over to MailChimp and we can use it to create our dynamic content.

To do this, we are going to navigate to the PowerPack tab of CRM, and click on Organize Merge tags under the PowerMailChimp section. Then we're going to choose a master MailChimp list (whichever list the marketing list(s) we are using is/are synced to) and an entity type (whichever entity our marketing list is made up of – contacts, leads or accounts). Next, we're going to select the name of the CRM field we want to use to create our dynamic content. In this example, we're going to create dynamic content based on what's entered in the "Address 1: Country/Region" field in CRM, so we'll want to sync that information over to MailChimp. Once we've selected a CRM field in the dropdown, we'll be provided with a merge tag value. This will be used when we're creating the dynamic value in our template. Click Save.

Remember, if you are using marketing lists made up of contacts AND marketing lists made up of leads in your bulk email blast, you will need to set up merge tags for both entities.

Step 1 of personalizing bulk email with CRM 2011

Now if we were to navigate to our MailChimp account, and view a contact that's a part of the PMC Master List, we would see new information under that contact's MailChimp record.

Step 2 of personalizing bulk email with CRM 2011

Now that we have the information in our MailChimp account, we can create dynamic content in our templates.

In this example, we are going to change the content of the template for subscribers in the Pacific Region.

Using the merge tag given to me in CRM, we would write an "IF" statement. For example:

*|IF:ADDRESS1_C=Pacific|*Save 20% on surf boards!

*|ELSE:|*Save 20% on hiking boots!*|END:IF|*

We could also put something like:

*|IF:ADDRESS1_C=Pacific|*Save 20% on surf boards!*|END:IF|*

*|IF:ADDRESS1_C=Central|*Save 20% on Mountain Bikes!*|END:IF|*

*|IF:ADDRESS1_C=Eastern|*Save 40% on water skis!*|END:IF|*

*|IF:ADDRESS1_C=Mountain|*Save 50% on ski gear*|END:IF|*

When we're creating our MailChimp template, we're going to input the "IF" statement, using the handy template editor, so that we end up with something similar to this:

Step 3 of personalizing bulk email with CRM 2011

Contacts in the Pacific region would receive an email like this:

Step 4 of personalizing bulk email with CRM 2011

And everyone else on my marketing list would receive this other message:

Step 5 of personalizing bulk email with CRM 2011

With this awesome PowerMailChimp feature, you can now personalize your bulk emails even more, using the information that's already stored in your CRM.

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

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