You may have noticed that we offer two PowerPack marketing add-ons focused around email communication. In this blog, we will compare our Add-ons PowerEmail and PowerMailChimp and discuss the benefits and limitations of each solution to help you determine which add-on will best fit your business needs.
PowerEmail and PowerMailChimp are both great solutions that will create a platform for you to better engage and communicate with your records in CRM. To determine the best solution for your organization ask yourself these four questions before sending your next email.
What is your Target Audience?
PowerEmail is designed to be a one-to-one email communication between you and your records. With PowerEmail you can easily send and track emails to contacts and leads directly from the record form in CRM. The solution is not designed for bulk email blasts but better used to directly communicate with individual records or a small group.
PowerMailChimp is designed to send email blasts to large marketing lists. PowerMailChimp subscribers build out their marketing lists in CRM and sync those records to the third party emailing platform, MailChimp. PowerMailChimp is great for sending company newsletters, special offers, and subscription based content.
How Do You Want your Emails Sent?
PowerEmail piggy-backs the out-of-the-box CRM email functionality and sends emails directly from your own CRM servers. By default, all emails sent out of your CRM system will be tracked by PowerEmail. If you do not want them to be tracked, simply unchecked the 'Track this email' checkbox found on the email form, and then compose your email as you normally would and send.
PowerMailChimp users build out marketing lists inside their CRM and sync the record information into MailChimp to send email blasts from the MailChimp servers. All emails sent from MailChimp must comply with the anti-spam laws for the countries your recipients live in. For additional information, review MailChimp's Terms of Use and Anti-spam Requirements.
What Email Statistics Do You Want to Capture?
By default PowerEmail will track opens, URL clicks and unsubscribes for emails sent from CRM. To view your email statistics, navigate to the CRM record and under the activities section open the email you sent. When you open that email record you will notice that there is an area called "PowerEmail." This area will show you the tracking information for the email, including the number of times the email was opened, when it was first opened, when it was last opened, and any URL's that were clicked on within that email.
In addition to opens, clicks and unsubscribes PowerMailChimp will also track successful deliveries and sends as well as soft and hard bounces. After a blast is sent, the MailChimp statistics are tracked back to the corresponding blast and Account, Contact, or Lead record within CRM. Blast statistics are synchronized from MailChimp into Dynamics CRM at regular intervals after the email blast is sent, with the length of the intervals decreasing after a period of time, as the open and click through rates naturally taper off.
PowerMailChimp also comes with two pre-built reports; PowerMailChimp Blast Report and the PowerMailChimp Activity Type Summary Report to give you additional insight into your email statistics
How Would You Like your Emails to Look?
PowerEmail only sends plain text emails. Plain text emails can be a great way of sending out messages that are direct and to the point and are often perceived as more personal since they are typically addressed to an individual or a small group.
PowerMailChimp is a powerful tool that enables users to send rich HTML emails with little or no coding knowledge. PowerMailChimp users must maintain a separate MailChimp account where they can choose from hundreds of pre-existing email templates or create their own.
If you are interested in trying PowerMailChimp or PowerEmail, visit our PowerPack Add-Ons page and download your free 30-day trial. If you have questions, you can always contact our PowerPack Team at powerpackpro@hcl-powerobjects.com
Happy CRM’ing!
