Chapter at a Glance
✓ | Create a marketing list. |
✓ | Add members to a list by using a lookup. |
✓ | Add members to a list by using Advanced Find. |
✓ | Remove members from a list by using Advanced Find. |
✓ | Evaluate members included in a list by using Advanced Find. |
✓ | Remove selected members from a list. |
✓ | Copy members to another marketing list. |
✓ | Create opportunities for list members. |
✓ | Use mail merge to generate a Word document that includes list member information. |
Organizations rely on proper communication with their customers and prospects. Marketing is often described as a process by which an organization creates the communication and mechanisms to convince customers to purchase its products or services. Marketing typically uses numerous communication channels—direct mail, e-mail, seminars, on-site visits, outreach programs, and phone calls, for example—to communicate with customers and prospects. Firms leverage lists of customers and prospects to properly articulate the benefits of their products and services to their target audience. For example, a company might e-mail all prospects within a city about an exciting promotion occurring at a local store. Or a firm might send a renewal notice to all customers whose contracts expire in the next 30 days.
Marketing professionals can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to execute marketing strategies and segment customer lists. Marketing lists are groups of accounts, contacts, and leads that can be used in marketing campaigns and for various other business purposes. For example, a sales representative can create a marketing list of her new accounts to quickly send proposal letters and create new sales opportunities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
In this chapter, you will learn how to use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to create a marketing list, manage list members, and create a mail merge document that includes marketing list member data.
Graphics and operating system–related instructions in this book reflect the Windows Vista user interface. If your computer is running Windows XP and you experience trouble following the instructions as written, refer to the "Information for Readers Running Windows XP" section at the beginning of this book.
The images used in this book reflect the default form and field names in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Because the software offers extensive customization capabilities, it’s possible that some of the record types or fields have been relabeled in your Microsoft Dynamics CRM environment. If you cannot find the forms, fields, or security roles referenced in this book, contact your system administrator for assistance.
You must know the location of your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site to work the exercises in this book. Check with your system administrator to verify the Web address if you don’t know it.
The true value of a customer relationship management system lies in the quality of its data. Marketing lists provide a convenient mechanism for grouping account, contact, and lead records. Before you select the members of a list, you must first define the list itself. By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM requires you to enter a name for the list and choose a member type. The member type must be either Account, Contact, or Lead; each list can have only one member type. Additional information can be captured, such as the source, cost, and purpose of the list. You can also configure custom attributes to further define your list.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides the ability to import marketing lists, allowing you to quickly create multiple marketing lists by using a simple import wizard. Although you can use Microsoft Dynamics CRM to import marketing lists, you will still need to add members by using the techniques described in this chapter. For more information on importing data into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, see Chapter 18.
In this exercise, you will create a marketing list of customer contacts who reside in the state of Illinois.
USE a user account that has the Marketing Manager security role or another role with privileges to create marketing lists.
BE SURE TO use the Windows Internet Explorer Web browser to navigate to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web site before beginning this exercise.
In the Marketing area, click Marketing Lists.
Click the New button.
The Marketing List form opens.
In the Name field, enter Illinois Contacts. In the Member Type field, select Contact.
Click the Save and Close button.
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