For the 2021 second release, Dynamics 365 Marketing continues to focus on these key areas:   

• Engage your customers in moments that matter across all customer touchpoints 
• Personalise engagement for each customer 
• Make faster and better decisions, leveraging the power of Analytics and AI  

Here is our rundown of the top upcoming marketing features for this release:  

1. Get AI-based content ideas to help craft email content 

One exciting update for this release is the ability to create email content easily and efficiently with AI-based content ideas. How fabulous would it be if your email editor could recommend relevant and engaging content? Your email will contain AI-generated content snippets (based on key points you provide). Also, based on your requirements, you will be able to examine, select, and fine-tune generated content ideas. 

 

2. Quickly send SMS messages using Twilio and TeleSign integration 

SMS messaging through the Dynamics 365 Marketing creates new opportunities to connect with mobile users. You can now create and send SMS messages to any mobile users using Twilio and TeleSign. We like how Microsoft is paying close attention to other platforms and making such integrations helping you engage with your customers in real-time. 

3. Easily visualise customer journey interactions on the ‘Customer Insights’ activity timeline 

The integration between Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Marketing means all marketing interactions (such as messages sent, opened, not opened, clicked) are available as activities in Customer Insights. You can then add these interactions into the Customer Insights timeline to quickly visualise all the data in sequential order.   

Moreover, you can include this timeline in other Dynamics 365 apps with the ‘Customer Card add-in solution’ or in a ‘Power BI dashboard’.  

Overall, this integration will empower your sales, service, and other frontline agents to deeply personalise relationships through knowledge of every customer’s engagement history.   

 4. Create segments based on attribute and behavioral data with the “New segmentation builder” 

Another unmissable feature is the ability to better target customers through segmentation based on attributes or behavioural data with an easy to use “New segmentation builder”. This feature will help you create segments directly based on attribute and behavioral data for contact, lead, and custom entities, ensuring you are targeting the right customer audience which in return improves your marketing ROI. 

The redesigned experience also enables users to use natural language to specify an attribute-based segment, speeding up the process of identifying your target audience. 

 5. Deliver rich CX across Dynamics 365, Office, and other apps by augmenting customer journeys with ‘Power Automate’ 

With this new release you will be able to use Power Automate within Customer Journeys. This enhancement is really bringing together the power of the entire Microsoft suite to magnify your marketing experience. Your customer journeys can travel well beyond the confines of the Dynamics 365 Marketing app with this update.  

For instance, from a customer journey that seeks feedback with a survey, you can update your team via a Teams channel in real-time as feedback comes in. 

You will also be able to easily trigger your customer journey from a Power Automate flow. For instance, when a back-ordered item is back in stock, you can trigger a marketing campaign for customers who previously attempted to buy that item. 

 6. Better webinar registration experience in Teams, that seamlessly connects with Dynamics 365 Marketing 

 Webinars are here to stay, and we love how integrated Teams is becoming with the Marketing app. With this release you can seamlessly connect your Teams webinars with Dynamics 365 for Marketing and use Teams data to help design the customer journey. You can manage everything from webinar registration to user behaviors within the Marketing app.  

Create branded registration pages in Microsoft Teams that are integrated out of the box with Dynamics 365 Marketing, manage registration (including approve, decline, and waitlist functionality), and easily trigger journeys in Dynamics 365 Marketing based on user behaviors in Microsoft Teams. With this new release, you will get a better webinar registration experience with just a few clicks! 

 Note: Public preview for this feature will be in October 2021, with general availability scheduled for December 2021. 

 7. Connect Customer Insights and your own data lake with customer journey orchestration 

This is another significant update that extends beyond the Dynamics 365 Marketing app. Users can store Customer Insights data in their own Azure Data Lake Storage, then use the same to build segments, specify conditions and deeply personalise your marketing messages to build rich, real-time customer journeys using data outside of the Marketing app.  

With the new update, you can use profile and segment data in D365 Customer Insights to fine-tune your targeting and further refine your journeys to drive meaningful interactions. All in all, the update will help you to create a complete end-to-end experience for your customers as you can: 

• Target customers based on real-time event-triggered customer journeys 

• Deeply personalise your engagement using rich Customer Insights data 

What’s Next? 

What did you think of the new Marketing update? Let us know which feature(s) you are excited about getting your hands on.  

Check out our blog on the highlights from the 2021 second release for Microsoft Dynamics 365 & Power Platform 

Want to find out how you can reap the benefits of the latest Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing updates within your organisation? 

Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation on 01296 328 689.

Or email us at info@dogmagroup.co.uk 

Author: Barsha Shrestha, Senior Marketing Executive at Dogma Group