Microsoft® Dynamics CRM 2011 Administration Bible

Chapter 13. Using the Marketing Functions

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Campaigns and quick campaigns

• Marketing lists

• Sales literature

In many organizations there is a disconnect between the Sales and Marketing functions. Marketing develops sales collateral, but Sales complains that the right collateral is never available. Sales asks for better leads, and Marketing complains that the leads they provide are never worked. Marketing asks for feedback on their campaigns from Sales, but Sales doesn't have the tools to quantify the results.

The marketing functionality available in Dynamics CRM not only closes the gap between Sales and Marketing but can also bring new efficiencies to the marketing function. Using Dynamics CRM, marketers can:

• Build and manage dynamic marketing lists

• Execute complex multistep and event-driven campaigns

• Generate and qualify business leads, assign them to sales, and monitor follow-up

• Deliver sales literature to reps in a format that is easy to pass along to prospects

• Track marketing projects and analyze the bottom-line impact

Beyond the already strong marketing functionality built into Dynamics CRM, a number of add-on products further enhance this functionality (some freely distributed by Microsoft). Using these tools, marketers can fully automate campaigns, conduct large e-mail projects directly out of Dynamics CRM, and integrate their Web site with the marketing campaigns in real time.

Note

In addition to the topics in this chapter, marketing often uses functions described in other ...