Customer Engagement & Dynamics CRM Forum

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

Hi Tara,
Are you trying to send via Dynamics CRM or Dynamics Marketing? We have several Enterprise clients using Dynamics 365 Marketing in high volume for email campaigns. Feel free to reach out with specific questions.
Thanks,
Brooke
bdaniel@coffee-dunn.com

------------------------------
Brooke Daniel
Coffee + Dunn
McKinney TX
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

I have a somewhat related question and wasn't sure if I should start a new thread. We're interested in doing bulk emails, but on a much smaller scale. This would be a list of 400-2000 people and we'd like to do it as a quick campaign but wasn't sure if that was the right method. We have four users who would be sending these emails  and they would send them roughly once every two weeks. Do we need to break them into groups of say 100-200 recipients at a time while using quick campaigns?

Thank you!

------------------------------
Keri Grubbs-Hoff
Clark Schaefer Hackett
Dayton
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 12, 2021 12:00 PM
From: Brooke Daniel
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Hi Tara,
Are you trying to send via Dynamics CRM or Dynamics Marketing? We have several Enterprise clients using Dynamics 365 Marketing in high volume for email campaigns. Feel free to reach out with specific questions.
Thanks,
Brooke
bdaniel@coffee-dunn.com

------------------------------
Brooke Daniel
Coffee + Dunn
McKinney TX

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

Hi Keri,

Once you start getting above 200 a month in bulk emails that's pushing the limits of out of box CE. You do run the risk of getting on spam lists with high volumes of emails coming from Exchange. So, definitely, break them down into 200 or less per send to avoid issues as much as possible. Prior to Dynamics Marketing coming out, we have seen a fair amount of people sending up around the 1000 per month mark; just need to be careful.

The main issue these days is you have to add your physical address and some way for the recipients to unsubscribe from each commercial email, as outlined in the CAN-SPAM Act. https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Hammons
Director, Business Intelligence
AKA Enterprise Solutions
GA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 13, 2021 09:51 AM
From: Keri Grubbs-Hoff
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

I have a somewhat related question and wasn't sure if I should start a new thread. We're interested in doing bulk emails, but on a much smaller scale. This would be a list of 400-2000 people and we'd like to do it as a quick campaign but wasn't sure if that was the right method. We have four users who would be sending these emails  and they would send them roughly once every two weeks. Do we need to break them into groups of say 100-200 recipients at a time while using quick campaigns?

Thank you!

------------------------------
Keri Grubbs-Hoff
Clark Schaefer Hackett
Dayton

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 12, 2021 12:00 PM
From: Brooke Daniel
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Hi Tara,
Are you trying to send via Dynamics CRM or Dynamics Marketing? We have several Enterprise clients using Dynamics 365 Marketing in high volume for email campaigns. Feel free to reach out with specific questions.
Thanks,
Brooke
bdaniel@coffee-dunn.com

------------------------------
Brooke Daniel
Coffee + Dunn
McKinney TX

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

Hi Tara,

If you are referring to Dynamics 365 CE. That volume would be too high and not advisable.

Dynamics 365 Marketing is a great option for that kind of volume. The benefit over a 3rd party email is everything is integrated into Dynamics. There is a 30 day trial available, although you may want to work with a partner to guide you through it and to help with best practices. SCroll down to the bottom of the page below and select Get Started. I highly recommend setting up the trial in a test or sandbox and not in your production environment.

Dynamics 365 Marketing | Microsoft Dynamics 365

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Hammons
Director, Business Intelligence
AKA Enterprise Solutions
GA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

Thanks for your response! We do have Dynamics Marketing and that's where I'm experiencing the issues, particularly with formatting the emails. Also, I had problems whitelisting our domain to avoid being flagged as spam. Setting up independent lists for subscribers was also very cumbersome. I gave up after a couple of weeks and stuck with my third party provider.

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 12, 2021 06:15 PM
From: Mike Hammons
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Hi Tara,

If you are referring to Dynamics 365 CE. That volume would be too high and not advisable.

Dynamics 365 Marketing is a great option for that kind of volume. The benefit over a 3rd party email is everything is integrated into Dynamics. There is a 30 day trial available, although you may want to work with a partner to guide you through it and to help with best practices. SCroll down to the bottom of the page below and select Get Started. I highly recommend setting up the trial in a test or sandbox and not in your production environment.

Dynamics 365 Marketing | Microsoft Dynamics 365

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Hammons
Director, Business Intelligence
AKA Enterprise Solutions
GA

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

Sorry to hear that. We have seen wonky issues with email formatting when using the older templates. Microsoft has not seemed to update them after updating the editor. So, we stick to creating them from a blank template or using the newest templates that were released in the last 3-4 months.

The only time we saw issues with spam lists is using the .onmicrosoft.com domains instead of a custom domain. After that have not seen any issues.

Subscription lists are a little challenging at first but I think that's like most things; it takes some getting used to.

We and the clients we have worked with still find the value of having both marketing and sales in a single environment to be worth working around the niggles. Hope your third party solution continues to work for you though.

------------------------------
Mike Hammons
Director, Business Intelligence
AKA Enterprise Solutions
GA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 13, 2021 07:45 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Thanks for your response! We do have Dynamics Marketing and that's where I'm experiencing the issues, particularly with formatting the emails. Also, I had problems whitelisting our domain to avoid being flagged as spam. Setting up independent lists for subscribers was also very cumbersome. I gave up after a couple of weeks and stuck with my third party provider.

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 12, 2021 06:15 PM
From: Mike Hammons
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Hi Tara,

If you are referring to Dynamics 365 CE. That volume would be too high and not advisable.

Dynamics 365 Marketing is a great option for that kind of volume. The benefit over a 3rd party email is everything is integrated into Dynamics. There is a 30 day trial available, although you may want to work with a partner to guide you through it and to help with best practices. SCroll down to the bottom of the page below and select Get Started. I highly recommend setting up the trial in a test or sandbox and not in your production environment.

Dynamics 365 Marketing | Microsoft Dynamics 365

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Hammons
Director, Business Intelligence
AKA Enterprise Solutions
GA

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

If you have Dynamics Marketing then that's the one to use.
Just stick at it.

If you don't have Dynamics Marketing, and want to send volume emails from Dynamics, you can set up an SMTP relay service in O365.
I'm not sure about the steps (you'll need to ask your O365 admin), but that is what we do and we send a lot of mail from Dynamics.

------------------------------
Donal McCarthy
Digital Marketing Administrator
BrightWork
Galway
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 13, 2021 07:45 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Thanks for your response! We do have Dynamics Marketing and that's where I'm experiencing the issues, particularly with formatting the emails. Also, I had problems whitelisting our domain to avoid being flagged as spam. Setting up independent lists for subscribers was also very cumbersome. I gave up after a couple of weeks and stuck with my third party provider.

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 12, 2021 06:15 PM
From: Mike Hammons
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

Hi Tara,

If you are referring to Dynamics 365 CE. That volume would be too high and not advisable.

Dynamics 365 Marketing is a great option for that kind of volume. The benefit over a 3rd party email is everything is integrated into Dynamics. There is a 30 day trial available, although you may want to work with a partner to guide you through it and to help with best practices. SCroll down to the bottom of the page below and select Get Started. I highly recommend setting up the trial in a test or sandbox and not in your production environment.

Dynamics 365 Marketing | Microsoft Dynamics 365

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Hammons
Director, Business Intelligence
AKA Enterprise Solutions
GA

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------

We use Click Dimensions for bulk email marketing and regularly send to lists 5 times that size.  With that size list, you'll need to obtain expertise on "deliverability" including SPF & DKIM setup, etc.

There is no real thing as "whitelist my domain" other than making sure you follow best practices and comply with CAN-SPAM.  You need to "warm up" any new IP address used for sending over a few week period.

Jon

------------------------------
Jon Meyer
Chief Technology Officer
CAPTRUST
Raleigh NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jan 11, 2021 10:04 AM
From: Tara Wilsworth
Subject: Bulk emails through D365

What are the pros and cons of sending bulk emails through Dynamics? I'm talking about monthly newsletters and marketing campaigns several times a month to a mailing list of about 50,000 subscribers. I currently use a third party mailing service and have a plug in from Dynamics that feeds new lead records into the mailing list, growing it by 600-ish per month, so the volume will continue to rise. Here are the challenges I've had with Dynamics:
1. Formatting emails is a bear. Each time I make an edit, the formatting goes funky.
2. Setting up separate mailing lists (not all subscribers are Leads, they're simply opting in to the newsletter).
3. Trying to figure out how to whitelist our domain.

Any feedback is most welcome!

------------------------------
Tara Wilsworth
Gibraltar Industries (Air Vent inc)
Buffalo
------------------------------