Microsoft continues to expand the functionality of the Dynamics 365 Marketing to provide better tools for businesses to connect with their audiences. New to the armory of features is SMS messaging and push notifications for mobile apps. This gives new ways to take control of communication efforts all within the same system. Currently, these features are only in public preview, so they don’t quite have their full functionality. However, they can still be utilized to get a taste of their full potential and help to brainstorm ways a company could benefits from them.

Getting set up for SMS

Both of these features are being added to expand upon the new real-time marketing systems. To access this, use the change area selector at the bottom of the navigation screen in the Marketing app and select Real-time marketing. Real-time marketing is all about outbound marketing, so the text message system doesn’t track any responses save for keywords like “STOP” that are related to compliance. There are still message metrics that are tracked in the channel insights.

Before being able to send any messages out, a sender phone number will need to be added.  This can be done through the real-time marketing settings, or, if there is no sender phone number in the system, a prompt will appear on the text message editor as well. For the preview version of this feature, only one phone number can be added. A single toll-free number can be generated and used to send up to 1000 messages per month for free. This number will stay in the system for the duration of the preview once generated and cannot be deleted. Also, as a tip, phone carriers will often have their own was to filter potential spam messaging the same way email systems do. Toll-free numbers like this are best used for transactional messaging, rather than promotional.

Creating a text message

After adding a phone number, text messages can be created by navigating to the Text messages page under Channels. The actual editor for the message is very simple. Set the sender phone number using the top drop-down menu. In the Message field, enter whatever message will be sent. When clicked into this field, two buttons will appear at the bottom left. One for emojis and the other for personalized content. This personalized content works just the dame as the dynamic content seen in the other marketing content designers. When putting in a new piece of personalized content, the desired data field is selected, such as the contact’s first name, followed by the label and default text. The label is just to be able to identify that piece of content in the designer and the default text is what appears if the personalized piece can’t be pulled in properly. On the right side is a basic preview approximation of the message. To get a better idea of just how exactly it will appear in a message, use the Test send button.

Using these text messages

As mentioned previously, the preview is currently limited to only one generated toll-free number which, when following best practices, will be limited to transactional communications. Each text message can have its designation set to either transactional or promotional, so for now, it’s best to ensure the proper designation is set. Transactional messages are those that are relating to already existing business. As an example, say an event is being planned. This event has an online form which can be used to register attendees. After completing the registration, a transactional text message is sent to the phone number provided on the registration form as a confirmation of their registration. This can include any additional confirmation information via personalized content as well.