Microsoft has made no delay in getting started with planning updates to Dynamics 365. Recently, Microsoft put out its plan for the 2021 Release Wave 1. A multitude of enhancements and features are coming to the Dynamics 365 applications, including Dynamics 365 Marketing. The updates to Marketing aim to make content creation easier, allow it to be distributed through more channels, and give users better tools to analyze their data. Many of these updates are expected to become available in April with the rest rolling out in the months after.

Analyzing data and improving performance

First among the data analysis improvements is A/B testing for customer journey actions. This allows users to test different channels, messages, or even what type of action is performed. By setting metrics to analyze, Marketing can automatically determine a winner of the test. Customer journeys will also have options to set business goals and how much progress has been made to meet the goal. When combined with the new A/B testing feature, companies can more easily optimize their processes to meet goals.

New analytics dashboards will be added that give metric views and insights across customer journeys. Points of weakness and strength among journeys can easily be pinpointed and used to modify the approach.

Customer journey analytics will be viewable in real-time. This will give greater ability to pivot journeys or lean-in based on customer engagement with the journey.

Content creation and distribution

Dynamics 365 Marketing is receiving new methods to reach customers. SMS messaging will be coming with this release wave. Purchase or add existing phone lines to allow for distribution of messages with an easy-to-use message designer. Similarly, a push notification designer is coming as well. Notifications can include videos, images, links, and sound. The designer can set custom action buttons and determine whether the notification is pushed in-app or outside. These notifications will be available for both iOS and Android.

Not to be left behind, the email designer is receiving an upgrade as well. This update will make the interface look and feel more modern. Email layouts are more flexible for better control of appearance without sacrificing content. Images are easier to work with and new fonts and styles will be added. AI capabilities can give content recommendations. Previewing emails within the designer have also been improved to be a more reliable representation of the email.

In the past, the asset library in Marketing has been a bit difficult to sort through at times. As part of the updates, the asset library is becoming a centralized library across Dynamics 365. In addition to this, asset tagging and attribution combined with better searching and creation abilities makes the library much easier to organize and use.

Targeting and personalizing content

Dynamic content in D365 Marketing makes emails and other messages feel more personal to the customer. When a piece of dynamic content is added to a message, it adds a short, code-like tag. This tag is resolved as the email is sent and is linked to a field on, for example, the contact record such as name. Finding and added dynamics content tags could be confusing in the past. The new interface will help make it easier to find and add dynamic content to marketing messages. The amount of personalized content for messages will also extended beyond the contact record. Any source connected to the Microsoft Dataverse can be included as personalized content for messages.

The integration with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights has been updated to allow for a continuous update of Customer Insights segments. These segments can be viewed to see the data behind their creation and be used within customer journeys. The segments can be kept dynamic or saved as snapshot for static segments. Customer journeys will also be able to target leads and opportunities, rather than only contacts.

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