Whether it be a new product rollout, lead re-engagement, subscription upgrades, or any other sales and marketing endeavor, every business needs a strategy to get their message to their target audience in a structured, automated way. That’s just what customer journeys do, by providing highly customizable and personalizable options to build your own outbound and real-time marketing campaigns. Building a customer journey is a straightforward and intuitive process that uses tiles to establish elements of the journey – from who is sent along the journey to every step that occurs along the pipeline. There are quite a few tile options that allow for a huge variety of journey objectives to serve the needs of any business.

Ever heard the proverb “out of sight, out of mind”? Well, the things we measure are in our sight, on our minds, and therefore more likely to be the target of change. We live in an increasingly data-driven world, where gathering data, making sense of it, and garnering actionable insight from it is as easy as it has ever been. The data begs to be used.

Welcome to the second instillation of the series “Habits of highly effective marketers,” where we explore some of the fundamental actions that marketers take to do their job and do it stunningly. In our last blog, we went deep into why and how to document your marketing strategies and processes. Next up are two similar components of marketing strategy and content development: cross linking and cross posting. Fostered from a desire to use content to its fullest extent and the wish to provide viewers valuable content at their fingertips, these two strategies can improve social media reach and SEO (when used carefully and judiciously). Let’s dig in.

You’ve likely seen the term “SaaS” popping up everywhere, but what exactly does it mean, anyway? Software as a Service (SaaS) is, simply put, a cloud-based software or application that is used over the internet in a web browser. With all the buzz around SaaS solutions, it’s understandable to want to capitalize on the benefits of a cloud-based business application. Here are five benefits that you should know about SaaS, and the cloud-based applications that you should consider to keep your business running smoothly:

Piecing together fragmented processes is a great start for businesses looking to optimize the way their tech stack operates from day-to-day, and as tedious as it may seem to find technology solutions that keep your business running, implementing an all-in-one business management solution is one of the most effective tools you can deploy for your organization. Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud-native ERP system made to address common business pain points to keep your day running smoothly, ensure cross-company teams stay in sync, and to promote visibility into key operations and workflows.

Whether your business has experienced rapid growth, you're looking for an all-in-one system that pieces together fragmented processes, or your current business management software just can't keep up anymore, implementing a new ERP solution can have immediate and tangible benefits. Embracing an updated and fully featured ERP system like Business Central can keep your operations agile, on top of industry trends, and, most importantly, support your long-term growth. But did you know that the relationship you have with your solution partner plays a crucial role in the success and longevity of your ERP system?

Manufacturers value efficiency, automation, and the ability to forecast orders, sales, inventory, and other important elements of their business. Considering these values, it’s perhaps a curious thing, or maybe not so curious, that many manufacturers use their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for customer relationships management (CRM) activities, or else they don’t use any solution for CRM at all. Considering the myriad benefits of CRM functionality—from lead and opportunity management, contact and account management, data analysis, automated marketing campaigns, event management, branded landing pages and forms, email creation, and so much more—it’s a wonder how a business could get by on the limited customer relationship functions a typical ERP provides.

Adding a CRM solution to your manufacturing business’ tech stack helps you better understand customer needs and gives you the tools and insight you need to reach them in the best way possible at every touchpoint, whether they’re at the very top of your sales funnel or about to place a repeat order. Dynamics 365 Marketing is a flexible CRM solution that helps businesses in any industry create, manage, and analyze the results of a wide variety of materials to help even marketing beginners create high-quality, engaging content that speaks to your prospects, leads, and longstanding clients. Here are some ways manufacturers can benefit from using Dynamics 365 Marketing to engage prospects and drive revenue.

This whitepaper is a brief and comprehensive guide to module capabilities, licensing, and other pertinent details of the ERP—such as machine and work centers, subcontracting, capacity planning, and more. Read about the differences between Business Central Manufacturing and Business Central Jobs, get a glimpse of the user interface, and check out other resources to help you narrow your ERP discovery.

If your current business management software often leaves you scratching your head and wondering if there’s something better out there, then it might be time to move on to a different solution. Business Central is a market-leading cloud ERP solution and champions the needs of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) across a wide variety of industries. With tried-and-true features, unparalleled flexibility, and rich and reliable modules, you’ll be wondering why you stuck with your old software for so long.

Let’s break down three common pain points that Business Central can help you conquer so you can focus on growing your business and working toward your long-term goals.

In marketing, “effective” can mean different things based on the company, team, and even individual. But the core of marketing is intrigue—to get potential customers or clients interested in what you do. The products you sell, the services you provide, your unique brand. That’s a very general, high-level goal, but each company will also have their more specific desired marketing outcomes, as well as their own ways to achieve it.

Companies and employees are discovering that remote work is not just possible—it may even be preferable. A whopping 52% of people say they are considering shifting to hybrid or remote work this year, and remote and hybrid jobs are the most popular among applicants—they garner 2.6 times more views and 3 times more applications than on-site positions.

Clearly, hybrid work is here to stay. Anticipating this change early on, many updates to Microsoft 365, including in Teams, have been geared toward facilitating successful hybrid work. Let’s look at some of the newest and upcoming features that will make a big difference in your hybrid workplace.

As manufactures adapt to growing trends, changing needs, and accelerated demand, they need a business management solution that is as agile and responsive as their business operations. Dynamics 365 Business Central for Manufacturing is a leading midmarket manufacturing management solution that offers rich, industry-specific functionality to drive automation, cut down on overhead costs, and give your operations a cutting-edge advantage. Here are five ways manufacturers can benefit from upgrading to a cloud manufacturing ERP system like Business Central

Whether you’re replacing an outdated legacy system or if you’ve outgrown your current system and need a new solution that can keep up, implementing an ERP solution is an exciting business decision that will help you unify your business processes, modernize outdated processes, and prop yourself up for success and advancement.

Replacing a system that no longer meets the needs of your organization is vital to support your continued growth, and it can be a serious undertaking. Here are ten do’s and don’ts to keep in mind whether you’re still in the research phase or already in the beginning phases of an implementation project.

A cohesive brand is one that is consistent no matter what or where it is. Visually, your brand can be differentiated by the colors, logo, fonts, and other defining characteristics unique to you. Keeping your brand identifiable across all touchpoints your customers encounter boosts brand recognition, which increases reach and effectiveness of your marketing content.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite of cloud-based business applications of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. Data-driven and inter-connected, these apps sport modern and aligned interfaces, robust built-in capabilities, and highly customizable development. Whether you use one or many of these apps, there are many build-in features that allow you to create brand-specific content.

The on-premise deployment of Dynamics CRM is a long-standing, reliable CRM option, but adopting a cloud-based solution like Dynamics 365 Sales comes with an unprecedented level of securities, tools, and features. Plus, making the jump to a cloud-based business application is easier than you might imagine. With features like pipeline visibility, task organization, sales activity automation, collaborative workflows, end-to-end data security, and more, all in one unified workspace, working smarter has never been easier with Dynamics 365 Sales on the cloud.

We’ve broken down just a few of the benefits of adopting a cloud-based system, and some of the features that make Dynamics 365 Sales the premier cloud-based sales CRM solution.

Let’s imagine this scenario together: You’re searching for your first or your next ERP solution for your business, but you’re worried about a few things. First and foremost, you will likely consider functionality and budget – what will this cost, does it have what I need, and will it pay off?

After you’ve found a viable ERP—say Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central—you move on to other concerns, like the dreaded how long will this take?

Dynamics 365 Business Central is a growth-minded business management solution that helps organizations stay on top of goals with agility and is the future of Microsoft’s cloud ERP development. It’s a scalable application with a sleek user interface, plus it’s easy to customize (extensively, too) for nearly every business need imaginable.

Business Central boasts a few different license options, so organizations can fine-tune their licensing plan to just the right solution with everything they need to get the job done quickly and reliably. Find the right Business Central licensing for your business needs:

Design principles fill entire textbooks and four-year college degrees. Safe to say the subject is ripe with intrigue and value, yet it is fraught with trouble spots. Strong design for all content is a key requirement for marketing content, such as website pages, blog images, and social media posts.

Because blogs and social media are often created in-house, it’s necessary to nurture the skills needed to build professional visuals for your marketing content, whether it be an infographic, a blog image, a thumbnail image, a social media visual, a header for email campaigns, or anything. But if you or your team is not trained in graphic design, how do you achieve this? Sticking to design best practices is a good first step, and below we will share a handful to start you on the right path.

Efficiency is something we all strive for, but it seems as though only a lucky few can finish their workday without feeling bogged down or sidetracked one way or another. Not everyone has that natural luck, so that’s where Power Automate comes into play. Some Flows are specific to certain Microsoft applications like Business Central, Dynamics 365 Sales, or Dynamics 365 Marketing, but others can be used to facilitate just about anything.

A plethora of no-code-necessary, pre-built Flows are out there for the everyday user just looking to get started. Here are our picks for five prebuilt Power Automate Flows that can help make your everyday a breeze: