Rules to Better Newsletters - 3 Rules

There are different ways of sending newsletters using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016:

• Campaigns
• Quick Campaigns
• Mail Merge on Marketing Lists

This rule will show you how to send a newsletter using the last method, the mail merge.

By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 does not come with good functionality on inserting custom unsubscribe links to your newsletters - that's why we are going to look at how to add a custom unsubscribe link in each email.

Prerequisites:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 for Microsoft Office Outlook (Outlook client) is installed and set up
• Microsoft Outlook is running and set up

Option 1 (recommended)

Basic coding knowledge (VBA) required - you will have to configure the macro that generates and inserts your custom unsubscribe link. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, have a look at Option 2 below.

Depending on how many contacts you are going to send the newsletter to, you should think about setting up a VM or using an external provider for sending the emails.

1. Go to Main | Marketing | Marketing Lists

   

2. Open the Marketing List you want to send the newsletter to by clicking on it (you should be using a dynamic list)

3. Go to ... | Mail Merge on List Members (in the menu bar)

   

4. Select Email as the mail merge type, choose your starting document, (optional) select data fields to use, and download the .docx

   

5. Open the document in Word and follow the instructions in the document to start the Mail Merge

   

6. Exclude contacts and press OK

   

7. Copy and paste your newsletter from Internet Explorer to Word (IE because it seems to not break the style)

   For a nicer editing experience (especially with HTML newsletter), switch to the Web Layout view by clicking View | (Views) | Web Layout in the ribbon bar.

8. If necessary, go to File | (Info) | Convert to update the Word document to the newest version - this will solve styling issues while not breaking the mail merge

   

9. Modify and run the following macro to replace the word "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the newsletter with a custom hyperlink.

   For help on adding a macro to Word see the Microsoft Office Support website.

Sub InsertNewsletterLink()
'
' InsertNewsletterLink Macro
'
'
'Finds and adds a hyperlink where the UNSUBSCRIBE tag is placed
    With Selection.Find
        .Forward = False
        .Wrap = wdFindAsk
        .Text = "UNSUBSCRIBE"
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .Execute
    End With
    ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldHyperlink

'Switch to alternative view so we can modify the content of the hyperlink "manually"
    ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = _
     Not ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes

    With Selection.Find
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Text = "HYPERLINK"
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .Execute
    End With

    Selection.InsertAfter " ""https://www.ssw.com.au/ssw/NETUG/Unsubscribe.aspx?email=<<email>>"

    'Insert word mail merge fields on <<email>> and <<contact>>

    With Selection.Find
        .Forward = False
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Text = "<<email>>"
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .Execute
    End With

    ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldMergeField, Text:="EMAIL"

    Selection.InsertAfter "&id=<<contact>>"

    With Selection.Find
        .Forward = False
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Text = "<<contact>>"
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .Execute
    End With

    ActiveDocument.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldMergeField, Text:="CONTACT"
    Selection.InsertAfter """"

    Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1

'Remove the additional MERGEFORMATs

For counter = 0 To 1
    With Selection.Find
        .Forward = False
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Text = "\* MERGEFORMAT "
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .Execute
    End With
    Selection.Delete
    Next counter

'Switch back to normal view so we can change what the hyperlink looks like to the user
    ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = _
     Not ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes

    With Selection.Find
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Text = "Error! Hyperlink reference not valid."
        .MatchWholeWord = True
        .Execute
    End With
    Selection.Text = "UNSUBSCRIBE"
    Selection.Font.Bold = False

    Selection.Font.Underline = wdUnderlineSingle

    Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory

End Sub

10. Follow the steps in the mail merge sidebar on the right-hand side of Word

    If you are using mail merge fields, like the contact names, you should preview your message for some contacts.

    

11. Send the mail merge newsletter to the email address property of every contact by selecting the following

    

Option 2

You don't need any coding knowledge here - but this means you will have to generate your custom unsubscribe link manually and copy and paste it into the mail merge document. Make sure to set it up it correctly before copying.

If there's anything to be learned from spammers, they know how to get your attention. Spammers use very tabloid-based, or headline-grabbing subjects, to try and coerce you into opening that email. But don't make your email subjects tabloid-tacky, instead follow a good broadsheet paper's style of attention-grabbing lines.

Just as we are told, 'Don't judge a book by its cover', we sometimes judge an email by its subject.We send and receive so many emails each day, therefore it's important to use the email subject to grab your recipient's attention.

Choosing the right subject can give an email a sense of urgency or importance and allows the user to quickly glance through the inbox to assist with prioritization.This is especially important when trying to get your clients and suppliers to take notice of your email.

The best way of doing this is to ensure that your subject includes either a:

• Action point E.g. "6.30 TONIGHT! See you at The Oaks Hotel..."
• Result of a task you were asked to do E.g. "Charles Merton - 5 min of feedback".

You'll note from this that including the date and time in the subject gives immediacy to the email.

Good subject examples

Always use a descriptive email subject to make it easier to find later. Use emojis and prefixes to give context straight away.

Consulting

Dinner

Bugs

Call someone

Feedback on a product

Test please

---

Of course, we also use a structured approach for emails - especially when sending them internally.

We use the following format for the subject internally and encourage clients and external contacts to use this format as well.

Example:

The advantage of this is that when you sort by the subject in Outlook, you get all of the emails grouped together, and it is easy to recognize the client/product, because the subject contains the relevant information.

Additionally, you should be able to determine which emails are the most important. Using a meaningful subject with keywords makes it easy to identify and categorize emails without actually opening them (and it also makes it easy to find them in "Sent Items"). When emails are really important, write IMPORTANT in the subject. Other emails considered important or urgent should have the following in the subject field:

• BUG
• INCOMPLETE
• URGENT

Other words to be used are:

• TIMESHEETS
• INVOICES
• PROSPECT
• TO-DO - for tasks pending
• FYI - information you want to keep around for a while, for yourself or for others (never for a task)
• FUTURE - ideas for the future
• IGNORE - for the rare occasion when something is requested and you really don't want to do it yet
• Product name - Registered User Support
• Product name - Pre-Sales Support
• Project name
• Client name

Newsletters should always use absolute references to all links and images within the HTML. Relative paths don't contain the server information so external users see a broken link/image - the outside email application won't find the where the file is.

<a href="/ssw/Company/ContactUs.aspx "><img src="/SSW/images/SSWLogo.png" /></a>

<a href="https://ssw.com.au/ssw/Company/ContactUs.aspx "
  ><img src="https://ssw.com.au/SSW/images/SSWLogo.png"
/></a>