Are you ready to load your pipeline for 2011? In order for any organization to fill their pipeline, setting business goals and completing the marketing plan should be its first priority. As Marketing Manager at I have found Microsoft Dynamics CRM essential to achieving our company’s long-term goals of effective marketing. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM I can market more effectively, improve productivity, and gain actionable insight into our marketing campaigns. In today’s economy you need a CRM marketing solution that is flexible, easy to use, and engineered to fit your business.
Below is a sampling of how can help when preparing your Marketing Plan to load the pipeline and meet your business goals:
- It all starts by entering campaigns into . First, my definition of a campaign? Any kind of marketing effort designed to appeal to a potential customer or existing customer.
- Review past campaigns – you may want to repeat some of your 2010 campaigns
- Access “Your View” of 2010 Marketing Campaign set up through Advance Find in CRM at the beginning of the year
- Find all Completed Campaigns by clicking on the Status Reason column
- Columns you may want to review very closely: Total Cost of Campaign and Estimated Revenue
- Review Campaign Type column for what type of campaigns you executed. This information will be used later to determine trends. For example – is attending industry conferences still cost effective in generating leads?
- What campaigns were successful - review the Campaign Performance Reports
- What is a Campaign Performance Report? This report tracks the progress and status of a campaign. It is helpful in communicating with your sales team or anyone in your organization that needs to review an individual campaign. The Financials section of this report is most helpful giving me the Total Actual Cost, Total Budget Allocated, Estimated Opportunity Revenue, and Actual Opportunity Revenue with drill down capability for each. I can chose up to 10 campaigns to compare
- Items for review on a Campaign Performance Report: Campaign Details, Time Parameters, Target Marketing List, Target Products, Sales Literature, Related Campaigns, Planning Tasks, Campaign Activities, Campaign Responses, and Financial Cost & Revenue
- The Campaign Performance Reports has the ability to compare up to 10 campaigns at the same time. This can be helpful especially in today’s economy.
- All Leads and/or Campaign Responses entered into CRM should be associated with a campaign
- Lead Definition - Leads represent potential customers who have not yet been qualified by your sales process. As you qualify leads (to verify that a record fits specific criteria), you can convert them to an Opportunity, an Account, or a Contact. Converting is the procesof changing or re-categorizing a record from one record type to another.
- Setting up Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives me the flexibility of reporting on the overall progress of sales goals to management. Some monthly reporting examples:
- Leads Generated – Actual vs. Budget, (Monthly and YTD) – this report is generated to determine if the marketing campaigns are generating the number of leads required to support the sales team’s goals. The budget is determined at the beginning of the year when the marketing plan and budget is placed in CRM. This report is analyzed very closely for marketing trends
- Marketing Expenses - Campaign expenses are tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM under the Campaign/Financial Tab. It is critical to keep a close eye on the Budget vs. the Actual Dollars spent.
- Leads Promoted to Opportunities – Actual vs. Budget (Monthly and YTD) - This report is generated to determine the effectiveness of the activities after the lead is handed off to sales.
How do you track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts? InterDyn Artis would like to share with you how we use Microsoft Dynamics CRM as our method of tracking and reporting on marketing efforts. I have been using the Marketing Module of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for over five years and have learned the product through trials and errors. Give me a call today at 704.321.3881 or email judy.vanderlinden@interdynartis.com and learn how to track and report on your marketing efforts. Coming soon, a series of Tips and Tricks blogs that will help you track marketing efforts in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
InterDyn Artis established in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1989, is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner dedicated to the implementation, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains), SharePoint and Business Intelligence within the Manufacturing, Distribution, Assisted Living, Lumber, and Church Industries.
By InterDyn Artis, .
