CRM solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 allow businesses to obtain a greater understanding of customer demand and preferences through data analysis. When companies understand what motivates and influences customers, it can see that all communications can create a consistent brand narrative and build an ongoing relationship with consumers. This insightful dialogue often begins with introductions through marketing.

While the world of big data provides more customer information, employees and managers need solutions to simplify the collection and reporting of data. The latest Microsoft Dynamics 365  releases provide features that make data-driven marketing simpler through easy-to-use dashboards, data visualization and automated information gathering.

Easy design
First and foremost, companies need to be sure employees achieve the benefits from CRM solutions they expect and need. Microsoft Dynamics 365 puts users first by making features and layout simple and intuitive.

When creating marketing campaigns in the past, Microsoft Dynamics 365 used MarketingPilot features to provide templates and workflows to keep tasks moving along. The latest releases integrate the best parts of the previous system with a streamlined dashboard and user-friendly visual campaign designer, according to Microsoft.

Employees and managers can write individual content for each marketing campaign while referencing data about company expectations and audience preferences easily visible in the CRM system. This allows users to target each message at a particular audience and design materials to achieve certain goals.

Information visualization
As employees design individual campaigns, it’s essential that they utilize the data from previous marketing efforts and resulting consumer actions. Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers visualization features so results and activities can be displayed through graphs, charts or lists.

Entrepreneur said informed planning is essential to each marketing campaign. Companies must study internal data and set standards for success based on personally designed metrics. These numbers should be visible in a CRM solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 and visualized data features allow users to see how actions match expectations in real-time. For example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides lead scoring functionality, so each person the business contacts receives a rating based on favorable interaction metrics.

When information is displayed in ways the user finds most effective, it is easier to spot trends or outliers that need to be communicated with immediately. Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives employees and managers the ability to put key information on their homepage, so they can be greeted with essential data before they begin any task.

Data capture
Internal data is one of the best sources of information that helps businesses differentiate which leads convert to sales. By studying visualized audience metrics, the CRM system can score leads and know when it is best to follow up with particular consumers. The data generated from sales, consumer communications and customer feedback should all be integrated into a CRM solution, and so should public activities monitored by the company.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers Social Listening capabilities so businesses can track public messages and measure audience response to marketing. Employees gain access to consumer opinions on specific pieces of content and managers can evaluate general impressions for each campaign released by the organization.

Sometimes it’s difficult to turn audience interactions into hard numbers. Offhand comments may not fit into metrics previously designed by the company. This is why Microsoft Dynamics 365 has adaptive sentiment, a feature that helps analyze social media user intent through custom built sentiment models.

Automation
The data collected through consumer engagement and marketing affects every part of a business’s operation. If managers want more time to share and analyze data from daily activities, they can automate back office marketing tasks. Clickdimensions shared information on how companies can increase traffic and simplify tasks by integrating their technology with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Companies should speak with their CRM partner to see what other add-ons and third party services could help businesses achieve the full benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for CRM capabilities.