D365 for Marketing vs D365 for Sales (in-app marketing)
What’s the difference?
Dynamics 365 offers a range of business applications including the recently launched Marketing app and the closely related Sales app. They both offer marketing functionalities in different ways that are ideal for smooth handover of leads from marketing to sales team. I have compared my experiences with the marketing capabilities of both D365 apps on a high-level, giving you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses. I will also touch on ClickDimensions as it is a popular solution used with the Sales app before the Marketing app was made available.
The Sales app offers basic in-app marketing capabilities using Campaigns and Marketing Lists. Lead and opportunity management, product lists and quotes are available out-of-the-box (OOTB) as part of the sales functionality. D365 add-ons and other 3rd party solutions such as ClickDimensions build upon this to extend functionality often without the need to integrate with other systems, but I will leave out 3rd party solutions to reduce bias and to really focus on the battle of D365 applications.
The Marketing app includes core marketing modules as well as Event Management, Dynamics 365 Portals, Voice of the Customer and LinkedIn Lead Gen integration. The lead lifecycle is extended here and ends at sales acceptance, when a lead is ready to handover to a salesperson to qualify into an opportunity.
Overview
D365 for Marketing | D365 for Sales (in-app marketing) | |
Segmentation | Segments – static, dynamic, compound
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Marketing Lists – static, dynamic |
Campaign Management | Customer Journeys – templates, drag-and-drop designer, multiple segments and marketing lists, associate trigger workflows and generate activities, associate with events, marketing emails and landing pages | Quick Campaigns – quick execution, single activity type, single marketing list, email templates
Campaigns – long duration, templates, multiple marketing lists, multiple types of activities, email templates, campaign responses, associate with price lists, products and sales literature |
Campaign Automation | Customer Journeys – visual editor, schedule campaigns, set to recur, flow logic | Workflows – on-demand or automatic, time and condition based workflows |
Email Marketing | Marketing Emails – visual and HTML editor, templates, dynamic content, call-to-action links
Marketing Lists – static marketing lists can be tagged as subscription lists |
Emails – text editor, templates, attachments |
Web marketing | Marketing Pages and Forms – templates, visual and HTML editor, host on portal or external website
Marketing Portal –hosts landing pages and subscription centre
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*Portals – as an add-on
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Event Management | Events, Sessions, Venues, Speakers etc.
Portals – event registration, online payment with 3rd party payment provider |
Campaign – planning activities |
Reporting | Dashboards and Customer Insights | Reports – default reports for Campaigns |
Lead Scoring | Lead Scoring Models – drag and drop designer, positive and negative scoring, grades, sales ready score | |
Surveys | Voice of the Customer – themes, dynamics content, anonymous or non-anonymous responses | *Voice of the Customer – as an add-on |
Dynamics 365 for Marketing
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Dynamics 365 for Sales (in-app marketing)
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Summary
To summarise, the in-app marketing functions for the Sales app is limited with little out-of-the-box automation as it is a sales centric application while the Marketing app achieves most if not all basic marketing functionalities that you can get with marketing CRM products but lacks maturity and is still growing at a fast pace. What gives you the most value and at the best price will vary, as D365 allows for customisations and 3rd party solutions and this ensures that the product is specialised and fit for your requirements. Contact us at info@codecsystems.co.uk to find out what we can offer at Codec to support your marketing strategies with our technology and expertise.
BONUS: ClickDimensions
ClickDimensions has been around for almost a decade providing marketing automation for D365 before Microsoft’s launch of its own D365 Marketing app. So how can we leave it out in a comparison review?
When we take ClickDimensions in consideration, it can give the Sales app an upper hand as it matches the Marketing app’s advantage in terms of functionality. Codec is a gold certified ClickDimensions partner, we are experienced in implementing and supporting this 3rd party solution for D365.
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Want to Find out More about Dynamics 365 for Marketing and how it can transform your marketing efforts? Register for our upcoming webinar on 26th June – “Introducing Dynamics 365 for Marketing”, hosted by Dynamics CRM consultant, Miquel Alves.
Related article: Introduction to Dynamics 365 for Marketing – Core Marketing