Despite what Ted H said about me in his glowing introduction last week, I have not managed to memorize every Microsoft CRM book, blog post, whitepaper, what-have-you that I’ve read in my tenure here at Inetium.  I get lucky once in awhile with a quote here or there… but I’m no Rain Man by a long shot.

In fact, for quite a while, I struggled to understand all of the ins and outs of E-mail functionality in Dynamics CRM from an end user’s perspective.  And none of those techie books I’d been reading summed it up in one place for me.

Outlook client?  Web Client?  Mail Merge?  E-mail  Templates? Campaigns?

Since it’s my job to know this stuff inside out and then help my customers translate it into their business processes, I took it upon myself to summarize all of the E-mail  features and options that I thought were important to understand in a format that helps me help my clients grasp it.

And there are a LOT of different possibilities when it comes to sending E-mail from Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  The path you take when you distribute those messages will depend entirely on the outcome you’re aiming for!

This chart explains some of the most commonly used features and options available when sending email from CRM and how they work if you’re using Word Mail Merge or CRM e-mails.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Features and Options  (Follow this link to see the full chart if your browser isn't supporting it now)

A few other things to consider about Dynamics CRM e-mail that are important but not explicitly listed in the chart:

§  The only difference between sending E-mail  via a Quick Campaign vs. Marketing Campaign is the ability to send the E-mail  to recipients on multiple Marketing Lists at the same time  from a Marketing Campaign (i.e. you can include leads and contacts, and accounts).  E-mail sent via a Quick Campaign can only be sent to recipients on a single Marketing List or in a single entity list view.

§  Using Word Mail Merge on Leads, Accounts, Contacts or Opportunities in a list view (or from a Marketing List) from the Web Client does not create a CRM E-mail activity in History.  To avoid this, there is a System Setting to disable the ability to perform Word Mail Merge from the Web Client as an option.

§  Direct E-mail is a means of sending a bulk e-mail to a group of CRM Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Cases, Contracts or Users from an entity list view in Dynamics CRM.  It always requires the use of a CRM E-mail Template.  And BEWARE!  When you click the send button – the email is SENT immediately!

So you can see that what you are trying to achieve by sending the email will determine what features and options you will use to send the message, for example:

§  If your goal is to capture campaign response activities, you will have to send your e-mail messages from a Quick Campaign or Marketing Campaign.

§  If you must send the emails on behalf of another CRM User, you’re e-mail message must be a CRM E-mail activity and you will not be able to use Word Mail Merge.

§  If your email must include an attachment and will be sent to more than one recipient, you’ll need to create a workflow.

§  If you’re simply sending an e-mail blast and don’t wish to create a CRM E-mail activity in the recipient’s history a Word Mail Merge will do the trick.

Happy e-mailing!