Today’s customers are all about the experience. A report by Walker stated that by the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the major differentiator for brands. We’re already seeing this prediction come to fruition.
However, creating a great customer experience, one that drives customer retention and loyalty, is easier said than done. It requires a significant amount of data to understand exactly what customers want from brands. Tools such as big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence have made this task significantly easier. But it’s now time to extend that reach into something beyond product offerings: events.
When planning a professional event, it’s crucial to ensure that the experience attendees have while there is stellar as it leads to higher satisfaction, loyalty, and, in the end, revenue. Creating this great experience starts with having the right tools, which is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing comes in.
To show you just how well Dynamics 365 Marketing can help with event planning, we’ll discuss how we at JourneyTEAM used Marketing to coordinate and plan one of our biggest events of the year. We’ll also review the challenges we faced, and the benefits we saw from using one of Microsoft’s most robust tools.
Dynamics 365 Marketing
is an application within the Dynamics 365 portfolio that helps organizations more effectively turn prospects into customers or, at the very least, beneficial relationships. The solution features a number of apps that are designed to coordinate with and align the sales and marketing departments. Data visualization, lead scoring, event management, and omni-channel campaigns are just some of the tools featured within Marketing.
Each of these tools are designed to help you improve your customer experience based on user analytics and insightful data. For example, you’ll see what factors are pushing people to sign up for an event, what content is most successful, and what their specific needs are. Knowing what it is that grabs attendees’ attention or what their expectations are during the event helps you to create a more personal and focused event, one that people will likely return to next year.
In addition to the features within Marketing, you’ll also have access to other Dynamics 365 solutions such as , , and , each of which further improves your customer journey.
Putting Dynamics 365 to the Test
is an annual event that we spend most of the year planning. Attendees are able to attend a series of workshops over a number of days that are hosted by industry experts. We discuss everything from the latest Microsoft software releases and updates to industry trends and customer behaviors.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic prevented us from meeting together in-person, we met virtually. However, we wanted to host a successful event which meant the customer experience had to be better than ever. This is when we turned to the features and capabilities of Dynamics 365 Marketing to organize the event and plan the attendee’s experience. A few of the features we relied on include:
ClickDimensions
One of our primary goals with Marketing 365 was to ensure we focused our time on high scoring leads. To achieve this, we utilized ClickDimensions, a full-service marketing automation platform that contains tools like email marketing, campaign automation, lead scoring, web forms, surveys, and reporting. Each of these tools helped us organize event information and data that was later incorporated into our marketing strategy and customer experience.
For example, one piece of data that helped us target potential attendees was email open times. ClickDimensions showed us specific times people were opening our emails. Most opened them Monday and Tuesday mornings with fewer and fewer openings as the week went on. From then on, we strove to send our emails out prior to the start of the week.
Web Forms
We wanted to test how well Marketing 365 integrated with which is where we created our sign up form for BTS. Marketing not only had very little issues with this integration, but also created an event record for each participant upon signing up and shared it with Wix. We could then freely organize the data as needed.
Additionally, we relied on this integration for payment processing. We were impressed with Wix’s payment platform and opted to use it instead of building one in Marketing. Tracking and analyzing payment information was still possible with third-party integration.
Event Management
Marketing 365 features a number of event management tools that we relied on to manage session times and details, streaming information, attendance, and more. All this information was contained in an event record that kept us organized while the event was going on. Each of these records were then logged into Marketing which provided us with a clear picture of where we could improve for next year.
The Limitations and Benefits of Marketing
No platform is perfect and Marketing is no exception. While planning our BTS event, we ran into a few issues like:
- Integration: Although Marketing 365 has third-party integration, this was our first team’s first time integrating Wix with Marketing 365 and we naturally experienced a few complications.
- Targeting: This is one of the biggest limitations of the solution. Marketing 365 prevents users from targeting directly unless there’s a contact record made within the solution. For JourneyTEAM, we had to add a few extra steps to turn our leads into contacts, which lengthened the process some.
- Time: Planning our BTS event was the responsibility of just 1-2 people, which reduced the amount of time they were able to spend testing integrations or exploring additional capabilities. Had we had more time, we would have liked to gather additional data and insights, but we were still pleased with the results we did get.
In spite of these difficulties, we saw many benefits that contributed significantly to the event’s overall success, including:
- Scalability: Marketing 365 can easily scale up or down depending on the amount of attendees. We’re confident that as our event continues to grow that the solution will handle fluctuating workloads with ease.
- Streamlined the decision making process: In the past, we relied on a few different tools and platforms to gather attendee data, which slowed the decision making process. Marketing 365 gathered all the information we needed into a single location, significantly streamlining the decision making process.
- Insights: Few tools have provided in-depth customer insights like Marketing 365. We were able to clearly see where things were going well and where improvements needed to be made and make changes as needed.
With the help of Marketing 365, we were able to spend more time focused on customer experience rather than manual tasks like data entry or analysis. The solution automated those processes and provided valuable insights which we used to create an incredible event.
JourneyTEAM Helps You Improve Your Customer Journey
At JourneyTEAM, we know that the first step to strengthening customer experience starts with the right tools. With the help of our expert team, we’ll help you implement a series of Microsoft solutions tailored to fit your organization’s specific needs. Contact JourneyTEAM today to learn more.
NEXT STEPS:
- Join a free consultation and ask all the questions you wish.
- Plan your Deep Dive meeting – Get your organization’s Customized Solutions presentation.
JourneyTEAM is an award-winning consulting firm with proven technology and measurable results. They take Microsoft products; Dynamics 365, SharePoint intranet, Office 365, Azure, CRM, GP, NAV, SL, AX, and modify them to work for you. The team has expert level, Microsoft Gold certified consultants that dive deep into the dynamics of your organization and solve complex issues. They have solutions for sales, marketing, productivity, collaboration, analytics, accounting, security and more. info@journeyteam.com
