Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features: Dynamic Marketing list

Please consider the following example.  In my CRM 2011 Testing environment I have the following contacts.  Using the Address 1: Country field I have 5 Contacts from the U.S. and 9 Contacts from the U.K

Lets assume I want to carry out a Marketing Campaign to only the Contacts that have a Country Value of U.K.

In CRM 4.0 I could use add these users to a marketing list, but the marketing list would only be accurate for the time it was created.  After the initial steps of adding the Contacts there is a possibility that the marketing list would be inaccurate.  In the example above, if a user migrated to the U.S. and CRM was updated to reflect this they would still be on the list marketing from the time they were initialy added. This would be the case until the Contact was manual removed.

Dynamic Marketing list changes this. In the same way users use Advanced Find,  Dynamic Marketing Lists allow us to create always accurate marketing lists based on criteria we set.

Consider the following example;

1)      Create a Marketing List – ensure you set the member type as Contact and Type as Dynamic, then save

2)      Select Manage Members from the Ribbon

3)      The next window is essential the Advanced Find window.  Select the Saved View you have created for the Dynamic marketing List or start from scratch.  Here I am going to start with Active Contacts saved view and modify this to include where Country equals U.K.

4)      Select Marketing List Members to view the members that have been added.

If you need marketing lists which are always up-to-date based on a predetermined filter the Dynamic feature is brilliant.

For those who still want to keep full control over the membership of a Marketing List, there is the Static option which requires users to manually add and remove members from the list.