Emails templates in Dynamics 365 Marketing doesn’t only mean the email layout, colours, look and feel, It represents much more, as users can present several other settings that can ease marketing emails creation. It can unify how emails look and keep the company’s brand identity.
Dynamics 365 Marketing comes with OOB preset templates built to reference most business and marketing use, by editing and configuring templates to meet users’ standards.
Each template has its own set of configuration and identifier, it is made to help users choose which template is right for their upcoming campaign, and enable users to reuse previously created templates.
Purpose | Market type | Optimized for | Visual Style |
Structural Announcement Birthday Blog Promotion Information Welcome Others … | B2B B2C B2B & B2C | Wide reach Mobile Desktop | Light Dark Colourful Other |
Creating Email Template
Email templates can be created from the pre-existing email by creating a blank design template, users can create their own templates using the designer tool, or using HTML code.
Dynamic Content and Content Assist
Using “Content Assist” both dynamic content and static can be added to the email body or other fields such as the subject, sender and recipient. This data can be set to present information from the contact record (the recipient of the email), from ContentSetting, Form Submission or related to the Message.
It is important to mention that this data will be relating to its sources as per the email itself and the Customer Journey that it belongs to. For example, suppose the following code is included to show the sender’s main address {{msdyncrm_contentsettings.msdyncrm_addressmain}}, and there are multiple ContentSettings configured. In that case, Dynamics will use the ContentSetting that is chosen in the Customer Journey to update this data.
Design Email Templates
Dynamics 365 Marketing users can decide how to generate their emails and templates from two options. Either use the built-in design functionality or use any HTML code editor. In the canvas, users strat in the designer tap, from the left-hand side Toolbox, users can drag and drop one of the below components directly to the canvas after setting up the layout and the section.
Add a component from the toolbox
- Text
- Image
- Divider
- Button
- Content block
- Video
- Custom Code
- Event registration
- Marketing page
- Event
- QR Code
- Survey
Otherwise, users with more HTML experience can use the built-in HTML editor to either edit their work done by in the designer tab, or place HTML code created elsewhere.
Email preview
Dynamics 365 users can view their work using Basic or Inbox Previews. Using the Basic Preview allows users to view the email in Desktop, Tablet (Landscape and Portrait) and Mobile (Landscape and Portrait) with no restrictions. It is important to mention that Basic Preview testing is a good tool to check how responsive is the email design, which ensures readability on mobile devices.
Inbox Preview is available if Litmus is enabled with a limited quota of views, that rests monthly. Litmus renders the email design in actual web browsers, email clients, and many versions to ensure high acceptance and compatibility.
Spam Checker and machine learning
As with the marketing email, users can run spam-check at the email templates to guarantee that all produced email using the template will meet the required standards.
Email spam checker needs to be enabled in the Machine leaning setting, under the marketings settings.
Marketing app > Settings > Machine learing settings
Email Functionality and Status
It is important to mention that unlike the Marketing email, there is a status such as draft or live; Marketing email templates have no statuses and can be used in email messages once saved.
Other functions, such as AB testing and test send, cannot be performed on templates!
A list of emails where the template is used can be shown under Related tab > Marketing Emails.
Another important note, the used email template under the marketing email can be changed after it was set.