Transición de Outbound Marketing (OBM) a Real Time Marketing (RTM)

Dynamics Marketing embraced two different groups until September 2023: Outbound Marketing (OBM) and Real Time Marketing (RTM). Both were used for marketing automation by sending personalized emails and actions based on the behavior of those contacts to create unique and individualized experiencees at the right time.  However, there was slight differences between them: in one hand, OBM was based on the segmentation of the audience and Its funcionalities Included marketing through emails, customer journeys, marketing forms and pages, lead scoring and social media posts.

On the other hand, RTM allowed us to interact with our clients In real time. The most Important features were the customer journeys triggered by custom triggers based on dataverse changes, those custom triggers and push app notifications.

Since September 2023, D365 Marketing merges with D365 Customer Inisghts, and the result Is the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights-Journeys. It not only affects the name, but also their licenceses and functionalities as well. The most interesting part of this new module is the use of Copilot, that will transform the RTM users experience.

As a consequence, OBM will be deprecated and RTM will be the principal module; accordingly, the new environments will only have the RTM sitemap by default.

What advantages does RTM offers?

• Copilot guidance In the creation of targeted customer segments and with entities with a N:N relationship with contacts and leads.

• Customer Journeys based on custom triggers (triggered by dataverse changes or external web parameters). First of all, we have to configure those triggers and then they will be ready to use. We have two types:
  • Custom triggers triggered when a record related to a customer is created or updated in dataverse.
  • Custom triggers when a customer interacts with a website/app. Once is created, it needs integration by a developer.

The first screenshot shows the trigger when a record related to a customer is created or updated In the Session registration entity. We may also select their atributes. At this point, we can either use It for a new customer journey or check for whichh journeys it is being used.

Once the trigger is created, a code snippet is generated by the system. The code snippet can be downloaded or developers can access the snippet directly through the link provided by the app.

• Get a comprehensive view of how a contact has engaged with the journeys through Power BI Dashboard without any additional license
• Custom Push notifications, to send push messages to customers who have Installed your mobile app (for Android or iOS). This requires to set up at least one Mobile app configuration:

• o For iOS applications, Customer Insights – Journeys uses the Apple Push Notification service (APNs), a platform service that enables third-party application developers to send push notifications to iOS users. There Is two types of authentication modes, certificate and token
• For Android applications, Customer Insights – Journeys uses the Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service. To configure your Android application to work with Customer Insights – Journeys, we need to enter the FCM API key string.

Once we have configured the app, we can create the messages we want to send to our customers. Those messages require a title, a subtitle and the text, and we can check the preview for Android and iOS In the message editor. Using the On-click behavior field, we can also specify the message behavior when customers tap on the message in their mobile phones wheter they open the app or they open a specified URL.

• Personalized dynamic text In the emails based on segments, atributes or triggers.

Moreover, we can load the OBM emails In the RTM email entity, but we must configure the dynamic text again If they have any.

• The AI ​​model chooses the best channel to attract audiences based on users’ historical data, thereby better achieving goals.The AI model Is applied In the 90% of the audience; the other 10% Is set by deafult.
• Contact point preferences for used for the GDPR In RTM. The Load Consent button loads consent information for email addresses stored in Contact, Lead, or subscription records in Customer Insights – Journey and configured in audience Configuration in Setting. There are no plans to load consent from other data sources.

How shoul we start the transition?

To start using RTM Instead of OBM, we should follow the following steps:

1. Define the scope of the transition, Identifying what of our current customer journeys in OBM or the new ones could use the new features of RTM, and so the channels.
2. Configure RTM: SMS keywords, brand profiles, custom channels, preference centers (In order to achieve the GDPR regulation and the contact preferences) and marketing forms.
3. Load emails and email templates and SMS.
4. Identify OBM segments that may be used In RTM.
5. Identify the segments we want to use In RTM using the custom triggers and create them using the new features that RTM provides us.
6. Images, keywords and content blocks don´t need any modification for their use In RTM, but the content blocks need to be Imported In real time marketing (you can easily do It through the Import content button In the ribbon of the entity)

I hope this has been useful, see you soon : )