Dynamics 365 Marketing is getting a new name, more functionality and a price increase

Jason Dynamics 365 CRM 07 September 2023

Reading time: 6 - 11 minutes

It’s was a bit of a muted announcement from Microsoft in July, but it’s an important one which has now started to have more information available.

From 1^st September 2023, Dynamics 365 Marketing and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights will be sold together under a single SKU called Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The actual Dynamics 365 Marketing functionality that we know of is becoming the ‘Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys’ part of the solution.

Frankly, it’s a bit of a bizarre name change, and I wonder how long until Microsoft realise that their own Marketing department will want to change it again – perhaps Dynamics 365 Customer Experience would have a better encompassing name (if they had to insist that name ‘Marketing’ has to lose out). I’m not sure that your Marketing department will opt for a name change any time soon, just to align with Microsoft.

A lot of the information in this blog we have taken from Microsoft documentation, through a number of different articles – and they key ones are referenced at this end. But we’ve also tried to add context to what it means to users already, or about to be, using the Marketing App.

Why are two products now being sold together?

Good question. The cynic in me says it’s because Customer Insights on its own, hasn’t done as well as Marketing App (but to be clear, I have no stats or data that backs this up, apart from that Tecman currently have no legacy Customer Insight only customers, but plenty Marketing App customers). So they thought – let’s bring them together. In summary, they have been two apps, utilised by the same department.

Ultimately, both apps, whilst different in their own right, are all about managing engagements with prospects and customers to enrich the customer journey and lifetime value (sounds fancy I know) – but in hindsight – Microsoft should never have had two products in the first place (Microsoft having too many apps – well I never).

What am I buying when it comes to Marketing now?

Up until end of August, for a Marketing App project, you would have brought the relevant Dynamics 365 Marketing SKU, and either the core or attach license (depending on how many ‘CRM’ licenses you have). You would then buy additional packs of contacts/interactions as you required.

From 1^st September 2023 we’ve now got the following Dynamics 365 Customer Insights SKUs, the apps are sold together but can still be provisioned separately;

How much is it?

For those of you already transacting Dynamics 365 Marketing (or attach) licenses plus any additional contact/interaction packs, your current subscription will run until your agreement is due to expire. You can check with your Customer Engagement Manager at Tecman if you are unsure.

But, if you are a new customer, or when you expire on your current agreement, the pricing is as follows (based on an annual agreement):

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - £1,397.30 per month
- Includes 100,000 Unified People and 10,000 Interacted People
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Attach - £821.90
- Includes 100,000 Unified People and 10,000 Interacted People
- This license can be attached on to a minimum 10 users of Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional, Customer Service Enterprise, Sales Professional, Sales Enterprise, Sales Premium, Field Service, Finance, Supply Chain Management or Commerce.

So, where you have been used to paying £616.50 per month since April 2023 (which was Microsoft’s currency alignment AKA price increase of 9%), there is unfortunately another rise.

The above excludes the additional capacity packs (which was no different to the Marketing App principles), when you need to buy more than what you get out of the box. Moving forward, the capacity packs are as follows:

People Interacted – like existing ‘marketing contacts’ we are used to. This allows the use of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys functionality.
Peopled Unified – this was something Customer Insight users referred to as ‘profiles’. This allows the use of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data

So you are going to be paying around another £200 a month – but you aren’t just paying £200 for a name change. There is a change of functionality too – and you are going to gain a sizeable amount of new functionality to boot.

What was Customer Insights (of old)?

To add some context, let’s just briefly explain what Customer Insights offered previously (prior to this name change), especially for those reading this learning about Customer Insights for the first time.

It was always designed to be a platform from Microsoft to offer a holistic view of customers, the ability to look at a customer’s data, whether transactional, behaviour or demographic to create insights around customer lifetime value, churn risk and more.

This is now regarded as the ‘Data’ part to the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights solution. Insight capacities are based on profiles and accounts (unique customers), by combing source data sets from multiple applications. You also could ‘refresh’ the data in the profiles 4 times a day too (think of CRM and Business Central as example data sets).

We will at Tecman start to release more content around the feature of Customer Insights – Data in due course. So, keep a look out.

Marketing functionality - what do we lose?

Headline answer; nothing right now for existing customers. However, for new customers, Outbound Marketing.

For anyone starting with the solution post 1^st September 2023. Microsoft will only permit the use and deployment of real time marketing. Therefore ‘outbound’ marketing will not be available for new customers.

Are we actually losing that functionality? Not really, as it’s all transitioning inside of the real time marketing area of the app. Microsoft are also stating that this move allows an ‘enhancement to traditional outbound scenarios’.

There will undoubtedly be some features that will get left behind (like when any app evolves). For example, we know the current Marketing Event Portal is only functional in outbound Marketing, but the roadmap states Microsoft wish to release Marketing Portals through the Power Pages functionality (wouldn’t be a day too soon for this either!).

Microsoft will no longer be enhancing the features outbound marketing but will continue to support it for the foreseeable future. So existing customers – don’t panic!

We are also aware that Microsoft’s documentation pages haven’t (at the start of September) been updated fully to reflect the changes to how the functionality works when only being able to deploy ‘real time marketing’, but we are aware documentation is on the agenda for Microsoft in the month of September 2023 and beyond.

Marketing functionality - it's all about real time marketing (RTM)

As urged at Tecman’s in person CRM Customer Day in April 2023, we advised every User of Dynamics 365 Marketing to start to familiarise themselves with the Real-Time Marketing area. This is where the platform is going to significantly improve.

For those that still don’t understand what real time marketing is, it’s all about deploying a marketing strategy and have tools available that allows marketing in the moment - based on current events, feedback and being able to tailor the messaging when it matters to ensure customers have what they need, when they need it.

In a simple example, when a CRM account/contact details change (data changed by a standard user), and it is related with a ‘trigger’ you have (such as, prospect > customer), you can issue an automated and tailored messaging (such as welcome/onboarding communication).

It would be ill-advised to continue using all the features of Outbound Marketing just because ‘it’s what you know’. You don’t want to be the users facing a steep learning curve when the inevitable deprecation happens in the future.

In summary, the message from Microsoft is officially:

Microsoft investing their time, money and resource into ‘Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys’ is going to be a fantastic benefit to all of us

Real-time Marketing is going to have nearly all of the features you loved in Outbound and so much more (that users of Outbound don’t yet fully appreciate).

In our opinion, it’s easier to build emails, takes you half the time to create and publish a form, you can build triggers that interact with every table in your CRM, and you can personalise your emails to all your hearts content.

It’s also worth mentioning that all this AI and Co-Pilot functionality that Microsoft are really going to town with will be implemented inside of what we know as ‘real time marketing’.

Do I need a whole new implementation and training programme when going to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys?

For those experienced with Marketing App, Outbound Marketing, there isn’t a need for extensive user retraining, there will be some UI differences but overall, you should be able to pick it up in a timely fashion (although be prepared as the UI of the journey is different).

There are some functionality differences and Tecman may need to assist in some of the technical consultancy and training. You can reach out to us when this is relevant.

What’s important though is, if you haven’t as yet utilised ‘real time marketing’ in traditional Marketing App, then some consultancy to how some of these features work is advised sooner rather than later.

When do I transition?

As a user of Dynamics 365 Marketing, Microsoft are ‘inviting’ all customers to fully transition to ‘Customer Insights – Journeys’ functionality over the next 12 months.

I smile because invite means you have a choice. But we all know, there is a point in time where you will have no choice but to migrate – so resisting change isn’t the way to go. To get the best out of your Dynamics 365 experience, embracing it is advised.

Of course, it’s expected you’ll need to transact the latest SKU to truly enable the future of ‘Customer Insights’ offering in your organisation.

Is it worth the extra money?

Microsoft investment into real time marketing and AI was always going to see an increase in some of the fees of the apps we use. But ultimately, the value is going to come from utilising both Customer Insights – ‘Data’ as well as ‘Journeys’.

Yes, it means you are likely to need some training and consultancy, but if this profiling of your customer is going to allow you to create better, more informed ‘journeys’ to enhance the customer experience – then if used correctly it could well offer significant value.

Ultimately, I believe Customer Insights of old, on its own, was too heavily priced, and too ‘standalone’, so bringing it in closer with Marketing and traditional CRM will give it a better chance of success, and also, ultimately allow SMB customers (and others) to explore it’s usage properly.

We are sure you aren’t happy at the prospect of another price increase; I’m not shouting from the rooftops either. However, do I understand why? Yes, you are getting another product (Data), more AI and Co-Pilot functionality.

Microsoft knows the marketing, and equivalent products aren’t dissimilar in price – but we know any price increase isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms.

What next?

Existing users – no immediate need to do anything, but you should start to look at real time marketing if you haven’t already. And getting ready for the change is important.

New users – we’ll embrace real time marketing, and then also depending on project priorities, look to setup the ‘data’ and profiles side of the functionality.

Keep an eye out for more content on this topic. But if you have any further questions or queries about this announcement, re the licenses, or the functionality of Real-time Marketing and how this impacts your business, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Similarly, if you wish to arrange dedicated Real-time Marketing consultancy and/or training then please do speak with your Customer Engagement Manager.