Once you create Email Data Labels in Microsoft Dynamics, you must synchronise them with Dotdigital to keep your contact data fields up-to-date. You can also create contact data fields in Dotdigital first, and then synchronise them with your Email Data Labels in Microsoft Dynamics.
You can then use this contact data to personalise your email campaigns, for example, for greeting your customers, providing them with their account manager’s contact details, or reminding them about a product renewal.
Create an email data label
In Microsoft Dynamics, go to Email Accounts under Settings in the left side menu.
Select the account name.
Select Email Data Labels.
Select New Email Data Label.
Enter a unique name and data type for your Email Data Label. The additional fields you can complete are:
Is Private
When this field is set to Yes (default) it means that the Email Data Label is not visible in Dotdigital preference centres. If an Email Data Label needs to be visible in a Dotdigital preference centre, you must update the Access property of the data field in Dotdigital to be This data label is public.Learn more about changing the property of a data field Edit contact data field properties.
Default value
The default value is used in an email campaign if no other value is defined for the data label.Description/Purpose
Explain the intended use of the Email Data Label.Email Account
Select which Dotdigital account you want to synchronise to.
Select Save.
Synchronising email data labels
By default, Email Data Labels are synchronised once a day; this is the most common setting.
To edit the synchronisation interval:
Go to Email Accounts under Settings in the left side menu.
Select the relevant Dotdigital account.
Select Scheduled Sync Settings.
Expand the Interval drop-down menu and choose the option you want.
Select Save.
The Sync icon can be used to set off a manual synchronisation if the interval is set to Manual Synchronisation Only.
To manually synchronise your email data labels:
Go to Email Accounts under Settings in the left side menu.
Select the relevant Dotdigital account.
Select Email Data Labels.
Select Synchronise.
A confirmation message is displayed. Select OK to continue.
When an Email Data Label has been synced and is available to be mapped it is shown in the Synchronised with Email Service column.
Email Data Mapping
Email Data Labels need to be mapped to the corresponding CRM field. If mapping hasn't been configured, the data is not synchronised.
In addition to mapping the Email Data Label to the correct CRM Field you will need to choose the direction in which the data should be synchronised. It can be synchronised one-way from Microsoft Dynamics to Dotdigital, or from Dotdigital to Microsoft Dynamics, or two-way, so that data flows in both directions between the two systems.
During initial provisioning, default mappings for Contacts and Leads are set up to sync from Microsoft Dynamics to Dotdigital. These include Email, First Name, Last Name and Full Name.
To configure Email Data Mappings:
Go to Email Accounts under Settings in the left side menu.
Select the email account.
Select Email Data Mappings.
A list of existing fields that have been mapped is displayed. To edit an existing mapping select the checkbox next to the name and select Edit. To create a new mapping select New Email Data Mapping.
Choose the Email Data Label you want to map.
Choose the Mapping Direction.
Select the entity type in the Mapped Entity field. Choose either Account, Contact or Lead.
Select the Primary CRM field that the Email Data Label should be associated with.
Select Save to activate the mapping.
You need to repeat the above steps for each Email Data Label, Entity Type and sync direction you want to configure. For example, if you want Gender to sync both ways for Contacts you must create another mapping of the same Email Data Label and Primary CRM Field but choose the opposite Mapping Direction.