Using email single send in Microsoft Dynamics allows you to send one-to-one emails to Contacts, Accounts or Leads using workflows. You can also personalise your emails with data that only exists in Microsoft Dynamics, such as data held in related or custom entities, for example, quotes, orders, or student applications. You can use email single send with dynamic content and external dynamic content.
There are a lot of use cases for email single sends in Microsoft Dynamics.
Examples
A university can personalise emails using data stored in custom entities, for example, student applications or campus tours.
A B2B sales team can personalise emails using data stored in out-of-the-box entities, for example, opportunities or quotes
Email single sends appear in the Engagement Timeline as Email sent.
Learn more about the Engagement timeline in View the Engagement Timeline for a contact or lead.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
Read Microsoft’s workflow documentation. You must reach out to your CRM administrator or your CRM consultancy partner to help you plan, build, and test workflows that meet your needs. The Dotdigital support team cannot assist with creating workflows as this is core Microsoft functionality.
Learn more about workflows in Microsoft’s documentation.
1. Create your email campaign
When you create a single send email campaign, you must also create dedicated contact data fields in Dotdigital which are used to personalise your email. You can choose to reserve data fields only used for email single sends, for example, Application_ID and Programme_name or you can set up generic data fields, for example, SINGLE_SEND_FIELD_1 and SINGLE_SEND_FIELD_2. These data fields can be reused in multiple email campaigns.
Learn how to add data fields in Creating and deleting contact data fields.
These contact fields do not need to be mapped to Microsoft Dynamics because the values assigned to them are defined during sending by the single send processor. The single send processor updates the contact fields in your email single send once the send is complete. This makes it possible for you to use this information in Dotdigital in the future.
To set up your email single sends, start by building your email campaign with the correct personalisation:
Create dedicated contact data fields.
Create your email campaign in Dotdigital with the required email personalisation.
Learn how to build an email campaign in Dotdigital in Build your campaign in EasyEditor.
Sync your email campaign to Microsoft Dynamics.
Learn how to create and sync an email campaign in Email campaigns in Microsoft Dynamics.
Check the sync status of your campaign in Microsoft Dynamics. Once you’ve created your email campaign, make sure that it’s synced to Microsoft Dynamics so that you can select it in your workflow.
Learn how to check your email campaign syncs in Microsoft Dynamics, check out Email campaigns in Microsoft Dynamics.
Here’s an example of a single send email built in Dotdigital:
2. Set up an email single send in a Microsoft Dynamics workflow
A workflow can run on an out-of-box entity or a custom entity. You can start a workflow manually or automatically in a number of different ways.
To create a workflow in Microsoft Dynamics:
Go to Settings > Advanced Settings.
Expand the Settings drop-down menu, then select Processes under Process Center.
If you don’t see Processes, you must contact your CRM administrator to access this.
Select + NEW to create a new workflow or select a Process name to edit an existing one.
Review the existing Microsoft Dynamics documentation
As every Microsoft Dynamics instance is highly customisable, for example, entity names, usage, and data stored, instances vary dramatically between companies. Therefore the Dotdigital support team cannot help you set up or troubleshoot workflows.
We recommend that you review Microsoft documentation on this functionality, and reach out to your CRM administrator or your CRM consultancy partner to help you plan, build, and test workflows that meet your needs.
To add a single send to your workflow once you define your condition (for example, [“Programme” contains data]):
Select Add a step > Create Record.
Expand the Create: drop-down menu, then select Email Single Send.
Example workflow
In this workflow, the user wants to send an email confirmation to applicants every time a university application is received.
3. Set email single send properties
Select Set Properties to go to the Create Email Single Send area. Here’s an example of an email single send:
Summary
In the Summary area, set up your single email send:
Field | Description |
Email campaign | Select the Dotdigital email campaign you are setting up as an email single send. |
Send type | Campaign Send is the default value and refers to sending a standard email send. Transactional Send is not yet supported. |
Send status | You must set the Send Status to Scheduled for the single send processor to do the send. Once processed, the status changes to Sending, Sent, Paused, Cancelled, or Failed. |
Scheduled Send Date | Set a date for the send to happen. |
Date Sent | The date the single send is sent. |
Details | Add a note or description to your single send. |
If you want to send an email single send while the workflow runs, set your Summary fields to the following:
Send Status: Scheduled.
Schedule Send Date
Go to the Form Assistant in the side panel. In the Look for section, select Process in the first drop-down menu and Execution Time in the second drop-down menu. Select Add and then OK.Leave the Scheduled Send Time field empty if you trigger your email single sends using a workflow.
The single send processor runs every two minutes. Allow time for your single send to complete.
Send Target
In the Send Target area, select where to send your single email using one of the following:
Field | Description |
Contact name | Select a Contact |
Lead name | Select a Lead |
Account name | Select an Account |
Target marketing list | Select a Marketing List |
Target email address | Enter an email address |
You must have at least one Send Target set. For example, set a target email address or a contact name. The send returns the result error message Invalid email address if the target contact doesn’t have a valid email address.
Learn more about result messages in Check the result message status.
Example
In the example above, the workflow runs against the Application entity which is linked using the Contact_ID:
Updating the Do Not Bulk Email flag
Depending on the way you send your email single send, the Do Not Bulk Email flag might or might not be considered:
Single sends to a Microsoft Dynamics contact, lead or a plain email address do not take into consideration the Do Not Bulk Email flag. The Microsoft Dynamics integration uses the information from the contact, lead, email address to find or create a Dotdigital contact and send the email to that record.
If your single send is to a marketing list, it does take into consideration the Do Not Bulk Email flag.
Learn more about the Do Not Bulk Email flag in Administration Settings in Microsoft Dynamics.
Content Customisation
In the Content Customisation area, define how you want to retrieve data that’s stored in Microsoft Dynamics and how it should be used in your email campaign.
Data Label
Select the contact data fields you used when you built your email campaign from the drop-down menu. For example, SINGLE_SEND_FIELD 1, or in our example above, MAINSCHOOL.
Data Label Value
Define where the data is held in Microsoft Dynamics by using the Form Assistant panel.
In the university example, the data that’s used for MAINSCHOOL is stored in the Application area.
Check the result message status
Go to Email Campaigns under Dotdigital.
Select a campaign.
Expand the three dots menu to the right and select Email Single Sends.
Under Administration the Result Message area shows the status of the Email Single Send:
To retry your single send:
Review the Result Message status and rectify any identified issues before doing another send.
Change the Send Status from Failed to Scheduled.
If the Send Status is Scheduled, and the Schedule Send Date is either now or in the past, then the single send processor tries to send the email campaign as soon as possible.
If the Send Status is Scheduled, you can also set the Scheduled Send Date to happen in the future.
Failure result message statuses
Reasons for failure include:
Error response | Description |
Server was unable to process request---> Contact is suppressed ERROR_CONTACT_SUPPRESSED | The contact is suppressed in the selected Dotdigital account. |
Server was unable to process request---> Invalid email address ERROR_CONTACT_INVALID | The email address on the contact/lead/account that you are trying to send to isn’t a valid email address. |
Server was unable to process request---> Your account has generated excess API activity and is being temporarily capped. Please contact support. ERROR_APIUSAGE_EXCEEDED | Dotdigital accounts have an hourly API limit. Wait at least one hour before reattempting the single send. Contact support if the error happens again. |
Email Single Send is not valid for the following reasons: No target Email address can be determined for this send | The Contact, Lead or Account you are trying to send to doesn’t have an email address. |
Error: ERROR_CAMPAIGN_NOT_FOUND | The email campaign can't be found in the selected Dotdigital account. Check to see if the email campaign was deleted and if the selected Dotdigital account for the single send record has the chosen email campaign in it. |
Error: Server was unable to process request---> Contact data field does not exist. ERROR_CONTACT_INVALID | The content customisation includes a contact data label or field that doesn’t exist in the chosen Dotdigital account. Create the contact data field in the Dotdigital account and set up the data mapping before reattempting the single send. |
CreateContactCommand Failed | The chosen Dotdigital contact wasn’t created using the Contact, Lead, or Account details. |
Import Result command timed out | The contact import wasn’t started in Dotdigital. |
ImportWatcher timed out (10 minutes) | Monitoring the progress of a contact import in Dotdigital failed. |