Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

PROs & CONs of using Mail Merge vs. Email Templates?

I still have my CRM training wheels on...but to date Ihave determiend that:

Mail Merge uses Word documents, and thus one cannot embed CRM data into a bulk email. E.g.: "Dear {Lead(Lead)}, "

Email templates cannot use the benefits of a strong editor like Word. E.g., there is no spell check in CRM.

I am still not clear as to how to embed images into bulk email. I see people talk about embedding web site images... But "save target as" vs. "save image as" will cause a hit to that web page for the image. Costly to the person paying for the host image... But what is not clear to me is:

1. What are ALL the Pros & Cons of Mail Merge vs. Email Templates?

2. How does one get an image into a bulk email without dinging a server somewhere for the image? Can an image be inserted into either mail merge or email templates? If so, how?

I have been digging around and havn'et seen a set of pros & cons....and the latter question I might be able to answer if I continue to dig for another hour or so....

I am disappointed that MS products are not as seamlessly interoperable as one is led to think...

[quote user="Elle"]

Mail Merge uses Word documents, and thus one cannot embed CRM data into a bulk email. E.g.: "Dear {Lead(Lead)}, "

[/quote]

Yes you can!

[quote user="Elle"]

Email templates cannot use the benefits of a strong editor like Word. E.g., there is no spell check in CRM.

[/quote]

You can edit the email in html (e.g. in Word) with images and so on and copy it into your email template but you are right an embeded image will cause a hit of that website. But you could use this for determining who really read your newsletter by analysing the traffic.

[quote user="Elle"]

1. What are ALL the Pros & Cons of Mail Merge vs. Email Templates?

[/quote]

With Mail Merge you have more opportunities to embed CRM data and layout features, but you change the application and you got to have the CRM Outlook client installed if you wan't to send a bulk email from a campaign.

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