Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Hello MD,

You've hit upon a critical distinction between Dynamics 365 Sales Professional and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys (formerly Marketing). You're correct that the robust email template building and sending capabilities you're seeing are primarily within Customer Insights - Journeys.

Here's a breakdown of the licensing situation:

Dynamics 365 Sales Professional ($65/month):

Basic Email Functionality: Sales Professional provides basic email functionality for sending individual emails and using simple email templates.
Limited Marketing Features: It does not include the full-fledged marketing automation and email marketing features of Customer Insights - Journeys.
Quick Campaigns: Sales Professional has a feature called "Quick Campaigns" that allows you to send bulk emails to a marketing list. This feature is very limited, and is not a replacement for the Customer Insights - Journeys product.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys ($1K+/month):

Advanced Email Marketing: CIJ offers advanced email marketing features, including:
- Drag-and-drop email design.
- Personalized email content.
- Segmentation and targeting.
- Email automation and journeys.
- Email analytics and reporting.

Marketing Automation: CIJ is a comprehensive marketing automation platform, not just an email tool.
Licensing Cost: CIJ is licensed separately and is significantly more expensive than Sales Professional. The cost can vary based on the number of marketing contacts you need, but you are correct, it is in the 1K a month range.

Key Points:

Sales Professional is not designed for extensive email marketing campaigns. It's primarily focused on sales-related email communication.
Customer Insights - Journeys is a dedicated marketing application. It provides the tools you need for advanced email marketing and marketing automation.
Licensing is separate: You need a separate CIJ license to access its marketing features.

Alternatives for Small Businesses:

If the cost of CIJ is prohibitive for your small business, here are some alternatives:

Third-Party Email Marketing Services:
- Consider using dedicated email marketing services like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Sendinblue.
- These services often offer more affordable plans for small businesses.
- You can integrate these with dynamics, but that will require some development.

Power Automate for Basic Automation:
- Use Power Automate to create basic email automation workflows.
- You can send personalized emails based on triggers in Dynamics 365.
- This is not a replacement for CIJ, but can help with some basic needs.

Dynamics 365 Marketing Lite:
- Microsoft offers a lighter version of the marketing application, but it is still more expensive than the Sales Pro license. Contact Microsoft to see if this is a good fit.

Recommendation:

If you need advanced email marketing capabilities, CIJ is the best option, but it comes at a significant cost.
For small businesses on a budget, third-party email marketing services are often a more practical solution.
Power automate can help with some basic email automation needs.

I hope this information helps you make an informed decision.

If my answer was helpful, please click Like, and if it solved your problem, please mark it as verified to help other community members find more. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

My response was crafted with AI assistance and tailored to provide detailed and actionable guidance for your Microsoft Dynamics 365 query.

Regards,

Daivat Vartak

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