Marketing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM - ClickDimensions Blog

ClickDimensions welcomes Vera Fhal

We are pleased to welcome Vera Fahl in the role of Quality Assurance engineer. Vera is an experienced QA engineer with a background in a variety of manual testing methods. She brings Knowledge in different quality assurance methodologies and has prior experience in database testing, UNIX and PeopleSoft.

ClickDimensions welcomes Ronen Hansis

We are pleased to welcome Ronen Hansis to the team in the role of Quality Assurance Manager. Ronen specializes in creating and enhancing testing operations utilizing agile as well as traditional methodologies. His experience is in managing testing projects of web, mobile, client-server, windows and Unix technologies. As QA Manager for ClickDimensions he is responsible for overall testing and quality of ClickDimensions marketing automation products.

We’re hiring: ClickDimensions Marketing Director

Download PDF role description

Company Overview

ClickDimensions develops a hosted Marketing Automation Solution that includes Email Marketing, Web Tracking, Lead Scoring, Campaign Tracking, Web Forms/Surveys, Social Discovery and more. Our solution is 100% Software-as-a-Service running in 'the cloud' and built natively into the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution.

Role Overview and responsibilities

The ClickDimensions Marketing Director role is a 'hands on' position combining technical marketing with creativity and encompassing all areas of marketing and sales support.  The Marketing Director will be able to execute a variety of tasks with limited outside vendor support. The Marketing Director is responsible for:

• Overall lead generation and management
• Pay per click (PPC) and other online marketing programs
• Maintaining, enhancing and optimizing the ClickDimensions web site
• Managing events including trade shows, conferences and partner events
• Creating and managing the marketing budget
• ClickDimensions' monthly newsletter and email marketing campaigns
• Development of new content for content marketing program
• Writing blog posts on the ClickDimensions blog
• Customer references, testimonials and marketplace reviews
• Development and maintenance of sales collateral including competitor analysis
• Reporting of lead flow, conversion rates and spend analysis
• Present the weekly product webinar demonstration
• Planning writing and publishing press releases
• Discovering new lead sources

Skills

The ClickDimensions Marketing Director should possess the following skills:

• Ability to develop a marketing plan, forecast leads and create metrics and reports to quantify the impact of marketing
• Proficiency with Google AdWords and other PPC platforms (Bing, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
• Proficiency with web site editing, including HTML
• Ability to learn new software quickly
• Ability to present product demonstrations via GoToMeeting
• High level of attention to detail
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and internet tools and research
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively in person, through email and via telephone

Technical Assessment

Marketing Director candidates will be asked to complete a technical assessment to evaluate their ability to learn a new technology and create a piece of marketing content.

Location and Reporting

The Marketing Director will work in the ClickDimensions office at One Dunwoody Park, Dunwoody GA 30338. The position will report directly to the CEO.

Instructions for Application

Interested candidates must submit a personal cover letter/message with their profile/resume.  Please outline why this job is a good fit for you and reference previous relevant experience.  Candidates who do not submit a personal cover letter/message will not be considered.

Compensation

The Marketing Manager will be compensated on a mix of base salary and goal based bonus.

Contact

Interested candidates should send a resume and ClickDimensions-specific cover letter to careers@clickdimensions.com

ClickDimensions Certified Professionals

We’d like to welcome all of our recently certified professionals from around the globe. Below are several recent pros who have gone through ClickDimensions Academy and administrator training, and passed our rigorous certification exam. Congratulations!

John Hawkins, Professional Advantage, Australia

John is a Solution Architect at Professional Advantage ( www.pa.com.au) in Australia. He specializes in the Microsoft Dynamics space, and has worked with Microsoft Dynamics products for over 17 years. John has extensive experience in implementing a vast array of solutions, requiring complex development and integration both within Australia and internationally.

Kimmo Koski, atBusiness Ltd., Finland

Kimmo is a Dynamics CRM and .NET developer from Finland and currently works as a software developer at atBusiness Ltd (www.atbusiness.com), which is also a partner of ClickDimensions. Kimmo has been working with Dynamics CRM for the past 3 years. “I’m always keeping my eyes open for new products or technologies that could extend the Dynamics CRM features or help to create them more efficiently. My daily work mainly consists of planning the implementations, system customization/extending, integration development and sales support.”

Ross Poulton, Professional Advantage, Australia

Ross is a CRM consultant for Professional Advantage, a leading Microsoft Gold partner in the Australian marketplace. With more than 10 years in the IT industry, his current focus is purely on CRM implementations. Starting with user workshops and solution design, Ross provides services through the implementation, training, and integrations stages for companies small and large.

Clients that Ross has worked with include large membership organizations and sporting bodies, property sales and management, education, and the healthcare industry.

Outside of work, Ross enjoys spending time with his young family in the great outdoors.

Lia Thompson, Altriva, Washington State

Lia Thompson is a CRM Consultant at Altriva Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivery. Altriva, based in Bellevue, Washington, works with clients in the greater Seattle area to deliver complex, process centric, business solutions with competency designations for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Lia earned a double concentration in Business Management and Management Information System at Western Washington University. She began her career at Altriva as a Consulting intern, and now manages full-service MSCRM implementations as a CRM Consultant.

She is excited to use her ClickDimensions certification to provide recommendations both internally, and for Altriva’s clients.

Raj Mital, Catapult ERP

Raj Mital (MBA) is a CRM Application Consultant for Catapult, a Microsoft Gold-Certified partner offering long-term support and managed services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and CRM. She guides Catapult’s clients through each of the phases of CRM implementation projects, and provides clients with ongoing support in the form of coaching and guidance aimed at helping them get the most from their investment.

“After using Click Dimensions for our internal marketing purposes, I was consistently impressed by its capabilities, especially with regard to form-building and nurture marketing. With this certification, I have already begun translating the knowledge I hold now into benefit for our clients.”

Upgrading from CRM 4.0 to CRM 2011? Upgrade ClickDimensions too!

Even though CRM 2011 has been on the market for more than two years, there are still many organizations running the previous version, CRM 4.0. With Microsoft ending mainstream support for Microsoft CRM 4.0 this past April, many organizations who haven’t already done so are in the midst of planning their upgrades to CRM 2011. (With Microsoft’s next version, code-named Orion, just around the corner, it’s not a moment too soon!)

ClickDimensions continues to support CRM 4.0, but if you are upgrading to CRM 2011 (or migrating to CRM Online), you’ll want to make sure you have the latest guidance from ClickDimensions. We’ve prepared an upgrade document that has information and guidance that will apply to most ISV solutions, as well as specific details that are important for upgrading your ClickDimensions solution. If you are a customer or partner of ClickDimensions, you can request this guide from our technical support team by opening a support request at http://support.clickdimensions.com.

ContentMX Integrates with ClickDimensions Marketing Automation to Bring Content Rich Newsletters to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Marketers that struggle with generating content for their email newsletters will appreciate the integration that ContentMX and ClickDimensions announced today between their two marketing platforms. This integration makes it easy for Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers to obtain original content, curate content from trusted sources, and create new content of their own. This content is then published to a ClickDimensions email newsletter.

The email newsletters generated by ContentMX and sent through ClickDimensions can be used to keep subscribers informed, engage them directly, and direct users towards relevant conversations happening on social media. "For many ClickDimensions customers, obtaining quality content is an ongoing burden", said John Gravely, CEO of ClickDimensions. "ContentMX's integration with our solution addresses these needs and provides integrated content marketing services to the Dynamics CRM community."

For ArcherPoint (a Microsoft Dynamics reseller), ContentMX provides the aggregated content they need to maintain a social conversation with their customers. "The ability to go to one place to find all the content I need for social media, our blog, and a newsletter will save us a lot of time and effort.", said Suzanne Scanlan of ArcherPoint. "Now with its integration to ClickDimensions I can send this content directly to my email list so that none of my customers will miss this great content and the conversations it generates."

"Email is often thought of as functionally and philosophically separate from other social and blog marketing efforts," said Jeffrey Mesnik, President of ContentMX. "We instead treat email as an entry point to a broader conversation. This integrated approach allows users to take high quality content and easily publish it across all platforms."

Integration between ContentMX and ClickDimensions is simple and easy, with all CRM data being collected and maintained within ClickDimensions and Dynamics CRM. A FREE 15-day trial of ContentMX is available at http://contentmx.com. For Dynamics CRM and ERP partners Microsoft is offering a special program that includes Dynamics specific content that is ready to be published to customers. For more information and to sign up, go to http://mspartner.contentmx.com.

Below is a screen shot of the ContentMX solution where a variety of content sources are aggregated. Through this interface, the marketer selects the content to be published via a ClickDimensions email newsletter….

Integration between ContentMX and ClickDimensions allows the selected content to be quickly and easily sent in a ClickDimensions email newsletter…

To end or to not end your nurture program: Two approaches to structuring nurture programs

One of the principal value propositions behind nurture programs is that they give marketers and sales people a way to automate ongoing contact with prospects and be notified when those prospects have shown some sign of activity or interest. Think of this as putting your communication with the prospect on 'auto-pilot'. To achieve this, nurture programs are generally set up as a series of emails spaced apart by days, weeks or months, with checks along the way to see if the prospect has opened or clicked the emails.

One of the main things to consider when designing your nurture programs is whether you want the flow of emails and activities to continue or to end once your prospect has shown signs of interest/activity. Below we discuss the two general ways for structuring nurture programs to achieve your desired outcome.

Option 1 – Nurture programs that continue (i.e. does not end) after the prospect shows signs of interest/activity

The screen shot below depicts a way to structure your nurture program so that it does not end when the prospect shows signs of interest/activity. With this structure, the nurture program will continue even when the prospect has clicked a link in the email. The key thing to notice is that, when the check is made to see if the prospect has clicked a link, two yes/no branches are pursued but the main flow of the nurture continues. Thus, in this type of structure, you can create a series of emails that will be sent and the owner of the lead or contact record to which the emails are being sent will be notified that the prospect has clicked but the sequence (i.e. the main program flow) will not stop.

Option 2 – Nurture programs that end when the prospect shows signs of interest/activity

Our second nurture structure is shown below. Here, we have nested the email sends inside the yes/no branches when we check to see if the prospect has clicked a link in the email. With this structure, the nurture program will end completely when the prospect has clicked a link. This is because the main flow of the nurture leads directly to and 'end node'. To see a more detailed example of this type of nurture program, refer to the blog post: Inside sales nurture marketing example using ClickDimensions Nurture Builder and Microsoft CRM Workflow

Now that you are aware of the two basic structures for creating a nurture program, you can see that there are almost endless possibilities of how to set up your programs. Happy Marketing!

eBook: How ClickDimensions uses Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Zendesk to deliver superior customer support

Click here to download the eBook

To provide timely and accurate technical support for this diverse user group and install base, ClickDimensions chose to implement Zendesk's cloud-based customer service software. After evaluating numerous options, Zendesk most closely met our criteria for a support desk system based on these priorities:

• Easy for customers to use
• Easy for agents to use
• Minimal maintenance
• Ability to integrate with our internal implementation of Microsoft CRM Online
• Ability to customize
• Ability to automate processes

Another important factor in our selection of Zendesk was that it was able to be immediately implemented at a time when ClickDimensions' technical support staff was one person who had numerous other duties. As ClickDimensions grew into a global enterprise with offices in Atlanta, Fargo and Tel Aviv, and customers in 45 countries, Zendesk has continued to be an excellent match to our priorities as well.

This paper provides an overview of how ClickDimensions has implemented Zendesk to provide technical support and customer service.

Click here to download

Twitter advertising adds enhanced targeting options

Here at ClickDimensions, we advertise on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bing and Twitter along with some niche blogs and sites. It has been interesting to see these platforms develop; mainly in terms of the targeting options and analytics they provide. For example, we blogged when Facebook implemented conversion tracking and we did a post on LinkedIn's ability to target based on LinkedIn group membership.

When Twitter launched their advertising platform, we immediately saw the possibilities. The platform allowed you to do two main things:

1. Promote your account to gain more followers
2. Promote specific tweets so that more people see, and potentially retweet, them

Initially, Twitter's targeting options were not very deep. However, as of last week, Twitter added the ability to target based on twitter accounts. With this new addition, you can make sure your account or promoted tweets reach people with similar interests to the twitter accounts you choose to target. For an organization like ClickDimensions, this means we can target people who follow twitter accounts that are related to Microsoft CRM. The screen below shows the targeting options for geography and interests.

Targeting options also include device type (i.e. desktop/laptop, iOS, etc.) and user gender. With your targeting in place, you can create new tweets to promote or you can select existing tweets or have twitter automatically select your most engaging tweets. Since our goal at ClickDimensions is to achieve conversions on our web site, we have chosen to promote tweets about our premium content items listed at http://www.clickdimensions.com/content/.

We can also elect to promote our account so that we gain more followers…

With the new targeting options we believe that Twitter can be an effective source to drive additional conversions. Happy marketing!

We're hiring! Solution Success Engineer

ClickDimensions is seeking candidates for the position of Solution Success Engineer, preferably located in Atlanta, Fargo, or Greenville SC.

The objective of the Solution Success Engineer (SSE) position is to help ClickDimensions prospects, customers and partners understand how to solve business challenges with the powerful combination of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the ClickDimensions marketing automation solution. The SSE is an expert problem-solver and creative thinker with in-depth knowledge of CRM and ClickDimensions. Engaging in pre-sales, post-sales, proof-of-concept, and architectural discussions, the SSE acts as a liaison between sales, technical support, training and customer/partner teams.

The SSE is responsible for successfully understanding and communicating the architecture and functionality of ClickDimensions, Dynamics CRM, and potentially other competing solutions and complementary components. The SSE should also be able to speak to a customer’s business and marketing processes, adding value to strategic and tactical planning and the environments in which the solutions are implemented.

As the SSE you are responsible for working directly with the Partner Account Manager (PAM) team and Marketing Success Manager (MSM) team for pre- and post-sales technical communication and preparation of the customer, post-sales client management, training, technical implementation assistance, and knowledge transfer.

As a ClickDimensions subject matter expert, you will work to understand customers’ business goals and objectives and advise about the entire solution functionality including its related technologies. You will assist and support the sales teams by delivering demonstration overviews of the solution to individual and group audiences from a technical perspective, and providing solutions for specific customer or partner scenarios using best practices for implementation and use.

You will support and educate system integrators and ClickDimensions partners. Establishing realistic and achievable strategies beyond your technical activities that exceed customer needs is one of your primary goals. Providing support and managing technical escalation paths will be additional tasks.

The Solution Success Engineer position is part of the ClickDimensions Customer Team and reports to the Chief Customer Officer. The Customer Team is responsible for achieving and maintaining customer satisfaction through onboarding, training, technical support and solution expertise.

Requirements

• 2 years’ demonstrable experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM (deployment, customization/configuration) and related technologies
• Experience with marketing automation solutions similar to ClickDimensions
• Business requirements gathering experience
• Excellent communicator and presenter
• Analytical and troubleshooting skills
• ‘Can-do’ mentality
• Takes responsibility and knows how to balance these responsibilities
• Willingness to learn
• Ability to work in and with a multi-disciplinary team

Location

It is preferred that this position be based out of Atlanta, Georgia; Fargo, North Dakota; or Greenville, South Carolina.

Compensation

Salary DOE. Health insurance, 401k, bonus opportunities.

Contact

Interested candidates should send a resume and ClickDimensions-specific cover letter to careers@clickdimensions.com.