Direct E-mail Tips and Tricks

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The easiest way to send mail to multiple companies is to used Advanced find to create a list of the companies in a specific categories or criteria.  Then, if you are using the Web application of Microsoft CRM, you can use Direct e-mail and Microsoft CRM templates to send a message to all of the companies in your query results. 

The procedure for sending direct mail is in the online Help topic: 

Send direct e-mail to customers

Direct e-mail is supported by the Web application (The version of Microsoft CRM that works in Internet Explorer.) only and uses e-mail templates. If you are using the Microsoft CRM client for Outlook ( A client application that provides a subset of the Microsoft CRM application functionality within Microsoft Office Outlook. Microsoft CRM synchronizes a local copy of a user's contacts, tasks, appointments, and e-mail data with Outlook. ) , use the mail merge feature.

You cannot attach or insert files, including image files, into an e-mail message template or an e-mail message created with an e-mail template, such as a direct e-mail or quick campaigns.

1.        In the Navigation Pane, under Sales or Marketing, click the record type you want. For example, Accounts or Contacts. Which panes you see will depend on the security role you have been assigned.

2.        In the View list, select the filtered view you want.

3.        If you want to send direct e-mail to only a few people, select the records you want. If you want to send direct e-mail to everyone displayed in the current list, go to the next step.

4.        On the Actions toolbar, click .

5.        In the Send Direct E-mail dialog box, select the template you want to use.
To view a description of the template, select the template.

6.        To specify the recipients of the direct e-mail, select:

  • Selected records on current page to send the e-mail to only the contacts you selected.
  • All records on current page to send the e-mail to all the contacts on the current page of the current view.
  • All records on all pages to send the e-mail to all the contacts on all the pages of the current view.

7.        Click Send.
An e-mail activity is created for each recipient.

Tip:   You can also select recipients from a search in Advanced Find. When you use Advanced Find, you can reduce the number of message failures that are due to customers for whom you do not have e-mail addresses. In a new or saved search, click Select, and select E-mail. Click Equals and select Contains Data. Enter any other search criteria and then click OK.

If you are using the Microsoft CRM client for Outlook, you can use Mail Merge for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Word templates.  I’ve included the online Help topic for your convenience.

Create a mail merge document using Microsoft Word

Mail merge integrates Microsoft CRM 3.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft CRM 3.0 with Microsoft Word so that you can create documents that are populated with Microsoft CRM data. You can use these familiar applications to send mail-merged documents through using a document template (.dot) file. For more information about the mail-merge process, see the Microsoft Word Help documentation.

After the mail merge is complete, if you are using Microsoft Word 2002 or Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft CRM creates an e-mail or letter activity ( An action to be performed, such as a task, or a communication item that is sent or received, for example, e-mail, phone calls, and appointments. The status of activities is tracked and the activity history is stored in the system, so users can view the open and closed activities. ) and saves it to Microsoft CRM.

Important: This feature is available only in Microsoft CRM client for Outlook. In the Web application, use the Direct E-mail feature.

Create a mail merge document using Microsoft Word

Mail merge is only supported by the Microsoft CRM 3.0 client for Microsoft Office Outlook and uses Microsoft Word templates. If you are using the Web application (The version of Microsoft CRM that works in Internet Explorer.) , use the direct e-mail feature and e-mail templates.

You can create mail merge documents and e-mail messages for contacts, accounts, leads, opportunities, campaigns, and quick campaigns. Mail merge does not support modified or custom fields, attachments, or Microsoft CRM e-mail templates. You cannot use attachments or insert images into messages created with mail merge.

1.        Start Outlook with the Microsoft CRM client for Outlook installed.

2.        In the Navigation Pane in Outlook, under Microsoft CRM, expand Workplace, expand Customers, and then click Contacts or Accounts.

3.        In the contacts or accounts list, select two or more records to add to the mail-merge recipient list.

4.        On the Actions toolbar, click More Actions, and then click Mail Merge.

5.        In the Mail Merge dialog box, select the type of document you want to use.
The following options are available:

  • Template letter - Create letters with generic text already in the letter.
  • Template E-mail - Create e-mail messages with generic text already in the message.
  • Blank Letter - Create a letter starting with a blank word document.
  • Blank E-mail - Create a message from a blank message.
  • Envelopes - Create labeling envelopes.
  • Mailing labels - Create standard commercial mailing labels or custom labels.
  • New Document from Existing Document - Copy an existing letter, e-mail, or other document.

6.        Click OK.
Outlook automatically opens Microsoft Word.

7.        Follow the instructions provided by the pane. For more information, see Microsoft Word Help documentation.

Tip: You cannot include custom fields and only data from the original records selected is available for mail merge. To display the information you want and select the format, in the Mail Merge wizard, click Address Block and then Greeting Line. To add information, click More items. You will be able to preview your message before sending it.

Notes:

  • To use mail merge with a campaign, you must first distribute a mail campaign activity to a selected marketing list. For more information, see the Related Topics section.
  • The mail-merge process runs on one list page at a time. If your record list has several pages, you must repeat the process for each page of records in the list.