Promote your business with Marketing Campaigns in Business Contact Manager

For a business to grow, you need to market it, and, as a small business owner, you want to ensure that your marketing efforts are worthwhile. By using the Marketing Campaign forms in Business Contact Manager for Outlook, you can track the creation of and the customer to your Marketing Campaigns. You can see how many new sales were generated by a flyer, for example, or the depth of interest created by an e-mail Marketing Campaign. Finally, you can easily check the financial results of your investment.

You can create a Marketing Campaign from almost anywhere in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. For example, when you are reviewing any of the reports, you can create a new Marketing Campaign based on one of these reports. Also, if you create a file in Microsoft Office Publisher or Word, you can turn it into a new Marketing Campaign from within that program.

The following overview provides a summary of how you can make Marketing Campaigns work for your business. For more details, click Help on the forms, or see the related topics.

Create a new Marketing Campaign

1. On the Business Contact Manager menu, click Marketing Campaign, and then click New to complete the form with details about your Marketing Campaign.

   Note If you have created a new Marketing Campaign from another source (such as Publisher or Word, or from a report), a Marketing Campaign form is automatically created for you.

2. On the ribbon, on the Campaign tab, in the Show group, click General.

3. What is this Marketing Campaign for?This section is where you begin to define your Marketing Campaign.

   • Enter a title for your Marketing Campaign. This is required information, and is used as the default subject heading if you send e-mail. For example, if you are marketing your new spring products, you can type Spring is Here.
   • Enter a campaign code . This is required information, and makes it easier for you to find this specific campaign in a list than by looking for the Marketing Campaign Title; for example, you can type Spring07 for your spring Marketing Campaign instead of Spring is Here.
   • In the Type list, select the kind of Marketing Campaign that you want to run. Depending upon what you select, different options become available to you in other areas of this form.
   • In the Budgeted cost box, type the amount of money that you are planning to spend.
   • Enter the start and end dates for your Marketing Campaign.
   • In the Comments box, type any other comments about this Marketing Campaign.

4. Who will see it?If you have selected a Marketing Campaign type that is directed toward specific people, such as an e-mail or direct-mail Marketing Campaign, you need to create a list.

   Note If you have selected a Marketing Campaign type that is addressed to a list you cannot edit in Business Contact Manager for Outlook, such as a seminar or conference, your only option is Other.

   • Create a list Select whether to address your Marketing Campaign to all your Accounts, Business Contacts, or leads, to use a predefined selection, or create a new list.
   • Total in list See how many people will view your Marketing Campaign. You can change your list by clicking Review and Filter.

5. How will they get it?This section is where you select what delivery method to use. This method will vary depending on the type of the selected Marketing Campaign, but if you are creating a direct mail letter or e-mail message, you can use mail merge or other customization capabilities in Outlook, Publisher, or Word.

   Note The Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager E-Mail Marketing Service is now fully integrated with Business Contact Manager for Outlook; you can use it to create and track targeted messages to a variety of mailing lists. For more information about the E-Mail Marketing Service, see Using the E-Mail Marketing Service in Business Contact Manager.

6. What will they get?Unless you have specifically chosen to create a document in Outlook, Publisher, or Word, the materials for your Marketing Campaign can be created in any application you want; just link to an existing file.

7. When your information is complete and you are ready to launch your Marketing Campaign, click the Launch button. Now you're ready to track the results of your Marketing Campaign.

Track your Marketing Campaign

As your Marketing Campaign is under way, you can track the results from the same form.

1. On the Business Contact Manager menu, click Marketing Campaigns, and then select the campaign that you want to review.

   Tip On the View menu, under Current View, select a view that makes it easier for you to find your Marketing Campaign.

2. Open the Marketing Campaign form and, on the ribbon, on the Campaign tab, in the Show group, click Track.

   The information that you see will vary depending on the type of Marketing Campaign you selected, but you can see the total number of new Accounts, Business Contacts, leads, or Opportunities that were generated by this Marketing Campaign. To see more details about each total number, click Show Report.

   Note If you used the E-Mail Marketing Service to generate your e-mail messages, you can also track the number of bounced messages, the number of times your messages were opened, and the number of times that links in the messages were followed.

3. Enter the current cost of the Marketing Campaign in the Actual cost box.

See also:

• Using the E-Mail Marketing Service in Business Contact Manager