Dynamic vs. Static Marketing lists in CRM

Dynamic vs. Static Marketing lists in CRM

A marketing list in CRM is generally a subset of your contacts (or leads) with whom you want to communicate. The members of the list likely have something in common – perhaps they are all working at non-profits, or maybe they are small to medium business owners in a tri-state area. Whatever form they take, you create a list so you can communicate a relevant message to a group of individuals where that message will apply to ALL recipients. This communication may take the form of:

  • A company newsletter
  • A promotional email campaign
  • An event invitation
  • A mail merge
  • And more!

In most CRMs, you have the option of creating static or dynamic marketing lists. A static list is one in which you select and manually add members to the list. Once the list is created, it doesn’t change over time unless you add or subtract members.

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A dynamic marketing list is one in which you create a query that identifies members by one or more attributes. In my example above, the first attribute was working for a non-profit. If you have a field in CRM that identifies non-profit accounts, then you can quickly query on all contacts who work for a non-profit. It is called a dynamic list, because as new contacts are entered into the database that match your criteria (i.e., they work at a non-profit), they will automatically be added to your list. You don’t have to remember to manually add them.

Both types of lists are valuable, so when might you want to use one vs. the other? Here are a couple of examples:

Let’s say you are about to launch a new product, and you want to spread the word about this new solution. A dynamic marketing list would be ideal, because you can use your CRM to create a list of contacts with the attributes that define the ideal customer for your new product. As your CRM database grows, new folks will be automatically added to that dynamic list, so you can communicate over time about your product and its features.

On the other hand, perhaps you want to communicate with the founding members of an organization. Perhaps they were big donors at one time, and you hope they might give again. At a minimum, you want to keep them informed about the wonderful things your organization is doing. Because the list of founding members will not change, this is best handled by a static list. You set it up once, and it never changes.

Almost all CRMs have static and dynamic lists, but not all editions offer these features. For example, you can create static lists in Zoho CRM Professional, but to create dynamic lists, you’ll need to upgrade to Zoho CRM Enterprise. However, with Microsoft Dynamics 365, BOTH the Professional and the Enterprise versions offer static and dynamic lists.

If you’d like help with your marketing lists and using them in CRM, we’d love to help! We are masters at helping you leverage these tools to grow your business. Reach out to info@toplineresults.com or call 1-800-880-1960.


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