Moving from Outbound Marketing to Real-time Journeys
Microsoft’s Customer Insights – Journeys experience focuses on Real-time Journeys, giving marketers more opportunities and touchpoints for reaching audiences through campaigns and journeys. If you've already invested time creating marketing emails and templates in Outbound Marketing, you don't have to start over. You can import existing marketing assets into Real-time Journeys and continue using them there.
Importing your existing emails
To begin, switch from Outbound Marketing to Real-time using the navigation menu in the lower-left corner of the Marketing application. Once you're in Real-time:
- Navigate to Channels and select Emails.
- Select Import emails from the action bar.
- Choose the Outbound emails you want to bring over. You can select up to 50 emails at a time.
- Use column filters, keyword search, system views, or your custom views to find the emails you need.
- Select Next after choosing your emails.
- Choose whether you want to import content blocks included with the selected emails.
- Select Start to begin the import.
Rather than moving every email you've ever created, consider selecting the emails that are still relevant and most likely to be useful in future Real-time activities. Imported content blocks can be found under Marketing Assets in the Content Blocks section.
What won't import automatically
Not every email can be transferred exactly as it appeared in Outbound Marketing. Emails and templates containing A/B tests are skipped during the import process. Emails that fail to import are included in a downloadable file that you can review afterward. Other emails may import successfully while requiring you to manually re-add certain elements, including:
- Surveys
- QR codes
- Code elements
- Compliance profile details
- Personalization containing if/else conditions
- Content settings placeholders
- Form double opt-in submissions
- Contextual message placeholders
- View-as-web-page links
Review your imported emails
After the import is complete, a new view for content imported from Outbound Marketing is generated. Imported emails are identified as originating in Outbound and are set to Draft status so you can review them before making them live. Open your imported emails and check for anything that needs to be restored or adjusted. For example, a view-as-web-page link may need to be relinked manually. Images and other media may also need attention, so be sure the necessary files are available in your asset library. It's a good idea to work through imported emails in batches so you can systematically review and repair any elements that didn't transfer.
Use Check content before going live
Use Microsoft's Check content feature to identify anything that still needs attention before using an imported email. Some notifications may simply be standard email setup requirements, such as:
- From email address
- Reply-to email address
- Required address information
- Verified social media accounts
These are the same types of details you'd need to configure when creating a new marketing email, rather than issues unique to importing an email from Outbound Marketing.
Importing email templates and content blocks
Existing Outbound email templates can also be moved to Real-time. Navigate to the email templates section and select Import templates from the action bar. Select the templates you want to bring over, using views and filters to narrow the list as needed. The process is similar for importing content blocks. This allows you to bring your existing emails, templates, and reusable content into Real-time without rebuilding everything from scratch.
Prepare your marketing assets for Real-time Journeys
Importing existing Outbound Marketing content can save considerable time as you move your marketing activities into Real-time Journeys. Focus on the assets you'll continue using, carefully review imported emails, restore any elements that could not transfer automatically, and use Check content before publishing. With those checks complete, your existing marketing assets can continue supporting your campaigns in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys.
