Marketing automation platforms promise efficiency, personalization, and scale. For teams evaluating or using Microsoft Customer Insights, those promises are real. But there is a cost that often emerges only after implementation, once the platform is live and data begins to accumulate. It is not the license fee. It is the data. More specifically, it is how much data you store, where that data lives, and whether your organization has intentionally planned for the long-term implications of those decisions. The Promise vs. the Reality Marketing automation is sold on outcomes: smarter targeting, automated journeys, actionable […]
Manufacturing marketing teams invest significant time and effort into launching campaigns. Strategy is reviewed and approved, content is developed, and sales alignment is carefully coordinated before anything goes live. And yet, once a campaign is in market, momentum often fades faster than expected. Engagement slows, leads stall, sales asks where things went off track, and marketing is left trying to understand why a campaign that looked strong during planning is not delivering consistent results. In most cases, the issue is not the campaign itself. It is what happens after launch. The Real Problem Isn’t the Campaign, It’s What Comes Next […]
If your marketing automation costs keep climbing but performance doesn’t, there’s a good chance your contact data is the culprit. Many organizations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 accumulate thousands of contacts that should never be marketed to again: former employees, inactive leads, outdated records. When those contacts flow into marketing automation or data platforms priced by volume, bad data turns into a recurring expense. Why Contact Counts Get Out of Control in Dynamics 365 Contact sprawl in Microsoft Dynamics 365 is rarely the result of carelessness. In most cases, it’s the byproduct of good intentions layered on top […]
Q4 is the reset button most teams ignore. You’re wrapping campaigns, closing out reporting, and planning for next year. It’s also when your CRM is carrying the most baggage: outdated contacts, duplicated records, stale fields, and integrations that quietly broke months ago. All of it slows down segmentation, personalization, and automation. If you want a strong Q1, you can’t skip year-end data hygiene. Clean data gives you more accurate targeting, healthier deliverability, and better visibility into what actually worked this year. This is the moment to tighten up your CRM and marketing platform sync, fix what’s broken, and remove what doesn’t belong. A clean starting point […]
Most sales and marketing teams agree on one thing: alignment matters. It shows up in revenue conversations, pipeline reviews, and post-mortems when deals stall. And yet, alignment is still one of the hardest things to get right. Not because teams are unwilling to collaborate, but because they are trying to align across systems that were never designed to share context. Marketing sees engagement, while sales sees records. CRM holds data; marketing automation holds activity. Everyone is working hard, just not from the same picture. When those systems are connected, alignment stops being an abstract […]
