Getting Demos for Social Listening and Dynamics Marketing

It is exciting times in Dynamics CRM with Microsoft’s acquisitions getting released in the wild. The two big ticket items are Social Listening (social monitoring tool) and Dynamics Marketing (a comprehensive marketing management tool).

Both of these are available from Office 365, but what if you want to try before you buy or you are a partner seeking to demonstrate the Social and Marketing goodness to your customers and prospects? It is not easy to work out the options available so here they are.

Options For Microsoft Partners

As a gold partner, you get access to both products as part of your internal usage rights, as well as Dynamics CRM. Partners receive special codes to use in an Office 365 subscription. If you do not have your codes, get in touch with your PAM (Partner Account Manager). This, of course, is not ideal for demonstrations because it is one instance for all prospects but it is better than nothing.

There are also the TAP (pre-release) programs which give early access to the new releases of the software although these are generally held under a non-disclosure agreement so you cannot use these for demonstration. Again, if you are not aware of the TAP programs, for you and your clients, ask your PAM.

There are also training materials on PartnerSource for Dynamics Marketing to gain more information.

• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Projects and Requests
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Connector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Media Buying
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Programs, Campaigns and Events
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Power BI Integration
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Digital Asset Management
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing SDK
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Contacts and Companies
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing - Marketing Execution
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Budgeting and Financials
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Admin and Setup
• Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Intro and Overview

 

Options For The Rest Of Us

For non-partners, there are plenty of ways to gain information. For Dynamics Marketing, a good start is the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing page. From here you can see a video overview and do a guided walkthough. However, as of writing, this is as good as it gets. I know of no time-limited or function-limited demonstration for Dynamics Marketing. Perhaps this will change with the fall release of CRM.

For Social Listening, there are plenty of training materials and videos. There is also a Microsoft Social Listening page. From here, you can also do a guided walkthrough but, unlike the Dynamics Marketing page, once you start the walkthrough, you can select a 30 minute trial.

The configuration is locked down but you do get to play with the social analytic tool. If your time runs out, rinse and repeat for another 30 minutes.

Conclusions

The information and demos for Social Listening and Dynamics Marketing is a little scattered and, while there is no available demo for Dynamics Marketing, there is information available to give an idea of what the product looks like and what it can do (not to mention many videos on YouTube for Dynamics Marketing and Social Listening).

Social Listening does have a trial and also lots of information in the form of training materials and videos and, if this is an area of interest, is well worth checking out.

I expect that, eventually, like Dynamics CRM, both of these products will have time limited trials available in Office 365 but, until then, hopefully, these materials will see you through.