Dynamics 365 Marketing from 1 of the 2 leading gurus with Megan Walker

Dynamics 365 Marketing from 1 of the 2 leading gurus with Megan Walker

Megan Walker

FULL SHOW NOTES: 
https://podcast.nz365guy.com/385 

  • An introduction to Megan Walker's life and hobbies
  • A conversation about Megan's Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing and community engagement 
  • Megan talks about her journey to where she is right now  
  • How did Megan engage in the community over time? 
  • What’s the impact of COVID on everything Megan does? 
  • Megan shares about doing podcasts in terms of self-learning and content creation 
  • What made Megan decide to end her podcast? 
  • What excites Megan when it comes to Dynamics 365 marketing? 
  • Megan talks about the maturity of Dynamics 365 marketing 
  • What Megan is seeing from Microsoft when it comes to putting all the systems together to make one symbiotic type?


RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Walk for charity - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/meganvwalker-peak-district-challenge-2022 

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Transcript

[mark]: in this episode of the power platform show we're going to talk about microsopdynamic three six five marketing and community engagement and the guest we have on the show is one of the gores in the dynamic three six five marketing space today's guest is from the united kingdom england she works as an independent power platform consultant at m v w consulting she loves learning and helping others she's written more blood coasts than i can count you can find her in the show notes linked to her bio linked into all that type of great stuff welcome to the show megan

[megan]: thank you very much mark it's been about three years since i was last on one of your podcast

[mark]: yeah yeah crazy now i apologize for my voice i'm battling not covid but a cold of some sort so bear with me but you know we called up a couple of weeks ago and had a chat and said hey why don't we do a podcast together normally i would ask about food family and fun and all that kind of background stuff i dont know i've done that with you but tell me top of mind for you right now outside of work what what are the things that you're focus and i know you've got some great physical outdoor based activities tells about those

[megan]: mark mark mark yes

[mark]: oh

[megan]: the closer it gets the more i'm regretting

[mark]: oh

[megan]: it not really but so last year actually last year this saturday gone i walked and did a walk with my dad my sister and one of my brothers and

[mark]: oh

[megan]: we walked for the outside of the society so certainly my dad was diagnosed in end of twenty nineteen with old simes and his father had it so it's

[megan]: you know it's kind of been in our family for a while so we

[megan]: walked twenty five olometers raised money for the society and hated it it was it was ruling it was ruling mainly because

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: my dad was a bit further progressed than maybe we appreciate it and it was it was challenging because of that it was emotional and we were like never ever again and then two weeks afterwards my brother who is just as stubborn as i am was like what do you think so we do a hundred colovises and i was like sure

[mark]: nice

[megan]: why not why not and we've gotten closer and closer and we've both just been like he'll pop

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: up on you know on what appwhanever say god i'm just wondering if i'm going to be able to do it

[mark]: oh

[megan]: i do you want to quit says no i'm not quitting i'm not quitting so we'll keep keep each

[mark]: nice

[megan]: other moving forward so yes so i'm training for that

[mark]: i like it

[megan]: so that's next well

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: whenever this goes out that's july the ninth hundred kilometers non

[mark]: well

[megan]: stop no sleep hopefully less than twenty four hours so

[mark]: amazing

[megan]: we shall

[mark]: amazing

[megan]: we shall

[mark]: amazing

[megan]: see

[mark]: amazing

[megan]: yes

[mark]: so my my

[megan]: yes

[mark]: meg sent her regards to you

[megan]: oh

[mark]: and just as a bit

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: of inspiration for you she has twice done a hundred k in new zealand's under ox fam they were this hundred and twenty four hour walk the first

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: time she didn't complete she went back and did it again and completed i think in twenty three odd hours

[megan]: nice

[mark]: so pretty

[megan]: okay

[mark]: pretty amazing her and

[megan]: as

[mark]: her aunties did it together and then when i was living in sydney i was support crew for two teams across two different years doing the sydney ox fam which is a hundred and but yeah the sydney one was much more grueling it was intense landscapes that you

[megan]: m

[mark]: were going across but you know being supporter on that was heck of a lot of fun you know but you know

[megan]: i

[mark]: lining

[megan]: bet

[mark]: up each stop you know massaging the feet of the walkers making sure they are hydrated and you know correctly fueled up

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: and you know offering the encouragement et cetera to to that finish line but seeing people come over the finish line is a sight to be seen because

[megan]: that's what

[mark]: you

[megan]: i'm

[mark]: know

[megan]: focusing

[mark]: it's like bodies

[megan]: on

[mark]: are not functioning right yeah

[megan]: i'm focusing

[mark]: you

[megan]: on the

[mark]: can

[megan]: end

[mark]: nail

[megan]: so

[mark]: it you can do it

[megan]: i think i can do it and i have a friend

[mark]: oh

[megan]: who she's also in the pile platform space and she ran

[mark]: hm

[megan]: never mind a hundred kilometers hundred it is for anyone

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: that can't convert is about sixty miles she ran a hundred

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: miles on saturday

[mark]: well

[megan]: took a twenty twenty three hours twenty four twenty now

[mark]: wow

[megan]: twenty six hours sorry yeah hundred mile imagine

[mark]: amazing

[megan]: running

[mark]: amazing

[megan]: a hundred miles no like i won't run

[mark]: no

[megan]: a mile

[mark]: no thanks

[megan]: never mind hundred

[mark]: totally

[megan]: not a runner

[mark]: totally

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: the best the best i've done in one day the best walking distance i've done in one day was forty kilometers

[megan]: m

[mark]: and that that was in spain i was walking in spain and one day as part of the camino de santiago my wife and i we decided that we needed to really put in a big effort were about half way through the com no and we did forty kilometers in one day so it was dark when we left and dark when we got into our burg at the other end but what pissed me off is that you know not doing and so i found out if i've done two kilometers more

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: would have been a marathon oh

[megan]: yeah yeah

[mark]: you know

[megan]: that

[mark]: it

[megan]: that

[mark]: would

[megan]: would

[mark]: have been

[megan]: 

have annoyed

[mark]: entire

[megan]: me

[mark]: arathonin one

[megan]: so

[mark]: day

[megan]: close so close

[mark]: yeah man man and i'm in no hurry to do it again and tell you the truth

[megan]: no after the

[mark]: so let's

[megan]: after

[mark]: talk

[megan]: this

[mark]: about

[megan]: never again

[mark]: yeah the thing is it can get addictive though i notice a lot of people do it over year after year

[megan]: m

[mark]: after year get their team

[megan]: no

[mark]: together and

[megan]: if i say i'm doing another

[mark]: are you

[megan]: one

[mark]: doing

[megan]: then

[mark]: it as part

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: as a whole you need to be stopped

[megan]: yeah i need to be stopped so we'll see we'll see how it goes so yeah july ninth

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: hundred kilometers less than twenty four hours

[mark]: i love

[megan]: we

[mark]: it

[megan]: help

[mark]: and is there a heap of other people doing it with you

[megan]: oh yeah it's an organized event

[mark]: yes

[megan]: that pobably be like a few

[mark]: oh

[megan]: thousand and they're all doing it for different charities as

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: well so

[mark]: amazing amazing or some love it okay let's talk about you know one of things we chatted a couple of weeks ago and i wonder said he why don't we record this is about

[megan]: ah

[mark]: community and we're talking about the microsop business application community whether that be in focused areas like power platform power apse power automate any of the piece you

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: know as and then in the dynamic space which of course has been around a long time we've got formal community programs like the v p program we have in formal programs that people have set up and run and you know it might be involved in forms that might be writing blogs that might be creating you tube content might be podcasting um and we talk we discussed you know i really want to get your thoughts on what's your journey being um from the peaks and the troughs et cetera to creating content particularly in the community and how you have engaged in the community over time

[megan]: yeah i think i don't

[mark]: yah

[megan]: think this is definitely this is not unique to me i think so many of us that have created content and some

[mark]: oh

[megan]: kind of on some kind of platform and some kind of

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: you you can go hard for

[mark]: m

[megan]: a long time but ultimately you will

[mark]: hm

[megan]: come and you will hit that that brick wall at some point and i think for me do that over and over again i keep hitting hitting a wall where

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i'm like i just

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i can't be bothered just have no desire all the rest of it i think for so many people covid cool it stopped us obviously literally stopped us from doing things but also i think it it put people into a place where you had to spend more time with family you kind of had to go out inside and stop doing exercise you had to do these things because ere's only so much sitting inside house you can do and as soon as sort of the pandemic and the sort of lock downs lifted in different countries it was like oh my god i can go back outside again so i think that sort of shifted a lot and in my mind because i started out in went eighteen during my bog or twenty end of twenty seventeen i think didn't really take off until twenty eighteen and that was because

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: of that whole emerge an aria with the option sets and where

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: the

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: mergimegs came from which i still hate but people still throw out every

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: once in a while but that's when it kind of like started to pick up and i was with anyone isn't it where it's like you're starting to get a bit of

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: notoriety is not the right word

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: but you're starting to get recognized and people are starting to actually read content which that's you know let's face it you're creating it may be for yourself to start with but the hope is always at least for me the hope is always that

[mark]: oh

[megan]: at least somebody would

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: be reading it and it would would help somebody else um so i think that started on was working on projects for partners so i was doing things and having to figure things out and i was still relatively new to dynamics and to the par at form so i would figure something out my god this is awesome let me put it the but then

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i don't i don't know the past sort of i say six months i've just not really found any interest in it or any excitement in it and you know we talk about podcast and

[mark]: oh

[megan]: i had a very successful podcast with lisa crosby was over in australia

[mark]: exactly

[megan]: and we started

[mark]: oh

[megan]: it during the art of lock down of like

[mark]: ay

[megan]: march twenty

[mark]: oh

[megan]: twenty i guess it was and we started this podcast and a lot of it was like she was a bit bored i was a bit bored we couldn't do anything so don't take this the wrong way but we saw that saw a lot of guys doing stuff we saw a lot of

[mark]: oh

[megan]: know you and steve more do were doing things

[mark]: no

[megan]: you know you've done a podcast for a long time the people are doing it and it was never about like saying we need a female podcast out there that was never it because neither neither of us have that sort of mind that it's not like we need women to be represented

[mark]: oh

[megan]: it was just like while these guys are doing we

[mark]: i

[megan]: can do it i'm sure so we figured it out and on it was really successful and we loved it and it was you know was great fun for so long and then he just started at least from my respect i'm

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: not going to speak to lisa because we kind of came to the end for different reasons for me it was just i just wasn't excited i wasn't excited to talk about events i really didn't care new features

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: were coming out and i was just a bit disheartened with some of them i was like that's not all that exciting it missed the mark of what i

[mark]: oh

[megan]: hoped it would be so i always

[mark]: ah

[megan]: started to feel like i'm faith like i'm faithing the excitement about talking about these things

[mark]: m yeah yeah

[megan]: so yeah i just got disheartened with it all and i just thought why am i bothering if i don't if i'm not genuinely excited about what i'm talking about it's not

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: right it's not genuine and authentic

[mark]: oh

[megan]: is at so

[mark]: that's interesting now

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: now just to give some perspective when you were at your peak of creating content now correct me if i'm wrong at some points you were creating over thirty blog posts a month um you know on a specific topic you took out themes you were really committed to creating content and and um and you became an n v p and you continue to create this great content the podcast et cetera and you've closed the pods s and i find it interesting that there are a range of m v ps now talking about their journey in the v p program end the the how do i put this

[megan]: a

[mark]: that you know you do or like okay talk let's talk

[megan]: oh

[mark]: about jollinstrum for a moment jolinstrum has resigned as an n b p this he's written a great blog post on it and for his thinking et cetera behind it and what he's talking about really resonated with me and that

[megan]: mac

[mark]: um you know he lost the decade he didn't lose a decade he said for a decade he lost a lot of sleep because he was working as day drop and then in the evening's creating content whether it be tip of the day whether it be huge video whether be podcasting with blog posts and speaking at events and of course everything that he said resonated strongly with me i've i've tried everything right i've for a period i was writing two blog posts a week while i was in the u i was doing you tubes every i think maybe twice a week i was doing the podcast once and then got up now twice a week and i was finding i was enjoying it cause i was stretching myself but then it got to the point where the stretching was done and the contraction happens you know kind of thing with a rubber band and and i didn't need to keep doing that and so progress lee i've started calling off anything that doesn't bring me joy

[megan]: exactly that's

[mark]: which i don't know if you heard

[megan]: exactly

[mark]: of mary

[megan]: it

[mark]: condo you know mary

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: condo i think her name is is

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: around

[megan]: if it does

[mark]: clothes

[megan]: not spark

[mark]: you know

[megan]: joy

[mark]: if

[megan]: if it doesn't spark joy

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: in you then

[mark]: get rid of

[megan]: let

[mark]: it right

[megan]: let it go and and present

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i mean that was lisa and i tried to bless her i i

[mark]: oh

[megan]: think that i had reached the point of really not being into it quite a bit sooner than he and we we taken a bit of a break we re grouped and then we did it

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: success again for probably another six months but it was one of those things

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i just knew i kept

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: coming back to it exactly like you said

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: it wasn't bringing me joy and honestly

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: market if i was doing if i had been doing it on my own i would have ended it a lot sooner but there was that

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: commitment that you've made to somebody you're

[mark]: yes

[megan]: doing doing stuff as partnership and i tried for probably quite a bit longer than i would have done if

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: it had been on my own because it was

[mark]: oh

[megan]: ultimately that was it

[mark]: oh

[megan]: i i

[mark]: oh

[megan]: have for a long time always been somebody that does value my

[mark]: m

[megan]: time and even working for myself i think

[mark]: m

[megan]: a lot of people think you work for yourself you work all hours god sends you're always working nights a working week ends

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i work eight o'clock

[mark]: oh

[megan]: in the morning to o clock in the afternoon monday through friday and that is it

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: other than a deployment that's planned in i'm not doing it as i'm not doing

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: weekends and that whole thing with the doing

[mark]: oh

[megan]: the community stuff it's got to fit in somewhere and for me the past of six months or so i've started blocking again relatively recently but i've

[mark]: oh

[megan]: been on two when i say horrendous project i mean horendus just in terms of

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: like the mental drain because

[mark]: yep

[megan]: they were a lot bigger than i thought they were going to be it's just a lot going on and i'm

[mark]: oh

[megan]: at the point now or i'm like you know what i'm not prepared to sacrifice my time with my husband or seeing my

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: dad who i need to see

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: as much as i can it's that shift and priority of

[mark]: m oh

[megan_v__walker]: work eight to five i'm not going to crown it all in i'm not going

[megan]: to just extend my day and make it

[mark]: oh

[megan]: twelve fourteen

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: our day because i'm writing a blog post that does

[mark]: oh

[megan]: anyone really care if i do it or not do you know what i

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: mean it's that kind of

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: does it bring me joy

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: really but then but

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: then what happens is now we talk about the thirty days and you know doing blog posts for a thirty day challenge or you know you talk about all of the different

[mark]: oh

[megan]: things that you do i think we probably sim or in the sense that if i get excited about something i'm like oh my god i could do this awesome series

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and i feel like it could really help people

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and it would help me learn something new

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: 

and i would be able to help other people i get excited about it and my own worst energy where i'm like oh my god i've got this great idea for a series and then i'll spend so much time

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

on it and then i'll be like burnt out i'm done so so i

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

do it to myself

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

but i'm also during that period of time excited and you know it's driving my creativity and i love that creativity aspect of it like i just

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

i'm doing my first outube live

[mark]: 

uh

[megan]: 

event in a couple of weeks i've not done one before

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: 

i'm gonna hopefully we'll see how it goes as

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

we're going a start doing a monthly

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: 

hu live stream that's all about what's the latest stuff in dynamics marketing like what's in the latest up date

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

and at the minute i'm excited because

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: 

it's creative creativity is something new for me to learn

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

how to use you tube live so i

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: 

always look at it as podcast was an amazing learning experience i know how to create and deliver a successful podcast so it's that aspect that i'm excited about more than potentially the content itself if that makes sense the process of learning

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: how to do something new like

[mark]: totally

[megan]: from a creative

[mark]: yah

[megan]: aspect so

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i think as long as i still

[mark]: so so that

[megan]: sorry

[mark]: nacre

[megan]: i was going to say as long as i still find things that i will be passionate about excited to write about or do a video one then i will still keep creating content i think what's interesting fourteen years that joe's been an m p that that's impressive five years is impressive ten

[mark]: totally

[megan]: years in present fourteen years is amazing but i think i always put content out because want to and

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: not to

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i don't want to say anything

[mark]: yes

[megan]: negative about the nvpesbut twill come

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: to renewal time

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and invariably you'll see people panic and doing like little things

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: for a quote and quote contribution never

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: feel that way i'm always

[mark]: yeah

[megan_v__walker]: like if i haven't done enough legitimate blocks legitimate video where

[mark]: yep

[megan]: i have provided some value

[mark]: oh

[megan]: i'm fine with not getting it whenever the time comes and i don't get it i will know i'm

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: not going to get it because i wouldn't have done enough real

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: content you know

[mark]: a hundred percent

[megan]: ye

[mark]: a hundred percent very similar position that i've distilled down to doing one thing and one thing i hopefully do well as podcasting and that's my thing

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: and why because it still brings me joy i love me people even with you know although the listeners can't hear us i can see you you can see me and it's creating a much better experience in podcasting which i thoroughly enjoy but you mentioned there about dynamic the six five marketing and i consider you one of the two gores in the world both females the other one is as well we won't mention her name

[megan]: oh well

[mark]: on

[megan]: come

[mark]: dynamics

[megan]: on she's not been

[mark]: the three

[megan]: she's

[mark]: six it

[megan]: not been mentioned for a while

[mark]: who

[megan]: and then is

[mark]: what's

[megan]: that

[mark]: her name

[megan]: miss alden amy with an oh

[mark]: i didn't know there

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: you know i didn't even know that was her last name now i kind of did but like

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: a never resinated with me but yes

[megan]: right

[mark]: amy

[megan]: yes

[mark]: 

let's talk about dynamic the six vive marketing right when you know i've been on the journey of dynamic the six five marketing from when a company software acquire marketing pilot and microsoftr released do do with

[megan]: 

ah

[mark]: 

what they re branded in that and then

[megan]: 

my

[mark]: 

they built from the ground up but i've seen in the last couple of years a massive kind of they've got some smart people in marketing i feel now and aren't working on product and it's doing some amazing amazing things right this this real time marketing is its time is now right in organizations need this type of tooling people and second news letter based marketing you know the minute i get an email it has a banner image across the top on't i don't even read the subject lines just delete i'm like this is a marketing piece not personal email to me and so i feel that real time marketing allows a much more tailored experience rather than here some block copy we're just going to chuck in there and use and of course it gets a bit of cut through right and tell me about what excites you when we look at dynamic three six five marketing and the maturity of this product what excites you about it what are the things that you say to people wow check out this this is

[megan]: 

yeah

[mark]: 

faking awesome

[megan]: 

i think i think before i kind of say what do i think is awesome about it i think it honestly i agree with your statement in terms of like the marketing app has been crap for a long time and i

[mark]: 

we

[megan]: 

still now

[mark]: 

oh

[megan_v__walker]: 

if i talk to

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: 

somebody that's not quite made the decision yet they are like okay so is marketing really ready is it really like any good and for a long time i would always say no it's not ready yet click dimensions if you're starting at this point and you need something to use i would always say click dimensions

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and then i would say probably within the last year and a half that there was then a shift to where it was then kind of they almost became

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: parallel to where i'm like well all your decision making

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: is then more based on okay we're either going with a licence and you're paying for that and you're paying for the contact or you're paying for the number of emails that you send it was more than what the

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: price pricing or licensing

[mark]: right

[megan]: or structure in terms of click dimensions of isis marketing

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and then really microsopiright they just started to get some amazing people and their team from the marketing product team and they've just started

[mark]: oh

[megan]: 

bringing up more and more stuff now i will say

[mark]: 

oh

[megan]: that the real time marketing i ignored for a long time because i feel that and i don't think i'm saying anything that the product team aren't aware of but they

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: brought out what they called outbound marketing

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: which was the original sort of marketing stuff

[mark]: yep

[megan]: the sending of emails the event management the marketing forms all of

[mark]: yep

[megan]: that sort of stuff and then they said oh look here's this real to marketing put it obviously in the same product they function

[mark]: yep

[megan]: very very different ly you have a journey that someone goes

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: on that's either an outbound journey

[mark]: oh

[megan]: a real time journey you have mail temples that are either

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: in out bounder in real time

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: so for a long time i kind of ignored

[mark]: 

yeah

[megan]: 

it because i'm like just doesn't fit together i can't see how i would implement this from perspective don't know

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: about but you because maybe it's been a long time since you been sort of in the trenches but if i can't see how i will implement this

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i can't buy into it i need to be able to like literally look at it and be like this is how i will train this is how i will implement this is how i will sell to

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: somebody this product so i would say probably within the last six months is where i've really started

[mark]: oh

[megan]: to take it on and actually embrace it and get excited about it so the biggest piece

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: of it for me is i mean i love marketing i've talked about marketing i've done stuff on branding or all of that sort of stuff but the biggest thing

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: is i would say from the real time perspective is the triggers as being able to have something

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: happen in the day to base and then go off run

[mark]: yep

[megan]: a flow and power to make do

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: concastinations do us tiens find all the information that you need

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: from all over the data base not just from the contact record

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: but now finding doing

[mark]: oh

[megan]: like a list o step and getting all of the related stuff based on certain criteria in blahblahblah and then passing it all back through so that then when i'm building my email temple i'm not just saying

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: ive me the values of fields on the contact record or the related account

[mark]: oh

[megan]: but i'm saying give me the values of information that's been passed through this trigger and here's the data just created for me

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i mean it's not it's been built

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: by somebody behind the scenes

[mark]: oh

[megan]: but that that piece right there where we're talking about true personalization not just directly from the contact record but from all of the other pieces

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: from within data verse so i think that for me is then where

[mark]: oh

[megan]: you're getting into okay i get an email we're all save now we shouldn't necessarily

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: be like oh my god look how nice

[mark]: oh

[megan]: this is this personalized email it's still obviously a marketing email of some kind but it have to look as spammy or blocked

[mark]: oh

[megan]: and a specific marketing email

[mark]: ah

[megan]: it's then more about hey this is

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: a man we think about marketing but i'm working on project at the minute where what will probably end up doing

[mark]: oh

[megan]: is also branching out with journeys and using it for things like okay your

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: your accounts in areas um there's

[mark]: yep

[megan]: an update that needs to happen

[mark]: oh

[megan]: or you need to pay attention to this it's not just

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: for marketing it's for me is what an automated process where i need to

[mark]: ye

[megan]: communicate with the customer so i view it more like that

[mark]: nice

[megan]: than just marketing its communications i would say more than anything

[mark]: like it what are your thoughts then are you know on a couple of big things that have happened in the last twenty four months and i'm gonna i'm goin to reel them off as they come to mind one um microsoph is massively invested in dynamic three six five commerce now any commerce place platform so front end shop et cetera is going to have a marketing component so there's going to need a plug in back into damictrsix five marketing then you have customer data platform or dynamic try six five customer insight which is about finding all that data that you talked about that create triggers for example i'm forty nine years old at two and fifty and my insurance provider has a special fifty year old insurance policy and so i get a tailored message to me saying hey congratulations on your fifth birthday by the way your premium is going to drop to this now of course it doesn't it's actually going to increase to something else right insurance with age but that's that's what i'm talking about one of tailored messaging product service et cetera but now my understanding is you've got things like libraries within dynamic tre five marketing where your assets et cetera

[megan]: oh

[mark]: sit and they are different between an bound an outbound different libraries

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: and you mentioned before and then commerce potentially another library set um how i use are you seeing from microsoph to pull together of all these systems to make it one symbiotic type being

[megan]: yeah i'm saying i'm seeing things on on the horizon so one of the

[mark]: oh

[megan]: if we talk about someone like joe lin saying i'm stepping out of the nvpprogram i would imagine probably one of the things that he might miss will be the ability to give feed

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: back to the product teams actually i microsoft one of the things that is probably the number one thing that i value the most

[mark]: oh

[megan]: i would say it used to be like the community stuff but i feel like there are some new people

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: coming out that maybe have like louder voices more knowledgeable whatever so for me i find even if i'm not doing a blog post i'm having at least one one maybe two calls each month with somebody on the product team from marketing

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: so there's stuff obviously that you know we're privy to a nbpsit's

[mark]: no

[megan]: under nd so it's not necessarily anything that

[mark]: oh

[megan]: can be shared but i'm seeing where

[mark]: oh

[megan]: i find that they take on board the feedback

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: like

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: they're absorbing it and

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: they've got a team and they're doing amazing things but they're getting that real world like hey our customers are asking for this you know we're not able to progress

[mark]: oh

[megan]: on something because of this piece that's missing so i would say you're the thing about libraries and the asset absolutely the

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: organization that are using asset management software they're already using some of their using syce

[mark]: uh

[megan]: or they're using whatever it might be so to be able to come along

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and say well okay there's

[mark]: oh

[megan]: dynamic two six five you're using that already for sales customer service or whatever

[mark]: oh

[megan]: you're using it for and you've also got this asset management well grate the marketing up has that and we can plug it in it doesn't but ideally that's kind of like where they end up going

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: one of the things that i would like to see is we talk

[mark]: oh

[megan]: about events and event management and webinars

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: we've got things with a team's integration fantastic but so many people use literally the name of it is just got out of my head what's it called event right so people use event right people

[mark]: right yeah

[megan]: you know all of these other

[mark]: oh

[megan]: tools and systems that you don't want to have to say marketing

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: is perfect for your organization oh but then you're going to need to change every other piece

[mark]: oh

[megan]: of your sort of marketing tool you know

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: sort of suite of tools that you're already using as a team you ave to change everything

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: rather than just saying well here the marketing up but maybe we can stop plugging into

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: other things that people are already using

[mark]: oh

[megan]: so yeah i hope

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: that we see that more i think at the minute they're still working to it's saying this was outbound this was marketing

[mark]: oh

[megan]: which is outbound this is now real time which you should be using but there's still of bridging that gap between the two they're getting a lot closer and they're doing it very quickly but i think once they need to do all of that first i

[mark]: oh

[megan]: would actually probably be a bit annoyed if they started doing integrations with things and left those gaps those

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: need to be filled then

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i think it's like they've set them it's to be like right now we can

[mark]: oh

[megan]: go off and do these other plugs into the other

[mark]: oh

[megan]: tools that's what that's my hope at least is they plug all the gaps in and then they can go off and do other things yeah whether they do

[mark]: i like

[megan]: or not

[mark]: it

[megan]: i don't know that would be good

[mark]: me it's been a pleasure having you on the show final words

[megan]: final words

[mark]: what's your final words

[megan]: yeah

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i i don't know i think i think i'm still um m i don't want to say jaded but i feel love being an m v p but i do feel like it does not mean community doesn't mean the same

[mark]: oh

[megan]: to me as it once did and i think it's okay for people to step back from the community and like i see

[mark]: yah

[megan]: post and and i know because i was i

[mark]: yah

[megan]: was part of this as well for so many years where it was like oh my god events events events events and you know sharing stuff on social media i think it's okay to not be at every event

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: it's okay to not

[mark]: oh

[megan]: share and re tweet everything that you see

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: i see so many people talking about pomo of not being an event honestly i couldn't care like scottish summit i just was not interested on i also knew that even though i'm very chatty and outgoing when i'm on one on one or in groups of people i don't like big events one of the most special moments for me it's

[mark]: oh

[megan]: got summat the very first one was sitting with you

[mark]: uh

[megan]: and lucy born at a bar in glasgie

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: chatting about real stuff stuff that was important in life and i think that for me is community i view

[mark]: oh

[megan]: it is that i view it as making the relationships that mean stuff i don't view it as big events like that to me isn't real

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: and that's not everybody feels

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: the same because people have different personalities but what i think now a few years on i can recognize that and be like i don't want to go to sketch

[mark]: yeah

[megan]: summit because i don't feel i'm going to get meaningful conversations that i need as

[mark]: oh

[megan]: a person if that is fair to say so yeah those are my final lot

Megan WalkerProfile Photo

Megan Walker

Megan Walker is a Microsoft Business Applications MVP and a Power Platform consultant with experience in web design, social media and marketing. She's a passionate blogger, writing about tips, tricks and ideas for non-developer geeks.