By Harry Brelsford, CEO and Founder, SMB Nation
Several thousand of you have received an email from me the past several days with the Subject
What started out as a learning exercise inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Online turned into a FUBAR. I created a marketing list. Then I set the list to dynamic instead of static. I clicked Next a few times in the marketing list setup wizard and created a test email with the subject line “foo” and the text “foobar.” Then I clicked Finish and emails started going out via my Outlook client in Office 365. OMG “it” was mailing my entire customer list. I tried to right-click and stop but to no avail. I researched online how to stop a marketing list from mailing but couldn’t find the right answer. So I spent a few Karma dollars I had built up over the years and reached out to Julie Yack, a Microsoft MVP for Dynamics CRM and co-author of the well-received “ The CRM 2013 Field Guide Volume Two: How to CRM like an MVP with Dynamics CRM 2013” found on Amazon here. I purchased this book a few months ago and it’s highly recommend.
Julie deftly directed me to a settings area and I canceled the workflow for the test email. However, by then over 10,000 emails had queued and I couldn’t stop the motion. So many of you received my test email.
Interestingly, my response rate from YOU the reader was off the chart. Typically when I send out a newsletter, I receive only a few direct replies. With the foo email, I have received hundreds from replies ranging from LOL to “foo on you” to have your been hacked (a legitimate question). Another benefit is that I and receiving hundreds of bounces in the form of NDR replies. That means the email address is no longer valid. So I can use the report for the marketing list to then deactivate contacts that are invalid. Cool!
Seems to me my lemons turned into lemonade. Maybe I should send out more FUBAR mistakes as a marketing tactic! Lemme know.