One thing that bothers me about the brand profile is that changes don’t automatically update everywhere. For example, if you rename an existing sender, the new name won’t appear in the emails that already use that sender. The same happens if you update a social media link in your brand profile, it won’t update in the emails where that link was previously used.
This behavior surprised me, especially since I was used to a different approach in outbound marketing and content settings, where updates to sender information or links would automatically sync across assets.
Naturally, I started looking for a solution. And here it is.
Brand Profile
Let’s start with the brand profile. I sometimes add new fields here that I later use in email footers, like the management board or a privacy link. These fields might change in the future, and I don’t want to update each email manually every time.
Here’s how we can make this easier:
We’ll create a new field that will act as a trigger for our update via Power Automate. We’ll add a button to the command bar in the brand profile to change the value of this trigger field. Then, we’ll build a Power Automate flow that finds all emails linked to this brand profile and updates the respective fields automatically.
Create field and command
I create a new field called Update emails (pk_updateemails), which is a single line of text field.
Next, I add a new command. I followed along with Dian Taylor’s article (definitely worth a read). It’s important to start adding your new command directly via the app: open your app within your solution and choose the option to edit the command bar. Only when you do it this way will a new (or your existing) component library be added, allowing you to use PowerFx for your button. Otherwise, you’ll only have the JavaScript option.
Add a new command, place it where you prefer, and then add your PowerFx formula in the OnSelect formula bar.
I use the following PowerFx formula:
Patch('Brand profiles',Self.Selected.Item, {'Update emails':"Updating" & Rand()});
Notify("Update in progress. This might take several minutes.", NotificationType.Success,4000)
Create Power Automate to update emails
The Power Automate flow starts with the Dataverse trigger “When a row is modified.” I choose Brand Profile as the table, and the flow should only run when our new field (pk_updateemails) is updated.
Next, I initialize a variable to hold the brand profile data. This variable is of type Object, and in the “Value” field, you need to enter {} initially.
In the following step, I set this variable. The data for the brand profile is stored in a field on the email entity called msdynmkt_brandprofiledata. I usually use a tool called Level Up to grab the current value of that field from an example email. Alternatively, you can go to make.powerapps.com, open the email record, and copy the JSON from the field. I paste this JSON into the “Set variable” step and replace the static values with dynamic values from the trigger.
Next, I use the List rows step to find all emails that use the updated brand profile. It doesn’t matter whether the email is in draft mode or live—both will be updated.
Finally, I use the Update row step on each email found and update the msdynmkt_brandprofiledata field with the new brand profile data.
Now, you can confidently test your flow and watch your brand profile updates automatically sync across all your emails.
Brand Sender
You can apply almost the same approach for senders as you did for brand profiles: create a new field and add a command using Dian’s blog article as a guide.
The Power Automate flow starts with the Dataverse trigger “When a row is modified”, set to run when the pk_updateemails field changes – just like in the flow for brand profiles.
Next, I search for all emails that use this sender with the List row action. Then, I add an Update row step and update the following fields on each email:
- From name
- From email
- Reply-to email
- Sender (add there /msdynmkt_brandsenders (add sender id here))
This way, you can ensure that any changes to your sender information are automatically pushed to all related emails without the need for manual updates.
Summary
Maybe one day we’ll get a native solution for this, but for now, this approach helps you update all affected emails automatically. Especially if you’re managing a large number of emails, this will save you from having to update each one manually.
A big thank you to Björn Zahnow for the idea to add the button directly to the brand profile—I didn’t see the forest for the trees on this one!
***Please be aware: The content is accurate at the time of creation. It may be that Microsoft has made changes in the meantime.***
