When it comes to marketing, it’s not enough to churn out content and hope for the best. You need to be able to offer relevant, personalized content that your audiences want to engage with. To do that, however, you need to be able to collect data about your prospects — not just their contact information, but also their behaviors as they engage with your brand. The best way to do that is through the effective use of CRM software.

What is CRM Software?

CRM stands for customer relationship management, which combines tools and tactics with the aim of nurturing leads to become loyal customers. These tactics and tools create a personal experience without requiring intense manual effort from your marketing and sales teams. You might ask yourself, though, why use a CRM software when you can theoretically manage those functions on your own?

In essence, CRM software is a database that contains all the information about your prospects that is pertinent to your marketing efforts. A good CRM will contain a customer’s contact information and keep a record of their interactions with your brand. Every time they get in touch with someone in customer service, download an asset from your website or interact with your content, you should know.

Benefits of CRM Software

A good CRM will offer a number of benefits to any digital marketing tactics you implement. By leveraging a CRM, you’ll be able to keep track of your marketing performance. You’ll have clear data about individual leads as they move through the funnel, as well as gather wider data about specific campaigns and messages. With that information, you’ll be able to hone your target audience further and enhance the way you run future campaigns.

You’ll also be able to work more efficiently and encourage collaboration across teams. The marketing department can capture prospect information directly within the CRM, and the sales team can make notes of their interactions with those prospects. That information lets the marketing team serve relevant content to those prospects.

If your CRM is integrated with marketing automation tools, you’ll see the advantages of CRM software in a whole new light. You’ll be able to keep track of specific behaviors that leads take, which trigger automation actions. For instance, a lead might download a specific asset from your website, triggering an email drip campaign of relevant content. If they open and click through on one of the emails within the drip, they might then connect with a sales team member for a conversation or receive a discount code to make a direct purchase.

Effective use of marketing automation and CRM software together is the best way to save money, save time and prove the effectiveness of digital marketing.

Choosing a CRM

To maximize the benefits of CRM, you need to select one that aligns with your business needs. Look for CRM software that integrates easily with your marketing automation tools and other workflows while remaining easy to use for your team.

SharpSpring’s marketing automation platform plays nicely with leading CRM software, and has a powerful native CRM if you haven’t yet chosen one that meets your needs.

For more on how to choose a CRM platform, talk to us or get a demo today.

AUTHOR
Harryson Pointdujour