Everything that a CRM can (and should) do for a marketer

Despite their reputation as salespeople's software, CRMs are the secret sauce behind most effective marketing efforts.

A customer relationship management system (CRM) is a critical piece of software for marketers and salespeople. CRMs, which are both powerful and versatile, are used to manage all areas of the sales pipeline, from email signups to long-term customer nurturing and everything in between. From the tippy-top of the funnel to the time they sign that sweet, sweet contract, a finely-tuned CRM tracks and uses all of the tiny pieces of data provided by prospects.

CRMs and marketers are a wonderful combination since CRMs are all about acquiring and organizing every bit of customer data, and marketing is all about turning that data into sales leads. Furthermore, many marketers find themselves in sales-heavy businesses with fewer resources than their sales counterparts.

What should a marketer do with a CRM?

Marketing automation software is an effective tool for creating and evaluating campaigns. It is, however, only one piece of the puzzle. CRM technology allows for a more comprehensive view of customer data than a siloed marketing automation solution can deliver. CRMs can track historical data across sales, support, and marketing departments, for example. You can curate really relevant and tailored campaigns with this breadth of data, resulting in consistently good ROI.

Organize and manage your contact information.

You can store and manage contact info and connect with contacts all from your CRM (send emails, record phone calls, take notes, document sales activity, and plan meetings). This information is automatically logged to ensure that contact data are accurate and up-to-date. This makes it simple to use the contact information in a variety of ways, such as client segmentation and targeting (via deals and campaigns).

Directly communicate with prospects and consumers.

Members of each department can use the CRM to communicate directly with prospects and customers via email, phone, live chat, and tickets. All conversation logs are kept in a central location for easy access and transparency across teams.

Your go-to-market teams will all have access to a centralized communication inbox, allowing them to improve the customer experience. Additionally, because interactions and records are stored in the CRM's shared timeline, inbox, and/or contact database, individuals may easily pass conversation or contact information to another team member.

Keep tabs on the discounts

Deal tracking is simple with a CRM. Deal pipelines and stages can be created and customized as well. The program tracks and saves deal data (such as chats and meetings) as well as information about where your deal is in the pipeline. Add tasks in your CRM to remind yourself of specific deal deadlines - this is a good strategy for ensuring that you engage the appropriate individual when the time comes.

Manage your tickets and respond to them

Within your CRM, you have a common inbox from which you can contact customers to meet their requirements via ticket, live chat, or email. Your team can quickly manage all support tickets from the CRM's dashboard to correctly resolve any issues that arise. Customers who contact customer service via email receive automatic updates on the status of their ticket. Then there's ticket reporting, which shows you your ticket volume, kind, response time, and other metrics.

Tasks can be automated

A CRM allows multiple teams to automate time-consuming chores on a daily basis. Workflows and sequences make this possible.

Set enrollment criteria in processes to auto-add and update data for your deals, contacts, tickets, and other items, as well as complete critical actions (that you choose). Send a series of timed and highly targeted emails using sequences.

Other tasks that can be automated with a CRM include data input, prospecting, customer service, and content management.

Forms for Integrated Lead Generation

To drive visitors to your website, you're putting in a lot of SEO effort. Customers who are interested begin to visit your landing pages. They study your website content and fill out your lead forms to join up for your services. You'll soon have too many forms, and transferring all of that data to your CRM will be difficult.

Customers' information should automatically populate in your CRM when they sign up for a demo, subscribe to your newsletter, or contact your sales team. It will save your marketing and sales teams a lot of time by safeguarding the data and making it accessible at any time and from any location. Having data available at all times can assist marketers in creating effective campaigns and generating a large number of leads.

Make a database of information

In addition to landing pages, all-in-one CRMs can assist you in developing other content, such as a knowledge base. Clients benefit from a knowledge base because they can receive the answers they want and need on their own time.

If you create this library of self-help content, customers can get the help they need without ever speaking to one of your people. This allows service and support professionals to focus on more complex customer issues that require their expertise.

You may not only develop, distribute, and update your knowledge base, but you can also report on and analyze it to see how customers use it, which pages are most needed, and how it affects your audience overall.