Customer experience (CX) isn’t just a new buzzword. It’s becoming a rallying cry for businesses to increase customer retention and engagement.
According to a report by Gartner, about 50% of CX projects are driven by technology. Today, there’s no better way to improve the customer experience than with customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Are you new to CRMs? Read on to learn how using a CRM in marketing can help you improve your campaigns.
How to Use a CRM in Marketing
A CRM is a type of cloud-based . It stores all your contact data and integrates it with your other marketing systems.
Some of the best CRMs serve as stand-alone marketing platforms. Others are more like data repositories.
Today, CRMs are more affordable than ever. Even small businesses can access them. Here’s how to use CRM software.
1. Create a Centralized Location for All Your Data
If you’re still storing customer information on spreadsheets, you won’t be able to keep up with your competitors. A CRM eliminates the need to reference documents. You won’t need to copy and paste email lists or conduct as much research before launching a campaign.
All the data you collect on leads and customers is stored in a database that integrates with your other marketing systems. Want to launch an email campaign? Select a contact list, personalize your message, and hit send.
2. Automate Repetitive Marketing Processes
Automation is essential for businesses that wish to compete. Automation drives a 14.5% increase in sales productivity and 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead.
Marketing automation eliminates repetitive tasks that take up valuable time. For example, some CRMs let you schedule social media posts in advance and create auto-response emails. This frees up your team to focus on other tasks, like building your next campaign.
3. Integrate with Your Other Marketing Systems
The best CRMs are built with APIs that let you integrate them with your other systems.
For example, if you use an email marketing client like MailChimp, you can pull data from it into their internal analytics. You can also integrate social media channels, your website, your blog, and other assets.
With a comprehensive CRM, all your data and marketing tools are right at your fingertips.
4. Build More Personalized Content
Through automation and an extensive CRM database, you can create campaigns through personalization. Personalized marketing leverages data to deliver tailor-fit messages to your leads and contacts.
Personalization goes beyond adding someone’s first name to an email. With a CRM’s segmentation tools, you can create complex and dynamic email campaigns that target contacts with pinpoint accuracy. With automation, you can even create responsive campaigns that react to your contacts’ actions.
Better Marketing Campaigns
CRM and marketing go hand in hand. If you’re ready to use a CRM in marketing, you’ve got some decisions to make: There are hundreds of CRMs on the market.
Some CRMs are open source, but the most effective ones are built on partnerships with other software companies.
Looking for more information about CRMs, automation, and personalization? on At Your Business.
