Overview for Selecting the best CRM Marketing Strategy
- Importance of a CRM System
- Developing a digital ecosystem to increase leads and conversions
- Building out lead nurturing
- 7 Steps to developing your digital lead ecosystem
- Selecting the best CRM platform
- Comparison Methodology
- Qualitative Evaluation
- Comparison Matrix
- Cost Comparison
- Final Conclusion
What is the Importance of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
If you are searching for the best CRM strategy to use for your business, you are looking in the right place. Whether you are a massive corporation or a small business, your main priority is winning and retaining customers. This guide will showcase and analyze four different platforms that will support your sales and marketing efforts.
What is Customer Relationship Management?
It is no secret that the key to business growth and success is a strong CRM system. A customer management (CRM) system provides an organized method that businesses use to effectively manage customer data and streamline their sales process. This method helps build a stronger economic and social connection with clients which leads to greater long-term satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer retention.
The power of a strong and efficient CRM system, integrated with the ability to gather and store customer information, allows marketers to better predict clients’ desires and their subsequent purchasing decisions. In addition, compiling and storing customer data provides marketers with the ability to find new clients and discover insights within the sales funnel process. This is relevant regarding what customers look at, react to, and how they might be influenced.
Developing a Digital Ecosystem to Increase Leads and Conversions
Businesses that use marketing automation experience a 451% increase in qualified leads.
Building out Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing converts leads into promising customers. But to do this, you must develop, build, and nurture a strong strategy that creates a personal relationship with your customers.
Supported by facts:
- Lead nurturing produces on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.
- Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads
- 35% of B2B marketers have established a lead nurturing strategy
Lead nurturing can be complex and intimidating without the proper tools. However, with a straightforward process in place, lead nurturing will drive positive customer experiences.
35% of B2B marketers have established a lead nurturing strategy
7 Steps to Developing Your Digital Lead Ecosystem
Now that we’ve established the importance of a CRM system and how a digital ecosystem works, let’s review the 7 steps you need to take to develop your digital lead ecosystem.
Step 1: Determine and implement MarTech for lead capturing, nurturing and CRM integration
Step 2: Identify the best SEO-optimized topics and content for on-page conversion
Step 3: Explore and implement on-page conversion tactics and define A/B test opportunities
Step 4: Build out the marketing assets
Step 5: Establish KPIs and reporting
Step 6: Launch traffic-building campaigns to drive qualified prospects to the site
Step 7: Build out a lead nurturing campaign to convert those leads not sales-ready into opportunities
Take a look at the different CRM platforms on the next page to see how to apply this in real life.
Selecting the Best CRM Platform
MarTech also known as marketing technology, is comprised of the software and tools used to help your business achieve marketing goals. Let’s take a look at four different MarTech platforms and see how they compare.
- HubSpot
- Zoho
- Active Campaign
- Zendesk
Comparison Methodology
The best way to perform such an evaluation between each software is to focus on these four key factors:
- The origin of the company: This tells us what is in the company’s DNA. It also gives an idea of what the software is built around, as well as its strengths and weaknesses.
- Definition of the company in its own words: Understand the business aspects the company is conveying.
- Ranking or evaluation by key consulting firms: Where does the industry place this software?
- Traction: Identify who is using this software platform
Qualitative Evaluation
HubSpot
Origin: Started in the U.S. in 2006. Originally focused on Inbound Marketing and then expanded to include Sales and Marketing.
Definition: Marketing, sales, and service software that helps your business grow without compromise.
Traction: 100,000 customers, 3,400 employees and $1 billion in recurring revenue.
Zoho
Definition: Zoho CRM offers Bigin, a pipeline-centric CRM built and priced for small businesses. With Bigin, small businesses can now manage their customer relationships more easily than ever. Whether you’re ready to move beyond spreadsheets or replace legacy sales tools.
Traction: 13 million customers, over 7 thousand employees and $610 million in revenue.
Active Campaign
Origin: Started in the U.S. in 2003 as a consulting and marketing automation software company.
Definition: Drive growth with customer experience automation. Email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools you need to create incredible customer experiences.
Traction: 150,000 customers, 900 employees, $165 million in revenue.
Zendesk
Origin: Started in Denmark in 2007 then moved to the U.S. in 2009. Built as a customer support software company.
Definition: Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds software designed to improve customer relationships. Sales CRM to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams
Traction: 160,000 customer accounts, 4 thousand employees and $816 million in revenue
Conclusion
- Active Campaign can get your sales team organized and engage with leads with its fast-paced email marketing, marketing automation, CRM and sales services available at a professional level. With an additional cost, you can get access to greater insights and tools. This platform is best for product management.
- HubSpot is more expensive but easy to use and seamlessly integrated. HubSpot focuses on sales, service, CRM, and operations with increased functionality the more you use it. It is considered a smaller platform compared to the others but has many great easy-to-use CRM benefits. This platform is best for integrations.
- Zendesk doesn’t have CMS and has limited marketing automation functionality within its own platform, but it is the second-largest growing CRM platform. It offers you a wide range of features such as analytics, knowledge-based and marketing messaging. This platform is best for a complete customer life cycle.
- Zoho has a full suite of services at a very affordable cost. It has many functionalities that a small business requires, including lead gathering, contact management, and many more tools to help you turn leads into conversions. This is the best CRM software for remote and hybrid teams.
Depending on your budget and business model, 360 Integral Marketing will help build out a Digital Lead Ecosystem that seamlessly works seamlessly for your business.
