What are the benefits of CRM software?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software can work wonders for your business. Implementing software that allows you to analyse customer behaviour, tailor communications, increase enquiries, boost revenue, and more. 

Here, we explain the benefits of CRM software – including why it’s so important and how it can completely change the way your business uses and capitalises on customer insights. 

What is customer relationship management software (CRM)? 

CRM software gives you the power to manage almost every aspect of customer data. It can be used to streamline the sales process, better understand customer behaviour, and ensure your marketing investment is well directed. 

What are the benefits of CRM software?  

There are endless business benefits of a CRM tool. Alongside allowing your sales team to communicate more effectively, it ensures the people who matter the most – your customers – are promptly given the most relevant information. Other key benefits include: 

• Central database of client data and communications

• Segmented customer data 

• Increased customer retention 

• Efficient and effective customer communications 

• Automated customer journeys

• Measurements of marketing effectiveness and return on investment (ROI)

• Protection of customer data privacy 

How to use CRM to measure and scale marketing effectiveness

Implementing a CRM can seem like a daunting task. Some systems are huge and the initial integration might prove tricky without an experienced digital marketing agency at the helm. However, the benefits to your business are too great to let this deter you from taking the first steps. Below, we explain how you can effectively use CRM in your business’ marketing efforts.

Choose the right CRM for your business

There are countless CRM options to choose from, so it’s important to review each platform’s main functions before aligning it with your business. Ask yourself what CRM benefits you want to achieve: do you want to sell more products and services, improve communication between sales and marketing teams, or simply find and keep new customers? CRMs we’d recommend to our clients include Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce and SAP. 

Integrate with your website 

Integrating CRM and web forms is one of the best ways to improve the efficiency of your business, as sales and admin teams can focus on the “human” tasks that need to be done day-to-day. Most CRM systems will provide a built-in application programming interface (API), which automatically maps customer data and creates contacts for the sales team. Our in-house developers specialise in CRM and ERP integration and would always recommend starting here. 

Scale your social media efforts

Syncing your social media strategy with your CRM can help nurture prospective leads, deliver excellent customer service, and open up endless insights into how a contact engages with your company across multiple channels. More than that, social CRM allows you to respond and engage with your customers in real time, quickly addressing any queries or concerns in a manner which will cast your business in a positive and compassionate light to existing and potential customers.

Automate your emails

One benefit of CRM software not to be overlooked is email automation, which most CRMs include as standard. Email automation enables you to harness the power of triggering specific, relevant email communications to your prospects or customers at a time when they’re most likely to engage. You can also use CRM insights to better segment audiences and target customers with more successful and tailored email campaigns.

Internal workflows for efficiencies

Although not linked directly to a marketing activity or action, the set-up of internal workflows is crucial to ensure efficiency throughout your business. With manual tasks (such as payment due dates, service expirations or contact reports to the sales team) being superseded by the system, your employees can focus on the elements of admin where human interaction is beneficial. 

End-to-end PPC insight

Most CRM benefits include the ability to integrate your pay-per-click (PPC) strategy directly into the platform. This means you can gain a more in-depth understanding about your audience – specifically the keyword they clicked on and what the direct revenue or customer lifetime value is – allowing you to place your PPC budget in the best place to drive ROI. 

Integrating CRM into your business might seem like a time-consuming venture. However, gaining a greater understanding of your customers can be huge for your revenue and sales, especially if you have a dedicated agency to take care of the integration for you. If you need support in setting up and scaling your CRM strategy, get in touch with the crew and we’d be happy to chat through your requirements.