How CRM Software Can Help Your Marketing Efforts 

Running a business is not limited to just managing the roles and waiting for the revenue at the end of the month. In order to create the best outcome, you will need to invest time and funds to get results. Now, a business has different areas, one of which is marketing. Marketing is defined as certain activities to promote your product, present it to the world, and show it to those who need your services. One of the most helpful tools for this purpose is a CRM for marketing. This article will discuss CRMs and guide you in choosing the right one for your business. 

A Quick Review: What Does CRM Stand for in Marketing? 

Before diving in, let’s peek at CRM for marketing and online business. CRM, or Customer Relationship Management system, is a practical tool that helps you create healthy and long-lasting relationships with your customers and be there when they need you. It records customer interactions and behavior patterns that help predict their needs. 

A CRM system provides many options to employ and expand your business. 

It also offers tools and systems to track leads and their status and spots potential leads to increase sales. 

What is a CRM for Marketing Used for? 

A CRM for marketing should cover all your needs to manage contacts, provide customer service, and lead the way to the end of your marketing campaigns. You can find different types of CRM for various purposes. There are CRMs for real estate, CRM for marketing, and even for small businesses, each useful in its own way. For now, Let’s review the core features of a marketing CRM.  

Collect Data and Store Data 

Customer information can be gathered and stored by a CRM for marketing from various sources, including social media, email, and website analytics. Contact details, demographics, behavioral information, and other details may be included in this data. You can also store and manage contact information in one place, easily accessible in time of need. This will also streamline the collaboration between team members. 

Manage Marketing Campaign 

This is one of the essential features a CRM for marketing should provide. You can create and schedule campaigns and observe their performance. It helps you manage your campaigns via email marketing and social media. 

Track Customer Interactions

You can personalize campaigns based on customer data, such as previous interactions and conversations, purchases, preferences, or behavior. This is a useful way to invest in potential leads. It also helps you track your campaigns, providing insights into CTR and conversion rates. 

Segment Customer Data 

This is an interesting one. This feature provides demographic and behavioral segmentations of customer data. You can segment customers’ data based on gender, location, and income. You can also observe the behavioral patterns of customers in previous interactions, such as website visits and social media. This will help you create marketing campaigns that match customers’ interests and target specific customer groups. There’s also another type of segmentation called predictive segmentation. This categorizes customers using a machine learning algorithm to analyze and predict their needs and next move, so you can always be one step ahead to help them. 

Analytics and Reports 

Another prominent feature of a CRM for marketing is analytics. It gives suggestions and insights on lead generation, conversion rate, and campaign performance. Analyzing this data will help you make reliable decisions, develop new ideas and reinvent your marketing strategy. 

Integration with Other Tools 

Integration with other platforms is an essential option every CRM for marketing agency should have. It should cover other marketing tools, such as social media management, advertising platform, and email marketing tools. If you want to push your limits and take advantage of CRM in the SEO area, ensure it also integrates SEO tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush.  

Sales and Marketing Automation 

You don’t need to labor work to get results. The era of manual instruction is almost coming to an end! A CRM for marketing automates the whole marketing process, such as social media posting, email campaigns, and advertising. This will pave the way for team members to focus more on intelligent decisions and strategy. 

Ad Creation and Management 

Businesses can design and manage ad campaigns across various platforms, such as social media, search engines, and display networks. You can find this feature in many CRM for marketing. Ad copy creation, target audience selection, budget, and bid setting or all included in this feature. 

Sales Pipeline Management

A CRM for marketing enables you to manage sales pipelines by tracking deals, sales status, and revenue predictions. 

How Can a CRM for Marketing Improve SEO? 

A Marketing CRM software, although focused on sales, can improve SEO in many ways: 

Keyword Research will help team members gain insights into the most inquired keywords and what customers seek based on their interactions and conversations. This helps you create and optimize your website content and focus your social media and marketing strategy on customers’ wants. This can assist you alongside keyword research tools.  

Moreover, businesses can organize outreach campaigns to external websites and influencers. They can maintain consistent communication and follow-up and collaborate with these external sources to get backlinks with the aim of SEO improvement. 

How to Choose the Right CRM for Marketing 

You should consider a few vital factors when choosing a CRM for a marketing agency. 

Features and options:  one of the main factors you should consider is the features the CRM provides. To know if you are discerning what features you should pay for, you need to identify your needs and expectations and determine what you want your CRM to be capable of. As the name suggests, a CRM for marketing should provide good-quality customer relationship management and offer functional features to cover the marketing areas, such as lead management and sales. 

Cost-effectiveness: cloud-based platforms can be pricy depending on the features. You may be on top of the business, guarantee abundant income, and don’t have money issues. However, a CRM for a small business should be economical and provide all the basic features you need. 

Easy to use: no matter how fancy and full-functional a CRM is, it should be easy to use and skip facilitate complex tasks. Learning to implement all the features practically might take a while to learn. Therefore, a CRM for marketing is necessary to smooth the workflow and avoid the learning curve. 

Customer support: another factor you should consider when choosing a CRM is ensuring reliable customer support and service. It also should smooths communication and respond to customers’ questions via ticketing and chat box. 

Best CRM for Marketing 

If you’re looking for the best CRM for marketing, you can choose among the plenty out there; each comes with its strengths and weaknesses. In the following, we mention some of the popular marketing CRMs.  

Salesforce CRM 

as a CRM Solution, Salesforce provides cutting-edge marketing automation tools, including lead scoring, email tracking, and camping management. It is a wonderful option for companies requiring highly configurable CRM systems because it also interfaces with third-party marketing platforms like Marketo and Pardot. Salesforce CRM is the best CRM for email marketing.

Salesforce pricing: 

• Salesforce Essential: includes basic features, suitable for small businesses, and costs $25 per month. 

• Salesforce professional: suitable for medium-sized businesses, includes more advanced features like lead scoring, and costs $75 per user/month. 

• Salesforce Enterprise: designed for large companies, includes advanced features like reporting, and costs $150.  

Monday Sales CRM 

Monday.com is a software that provides several useful tools to improve SEO, project managing, and customer relationship management. Monday Sales CRM is one of these products that offer features that every CRM for marketing agency needs. These features include lead management, contact management, reporting and analysis, and deal management. It also improves customer relationships by offering high-quality customer support. 

Monday Sales pricing: 

• The Basic Plan: Costs $12 per user/month and offers basic features like lead and deal tracking, contact management, and email integration. 

• The Standard Plan: Provides features such as advanced reporting and analytics, task automation, and integration. Its monthly cost is $24. 

• The Pro Plan: The pricing starts at $49 per user per month and includes all the Standard Plan’s features, in addition to advanced management features. 

HubSpot CRM 

HubSpot CRM for marketing is a popular option for small and mid-size companies seeking a practical tool that integrates with their marketing and sales platforms. It provides many marketing automation features companies can use to streamline their marketing efforts. These features include lead nurturing, email marketing, and social media integration. If you’re looking for a CRM for marketing agencies, this one is your hero.  

HubSpot CRM pricing: 

• Free Plan: offers basic features like contact management, deal management, and email marketing. 

• Starter Plan: It costs $50 per month and includes additional features, such as marketing automation, email sequences, and customer reports. 

• Professional Plan: includes advanced features such as sales predictions and custom event tracking. The pricing starts at $800. 

• Enterprise Plan: Features advanced options like integrations and a wide range of marketing and sales tools. The pricing is customizable according to features. 

Zoho CRM 

Zoho is a cloud-based CRM with practical features like lead management, social media integration, and email marketing. It also provides mobile app and business tools integrations, including Google apps and Microsoft Office. Check out the Zoho CRM review to discover its features.

• Free Plan: includes basic features like lead management and contact management. 

• Standard Plan: offers sales forecasting, email integration, and document library. It costs $12 per user per month. 

• Professional Plan: the pricing starts at $20 per user/month and offers social CRM, inventory management, and a custom dashboard. 

• Enterprise Plan: features advanced analytics, territory management, and role-based access control. The pricing starts at $35. 

• Unlimited Plan: It provides unlimited features and access to advanced options; the pricing is determined based on the additional features. 

ActiveCampaign 

With a focus on marketing automation, ActiveCampaign is a CRM marketing software that provides a variety of functions, including email marketing, automation, and website personalization. It is a wonderful option for companies with complex marketing needs and expectations because it provides many third-party marketing platform integrations like Shopify and Salesforce.  

Final Thoughts 

Choosing the best CRM for marketing agencies can be challenging and time-consuming; To find the right one, you need to consider factors such as your budget and your requirements for the CRM. This article covered important points regarding CRM system and how it helps with the marketing process.

FAQs