Marketing automation and CRM are two different things. The former is a combination of software and strategy. It allows you to create highly appealing, useful and personalized content to be able to convert potential buyers into happy customers. CRM on the other hand is an important tool for lead generation; it deals with past customer data such as purchases, marketing campaigns and service satisfaction. CRM software aims to automate these processes to create a good experience for both the customer and the business.
While marketing automation and CRM may have different purposes, their features highly complement each other; hence the two work best when integrated. The ultimate goal of marketing is to create effective marketing campaigns and that of sales is to maximize the number of purchases. The integration of CRM and marketing allows marketing and sales to work side by side; this results in reduced costs, increased efficiency and greater revenue generation. So, whether you’re an internet service provider that offers deals like Cox internet packages or a coffee shop owner, the integration of CRM and marketing automation can help you improve your business capabilities and customer experience.
Let’s have a detailed look at the benefits of CRM and marketing automation integration.
1#. Helps Prioritize Marketing and Sales Efforts
Combining CRM and marketing automation systems can help companies streamline their prospecting and customer retention activities. It allows marketing and sales teams to gain advanced timely insights of customer behavior patterns and purchasing decisions based on which they can prioritize their efforts and devise better strategies. It’s wise to recognize opportunities before investing money and smart companies do everything possible to avoid making the mistake of throwing money at poor leads.
2#. Consistent Interaction with Customers
When your customers or prospects interact with you, they are essentially interacting with your matter. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a sales representative, a marketer or a customer service representative. They expect to get the same service irrespective of which team they are interacting with. This is why it is essential to provide a unified experience and an integrated system allows you to do that. Your contacts hence experience a smooth transition as the system passes them from marketing to sales. This not only improves the experience of your customers and leads but also works well to improve your brand image.
3#. Centralized Location for Data
When CRM and marketing automation systems are integrated, all the data is in one location. All teams across your business including marketing, sales and management can access form fills, read scores and contacts’ information within a matter of a few clicks. This makes their job less time-consuming and hassle-free.
When sales and marketing teams have equal access to the same data, their communication becomes much easier and their goals are also aligned. They can hence collaborate better to achieve common goals and not indulge in blame-game or unhealthy competition.
4#. Nurturing Leads
Without the integration of CRM and marketing automation, your sales team may get leads before they are ready to be closed. This is a sheer waste of time and can cause leads to be pushed away. With an integrated platform, the marketing automation system can use the information stored in the CRM database to craft personalized messaging to the right leads at the right time. This is made possible through the collection of form fills, website activity and visitors’ information. The marketing automation system then nurtures a lead and when it deems it sales-ready, it is automatically passed on to the sales team. This makes the job of the salespeople much easier and results in a higher conversion rate.
5#. Visibility of the Bigger Picture
The activities of the sales and marketing teams are often overlapping which is why it is better to manage them within one system. This makes reporting easy and quick. It also provides the managers a view of the bigger picture. They can track sales and marketing activities throughout the sales cycle. If a particular strategy isn’t working as expected, an integrated system would allow you to identify it, analyze it and then make adjustments for better results.
