CRM Marketing: Overview, Best practices & Examples
The widespread use of technology is redefining how businesses organize contact information and manage their customer relationship. Remember the last time we talked about the key functions of CRM together with 5 recommended tools?
This time, SleekFlow is going to cover CRM marketing in more depth, along with some CRM best practices for you to consider when implementing a new strategy.
What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy that specializes in gathering customer data from various channels, including but not limited to company websites, phone calls, emails, and marketing events. After integrating all information into an all-in-one platform, the system will soon begin to analyze the overall purchase preferences and behavior patterns, providing an evidence base for future actions.
This is Rolodex, the very beginning of CRM. It is a desk accessory which users can spin through the index cards to find out the contact details and sales records of each customer.
In today’s digital era, data is obviously the king. In order to consolidate and optimize the relationship with existing customers, businesses crave all personal, behavioural and demographic information. Still, data can be useless if there is no appropriate strategy.
What is CRM marketing?
CRM Marketing is a way to help businesses better understand the customer lifecycle by linking up statistics collected from a variety of sources. With its operational and analytical abilities, businesses can easily discover patterns in a particular segment of data, making strategic planning no longer clueless. Consequently, businesses can develop more precise tactics that can drive a tremendous increase in customer loyalty, retention, and, most importantly, revenue.
CRM increases lead conversion by 30%. - Salesforce
5 critical elements of CRM marketing
1. Audience segmentation
When it comes to customer relationship management (CRM), one key success driver is to offer customer-centric marketing material. To achieve this goal, you first need to divide your customer base into small groups according to their characteristics, for example, genders, interests, and shopping habits.
CRM Marketing should be able to segment leads into different categories, helping marketers to prepare messages and campaigns that suit customers the best.
Explore how market segmentation can benefit your business in our latest blog.
2. CRM database
Before deciding whatever CRM to use, be careful if its customer database caters to your business needs.
Take email marketing as an example. When you are trying to conduct A/B testing, you need data like open rate, click-through rate and conversion rate for a comprehensive comparison. A marketing CRM should be able to measure these metrics and generate an analytics report, which is indispensable to ongoing performance improvement.
See how SleekFlow offers a comprehensive view of analytics for your marketing campaigns.
3. Landing pages
Landing pages refer to the arrival touch points specifically created for a marketing or advertising campaign. Very often, marketers will include a responsive web form to capture all the right customer data for follow-up.
A marketing CRM normally comes with an easy-to-use landing page builder, allowing people without a coding or design background to create a high-quality page on the fly. After launch, all the information collected through the landing page will be immediately synchronized with the CRM database, giving businesses a full picture of each and every lead generated.
4. CRM reports and dashboards
Given that a CRM is supposed to streamline the marketing process, it should be able to visualize ample data in a dynamic and interactive way.
Most marketing CRM systems come with customizable dashboards and reports, so users can feel free to export an overview of the dimensions and metrics they care about most.
5. CRM automation
Can you imagine how effective your team will be if there are no more manual yet repetitive tasks? Well, marketing CRM should be able to let you live your dream.
For instance, it will take over all time-consuming duties such as data entry, contact update and notification send-out. When there are incoming calls, it can automatically assign the requests to different representatives, facilitating easy collaboration between teams.
In short, the ability to streamline workflows and processes associated with sales, marketing, and customer support makes the CRM system a great assistant. For businesses that are hoping to manage leads, sales pipelines and onboard customers with less effort, this all-in-one platform is undoubtedly the perfect solution.
Looking to update your Salesforce and HubSpot CRM automatically? Start with the free trial of this add-on feature on SleekFlow today.
Social CRM to boost sales and marketing results
Social CRM is a shortened form of Social Customer Relationship Management, meaning the integration of social media and instant messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and WeChat. These days, integrations have extended to include data from digital business cards as well.
Since customers can interact with businesses in whatever way they like, you open the door for them to initiate conversations with you, and thus, expanding the customer base efficiently.
Compared with traditional email marketing, social CRM outperforms in terms of engagement rate – social media and instant messaging gain 6x more open rates and 8x more click rates. Not to mention the fact that customers are more willing to reply to messages directed to their phones.
Examples of successful CRM marketing campaigns
1. Automated customer support – Hello Chatbot
This is a chatbot created by Hipmunk, a travel site to scour deals on flights, hotels, and more.
With an aim to reduce response times, Hello Chatbot is capable of answering general FAQs 24/7, preventing the loss of customers due to delayed customer service.
Moreover, the bot can be integrated with various applications like Facebook and Skype, making it more convenient for customers. Product Information Management has to be aligned with the company's business applications and other PI-providing sources like CRM, e-commerce, and ERP.
2. Continuous and consistent customer engagement – Sephora
Maintaining seamless engagement with your customers can be a bit overwhelming. Still, it is crucial to improve customer satisfaction.
Sephora has, therefore, introduced a marketing CRM to handle this daunting task. Not only can the software automatically send a thank you email and an invitation to review, but it can also cross-sell or even upsell the products via personalized content. The program is a huge success in that Sephora has acquired 17 million more loyal members, and members account for almost 80% of its annual sales.
SleekFlow as the #1 CRM marketing manager
As an integrated omnichannel customer communication platform, SleekFlow is able to merge social profiles such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, and more into one platform for teams to better support and engage customers. Apart from that, SleekFlow also offers a wide range of functions:
Multi-login to ensure the team can actively and simultaneously work together, providing instant customer service and support
Segment, filter, and label customers to prioritize large clients accordingly
Powerful comment auto reply feature on Facebook and Instagram to save time while improving social CRM
Deliver personalized messages to target groups so as to keep them in the loop
Able to connect natively with e-commerce platforms (e.g. Shopify) and major CRM software such as Salesforce and HubSpot
Generate in-chat payment links to collect payments instantly
Free live chat widget to be installed on your website
As you choose the best CRM marketing software for your business, remember to pay close attention to these 2 features: CRM marketing campaigns and CRM marketing automation.
1. CRM marketing campaigns
Users can send broadcast messages to various channels with a targeted list of customers with just a click.
Simply fill in the campaign title, channels for disseminating your messages, the recipients and content, the messages will be ready to send out.
You can use it to send status updates, broadcast promotions, birthday messages and regathering campaigns. Generally speaking, it is similar to eDM but with more personalised features and higher instant reply rates.
You can check the response rate and export a CSV file on the same portal.
Want to broadcast messages on Facebook? Start blasting messages using Facebook OTN and Message Tags on SleekFlow.
2. CRM marketing automation
SleekFlow helps you simplify the workflow by eliminating manual work. You can determine under what scenario the system should send personalized auto-replies.
You can also distribute different conversations to a specific person, by queue or leave it as unassigned.
Upcoming CRM Marketing Trends and Innovations
As technology advances, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into CRM systems is gaining prominence. AI-powered tools can analyze vast customer data, providing valuable insights and predicting customer behaviors. Consider leveraging AI-driven solutions to enhance the analytical capabilities of your CRM system.
Here are other trends you can integrate into your system:
Personalization in CRM Marketing: Customers appreciate personalized interactions in the ever-evolving digital age. Implementing advanced personalization features in your strategy, such as a browser alert, can significantly impact customer engagement and satisfaction.
Explore customization options within your system to tailor communications based on individual preferences and behaviors. Moreover, stay informed with real-time updates, ensuring your strategy always aligns with the latest technological advancements.
Real-time analytics for immediate insights: Real-time analytics capabilities are crucial for making informed decisions promptly. Evaluate your CRM system's ability to provide instantaneous insights and reports, enabling your marketing team to respond swiftly to changing trends and customer behaviors.
Integration with emerging communication channels: Consider integrating your CRM system with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) platforms. This integration can offer unique and immersive experiences, setting your business apart in customer interactions.
Enhanced security measures: Stay updated on the latest security protocols and consider adopting blockchain technology to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of customer's data.
Want to outcompete your peers with SleekFlow's help?
Book your personalized demo with SleekFlow today and unlock the potential of seamless communication
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