Top 4 advantages of CRM in marketing

The benefits of CRM in marketing are:

1. Improving customer knowledge.

2. Increased customer interaction and retention.

3. Marketing automation.

4. Improved analytics and reporting.

1. Improving customer knowledge

An effective CRM should help businesses organise and analyse customer information and data to streamline and improve customer communication and relationships. Simply put, it gives your marketing team a deeper and better understanding of your customers, such as their demographics, purchase records and past messages, making communication more efficient and effective. It's everything you need to know, in one centralised place.

Perhaps most important for your marketing efforts is the fact that you can use this better understanding of customers and communication to conduct targeted (and account-based) marketing campaigns. You can tailor your pitch and tactics to the wants and needs of specific customers to improve your chances of conversion, whatever that may be.

"74% of respondents say CRM solutions give them better access to customer data, allowing for a more personalised service."

FindStack, (2021).

2. Higher customer interaction and retention rates.

A CRM system can help you complete marketing activities with ease. Whether it's email campaigns, limited-time offers or post-sales surveys to existing customers, or an email sent to non-customers who abandon their basket or write in with a customer service question, your CRM can help you send it to the right people, at the right time.

CRMs can even track the behaviour and actions of your current or potential customers through your company's website, social media or email marketing campaigns, and then guide the customer through the sales or purchase funnel by sending a triggered email or alerting a sales representative of the customer's interest.

3. Marketing automation

Marketing automation is the "mechanisation of time-consuming manual tasks" such as segmentation, lead generation, email campaigns and relationship marketing. It is used to speed up processes and eliminate time-wasting tasks so that employees can focus on more 'human' tasks (such as targeted content creation) to increase efficiency, productivity and performance.

By automating marketing processes, you can effectively manage mailing campaigns, scheduling, emailing, calling and follow-up efforts, which will increase your leads and sales.

"Effective sales organisations are 81% more likely to practice consistent use of a CRM or other system of record". Nutshell, (2021).

For example, you can send an email inviting potential new customers to attend a talk about your service, all those who confirm their attendance on the form will automatically be included in a new email list that will be used to send out details (known as a nurture campaign) and, after the event, a thank you email with an accompanying survey. This list can also be sent to the sales team so they can follow up with attendees.

4. Better analysis and reporting

Measure, analyse and manage real-time metrics for every element of your business. By identifying important information such as revenue and leads generated, as well as the results of your marketing campaigns through metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates and demographics, you can make effective and informed business decisions.

For example, your CRM can provide you with up-to-date analytics on top-performing agents, how long an individual agent has been connected, phone numbers called, costs, and inbound and outbound queue metrics. This allows you to see that your budget is being used in the most efficient way and that your marketing efforts are well coordinated with your sales, customer service, accounting and management teams.