Successfully integrating data into a seamless marketing effort is no longer dependent on how much data you collect. Our digital world is overflowing with countless amounts of information. Obtaining marketing data for your sales efforts doesn’t get you ahead anymore, it just gets your organization a spot on the field. Collecting data can only take your organization so far. To continue growing, you must apply this data in your customer interactions.
The simple truth is that sales are rarely lost due to the product, but rather when the customer relationship slips through the cracks. As a customer relationship management agency, we know that there is a best use of the data you collect: delivering on the best customer experience from start to finish.
Integrating with CRM Software
There are a variety of ways in which data can be collected on customers, from primary sources like account sign ups and form fills, to third party sources like web-tracking apps and brokers. With such a wide variety of data, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in keeping track of everything. Every organization benefits from keeping this information contained in one place, as it's the start to putting together a cohesive plan to use this data best. A customer relationship management (CRM) software is the primary tool for organizing and using the data that an organization might collect, and a great CRM tool is one that allows for data to be imported and applied across a variety of situations.
Salesforce and Hubspot are notable leaders in these systems. Software systems such as these are geared for assisting enterprise-level organizations with varying degrees of complexity of algorithms, quantity of data, and flexible reporting. However, they can often make data management feel even more confusing by their sheer customizability, leaving sales and marketing specialists overwhelmed with software IT support and losing momentum with new campaigns. For most small to mid-sized businesses, an enterprise system only slows the process of building customer relationships and carries a hefty invoice compared to other solutions.
A Solution for Your Organization
The first key step in getting started with CRM software is picking the right system to start working with, and a quality customer relationship management agency can help any organization discover the options that are available. As one such agency, the positioning experts at Innis Maggiore have worked extensively with various CRM options to find the application best suited to not just our clients’ brand strategy, but business strategy as a whole. For small to medium-sized organizations, one of the best CRM programs has not been an enterprise model, but a system that can be managed by one person alone if needed. We recommend Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM as the primary alternative to enterprise software. It is an all-in-one CRM solution for data storage, lead automation, email, and more, but without the complexity of larger applications. Let’s take a look at some of the key functionality expected from a CRM system, and how Constant Contact provides a solution for your scale.
- Contact Management
Lead Gen & CRM allows users to organize and manage all customers efficiently by storing all collected data on a singular contact location. This includes a common screen for viewing customer interactions, all data obtained, and notes. This ensures that contacts are easy to see and understand for all team members, without dedicated training for different interactions. - Lead Capture, Integration, and Automation
The platform includes simplified connectivity options for standard lead capture, such as import, form fills, or manual entry to ensure lead data capture doesn’t get missed. In addition, information from external sources can be easily integrated via API or standard third-party tools such as Zapier. Combining this data entry with easy-to-learn and standardized triggers and automation workflows, contact data management is handled without repetitive entry or custom-written code. - Email Marketing
Integrated email campaigns allow for the entire email process to be handled within the CRM from start to finish. A standard email designer exists in the platform, with personalized customer data easily integrating with these designs. This allows for a personalized customer relationship to develop without the need for immense data parsing or assistance from an IT team. - Reporting and Analytics
There’s no need to become a SQL guru or rely on plugins when a report is needed. Lead Gen & CRM produces a wide variety of default reports that allow an organization to search over the data and results that it cares about, without being forced to design a custom report from scratch. These clear dashboards provide insights without sophisticated technical skill required. - Scalability
Unlike large enterprise systems, Lead Gen & CRM can be set up in an instant. Getting started with this CRM system does not require custom automations and dashboards to be built first, it’s designed to grow with your business. As few as a single user can run the platform, with flexibility for a team of dozens to inherit if needed.
Work with a Customer Relationship Management Agency
Navigating the landscape of CRM software might seem like a daunting task. It’s no surprise, there are countless systems to choose from, and their teams might often prioritize making an immediate sale off of a demo rather than prioritizing your SOPs and overall business strategy. Customer and data management shouldn’t exist in a vacuum, it should integrate seamlessly with your brand identity and organizational objectives as a whole. That’s why it’s foundational to work with a customer relationship management agency to help your organization get started with a software undertaking. Don’t feel lost in the world of digital data and software upgrades, contact America’s #1 positioning ad agency to learn more about how we can help make your customer relationships feel purposeful and aligned with your brand experience.