Today, the most effective marketing is personalized marketing. Therefore, companies should gather data and information about their customers and build on this to create effective campaigns.
A CRM, a tool for collecting and cataloging all contact and customer information, is needed to accomplish these activities.
In this article we discuss the relationship between CRM and marketing, highlighting why a CRM is indispensable for customer management and effective marketing strategies.
What is CRM and what are its benefits
CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Manager, is a useful tool for collecting information about customers, such as their contacts or past purchases.
This data is grouped by the CRM itself, linking information from various sources, including email, websites, physical stores, call centers, and online advertising.
Then this data is used to manage productivity and create marketing strategies, seeking to address specific individual customer needs.
CRM software (such as Odoo CRM software) therefore, enables companies to manage business relationships.
CRM enables numerous benefits; for example, it allows us to understand:
- The future value of a given customer
- Which customers are the most loyal and profitable
- What products and/or services your most important customers want to buy
This allows you to fully meet customer expectations; and a fulfilled customer will be more likely to continue coming to you. He will, therefore, be a loyal customer.
What are the tasks of CRM and its features?
The main task of a CRM is to help target your business to audiences whose needs and requirements you know. In this way you try to provide a solution to customer demand.
A CRM makes it possible to successfully manage various customer relationships and set up effective marketing campaigns, such as targeted promotions and web-based invitations.
In order for a CRM software is useful for business strategies, it must meet certain characteristics. Specifically, CRM must be:
- Capable of storing information about customers so as to understand what their needs are and what their buying behaviors are. Such data can be collected either by traditional methods or through alternative approaches such as digital tools (such as e-mail), or social network insights.
- Easy to use, as there is a need to access the information stored in the CRM database quickly and easily. In addition, such a database must also be easily updatable, since the information stored in it is variable.
- Shareable to the entire work team in a useful and clear manner. All employees in the company should be able to access the information stored in the CRM so that they can benefit from it and plan a targeted sales strategy.
- Equipped with analysis tools, which are useful for building profiles of various customers and then subsequently developing sales strategies according to the needs of those customers. In this way, a personalized approach takes place.
- Able to help define a marketing strategy with which to approach customers while minimizing the possibility of error.
Goal of CRM: customer management
Thus, the main goal of a CRM is to be able to better manage the customers who come to the company.
Its functions note the ability to quickly dispose of qualitative data generated by the relationship between your company and your customers and the global view of your customers, as well as the identification of new ones.
The clientele can be divided into subcategories, such as by age group or country.
Created specifically as a customer management software, today it is for all intents and purposes an option that you just cannot ignore if you want to succeed in marketing.
CRM and marketing: how this tool helps the company
CRM does not replacecorporate marketing activity, but adds to it by proving to be a valuable aid while it is being carried out .
It represents a supportive tool that allows this activity to be carried out in a more precise and effective way, helping to monitor, collect and personalize data related to business contacts. It helps to focus efforts by avoiding the most repetitive and serial steps of the relationship with one's contacts.
To be totally effective, remember: you cannot choose just any CRM. Each company is different from the others with regard to business purposes and internal organization.
Customized CRM software is created according to the specifics of the company, concretely supporting increased productivity and marketing strategies.
Marketing automation
CRM can be integrated with marketing automation tools, such as those for sending emails and business communications.
Accurate data on purchases help plan reward strategies for repeat customers (such as offers, extended warranties, bonuses) that, with an automated tool, are targeted to selected targets.
Lead nurturing
CRM also supports marketing in lead nurturing, that is, cultivating a profitable relationship with potential customers.
This can be accomplished through targeted communications to finalize an unfinished sale, or to awaken the interest of contacts you have not heard from in some time.
Focused target audience
The main advantage of CRM is represented by focused targeting: in fact, the software contains information about customers' behaviors and preferences.
With a CRM system, the aim is no longer to provide information and advertising to as many customers as possible in a generalized and generic way, but to put in place a more effective approach by reaching only those who respond to the figure of our ideal customer for a particular product or campaign. Doing so saves time and money.
Good CRM systems, which are becoming more and more advanced, are able to develop very precise focused targeting.
Customer segmentation
CRM system activity also involves customer segmentation. The latter is used to divide customers into certain segments according to their interests, master data, inquiries, purchases made, and other common characteristics.
Such a division can be done manually by the person, but the most effective CRM systems allow automatic division.
Customer segmentation allows you to study effective communication strategies, changing your approach according to the contact segment you are targeting.
The more precise and detailed the segmentation, the greater the opportunities for marketers to personalize messages and win users' attention.
Improve your marketing activities with an effective CRM
Discover the features of our Odoo CRM software for your marketing: contact us!
