You may have heard the term ‘CRM marketing’ and wondered what it’s all about. Well, we’re going to tell you! Firstly, you’ll need to understand that a CRM (customer relationship management system) is a valuable piece of technology. Depending on the program, it can range in complexity from just gathering and storing customer information through to performing complex customer analysis and segmentation.
In simple terms? It’s software that powers your customer service, marketing and customer support. So, here’s what you need to know about CRM marketing.
The aim of CRM marketing
Naturally, the term refers to using your CRM for marketing tasks. The beauty is, a CRM can actually automate a lot of marketing, which is why it’s so valuable for businesses who want to achieve more with fewer overheads. Basically, you’re trying to achieve four main things through CRM marketing.
Customer loyalty
Loyal customers keep coming back to spend more. However, even more important than that, they promote your business for you by sharing, referring friends and leaving great reviews.
Customer retention
Retaining customers is a little bit like improving customer loyalty, but on a more basic level. This is simply about ensuring the customers you already have don’t go looking elsewhere for similar products.
Increased revenue
This is self-explanatory – you market in order to generate more leads, more sales, and ultimately more revenue.
Customer lifetime value
Similar to customer loyalty, you want your customers to be as valuable as possible throughout their lifetime. So, it’s not about just making one or two purchases, but returning again and again.
How does it work?
CRMs work best when you take the time to program workflows into them. In short, this means telling the system what actions should be taken as a result of certain things occurring. Like a flow chart, but for the customer journey. For example, if you’ve linked your CRM to your social media sites and someone comments on your post, the CRM can automatically send a notification to a sales team member so they can quickly reply.
There are a couple of common ways that a CRM helps with marketing.
Sales automation
Automating sales tasks is great for business, and it all starts with your workflows. For example, someone makes a purchase through your website, and your CRM automatically sends a thank you or confirmation email. Following this, shipping notifications are sent.
Remarketing
Remarketing is all about getting a second bite at a potential customer. For example, a customer leaves an abandoned shopping cart. After a certain amount of time, your CRM can send a reminder email. Maybe even a discount promo code to entice the customer back. Again, this is all down to how you’ve set up your workflows.
Customer segmentation
Breaking customers into groups is a great way to streamline your marketing. Because a CRM holds all your important customer email, you can target certain groups. For example, if you’ve got a special on for certain states only, send emails to customers in those states. You might even break customers up according to their product preferences, and only send relevant deals.
Overall, CRM marketing is a smart way to do business, as it can improve revenue and offers genuine business process optimisation.
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