CRM Integration
Any CEO, CFO, manager, marketing director or any other person in a related position of a successful business enterprise has been challenged to seek the best way to manage the company’s customers, leads, prospects and sales opportunities at least once in their career. However, with the advancement in the digital marketing sector, the numerous meetings organized and attended by company heads and managerial staff on this matter has finally paid off. That is because of the introduction of CRM. CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management, is a software application designed to enhance your business’s customer services, sales, and marketing strategy which you will later in this article read how. With CRM integration, the enhancement of these aspects for your business is advanced. This article has taken the liberty to enlighten you on what CRM and CRM integration entails, why and how to get CRM integration for your business to experience advanced marketing success courtesy of Guttulus.
So, What is a CRM?
CRM is a software application whose primary function is to organize track and manage all your customers’ information including their activities and conversations about your business. They can either be web-based or stand-alone based. Its function enables the better understanding of customers and enhances your businesses interaction and thus the relationship with your customers. Some businesses use CRM to keep track of their technical support, marketing goals, track prospects and manage sales information. In other words, the functional benefits that a CRM software can provide to your business are numerous, which are utilized differently depending on the distinct company needs.
Using CRM in your company’s marketing plan comes with some benefits such as; increased customer and prospect interaction, a flowing sales process, ability to suitably nurture customer relations to your business and keeping track of valuable customers.
By helping your company manage your prospects, sales progress and customers, CRM enables you to deliver the right message at the right time to the right customer, thus enhancing the service provision and marketing information management of your business enterprise.
Types of CRM
CRM applications exist in two primary varieties that is; software and service. A CRM software is installed into your computer or server, and the data is retained in either area, which after installation and a single payment you take complete control over, that includes the program and data inside it. Whereas, CRM services are hosted online which are accessed by paying an ongoing fee from any computer. The decision on which CRM to choose is usually made depending on the needs of the organization and structure of business.
Some of the more well-known and highly used CRMs include; Microsoft, SalesForce, Dynamics, InfusionSoft, Netsuite, SugarCRM, Zoho, and Highrise. A business can also have custom-made CRMs.
Despite the variety, however, all CRMs hold the same type of information and function to achieve similar goals which include;
- Increase the business’s profitability.
- Enhance customer and communication retention.
- More targeted marketing.
- Enhance the business’s focus.
- Increase the tracking of prospects and customers.
CRM Integration
CRM integration entails building your business website and CRM to coherently function. CRM integration enhances your CRM’s functioning ability by automatically acquiring information of value pertaining to your customers and lead data which is submitted directly into your CRM rather than having to do manual entries.
The information on customers automatically brought in via CRM integration is based on the customer information already available on your website. For instance; say a prospect downloads a recently uploaded whitepaper from your website, they will be graded based on their previous participation within the site (according to your CRM’s software grading system) which if integrated will automatically create a new record and assign it to a salesperson to follow up.
The different fields of communication that are highly populated from a successful company’s site and CRM when integrated enables the sorting of leads. You as the business will be able to pinpoint when which lead visited your site, what they looked at and what information they requested for all from a single area. For some CRMs you can go for advanced options so that if the information is submitted by a customer from a given part of the country, the information is funneled automatically to a specific representative of the company without any steps in between.
Why CRM Integration
Retaining customer and prospect information forms a basic component of your company’s success in marketing which is what CRM functions to achieve. Using your CRM helps your business delegate tasks more efficiently, track customer trends as they happen, monitor business performance and plan and organize your marketing strategy better. CRM integration, therefore, enhances the basic function of your CRM software, which therefore means an enhancement on the CRM benefits by enhancing customer engagement and interaction with your site.
How to Get CRM Integrated
Most of the widely accepted CRMs have modules already created within them to ease your installation process. Nonetheless, when installing your CRM, it is imperative that your IT staff thoroughly considers all the coding issues before commencing the installation process. You can also call for references from the CRM providers that you choose, which can be helpful in finding out issues that you may not have thought through.
Conclusively, a lot of marketing success can be achieved with the ability to track your customers, their relationship to your business, what they do for it and how often they contact you. That success is made even greater by the ability to manage this information and CRM integration helps in achieving this success.