CRM: How to Choose the Right One for Your Business?

For centuries, shop owners and barkeeps have understood the value of nurturing...

<p>The truth is that every business needs to go out of its way to keep existing clients happy. And unsurprisingly, the data that you gather with your CRM system can be invaluable for this case. More specifically, here is what you can extract from your <a href="/crm/">CRM system</a> to utilize in your marketing campaigns:</p>
<ul>
	<li>Email and customer support interactions</li>
	<li>Demographic profile</li>
	<li>Purchase history</li>
	<li>360-degree customer profile</li>
	<li>Preferred communication/marketing channels</li>
	<li>Best times to reach out to a specific contact during the day/week</li>
	<li>Customer lifetime value</li>
</ul>
<p>It’s important to remember that marketing isn’t just a lead generation technique. It is also one of the main pillars of customer retention. Remind your customers of your values, and show that you care about them.</p>
<p>Here are the three most prominent ways that a CRM system like <a href="/b/pipedrive/pipedrive+crm/">Pipedrive </a>and <a href="/b/vcita/vcita+crm/">Vcita </a>can improve your marketing efforts.</p>
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<p>Acquiring new customers costs 5 times more than retaining existing ones.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>The Biggest Thing Since Sliced Bread &#8211; Personalization</h3>
<p>Every customer prefers a personalized approach to everything. They <em>expect you</em> to know what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and how it should be presented. And the greatest part is that your sales team has already done exactly that to get the customer on board.</p>
<p>Now, all you have to do is include those customers in corresponding marketing workflows and keep them engaged, happy, and connected with your business. Tailoring messages to specific contacts while relying on solid data is the key to sending the right content to the right people.</p>
<p>To understand how to do this, you need to think about these three questions:</p>
<ul>
	<li>How did the leads enter your sales pipeline? – The CRM data allows you to find which channel has been used to bring the lead on board (inbound marketing campaign, cold call, free trial, etc.) This information can be useful in determining the preferred means of communication with a specific prospect, to utilize in future marketing campaigns.</li>
	<li>Why did the lead make a purchase? – Because CRM systems like <a href="/b/monday-com/monday+crm/">Monday.com</a> record and store all the interactions and communications between leads and sales reps, you can skim through the reports to understand the tipping point. For instance, if it was a unique software feature, you can expand on that topic in future marketing campaigns. Or, in the case of an e-commerce business, it may have been your loyalty program or customer service. You get my point: find the correct pressure points and continue building on those.</li>
	<li>Who is buying what? – Typically, people with similar demographic portraits have similar buying habits. You can scan your CRM data to identify what various customers have been buying, and focus your marketing efforts on upselling those to leads/existing customers with similar demographics.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>Customers Can&#8217;t Resist Upselling</h3>
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<p>Upselling products and/or services is an excellent marketing technique. However, it has to be approached with caution. As I mentioned above, customers <em>expect </em>you to know and understand their needs and preferences, and the last thing they want to get is an email with an irrelevant offer. If you continuously send such emails, you’ll face nasty “unsubscribe” clicks before you even know it.</p>
<p>The CRM data allows you to check your customers’ purchasing history and understand what products they may be interested in. Whenever you have a new product, service, or feature, don’t rush to email your whole contact list. Take the time to understand which clients would likely be most interested in your offer and create a custom workflow.</p>
<p>You can go one step further and personalize your email campaigns by showing how the new feature/service/product can help solve their needs. And how do you know this? That’s right, it’s the answer to the “Why did the lead make a purchase?” question we discussed above.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Poor customer retention policies are the number one reason why existing clients stop buying from you.</p>
</blockquote>
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<h3>Making Sure You&#8217;re Focusing on the Right Leads</h3>
</div>
<p>Your existing customer base allows you to understand leads and visitors better and focus on the correct ones. Typically, an average business has up to 5 customer profiles that they’re most successful with (excluding e-commerce).</p>
<p>You can browse the CRM data to see which leads became customers and which ones were disqualified by your sales team. From those leads that made a purchase, you can extract information like their job title, industry, company size, geographic location, age, gender, etc.. Using this data, You can create highly targeted marketing campaigns. Similarly, knowing which leads were disqualified will help you stay away from poor-quality leads that are less resonant with your brand/product/service.</p>
<h3>CRM Data Improves Marketing ROI and Customer Retention</h3>
<p>Nowadays, the competition among brands is fierce. Most markets are highly saturated, with multiple brands offering, more or less, the same products/services. While adding distinguishing and unique features to the core product is essential to stand out, it may not be enough anymore.</p>
<p>You need to make sure that your brand provides a simply outstanding experience, both before, and after the leads make a purchase. Your customers must feel that you know them like nobody else, and whatever you offer has been made specifically for them, not just the masses.  Do this, and they will stick with your brand for a long time.</p>
<p>And you know what else? They <em>will</em> bring friends.</p>

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Pavel is a writer with over 5 years of experience in researching and comparing consumer products from a variety of industries.

Pavel Aramyan