How Marketing Lead Generation and Automation Go Hand-in-Hand
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How Marketing Lead Generation and Automation Go Hand-in-Hand

ByKamron

Marketing automation is one of the most powerful tools that marketing and sales departments can use to generate new leads.

In fact, according to Annuitas Group, using marketing automation can increase qualified leads by 450% or more!

Automation can play a significant role in aligning your sales and marketing departments. This eventually leads to more revenue for your business.

In this article, we’ll cover all of the benefits that automation can do for marketing lead generation and how to start implementing it in your business today.

Why Marketing Automation Is So Important

Marketing through digital content is a constantly-evolving beast that changes incredibly rapidly.

For example, the pandemic has completely changed people’s habits in digital consumption. Digital streaming services flourished and all-new avenues for marketing were created. People began shopping, taking classes, and communicating through their devices, leaving huge opportunities for marketers.

However, generating leads through so many different platforms can be chaotic and unorganized. Effectively making use of email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, lead generation campaigns, and landing pages often requires different software.

But through automation, the lead generation process can be vastly simplified by using centralized software.

Let’s look at an example of a customer’s journey to becoming a qualified lead:

  1. A customer visits your website and demonstrates certain actions that show their intent to move forward (such as clicking on certain items or opting into your email list)
  2. You nurture the lead through an automated email campaign
  3. They continue to show interest by interacting with your emails
  4. You hand these qualified leads over to your sales team

Let’s take a look at some of the elements, tools, and methods to use automation to generate leads for your business.

Marketing Automation Elements That Generate Leads

As noted in the example earlier, there are several different elements that a customer will interact with on their journey to becoming a qualified lead and eventually a customer. Let’s take a look at a few.

Landing Pages

The customer’s journey typically begins with a landing page with information about your product, a webinar, or a free handout like a lead magnet (more on that later). 

A prospect that’s interested will convert into a lead when they fill out the form you place on the website. Depending on the information you’ve asked from the prospect, you’ll have important data that you can use to run further campaigns and personalize future content. 

Items such as their name and email address are the bare essentials, which will lead to the next stage.

Autoresponders and Triggered Email Sequences

Once they’ve filled out the form on your landing page, you’ll most likely send them whatever it is they signed up for, whether it’s a free webinar, an informative eBook, or a collection of audio recordings. 

The most important step here is to keep the conversation going with automated email sequences that follow the “free gift” that you sent them. 

For example, the first email they receive might be a “thank you” email along with the attached eBook that you promised them. A few days later, another email is automatically triggered asking them how they enjoyed the free product as well as a related article they might find useful. 

The next day, they receive information about the course you offer that might be right up their alley, and so on. 

Funnel Stages

It’s important to understand the different stages of the sales funnel when it comes to automated lead management. The purpose of the automation is to move them down the funnel from top to bottom. 

These stages are:

  • Prospect or subscriber
  • Lead
  • Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
  • Sales qualified lead (SQL)
  • Customer

These stages are important to understand, as the content they consume will be different from one another. An MQL might be sent useful information about the industry, while an SQL might already be knowledgeable about this and should be sent educational info about your products.

How to Automate the Marketing Lead Generation Process

Now that we’ve covered the importance of automation and the different parts of it, how exactly can you generate leads through automated processes? Let’s take a look.

Automating Personalization

Creating a personalized experience is key in nurturing sales leads. Once a prospect has opted-in to a sales campaign by showing their interest, you can use several tools to personalize the content that is sent to them based on their interests and needs.

For example, a prospect that joined your email list to sign up for a webinar might have different current needs than someone who is on your list that already made a purchase. They can be sent down different email campaigns that align with what they need.

Chatbots are another way to enhance the customer experience on your website. You can automate messages and replies to certain conversations to let prospects know when you’ll be available.

Lead Magnets

One powerful tool in building a list to start your marketing automation journey is the lead magnet. 

A lead magnet is a free offering that prospects can sign up for in exchange for their information, like an email address. This can be a great way to show off a part of your product for free while getting the necessary info to guide future customers on a journey towards your product.

Different ideas for lead magnets include:

  • eBooks
  • Reports
  • Free audits
  • Comprehensive guides
  • Educational webinars

These lead magnets not only provide people with great information and give you leads to add to your list, but it allows you to showcase your expertise in the industry. 

Key Takeaways

Automation is a powerful tool for marketing lead generation. When used correctly, it can make repetitive and time-consuming tasks as easy as clicking a button. 

It can help you increase your customer base by giving you more qualified leads while you sleep. 

If you’re looking for a professional option that can optimize your website design, SEO, and automation to give your business more qualified leads and sales, get a proposal for our services today!

7 Automated Email Follow-Up Ideas that Will Keep Customers Coming Back
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7 Automated Email Follow-Up Ideas that Will Keep Customers Coming Back

ByKamron

Email marketing is one of the most effective platforms for gaining a positive ROI on your outreach efforts. According to Oberlo, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. 

The problem is that not everyone knows how to utilize email marketing to its fullest capabilities. 

If used correctly, email marketing remains one of the best ways to improve customer loyalty, encourage repeat purchases, and build your brand in a cost-effective way. 

In this article, we’ll show you 7 tried-and-true automated email follow-up tactics that can help you win more business and customers.

7 Automated Email Follow-Up Sequences to Boost Customer Loyalty and Increase Sales

These seven automated sequence ideas are by no means the only email automation you can create, but they are an excellent place to start. Let’s dive in.

1. Abandoned Cart Email Automations

According to statistics, almost 81.4% of online shopping carts are abandoned. These are all shoppers who were interested enough in your products to put them in their cart.

Although some shoppers may have actually decided against purchasing your product, who knows why the rest of them abandoned their carts. Maybe their kid spilled a drink, or the dog got out of the house, or a phone call came in…or they just plain forgot. 

Abandoned cart email automation is a great way to gently remind your customers that there’s something that they actually wanted to buy.

You can customize your email sequence to work however works best for your specific niche or industry, but here’s an example of an automated email schedule that might work for you:

  • Email 1: send 24 hours after cart abandonment
  • Email 2: send 48 hours after cart abandonment
  • Email 3: send 72 hours after cart abandonment

You can always adjust the frequency and scheduling of these emails after you take a look at the data. There’s no right or wrong amount. If your conversion rates say that a 10 email cart abandonment sequence works for your business…go for it!

In these emails, there’s a host of things you can add:

  • A reminder of what’s in their cart
  • Discounts and promo codes
  • Handle objections with product benefits

Get to know what will bring your customer back and take advantage of what works.

2. Welcome Email Series

A simple but incredibly important email marketing system to set up is your welcome email series. This is the first email someone gets when they join your list. 

These emails are important because not only do they set the first impression for your customers by showing them what to expect, but welcome emails also have a much higher average open rate versus later promotional emails. This makes it a great opportunity to connect with your subscribers.

There are several tactics you can take (and you should always keep experimenting). 

Welcome new subscribers and introduce them to your brand. Show why your company is different and what they should be excited about now that they’re on your list. 

Remember that email is a very personal, one-on-one conversation. Be transparent and conversational to make them feel like they just joined something great. 

You can also give them an incentive to purchase, like a timed discount coupon.

Another great piece of info you can give your subscribers is how to connect with them across other platforms, such as your social media or phone number. 

3. Email Nurture Sequence

Email automated processes are perfect to nurture leads. This is when you guide your customers on a journey through different stages of a sales cycle and ultimately lead them to purchase. 

Instead of shoving soulless promotions at your subscribers every week (or day), consider how you can provide the most value to your customers as possible.

By creating content that actively gives “free” value to your customers, you’ll not only differentiate yourself from other brands, but you can establish yourself as an authority in the industry.

Some examples of emails you can send in a nurture sequence include:

  • Educational emails that provide free useful, and valuable content
  • Branding emails that expand on the story of your company
  • Storytelling emails that entertain your prospects while showing the value of your products
  • Testimonial emails that show how people have enjoyed your products

The number of ways you can take an email nurture sequence is endless.

4. Post-Purchase Review Email

One of the biggest tools to make sales is social proof through testimonials. 80%-90% of people read reviews before they make a decision whether to buy something or not.

Why not automate these incredible tools to come directly back to you? Instead of expecting people to go all the way back to your site to make a review, send them an automated email after a certain amount of time passes and ask them what they thought about your product.

You can even incentivize them with a discount coupon or credit. This is a great way to increase sales while generating useful social proof.

5. Order Confirmation Email

An order confirmation email is an under-utilized tool in the automation world. If you think about 90% of items you’ve ever bought online, most likely, you’ve received a very boring and not engaging email.

This is a huge opportunity to differentiate yourself from other brands by injecting personality and voice into your company. 

Let customers know why they should be so excited that they just purchased with you. Make them laugh, make them smile, and above all — make them remember you.

6. Cross-Sell Automations

After someone buys something from your company, there’s always a little period where that customer might be ripe for another sale.

Think about a product that might go perfectly with the product they just purchased. For example, if they bought coffee beans, send an email checking if they need new coffee filters to go along with it. 

If they bought a 4 week’s supply of your product, send them an email around week 3 to see if they need more.

7. Win-Back Sequence

This sequence is for getting customers back that haven’t bought from your store in a long time. Here, you can pull out all the stops to try to win them back to your store. 

You can send this to them after 30, 60, 90, 120 days — or whatever makes sense for your product. Send them emails asking where they went and offer them limited-time discount coupons if they come back.

Since they’ve already shown that they might not be interested anymore, here is where you can pull out the big guns.

Key Takeaways

When set up correctly, email automation can literally make you money in your sleep. Since they are triggered by customer actions, the ROI you’ll get from taking a few hours to set them up will be ridiculously high.

An automated email follow-up could be the next-level tool your business has been looking for.

If you’re looking to upgrade your website to its highest potential and increase sales along the way, come get a free proposal from us today!

CRM with Marketing Automation: How Does It Work?
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CRM with Marketing Automation: How Does It Work?

ByKamron

In 2020 reports showed that software now represents 50 percent of the entire IT industry. With this in mind, what is CRM with marketing automation, and how can it benefit you?

When it comes to growing your business, having the right tools at your disposal is crucial. However, with so many different programs to choose from and endless features to explore, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and make a decision you’re not entirely happy with.

One of the most frequently used business tools is a CRM with marketing automation. But what does a CRM with marketing automation entail? 

In this article, we cover CRM with marketing automation and how it helps with business automation; read on to discover more. 

How Does CRM With Marketing Automation Work?

Many people wonder ‘what is CRM,’ particularly if they have never used it before. However, if you aren’t familiar with what it is, don’t worry; we’re going to go through it now. 

CRM automation is the process of creating systems and streamlining tasks, so they are automated for your business or service. One key difference that you should be aware of is that CRM and marketing automation are two separate services. 

However, they can seem similar, which is why some people get confused with them. The thing is, when you use both CRM and marketing automation together, it can be very effective.   

This is because they both complement each other in numerous ways.

CRM with marketing automation focuses on streamlining marketing tasks and other tasks to ensure that they are automated. 

Some of the things that CRM with marketing automation focuses on are tagging prospects, creating analytics, segmenting, and lead generation.  

All of these things are crucial in the marketing world, and without them, it can significantly slow down the growth of your service or business. 

To get started with CRM with marketing automation, you should focus on the key tasks that need doing in your business. These tasks can be repetitive, and you can set up your CRM to complete these tasks for you. 

There are also different features that you can use to automate CRM. 

How CRM With Marketing Automation Can Benefit Your Business

There are a number of reasons why businesses use CRM with marketing automation. The benefits it provides can help your business in multiple ways. 

Effectiveness 

If you run a business that has both aspects of marketing along with daily tasks that need doing, then CRM with marketing automation can be highly effective for your business.

The CRM allows you to set up specific tasks that can be completed on a daily basis, while marketing automation can help collect data and automate workflows.

This combination can increase your task efficiency by doing a lot of the work for you. 

Saves Time 

Another huge benefit to using this service is that you can save a lot of time. Automated tasks mean that you don’t have to keep doing them. While you may need to do some maintenance, this is a small amount of work compared to if you were completing every task. 

The time that it saves you allows you to focus on the bigger things that will help your business scale. 

Improves Your Resources

One of the biggest benefits of combining CRM with marketing automation is the way it improves your resources. This is because all of your daily tasks can integrate with each other, and it helps to combine both your sales and marketing teams.  

This makes it easier for your business as a whole, and all of your teams can run more smoothly. 

How to Implement CRM With Marketing Automation

The best way to implement your CRM with marketing automation is to find a service that helps you combine both. There are a lot of services out there that can help to automate business for you. 

Before you choose a service, there are a few key things that we would recommend that you look for.

Reputation 

The top factor you should for is the service’s reputation. A service’s track record says a lot about the quality of service that they provide.

If they are good at what they do, it won’t take long before people will start recommending them. However, if they are bad at what they do, then it may have the opposite effect. 

Pricing 

While it is true that generally, you get what you pay for, not every service will be in your price category. It’s important that you consider what your budget is for CRM with marketing automation. 

Even though there may be several different services, you could use. Not all of them will be worth the money. Ultimately, you want to get the best bang for your buck and the best results. 

Compatibility 

The last thing you should consider is how compatible the service is with your current setup. Some services will just be a better fit for you overall, and that’s okay. 

It’s just about knowing how compatible they are so you can get set up quicker. In the end, this step could save you a lot of time, energy, and money. 

While we can’t recommend every CRM with a marketing automation service, one service we can recommend is ours at Fishhook Marketing.

If you would like to get more information on the kind of help you can get, schedule a call with us today. 

Get More Useful Marketing Updates 

The term CRM with marketing automation can seem a little unfamiliar if you’ve never heard of it before. However, we hope that this guide has helped clear up any confusion you have.

To get more useful marketing information, why not check out some of our other blogs.

What Is CRM Automation? A Closer Look

What Is CRM Automation? A Closer Look

ByKamron

In 2020 it was reported that 80 percent of data generated is not being utilized by companies. The question is, how can you use CRM automation to help you to utilize your data? 

When you think of big clients, you probably imagine attention and adoration. But with bigger clients come higher standards and higher demands. So, even if your organization is smaller, your sales processes can benefit from business automation.

The thing is many people are unfamiliar with automation services and are stuck wondering what is CRM automation?

Using CRM automation allows you to stop wasting time on mundane tasks and repetitive activities. Instead, you’re focusing on quality customer interactions and managing customer information.

So let’s take a closer look at what CRM is and why you should try it today.

What Is CRM Automation? 

Before we jump into the ways that CRM automation can help your business, it’s important to know what it actually does. So let’s cover that now.

CRM automation is the process of creating systems that complete repetitive tasks to increase productivity within your business. This means that if you have a repetitive task that needs doing, it can be added to CRM and the automation software will assist you with it. 

There are many different automated CRM databases out there and it’s all about choosing the right one for you. 

This system is normally used in B2C and B2B companies and it can help to provide a lot more structure when it comes to getting things done. 

Businesses can be fast-paced and this can create a stressful and chaotic environment. When this happens it’s easy to lose track of the everyday tasks that need to be done to keep your business running.

This is where CRM automation comes in. The system is tailored to your business needs so whatever your tasks are CRM can help you organize them.

An example of some of the tasks that CRM helps with is data entry, updating customer information, creating reminders, and organizing calendars. 

The Most Common CRM Automation Mistakes

Unfortunately, even though CRM has many advantages, people don’t always use them and this causes them to make common CRM mistakes. Here are a few of them. 

Not Using the Full Features

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make with CRM is not using its full potential. There is a wide range of features included in CRM and they are made to help your business streamline its processes in one way or another.

The problem is that many businesses don’t take the time to learn how CRM systems can help them. This means that they aren’t maximizing CRM features. 

However, by taking some time to learn about your CRM system, you could be much more productive.

Not Explaining the Benefits of CRM to Your Team 

Perhaps the best thing about having CRM is that it not only makes your life easier but also your team. CRM is literally a tool that boosts efficiency and productivity for your team.  

However, many teams don’t know this and sometimes businesses don’t do the best job of explaining why CRM is so powerful. However, if you can get your team on board, they are much more likely to see the benefits of CRM and implement them. 

Not Properly Training Your Team on CRM

Similar to not explaining the benefits of CRM, not training your team on CRM can also be a mistake. If your team doesn’t know how to use CRM properly, they aren’t going to use it to its full potential. 

But if you set up some training for your team, they can understand the full potential of the CRM system. This means you can create more business automation by allowing your team to take care of CRM tasks for you. 

The Benefits of CRM Automation

Now that we’ve covered the mistakes that businesses make with CRM let’s cover the benefits of CRM. These benefits can all help automate businesses in different ways.

It Saves You Time

One benefit of CRM automation is that it can save you a lot of time. Setting up systems and processes for your business with CRM can cut out a lot of work for you and automate it. 

This can allow both you and your team to focus on the tasks that are the biggest needle movers for your business. 

It Collects Data and Shows It to You

Another big benefit to CRM is that it can have data on every one of your customers and your tasks. This information is incredibly valuable as it acts as a database for your business. 

This means that if you ever want to know information about your business it’s all stored in one place. There are also dashboards on CRM so that you can see your data.

This can help you track analytics and statistics so you can see how your task efficiency and sales are performing. 

It Simplifies Business Tasks

Businesses can be complicated and unless you get on top of the tasks that you need to do, they will get on top of you. So one of the best things you can do is get a system that makes tasks like adding leads more manageable.

This allows you to get back in control and focus on driving sales and revenue to your business. 

CRM Automation: How to Get Started

At Fishhook Marketing, we truly believe that CRM automation is one of the best things that you can introduce to your business. We hope that after reading this article you don’t have to wonder ‘what is CRM automation’ again. 

If you would like to get started with CRM today or create a website that turns visitors into sales, then why not schedule a call now.  

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13 Key Benefits CRM Systems Provide to a Business

ByKamron

Do you consider your business too small to invest in a CRM? You might be surprised to learn that around half of all small businesses (those with fewer than ten employees) use a CRM.

So you don’t need a vast sales department to see the benefits that modern customer relationship software offers. 

In this guide, we’ll broaden your understanding of the most state-of-the-art CRMs on the market today with a look at these thirteen key benefits of a CRM that your business can enjoy. 

1. A CRM Will Improve Your Customer Service

The clue is in the name. CRM, of course, is an abbreviation for customer relationship management, and it’s your key to unlocking the door to a long and fruitful connection with your client.

The tool allows you to build customer excellence into every interaction you have. That might be answering questions, providing personalized offers, understanding their demographics, or noting down their requests.

A CRM gives everyone in your team the same information on a customer. That means when the customer contacts you about an existing inquiry, they don’t have the frustration of explaining their problem to another staff member.

The correct information is instantly available. That will show your customer you actively listen to them and ultimately make them feel like a valued client.

2. A CRM Can Boost Your Sales

Selling to a customer means understanding your customer. That’s where a CRM can provide massive value to your business.

But don’t take our word for it. A recent study showed that companies got a 29% boost in sales from using a CRM. 

The more you know about your client and what they need, the easier it will be to present them with a personalized offer that’s too irresistible to turn down.

Do you want to improve your revenue per customer? Use your CRM to offer upsells when they order your signature product or service.

Upselling is a superb way to boost revenue. With the help of a CRM, you can have the right customer intelligence to help you make an effective sales pitch to a customer before they finalize their purchase.  

You can also use your CRM to find customers you haven’t heard from in a while, so you can email them to let them know about your latest offers.

Sometimes, you can revive dormant customer accounts so effectively that they transform into your highest paying clients!

3. Real-Time Reporting

Modern CRM platforms provide a whole host of reporting for your organization. Most of it is available in real-time, giving you an accurate snapshot of one of the most critical aspects of your business: sales.

Consider how you might transform your business but have up-to-date information on your sales pipeline at the simple touch of a button.

With that sort of detailed forecasting, you can plan effectively to stay on top of delivery expectations from your customers. That might mean backfilling staff positions, increasing warehousing space, or ramping up production. 

You can also use CRM reporting to determine how your sales team is reporting. By getting a snapshot of sales figures for each team member, you can reward staff fairly and intervene when there are early hints of underperformance.

You can also make sure your team is appropriately nurturing leads. Monitoring sales calls, timely follow-ups, and responses to queries mean you won’t forget any potential client, even during your busiest times. 

4. The Switch to Automation

Taking care of customers is traditionally a labor-intensive task for any organization. As your business grows, what often happens is that communication drops or staff expenses go up. 

What if there were aspects of your customer service that you could automate? That’s the question many CRM software designs have posited. And in the more sophisticated platforms, automation is now built-in as standard.

So what does automation mean? It means you can set up simple processes like automated follow-up messages after a customer purchases. You’ll have seen these before when you’ve bought something in the past.

Perhaps you have received a message from a company asking you if you have any questions. Or maybe you got an email asking you to leave a review.

That is automation in action, and it’s an excellent time-saver for businesses that want a simple way to keep their customer relationships on track. 

5. Better Teamwork

Good customer service isn’t always about having one excellent service representation. Your customer service will rise or fall on your company’s teamwork efforts.

That means you need a system that encourages collaboration and helps make it easier for a team to communicate and share ideas and data. 

That’s where a CRM comes in. Many businesses, whatever their size, find that implementing a CRM helps teams stay on the same page.

They talk more, solve problems, and take a proactive approach to customer relationship management. As a business, you’ll witness happier customers and happier, more fulfilled, and motivated staff. 

6. Integrated IT Systems

Taking information down on paper, filing it away in multiple folders, or screenshotting some data from a screen, is cumbersome and inefficient.

Yet many companies find themselves in this position when dealing with critical business data that sits in different places within the organization.

It’s even more of a test when you have a new starter and spend hours training them to find the information they need to do their job.

Most CRMs offer seamless integration between other platforms such as your website, HR, finance, and marketing.

That means you can cut down on data duplication or data errors. It should result in smoother operations all-round for your organization.

With a click of the button, you’ll get the most accurate real-time data you need, no matter your role in the organization.

7. Better Complaints Handling

No business likes customer complaints. But even the best company in the world has to handle complaints from time to time. You need robust processes to deal with these issues when they arise. 

A CRM helps you keep track of complaints and respond to them promptly.

You can set targets with your team at how long it takes to respond and improve the standard of communications when dealing with an unhappy customer.

That way, they don’t feel like you are reading from a script but genuinely care about resolving the issue. 

You can also use the reporting side of a CRM to see broader patterns in your customer complaints. That can help you confront the root cause of repeated complaints.

For example, perhaps you are getting large numbers of complaints about late delivery. Moving to a new courier company could make a massive improvement to your customer satisfaction levels in one single action. 

8. You Can Monitor Revenue and Profit

You don’t need to rely on an accounts platform or a finance team to know how your business is performing financially.

A CRM will contain up-to-date information on your sales, revenue, and profit. Your sales team can see how their team performance supports the broader business goals. 

That is going to help your business strive to record levels of profit. You’ll see patterns in your sales activity that will help you spot gaps and opportunities.

Your sales team can target customers that they know to bring in more revenue and profit for your business. And they can even slow down sales activity with customers where you only break even (or even operate at a financial loss). 

9. A CRM Can Support Your Marketing Team

Is your business struggling to produce new, innovative marketing campaigns that will stand out from your competition? Perhaps you’ve got an upcoming product launch and are brainstorming advertising ideas?

Let your CRM support your efforts. In your hands, you’ve got all the customer data your business will need. You know what customers buy, how frequently, what questions they have, and what issues might cause complaints.

One of the key benefits of a CRM platform is this valuable data. An intelligent business can use this to improve its marketing campaigns.

For example, you can examine client communications to find keywords and phrases that resonate most with your customers. Once you have that, you can include those in your marketing copy on your next Facebook ad.

Or perhaps you can use your CRM to discover how clients discovered you and use this to target particular SEO keywords. The opportunities to market your business using your CRM are almost endless.

10. You Can Try Market Segmentation

Reaching out to potential customers is becoming a challenge as new competition emerges and globalization breaks down traditional market barriers. 

You do have a hidden weapon to hand, however. That’s market segmentation. By grouping your customers into smaller groups based on their demographics, needs, and habits, you can fine-tune your marketing messages.

More personal customer connections will help you secure a sale. More importantly, it will help you deepen that relationship with your customer.

Your competitors might talk loudly about their product features. But you cut through that noise with more personal information about why your customer wants your product in their life. It will help you stand out.

Your business will be the one customer leads remember when they next have their credit card to hand are ready to go on a spending spree. 

11. Streamline Your Business Processes

Haphazard and disjointed business processes cost businesses time and money. It means more training, more effort, and more inefficiencies. 

Getting your processes set up in a CRM is the perfect way to spot problems and one of the key benefits of using a CRM.

As you join up teams and automate tasks, you’ll naturally see areas where you can make significant improvements in your systems.

For example, perhaps you’ll find that your customer service reps spend half their time answering the same five customer questions.

You can counteract this by putting a FAQ before a customer can reach a support person. 

You could even consider making parallel process improvements when rolling out the CRM and tick two strategic objectives off at once.

Your team will undoubtedly experience a smoother-running sales and customer service operation afterward.

12. Scale and Grow Your Business

Business growth rarely happens by accident. You need a path, a strategy, a planned route. The insight you get from a CRM is your starting point for putting together a robust growth strategy. 

Two aspects of your CRM are hugely valuable to your business growth. First, the reporting will help you measure your performance, set targets, and reach the goals you need to scale.

Second, the information you hold on your customers will allow you to grow new marketing channels, launch new products, retain customers, and cross-sell. 

For an ambitious company with its sights set on more extraordinary things, a CRM is a must. Without it, you’ll struggle to match the aggressive growth plans of your nearest competitor. 

13. Access Data Remotely

Our last benefit is a somewhat practical one but is becoming increasingly valuable in today’s world of zoom meetings, remote working, and global business.

A cloud-based CRM will give you access to all the customers you need, wherever you are.

And with some platforms, you can even connect via your phone. So even if you are stuck on a train or waiting for a flight, you can get real-time information on your customers. 

Think of the benefits this can offer in real situations you might have found yourself in in the past.

You are in a client meeting, and your customer asks you for an update on a recent issue they had.

Usually, that would mean calling all the relevant departments for an update. But with a remotely accessible CRM, you have that information immediately to hand on your phone, ready to update your customer there and then. 

Key Benefits of a CRM: It’s Now Over to You

With so many indisputable benefits of a CRM for your business, the only question remaining is when you’ll make the switch.

Are you ready to speed up your business growth and get serious about your sales and customer management? Use the expertise of our teams to help you reach your goals faster.

Your first step is to schedule a call with our talented team. Let’s connect and chat about what your business needs, and we’ll tell you how we can help. 

Customer Relationship Management: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding CRM
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Customer Relationship Management: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding CRM

ByKamron

Customer relationship management refers to the processes and strategies to optimize interactions with customers. Every business technically has a CRM. But levels differ based on the strategies and technologies. 

As your business grows, you’ll need to streamline processes to maintain or boost customer experience. You’ll need a more efficient way to handle the increasing customer interactions and expectations. This is where a CRM system or software comes in. 

Customer relationship management streamlines the process of gathering information and improves customer experiences. Learn what is CRM software in this guide.

What Is CRM Software?

CRM software is technology to help your business nurture relations and improve customer satisfaction. It does this by making data accessible and streamlining customer service. The ultimate goal of CRM software is to boost user experience.

A CRM system increases proactivity when it comes to tackling customer issues. It improves connectivity with customers, encourages retention, and increases profitability. Traditionally, CRMs primarily focused on client databases and contact management. The modern CRM system is more sophisticated and focuses on the entire customer lifecycle. 

With the best CRM software, you can manage customer relations in marketing, sales, online and offline. CRM software tracks user issues and experiences across all touchpoints. 

Adopting CRM software is the secret to staying on top of entire customer issues. The software gathers data from different customer touchpoints and stores in one place. You can uncover a user’s info, history, and behavior with the data. 

You can gather staggering amounts of user data with a CRM system. Successful personalization campaigns begin with CRM software. Let’s look at the core features of a customer relationship management system.

Features of CRMs

Every CRM shares some of the same basic features but not all are created equally. Here are some features of CRM software to leverage.

Contact Management

Contact management is the primary feature of CRMs as it sets the foundation for other functionalities. It allows you to record and segment customer data.

A CRM stores everything about customer information─ from names to location and even social media accounts in an accessible database. It also stores specific user information which helps you segment audiences or personalize campaigns. 

Reports and Dashboards

A CRM eases information synthesis by providing you with ready-to-use user reports. You can get quick insights about your customers by viewing real-time stats and reports. Your CRM provides periodical performance figures that help inform your decisions and improvements.

You can run reports based on locations, specific products, or per team member. CRM reports help track user issues and sales performance. With a high level of detail, you can tackle problems and improve your understanding of the whole sales funnel. 

Lead Scoring and Management

Lead management is one of the best CRM features. This capability helps you establish the best prospects based on their interests. It enables you to identify, score, and choose which leads to nurture. 

Lead management brings precision into the sales funnel by fronting the right leads to your sales team for nurturing and engagement. It boosts productivity by helping you focus on high-potential leads. 

Interaction Tracking

A core part of offering the best customer service is understanding users’ exact needs and expectations. This can be a challenge when a customer exchanges hands several times. 

Through user interaction tracking, A CRM can ensure each user receives the proper feedback at the right time. This feature allows for documentation of client interactions and feeds your team with a client’s support history. 

Sales Pipeline Overview

A sales pipeline is a series of stages that you take leads through before closing them. Each lead goes through different challenges and has unique needs. That’s why you need pipeline management. 

Pipeline management helps track and keep the sales pipeline healthy. As leads increase, this process becomes complicated. CRM software is essential for effective pipeline management. 

A CRM gives you an overview of all your leads’ wants, needs, and challenges. It shows you what you need to progress to lead to the next stage in the sales pipeline. Without software, you can run yourself ragged trying to stay in control. 

Email Integration

Tracking user interactions is much easier when your CRM integrates with email software like Gmail. Email integration gathers all customer interactions in one place. Whoever with the permissions can check on the customer’s history and provide relevant support. 

Email integration gives you a unified view of client interactions and helps increase responsiveness. You’ll see a client’s communication history in your CRM and you won’t have to switch apps to help them. 

Mobile CRM

The mass usage of mobile devices means people expect instant access to information. More than 5.22 billion people use smartphones representing 66% of the global population. 

If you’re not catering to your audience through mobile, you’re leaving money on the table. A mobile CRM helps you run your business from anywhere, anytime. A mobile CRM also improves user experience by delivering relevant support on all internet-enabled devices. Your customer support and sales team can access and manage data from anywhere. 

Marketing Automation Integration

A CRM software that allows for marketing automation integration is a powerful business weapon. CRM integrations with marketing will allow you to leverage customer data for marketing and sales. 

With marketing automation, you can personalize messaging and improve audience targeting. You can leverage customer interaction data to launch super-targeted campaigns.

You need your CRM supporting marketing and sales functions to save time and reduce redundancies. A good alignment between the two functions improves campaigns and sales activities for higher conversions. 

Sales Team Management

Any small business owner can attest to how it’s challenging to follow up with a sales team’s performance. Without real-time data to track an individual’s performance, the sales function suffers greatly.

CRM software features a sales team management feature that allows you to manage your sales team. You can see the progress and challenges of your sales team and figure proactive improvements.

Your CRM system and sales team give you the data to track and improve sales performance. You can follow up and help individuals with data to boost team performance. Data enables you to identify and address problem areas in your sales team. 

Customer Support Automation

At the core, CRM systems are about customer relationship management. CRM is a tool to define user issues and provide personalized support. CRM software removes reliance on human and manual processes to streamline customer service.

Examples of automated customer support include live chatbots and voice assistants. These tools can provide automatic support instead of a user waiting for a customer service agent. This helps to speed up customer service and boat retention rates. 

Social Media Integration

Social media is a customer engagement and marketing tool. CRM software that integrates with social media can boost customer relations and improve marketing processes. Social media CRM integration allows you to optimize multi-channel customer service and marketing.

Users can reach out to you on the channel of their choice anytime. This could be through emails, messaging, chat apps, or your website. A social CRM software also helps you to gather valuable audience data.

You can discern user interests and online behaviors and use the data for targeted marketing. A social CRM software is an excellent opportunity to optimize multi-channel experiences and boost service. It can help you understand your audience and determine the best response speeds for your social followers. 

Benefits of CRM Systems for Your Business

Using a CRM can help to enhance and improve efficiency in any business. Here are some benefits that come with having a customer relationship management system.

Improves Customer Service 

A CRM system gathers every bit of details about your customers. This helps you develop individual user profiles and personalize customer service. You can better understand individuals’ needs by looking at their data or previous chat histories.

Understanding needs ultimately helps you to provide valuable support and save time. Your customers won’t have to retell their issues and you’ll provide solutions from an informed perspective. You’ll increase precision, save time and improve customer service using CRM software. 

Boost Conversions and Increase Sales

Lead scoring, interaction tracking, and informed decision-making contribute to improved sales processes and increased sales. A CRM allows you to nurture high-quality leads which boost the rate of conversions. 

CRM software gives you more control of your communication channels. Faster response on your channels is likely to boost retention and increase sales. You’ll close more deals by being at the right channel, the right time.

Automated marketing allows for personalization and messaging which can ultimately boost conversions. 93% of companies report increased conversion rates after personalization. 

Increase Customer Retention

The average American company loses 23% to 30% of its customer base each year. This makes CRM software a must-have in business. It’s the way to boost customer satisfaction, increase retention and boost loyalty. 

A loyal customer base helps you to generate repeat sales and keep profits steady. Loyal customers are great word-of-mouth soldiers. They can help you cut marketing costs and improve sales. 

A CRM system provides your team with the data to address an individual’s issues and challenges. It enables you to provide value to customers. And this, in turn, helps you to attract back new customers for repeat business. 

Improve Customer Experience

The first way CRM software improves customer experience is by enabling personalization. With a user’s data across their lifecycle, you can always launch personalized messages. Personalization boosts satisfaction and customer experience.

A CRM also improves communication and boosts response rates through an omnichannel communication approach. Customers with issues can quickly and easily reach out to you on their choice of channel. 

CRM software also helps you reinforce relationships with customers. Speeding response rates, personalized messaging, and improved customer service contribute to a better user experience. 

A CRM software feeds you with user data that shows you the causes of user experience issues. You can pinpoint UI issues on your apps and websites by leveraging user data. Data informs the improvements you’ll make which goes a long way to elevate the user experience. 

Cut Customer Relationship Management Costs

A big advantage of a CRM system is its cost-effectiveness. Using CRM software reduces labor costs by 40%. CRM cuts the need for paperwork and removes manual processes hence helping to cut costs.

Task automation ends redundancy and error and allows your team to focus on cognitive tasks. You’ll require less staff and resources to manage CRM. You also have your significant functions consolidated, making for better coordination and efficiency. 

Audience Segmentation and Targeted Marketing 

Any CRM system allows for the segmentation of audiences. Segmenting is grouping your customers into different interest groups. It’s a crucial step towards delivering targeted campaigns.

Without software, segmentation is an error-prone and arduous process. With a lack of ample user information, you can easily place them in the wrong group and send them the wrong message. 

Reliance on CRM software provides marketers with data to segment audiences and launch targeted campaigns. Marketers can improve marketing results by sending messages to the right audience group.

Segmentation is the foundation of niche marketing. It moves marketing from broad categories to specific interest categories like hobbies. Good CRM optimizes user engagement by helping you leverage segmentation. 

Informed Decision Making and Forecasting 

CRM tools provide you with a whole range of user data. This data is often relevant and easy to use. It helps you make informed decisions and improve planning activities in your business. 

CRM also has real-time updates concerning individuals, sales teams, and overall operations. This makes it easier to make timely strategic decisions, leading to improved processes. 

Once you’re in the loop of what your salespeople are doing, CRM software can be beneficial. It helps you coordinate your sales team and feed them with reports that they can use to improve decision-making. 

The decision-making boost from CRM is pivotal for better marketing results and outputs. Relying on CRM can have a massive impact on your business as it leads to smarter decision-making processes. 

Get a CRM System for Your Business

Customer relationship management systems can help you boost customer loyalty, increase sales and save marketing costs. Investing in CRM software is a sure way to give yourself the edge in your industry.

Now that you understand what is CRM software, you can start leveraging it in your business. Contact us and we’ll help you with the right lead nurturing solution to transform your business.

How to Create a Lead Nurturing Campaign Using the Power of Email
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How to Create a Lead Nurturing Campaign Using the Power of Email

ByKamron

Emailing is a popular form of communication, with around 4.3 billion email users worldwide. Tap into that potential customer base by building relationships with them through an email campaign. 

A lead nurturing campaign enables you to move potential leads through your marketing funnel so that by the time they get to the end of it, they’re ready to make a purchase. Email lead nurturing campaigns are an effective way to turn a prospective customer into one that’s loyal for life. 

This guide will discuss how to nurture leads via email to increase your bottom line and customer base. 

What’s a Lead Nurturing Email?

When you send a message to a lead, encouraging them to make a purchase, that’s a lead nurturing email. A great lead nurturing email will follow the three E’s:

  • Entice
  • Engage
  • Encourage

Your leads should want to continue interacting with your brand once they receive your emails. A potential customer can have a few different interactions with your business. Some of them include:

  • Subscribing to your mailing list
  • Adding an item to their shopping cart
  • Setting up a meeting 
  • Using a promotional coupon

Contrary to popular belief, email isn’t dead. Around 99% of people check their inbox each day. They’ll check their email first thing in the morning or multiple times a day. 

What’s a Lead Nurturing Campaign?

With a lead nurture email campaign, you’ll send out multiple emails designed to nurture your lead into converting into a customer. A lead nurture email campaign typically begins when a lead takes action on your website. 

You’ll stay in contact with your lead during every step of their interaction with you with this email campaign. You can provide several things to your leads in your emails, such as reminders or resources. 

As time goes on, the lead might not interact with your business, make a purchase, or click on your call-to-action. If they’re still showing interest in your business, they’ll need ongoing engagement to drive them through the sales funnel toward making a conversion. 

Best Practices for Lead Nurturing Emails

Let’s talk about some of the best practices to keep in mind when creating a lead nurturing email campaign. It’s crucial that you build a relationship with your lead built on understanding, consistency, and trust. 

Provide Content With Valuable Insights

All your emails to your leads should include valuable content. Think of the emails as small blog posts. 

For example, imagine that you own a chiropractic business. Your first email might talk about the top things you should think about before picking a chiropractor. 

You want to communicate to your leads that you’re an expert in your industry. As you teach your leads something new, they’ll look forward to receiving your emails. They’ll want to continue receiving emails from you. 

Focus on a Single Topic 

Each email in your lead nurturing email campaign should be centered around a single topic. It should also include a strong CTA. 

Put yourself in the position of your lead as you craft your emails. They have to sift through countless emails all day long. Ensure the content of your message is directly tied to the topic that made the lead initially convert. 

For example, say you sell IT software, and your lead inputted their email address to receive a FAQ document about your company. This lead is likely near the top of the sales funnel and is researching an upcoming purchase. 

The first email in your campaign could be about “discussing with your management team the importance of IT software.” You want to directly talk about the problem your potential customer is trying to solve. 

Get Straight to the Point 

You don’t need to create custom graphics for your lead nurture emails. You want your lead to glance at your message and know what value they can pull from it within a few seconds. 

Businesses tend to dump a lot of information into a single email. Adding unrelated links or secondary CTAs will decrease the effectiveness of your lead nurture campaign. Leads might also unsubscribe from your emails if your message is too lengthy. 

It’s recommended to keep your emails around 50-125 words. You can extend your message to connect with your leads, but keep it concise. 

Have a Natural Progression 

Your lead nurture email campaign should have a natural flow to create a well-rounded campaign. After your initial “welcome” email with your lead, the following one might focus on educational materials. Subsequent emails can also provide educational materials while giving your lead the chance to convert. 

There’s also an excellent opportunity to promote a demo or free trial of your product in the middle and latter half of your campaign. Speak with your sales team about what they consider a “sales-ready potential customer.” You can craft your campaigns accordingly. 

Test Your Lead Nurture Emails

Testing your lead nurture emails allows you to fine-tune the campaign. You can track key metrics, such as:

  • How many people clicked one of your links
  • Unsubscribe rate

You want your unsubscribe rate to be under 5%. If it gets higher than that percentage, you’ll need to evaluate your campaigns. 

Personalize Your Emails

The emails you send out should be personalized to your lead. The personalization depends upon how they’ve interacted with your brand and what type of consumer they are. 

Think about things like:

  • Have they purchased from you before?
  • How much time has passed since you last contacted them?
  • Did they receive their welcome email?

All of the above factors will influence the content of your emails. 

Automate Your Lead Nurturing Email Campaigns

Your email campaigns should be automated and personalized. Manually sending out an email to each lead would take an excessive amount of time. Depending on how they interact with your brand, you can utilize email marketing software to send scheduled email blasts to your leads. 

Partner With an Experienced Marketing Agency 

A lead nurturing campaign is an excellent opportunity to provide value to your leads while nudging them along the sales funnel. The goal is conversion while creating a meaningful relationship with potential customers. 

Schedule a marketing consultation with Fishhook Marketing to learn more about our services and how we can help with emails for lead nurturing.