What are CRMs with Marketing Automation features and how do they work?
CRM and Marketing Automation are increasingly convergent and complementary, despite each having a different role: the former as an omnichannel database, the latter as the hub of customer communications.
When combined in CRM marketing systems, they enable the implementation of an integrated strategy to achieve marketing and sales growth by synchronizing information bidirectionally. This means that if a record is changed in the CRM, the update is automatically propagated in real time to the marketing automation system, and vice versa.
What are the main advantages of a CRM Marketing?
Typically, Marketing Automation includes the following features:
- Automatic tracking of all digital activity performed by users on company properties;
- Lead nurturing through automated workflows;
- Lead scoring based on automated rules;
- Creation of landing pages and forms.
To make the most of CRM, often used by salespeople, you need a system that allows you to understand where customers come from, what their priorities are, and how they interact with your business. This is what Marketing Automation software does—it generates leads—but it doesn’t have the ability to easily convert those leads into sales.
Why choose CRM strategies with Marketing Automation
Connecting CRM and Marketing Automation allows the marketing department to monitor the leads converted into customers, having support for understanding the causes of the success and/or failure of each one.
The advantages of an integrated CRM-Marketing Automation strategy are:
- Quality leads;
- Extensive visibility in both directions;
- Lead intelligence for sales (data on customer behavior, business goals);
- Tracking leads through the conversion process;
- Breaking the gap between Marketing and Sales.
An integrated CRM marketing system increases the effectiveness of online marketing strategies. When CRM and Marketing Automation software don’t communicate, data analysis becomes complex. Integration allows for a comprehensive view of the information, easily analyzed and organized in a single platform.
In particular, lead analysis is simplified, improving conversion rates. Marketing Automation programs have access to the CRM contact database, which is used to send personalized communications based on the information acquired. This way, salespeople always know where each lead is in the purchasing process, allowing them to activate targeted strategies.
The support team also benefits from CRM Marketing Automation integration, having access to all the data collected by other company departments. This information sharing provides support staff with a complete and detailed overview of each customer.
From sales to KPI analysis, everything is faster with CRM and automation
Not adopting an integrated marketing CRM means giving up an important competitive advantage.
Connecting contact management software with automation tools frees up valuable time for the entire team. No longer having to worry about lengthy and complex processes, employees can focus entirely on sales, marketing, and support activities. These systems interact with each other and focus solely on monitoring customer acquisition.
Beyond productivity, it also improves sales activity monitoring and results analysis. With a marketing CRM, sales performance is immediately visible thanks to constantly updated KPIs available at any time. An advantage not to be underestimated because it allows you to intervene quickly to perfect sales processes, focusing attention on the activities that are performing less well.
At ITTweb we have completed numerous projects with these integrated solutions, entrusting our vtenext CRM with the task of “collecting data”, analyzing it and then acting as a control hub for the various marketing platforms.