What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

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Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process of managing interactions with existing and potential customers during the sales cycle. CRM refers to any strategy or approach that uses data to build, improve, and manage customer relationships, but it is most commonly used to refer to CRM software or technology.

  • What is CRM software?
  • Why use a CRM system?
  • Why is CRM important for marketers?
  • Do small businesses require CRM?
  • 4 important CRM features for small businesses
  • Advantages of CRM for small business marketers
  • How to select the right CRM for your business

What is CRM software?

CRM software or technology helps businesses gather, organize, and analyze customer data to better manage customer relationships.

Using a CRM system to track data from potential and existing customers can help you better understand their needs, build stronger relationships, and market smarter.

Why use a CRM system?

With CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, you can easily collect and manage information about people who matter to your business.

Depending on the department, this role may vary. CRM, for example,

  • help sales reps see previous interactions and purchases before calling,
  • provide customer service support teams with background and contact information, or
  • provide marketers with data to target their campaigns.

Any customer-facing role within a company must organize and understand CRM data insights. But as audience data becomes more vital, so does the amount of information businesses must track. It’s difficult (or impossible) to get a complete picture of your customer and talk to them meaningfully when there are so many online channels and ways to engage.

That’s why companies of all sizes and industries are using CRM tools to centralize audience reports, better understand their customers’ needs, and build stronger relationships. CRM software also helps them engage with prospects, save time with automation, and close more deals.

Why is CRM important for marketers?

Each campaign you send and every customer interaction you have as a marketer collects valuable data (including clicks, views, and purchases across new, existing, and prospective customers).

Your customer knowledge is one of your most valuable marketing and sales tools. Collecting and organizing data effectively can tell you everything you need to know about your customers’ preferences: what they want, what they need to know, and where you’re falling short.

It’s important to start collecting data as soon as possible so you can use it to improve customer experience and build more—and better—customer relationships.

Do small businesses require CRM?

CRM isn’t just for big businesses. Using statistics to improve customer relationships has become a must for all businesses. There is no better time to start contact management than when you first start.

When you create an online presence for your company, you gain valuable information about your current and potential customers. CRM can help you build and track relationships with customers, collect data about their preferences, and automate marketing touch points over time.

CRM isn’t a full-time job: Using data to your advantage can help you stay on customers’ radars, find new sales opportunities, and save time. It also helps you decide where to spend your money to reach customers on their preferred channels, so they think of you whenever they’re ready to buy.

4 Important CRM features for small businesses

Of course, if you’re just getting started with CRM, you won’t need the same features as a large enterprise. Your online business’s specific CRM needs will vary, but there are a few basic requirements that every small business marketer should keep in mind. Small business CRM basics include:

  1. One place for audience data. Customers’ information such as contact information, phone calls, sales activity, and satisfaction must be collected centrally by small businesses. It also allows you to identify patterns that reveal things like where your audience lives and what messages they respond to the most.
  2. Connectivity to your key marketing channels. Marketing is an important part of selling products or services, especially for businesses with a small or non-existent sales force. Keeping audience data separate from marketing channels makes it difficult to personalize communications and increases the risk of data loss. Choose a few key channels to reach customers and make sure your CRM tool can collect reports from them.
  3. A campaign’s ability to iterate, learn, and test. As a growing company, you have to learn a lot about your target market. It’s critical to find a tool that allows you to easily track your channels’ performance, understand how your audience interacts with your marketing, and adjust your campaigns accordingly.
  4. Growth tools. Once you’ve started collecting audience data, you’ll want to be able to use it to find and talk to the right people: potential new customers and existing customers. Especially for small businesses with limited budgets and resources, audience data can help you target the most likely buyers and focus your resources where they will be most effective.

Advantages of CRM for small business marketers

Finding a CRM tool that meets your company’s needs (even if it’s just the basic criteria outlined above) can help small business marketers immediately. This allows you to:

  1. Identify your target market. Create a central location for customer reports so you can see who you’re talking to and track changes as your company grows.
  2. Send the right content to the right people. Using data to target messages makes it simple to send content that matters to customers (and keeps them listening). Especially for small businesses that heavily rely on marketing to position their brand, segmenting your audience is critical.
  3. Use your data to meet new people. Creating campaigns based on your existing audience knowledge allows you to target your campaigns more effectively, get the most out of your budget, and increase sales productivity.
  4. Discover new ways to connect with others. Your contacts will become more apparent as you see all their data in one place. The more you know about audience trends and preferences, the easier it is to come up with new campaign ideas.

How to select the right CRM for your business

Your CRM needs will vary depending on how your company operates and sells to customers, so always plan your strategy based on your goals. The following questions will help you evaluate your own needs:

  1. Who will use your CRM? Will your CRM tools be heavily marketed? A sales force? Both? Find a tool that will accommodate everyone in your organization who could benefit from customer insights (whether for visibility or to use data for a specific purpose).
  2. How complex do you need to begin? Remember that a complex CRM strategy does not happen overnight. Find a tool that allows you to start simple and add complexity as you learn.
  3. How do you reach your audience? Find a tool that integrates directly with your favorite channels, so data isn’t siloed or lost.
  4. Can your CRM grow with you? You’ll discover new ways to use audience reports and automate CRM processes over time, so find a tool that lets you add new features as you need them. You don’t want to be paying for (and working around) unnecessary complexity if you don’t need it.