Key takeaways
- Integrating email marketing with your CRM turns CRM data into personalised, relevant messages that generate leads, strengthen relationships and increase sales.
- Use personalized emails rather than generic ones as personalized messages are more likely to drive response and avoid the spam folder.
- Segmented and targeted email drives the bulk of revenue: a DMA report says segmented/targeted emails generate 58% of all email revenue (36% from specific target selections, 22% from segmentation across a whole database).
- Integrating CRM and email helps cultivate quality leads by identifying cold vs hot prospects and enabling drip content to convert stagnant contacts into sales.
- Activate your CRM database by prompting contacts with emails, capturing their web activity for fresh data and following up meaningfully to drive sales.
- Keep sales and marketing aligned: when CRM and email tools are integrated, sales can see what emails a contact received or engaged with which is important because most client research happens online and before sales contact.
Introduction
Once a company has reached a certain size, they will have likely reached a point where there is a need for some type of CRM (Contact Relationship Management) system to be in place. The data stored within this system provides huge opportunity for a company’s success by taking advantage of the super-connected and constantly evolving digital environment in order to retain customers. Maintaining an active conversation with clients is vital for in order to hold their attention and commitment to your company.
“An all-in-one sales and marketing platform that integrates CRM with email marketing can transform your data into personalized, relevant messaging that will enhance your ability to generate more leads, strengthen customer relationships and increase sales,” says Larry Myler, contributor at Forbes.
Here are 5 killer strategies that can help make the most out client relations by integrating email marketing with a CRM system.
Create Personalized Messages
People want to feel like they are being directly addressed. Most readers generally overlook generic emails and cookie-cutter formats, which can quickly end up in the spam box. However, personalized messages are much more likely to drive response and action.
According to a DMA report, “Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. More than a third (36%) of revenues were driven by emails sent to specific target selections. Revenue from segmented email that covers the whole database has levelled at 22%.”
Cultivate Quality Leads
Email marketing is an effective tool for cultivating quality leads by upholding positive client relations. An email campaign that is not targeted to an interested audience is not likely to be read by many people on that list.
However, according to Myler, “Integrating with CRM gives you insight into who is a cold lead and who is a hot prospect. You can drip compelling content to these contacts over time to turn a stagnant database into a sales generator.”
According to another DMA report,“66 percent of online consumers made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message.”
Activate Your CRM Database
Contacts in a CRM system will not be active participants in your business. They will be uninformed about new offers and will not be engaged by your brand in any way.
“By integrating your tools, you can prompt your contacts to take action with an email message, and learn more about them as they respond to your messages and head back to your website,” says Myler, which can help collect data on client activity. “With fresh new data, you can follow-up in a meaningful way, driving sales.”
Sales and Marketing Belong Together
Most research carried out by potential clients is done online, and it is also the most likely place for someone to be inspired to make a purchase.
“This means that contacts have quite a bit of interaction with the marketing side before they reach your sales team,” says Myler. “If your CRM and email marketing tools are separate, it can be difficult for sales to see what emails a contact has received or engaged with.”
Don’t Lose the Personal Touch With Scale
Personalized email marketing can do a lot for creating healthy B2B client relations, but as scale increases, it can be easy for a company to lose the personal touch that fosters the best connection.
“Integrating your CRM with email marketing means you can send timely emails, check in and follow up with all of your accounts, making sure that none of your customer relationships are left unattended,” writes Myler. This provides huge opportunity for maintaining a touch that is significant to a company’s customers.
FAQ
Integration lets you turn CRM data into personalized, relevant messaging to generate more leads, strengthen customer relationships and increase sales. It also activates dormant contacts, enables targeted drip campaigns for hot and cold leads and gives sales visibility into a contact’s email interactions.
People respond better when they feel directly addressed. Generic, cookie‑cutter emails are often ignored or end up in spam, whereas personalized messages are much more likely to drive response and action.
A DMA report states that segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all email revenue: 36% came from emails sent to specific target selections, while revenue from segmentation covering the whole database levelled at 22%.
Integration gives insight into which contacts are cold versus hot prospects, allowing you to drip compelling, targeted content over time to convert a stagnant database into a sales generator. 66% of online consumers made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message.
By prompting contacts to take action with email messages and tracking how they respond and return to your website, you collect fresh behavioural data. That new data lets you follow up in a meaningful way and drive sales.
Most client research happens online and contacts interact with marketing before sales. If CRM and email tools are separate, sales may not see which emails a contact has received or engaged with, integration gives sales the context they need when they engage a prospect.
