4 Quick and Easy Tips for a Tidy CRM Posted on August 21, 2015June 20, 2018 by Lindsey Stroud Imagine… A new lead – we will call him Matt Smith – comes through a form on your website and you eagerly pick-up the phone to introduce yourself. “Hi Lindsey – Thanks for the call, but Erin on your team has already reached out and I am scheduled for a time to speak with her next week.” Your hot new lead now identifies themselves as an existing opportunity for someone else within your company. Where did you go wrong? Chances are your CRM is not working in your favor. With a poorly structured database – you can miss out on valuable opportunities, send irrelevant information, or appear lazy to your contacts. In this example, Matt Smith was entered in as a duplicate contact, and had already been in contact with another sales rep. I see this scenario roll out far too often, and I credit that to an unorganized CRM. There are many steps you can take now to ensure your team is set-up for communication success. Tidy Up Your Spreadsheets Prior to importing data into your CRM, it’s important to tidy it up as much as possible. Deleting unnecessary fields is a good starting point; consider which data is critical, and which is disposable or could create potential confusion down the road. If you are moving from one CRM to another, take note of the additional fields that systems include in your export. Often times there will be unnecessary fields that you may have used in a previous system, which would no longer apply. Create a Standard Data-Entry Process Much of bad data unfortunately stems from human-error. You can significantly cut down on the error of inputting bad data by creating a standard process for documenting new data. Within Hatchbuck, we allow for drop-down custom fields – which helps to save time and error. Drop down fields allow the admin to pre-define the options their team has, so the team can stay consistent in their selections, forgoing spelling errors and renaming. Merge Duplicate Contacts The majority of CRM systems will match based off of email address and/or full name. Whichever merging criteria you choose, it’s important to remain mindful of how incoming leads will be entered into your system, so you can avoid entering duplicates. You want your communication with your contacts and internal sales team to be rock solid, and if you have multiple people on your team contacting the same individual – things can get messy very quickly. Keep Your Process Simple Clutter often derives from a complicated process. You can keep a tidy CRM by eliminating unnecessary statuses and custom fields, and keeping tags to a minimum. A good exercise is to consider and plan with your team which pieces of data are crucial to your sales and marketing process. Everything else can be considered fluff, and should be eliminated to reduce confusion down the road. Streamlining your sales funnel and creating a well-structured process for segmenting your contacts can help to cut down on the clutter. A few small changes upfront can help create large impact over-time. Internally, we like to ensure a clean import, consistent data entry, and minimum contact fields to maintain a clean CRM. At Hatchbuck, our goal is to help you create more meaningful conversations, close more deals, and maintain more customers by providing you a well-structured and easy to use CRM.
How to Bring Your CRM and Marketing Automation Together Posted on August 20, 2015March 27, 2020 by Jessica Lunk How well do you coordinate your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation? Are these two related processes managed separately, or do they work together? What are the benefits of bringing these two systems together, and why should I consider doing so? These are all questions you should ask yourself when looking for ways to improve your overall marketing and sales ROI, sales funnels, and ongoing customer relationships. And let’s be honest, as marketers, those are things you’re trying to do on the daily. Bringing your CRM and marketing automation software together results in the best partnership since peanut butter and jelly. Let’s take a deep dive into why this coordination gives you a leg up and how to go about doing so. But first, let’s address the basics. What’s the Difference Between CRM and Marketing? While CRM and marketing are related, they are not the same thing. Marketing is the process by which your company invites prospects to try your products or services and raises awareness of your brand. Marketing can be divided into two main categories: Outbound Marketing – consists of traditional commercials and advertising that broadcasts your brand message to prospects. Inbound marketing is the process of creating content to attract customers to your brand by answering their questions before they are ready to buy. Inbound Marketing – focuses on starting prospects down the sales funnel by offering free information in return for a conversion with a lead magnet. While some of the methods of reaching customers during marketing campaigns are the same ones used for CRM, the focus of marketing and CRM is different. These methods may consist of email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, PPC ads, or broadcast ads. But what is CRM, you ask? Well, CRM is how you organize your prospects’ information so you can better manage them. Specifically, your CRM software should: Enable your company to structure and plan optimal interaction with prospects and clients. Harbor and organize information on your prospects gathered from your marketing campaigns. Manage the methods and scheduling of client interactions by way of email, social media, texting, phone calls, or meetings. Allow you to determine which clients are the highest priority and how and when to approach them. Prevent prospects from slipping through the cracks and help cement your existing relationships. Now that we’ve outlined some terms and ideas let’s discuss why it’s key for your CRM software and marketing automation software to work together. Why Coordinate CRM and Marketing Automation? While the goals for marketing and CRM are different, the relationships that begin with your marketing program continue with CRM. You can learn a lot about your prospects through their responses to marketing campaigns, which can then be applied to your CRM and help you interact with them going forward. Ultimately, marketing and CRM work in partnership to build the foundation that you need to earn a customer’s trust. Also, when you bring your CRM and marketing automation together: There is less chance you will miss a prospect. Marketing automation gathers and sorts inquiries. Rather than missing an inquiry from a prospect, they can immediately be sent a relevant reply. The reply can be much more targeted than a generic “we’ll get back with you” message. You can immediately grab their attention with your responsiveness, and it can all be done automatically. There is less chance you will lose a prospect. Without automating your CRM, there is a good chance you can lose prospects along the way. They can slip through the cracks or may not be getting an appropriate follow-up. Using marketing automation keeps you in contact with prospects until they decide they are no longer a prospect or until they become a customer. It makes you more effective. Small business entrepreneurs are required to be a jack of all trades. They are the ship’s captain, but they may have to occasionally swab the deck or grab an oar. By automating your CRM, you are able to spend more of your time doing what you like to do and the things you are probably good at. It makes your company more cost-effective. All-in-one marketing software is affordable for even the smallest of companies. These are exactly the companies that need to be efficient and effective with their resources. With affordable pricing available in packages to meet the needs of any size business, marketing automation makes the most of your financial and human resources. Automation tracks your efforts. When properly used, marketing automation tracks your marketing efforts. Of course, you will still want to do A|B testing to hone in on tactics that work best for you, but automation can give you the valuable feedback you need. Automation marketing software allows you to track your marketing and helps you make more informed decisions. It provides a strategic, simpler way to turn prospects into clients. Marketing automation uses a specific strategy to turn inquiries into prospects and prospects into customers. You can even be notified when a prospect is hot and ready to buy. It delivers a consistent and repeatable process to drive more sales month after month. It helps you make the best use of all your online marketing efforts. When you integrate your CRM with marketing automation, you combine your email contacts, website visitors, and social media efforts into one manageable system. There is no need to bounce between platforms or a variety of different software programs. It can immediately help make you more competitive with larger companies. There aren’t many things you can do that will have more impact on how you compete than automating your CRM. It reins in all segments of your prospects and provides a systematic flow of prospects and clients. Your competitors may be considering doing it. One of the best reasons to automate your CRM is that your competitors may be considering it. By automating your CRM now, you will stay ahead of the competition or at least compete more effectively against them. Smart, successful companies are always in search of better ways to do things. When it comes to CRM, automation is a better way. 7 Steps to Supercharge Your CRM with Marketing Automation Here are the steps to take that will lower overhead cost, give you better metrics to track your CRM activities, and ultimately bring your marketing automation and CRM together. 1. Learn the System. Not using all the features of your cellphone isn’t a big deal (and honestly, who does?). But not learning about and using the features of your CRM and marketing automation system can cost you money in lost prospects and customers. Take the time to learn as much about your CRM and marketing automation as possible. And steer clear of CRM and marketing automation systems that are overly complex for your business needs. 2. Enter Data Consistently. No more bad CRM data. Your platforms will function only as well as the quality of the data that you enter. Reduce human error by automating as much data entry as you can. When importing bulk data from spreadsheets, make sure data is formatted correctly and that fields are correctly matched. Use drop-down fields instead of text boxes to reduce data inconsistency. 3. Make It Part of Your Daily Routine. Once you get your customer data entered, it’s important to use this valuable tool daily. Start with simple tasks like setting automation to absorb data from your online lead forms and respond with automated messages. 4. Monitor Your System. Make sure data from forms are being properly absorbed into the system and segmented the way you want it to be. Consistently monitoring your data systems will save you from catastrophic mistakes when it comes to nurturing your leads. 5. Set Up Drip Campaigns. Drip campaigns are automated emails that help with sales efforts by trickling messages to prospects, with the goal of funneling them into becoming customers. Choose a system that comes with a wide choice of attractive and professional-looking templates to help you easily create effective drip and email campaigns. 6. Monitor Reports. Each campaign you set up with marketing automation can be monitored with easy to read reports. It is here where you can fine-tune your campaigns and conduct A/B testing to improve your results. Like human salespeople, efforts should be tracked, monitored, and improved to make the most of your assets. Using data from reports can contribute to improving CRM. 7. Commit to Your CRM. Once you begin to see results from your marketing automation, you will better understand the full value the system brings to your organization and CRM. The longer you use marketing automation to improve CRM, the better you will be at using its full range of abilities. The better you become at using marketing automation, the more valuable the tool will become. These two tools are sophisticated, and they’re even more powerful when they’re used in unison. They allow you to use the advantages of automation while personalizing your interactions with each customer. You’ll spend less time on routine tasks and systematically prioritize customer interactions resulting in a readiness to buy. You get the best of both worlds – more conversions through marketing automation and better customer relationships through CRM. This blog post has been updated on 3/27/20.
Beyond Email Clicks: Why Small Biz Marketers Want to Measure More Posted on March 13, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Marketers love delivering email open rates and click-through rates that go through the roof and beat industry standards. The smallest percentage increase in click-through can be exciting, especially as your list size grows. We like to obsess over opens and click-throughs because they’re simple to measure. Even the most basic batch & blast email marketing tools track clicks and opens, and even show you who has clicked. But do you ever feel like something else should be there? Small business marketers are itching to reach more meaningful metrics, metrics that go beyond click-through rates to measure how email campaigns are driving sales and generating revenue. Sure, you know that they’re clicking. But are they converting? Email opens and clicks are the first steps to conversion. With these metrics in hand, there are still questions left unanswered: Are you sending the right mix of content? The modern marketing approach is to provide value-added content that informs, educates or entertains your audience. However, we can’t forget to ask for the sale as well. As you build a track record of delivering awesome content to your list, your email opens and clicks will rise. At the same time, only sending value-added content may not lead to conversions. Email clicks can tell you that your list loves your content, but they can’t tell you if you are sending the right balance of value-added content and call-to-actions that ask leads to learn more about your product and services, shop or buy. What happens when leads reach your landing page? You may have become a master at crafting calculated email content that gets opened and clicked. But do leads hit your landing page and drop off? Or do they follow through with the next call to action, such as signing up for a service, tweeting out a blog post, or making a purchase? If you can’t tie clicks back to a completed action on your landing page, you can’t know if your emails are really driving increased awareness, new opportunities and sales. Clicks can’t tell you that you might need to adjust your email content to match what’s delivered on the landing page, or that a little landing page optimization might help convert more visitors. Email clicks alone do not indicate that leads actually convert on your landing page. Are your email campaigns generating opportunities and customers? Clicks and opens are not currency – customers are. Clicks and opens can indicate the health of your emails and campaigns, but they don’t tell you if engaged contacts are converting to customers. Beyond Clicks: How To Measure the Success of Your Email Marketing Using an email marketing tool integrated with a CRM for your small business closes the gap between email clicks and customers. CRM tracking gives you the full scoop on how your customers, well, became your customers. With CRM, you have insights into: Where your customers originated from What emails they have opened The links they have clicked The pages they have visited The forms they have filled out The sales people they have engaged with Measuring opens and clicks is the foundation of revenue-generating email marketing. But small business marketers feel like they need something more to correlate email activity to revenue. CRM brings these metrics full circle, helping marketers reach the analytics they need to demonstrate the ROI of email marketing campaigns.
Warm Customers, Hot Profits Posted on February 26, 2014July 8, 2016 by Jessica Lunk According to researchers, customers who experience physical warmth are more likely to make a purchase. The researchers found that: Online shoppers were 46% more likely to hit a “Purchase” page when the daily temperature averaged 77 degrees Fahrenheit than when it averaged 68F. Customers in a warm room were willing to pay more that those in a cool room for 9 of 11 consumer items shown to them. Customers were willing to pay 36% more for items when holding warm, versus cool, therapeutic pads. Researchers say that physical warmth actually activates the concept of emotional warmth, drawing out positive feelings and increasing the perceived value of products. So, being physically warm triggers the emotional warmth that makes customers want to buy more and pay more. But, we can’t always control the temperature. Why not go straight to the source? Use your small business CRM to shine emotional warmth on prospects, increasing the likelihood that they’ll buy. If your CRM is more of a catchall for contacts than a sales and marketing machine, you’re missing a great opportunity to warm up to your prospects and customers, compelling them to make a purchase, spend more, and buy more often. The Cool Customer An American Express survey found that 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. Customer relationship management is more than keeping contacts organized. It’s making your contacts feel valued, known, and well cared for. A better customer experience is built on great communication between all customer and prospect-facing teams. Sales, marketing, and support should leave a trail of breadcrumbs from each contact touch point to the next. If your sales and marketing process is broken, communication breaks down at the expense of your customers, prospects and your business: Instead of following up with warm leads, cold calling is the norm. Instead of being handled with care, customers with issues end up feeling frustrated. Instead of a smooth follow-up process, opportunities to close more deals are missed. Small Business CRM Heats Things Up An efficient sales and marketing process paired with a simple CRM melts these challenges away. First, a CRM can automatically track contact activity. Now you’ll know which web pages a contact has visited, which emails they have opened, when the last point of contact was, or if they’re in your deals pipeline. The more engaged contacts are with your business, the warmer – and more likely to buy – they are. In addition, a rock-solid sales and marketing process can tackle hard-to-trace touch points. Did a customer call in and chat with support? Did sales offer a discount during the sales process? With great notes on contact records, customers feel connected to your brand. They feel known when they reach out to you instead of feeling left out in the cold. This translates into happy customers who feel good about making a purchase. Better relationship management through small business CRM turns up the temperature for your customers and prospects. When your sales and marketing process is seamless and easily scaled, your contacts feel the warmth, translating into cold hard cash.
Put the Heart Back into Marketing, Integrate Email with CRM [Infographic] Posted on February 13, 2014June 20, 2018 by Jessica Lunk No one wants to be just another face in the crowd, they want to be known. So put the heart back into your messaging. Track your contacts’ information, preferences, and pipeline status with CRM. Then, use that data to nurture them through email marketing tactics. By marrying your CRM with email marketing, you can ditch the one-to-many blast and give your customers and prospects the warm fuzzies with one-to-one communication that they can actually relate to. In turn, they’ll show their love with higher engagement and increased sales. Stats & Sources: Email marketers estimate 30% of email revenue derives from targeting to specific segments. – DMA “National Client Email Report” (2013) 61% of US and UK internet users want marketers to demonstrate knowledge of the types of offers they like in email marketing messages. -e-Dialog “Manifesto for E-mail Marketers: Consumer Demand Relevance” (2010) Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. – Jupiter Research Triggered messages average 152% higher click-through rates than “business as usual” marketing messages. – EmailInstitute “3 Key Trends in Email Marketing & What to Do Now” (2013) Despite relatively low volumes, trigger email campaigns accounted for 21% of email revenue. Over 75% of email revenue is now generated by alternatives to generic one-size-fits-all campaigns. – DMA “National Client Email Report” (2013) Marketers who take advantage of automation—which includes everything from cart abandonment programs to birthday emails—have seen conversion rates as high as 50%. – eMarketer “Email Marketing Benchmarks: Key Data, Trends and Metrics” (2013) Organizations that nurture their leads experience a 45% increase in lead generation ROI over those organizations that do not. -MarketingSherpa “2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report” (2012) 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. – Gleanster Research Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. – The Annuitas Group