7 tips to link CRM with marketing automation

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Reach the right customers at the right time, leverage the best touchpoints for your message, and Highest quality leads probe - all this promises you a Marketing Automationthat keeps a close eye on your customers at every stage. While your Customer Relationship Management If you use data that has been collected, analyzed and often further processed, the basis for this lies in marketing automation. Because this is connected to all neuralgic points of your marketing.

The link from your CRM with Marketing Automation brings many advantages. This allows you to exploit the full potential of human-collected and machine-collected data sets. In this overview, we give you 7 tips to make this integration easier in practice.

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CRM and Marketing Automation - Differences and Similarities

Precisely because Customer Relationship Management and Marketing Automation work so well together, it's worth taking a look at the differences. The biggest difference is certainly the Use. The sales team and the sales department mostly use the CRM. The goal is to be able to better engage in dialog with potential customers.

Marketers, on the other hand, use marketing automation data to get a better 360-degree view of customers. While Customer Relationship Management can actually be very close to the customer and often deliberately relies on a human dialog, Marketing Automation is more focused on repetitive activities at scale designed. Here, the main focus is on collecting large amounts of data and driving lead nurturing.

You can optimize and coordinate various work processes through a CRM and marketing automation link.
You can optimize and coordinate various work processes by linking CRM and marketing automation (Fig: peppybiz.com)

Depending on the size of the company and the software platform used, the terms can soften even further. After all, your goal should be to collect all the data in marketing that will also help your sales team in the field. Depending on the nature and focus of your business, you may have prioritized CRM or automation more, but you will benefit from better integration either way.

Linking CRM with Marketing Automation - this is how it works

1. the individual interface

A API solution (short for Application Programming Interface) is the best and most flexible way of linking for many companies. Here, an interface is created with which different systems exchange the data sets with each other can. Sales thus has access in CRM to the data that the marketing department has collected on the leads.
However, depending on the size of the databases, the systems used and their integration with the respective teams, an API can mean high effort.

2. the connector

If you want to link CRM with Marketing Automation, you can also use connectors as a consistent solution between both systems. The great advantage in this lies in the two-track operation and the constant synchronization. Whether your employees work in marketing automation or customer relationship management, the data sets are always the same.

While an API represents an individual solution, a standardized connector is unified and predefined.

3. aggregate the relevant data

The goal of closer integration is, of course, central data sets to ensure that all employees are always Access to the latest information have and can make truly informed decisions.
Which information you attach the most importance to must be weighted differently from situation to situation. Click behavior and past orders can be just as important as contract data (especially for as-a-service models), the topics clicked on in the newsletter, or information from a personal customer conversation.

Before linking CRM with marketing automation, create an overview of essential information to keep all operations streamlined and efficient.

4. omnichannel strategies as an integral part

Successful integration between automation in marketing and customer relationship management is the basis for functioning Omnichannel marketing. This is why you should already work out in the conceptual phase on which channels your company is already strongly active and in which channels you will invest in the future.
This way, you can easily design your linking efforts around their more global marketing strategy and create a sustainable concept that will serve your business for a long time.

5. marketing clouds as an entry-level concept

Especially for startups or digitally expanding SMEs, existing cloud solutions are often the best approach. Through the cloud, a Constant synchronization ensured and your employees can Flexible access to the most important data. This is not only important while working in the home office, but also crucial when your sales team is on their way to a customer appointment.

The advantage of ready-made cloud solutions is the Easy implementation and the Immediate functionality. To bring CRM and marketing automation together here technically, you don't have to do anything else. But an "off-the-shelf" solution is not right for all companies; the need for customized solutions grows especially with the company's internal flexibility.

6. lead improvement for sales

Sales teams absolutely have to be involved in the integration, as this is where a particularly large amount of change can or should take place. The close link between CRM and marketing automation Improves the quality of leadsBut it also provides information about the touchpoints at which prospects are ready for a sales conversation and when the signals are not yet sufficient and they go back to nurturing.

Sales teams must adapt accordingly, more concrete discussions with potential customers and to take their history into account. If the abundance of data is not used here, you could expect an increasing drop-off rate.

7. marketing and sales

Of course, software solutions aren't the only difficulty in integrating between automated marketing and CRM. Your employees also need good collaboration across departments. One Investigation from HubSpot, companies can generate more leads through their marketing team when they work more closely with sales.

Sales benefits from a better overview of the entire marketing funnel, but the marketing team can also improve its content and strategies. better align with individual customers. This is a crucial success factor, especially in the B2B segment with a few large customers.

Better communication between the departments involved is just as important as technical linkage.

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Sharpened profiles and the complete view

If you manage to develop a 360-degree view of your potential customers and consistently align your marketing funnel across all touchpoints, you will not only optimize the Customer Experience with your company. Your employees will also appreciate the improved flow of information and will be able to deal with customers in a much more specific way. Whether that's early in the marketing funnel at the Lead generation or in the final sales conversation. Linking CRM with marketing automation leads to more insights into customer behavior, better service and more personalized marketing.

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