When the Customer Relationship Management software tool was first introduced, businesses shopped around for the best CRM system to meet their needs. Generally, one that would store customer data and be retrieved when required. So it was an excellent tool for salespeople.
As CRM technology improved, companies realised they required a CRM strategy. A strategy to improve customer relationships and grow profits and revenue.
Today, many businesses rely heavily on CRM technology and the vast data stored to make informed marketing decisions. As a consequence, CRM fits right into CRM marketing strategy for data to also be analysed from related marketing activities.
Benefits of CRM Data
There are several internal benefits of using this valuable customer data.
Increased productivity due to data availability
Just a few clicks will analyse customer spending, customer interest, and frequently bought products and services.
The data contributes significantly to the marketing strategy
Data can help determine who to target and how to target that market. For example, marketers will generally create more marketing activities online if a specific group of buyers only purchase online.
Simplified sales process and customer support
Insights into customer purchase behaviour and contact channels to finalise purchases is obtained from available CRM data. Additionally, a CRM can enable personalised touchpoints to be enhanced for a more extraordinary customer experience.
Marketing metrics
With many businesses spread globally, a CRM strategy makes it possible for the data to be extracted and used from any location. This approach enables a localised marketing strategy. In doing so, data inform marketing campaigns and activities. As well, tracking and refining the marketing plan is possible.
CRM in marketing can also focus on key metrics targets such as:
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- Achieve a customer satisfaction rating of x% in x months
- Increase social media followers by x% in x months
- Improve email marketing open rates by x% in the next x months
CRM data informing marketing
CRM in-depth analysis helps you ask some essential questions to create a successful marketing plan with better results.
Some important questions to ask when analysing the data include:
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- Are we segmenting our customers by purchasing dollars and behaviour?
- What is the lifetime value of our customers?
- What part of the sales process and touchpoints can further be improved and automated?
- How can we further personalise the service and make customers feel special?
- What are your customers most satisfied with?
- What are your customers least satisfied with?
- Any negative feedback that can be remedied or improvements made in the business?
- Any other learnings to incorporate into the business?
Next steps
According to Accenture Strategy 2017 Global Consumer Pulse Research:
33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship in the last year did so because personalisation was lacking.
So, isn’t it time to revisit your CRM strategy to collect valuable customer data for analysis and use in marketing? Use that data to improve your sales, customer satisfaction and experience. Make your marketing more personalised to show how much you value each customer and improve the business bottom line.
Get in touch if you’d like FWD Focus to help formulate a marketing plan for the next period in your business.
