CRM and Marketing Software – Essential Difference

CRM and marketing software are related but are not always the same tools in the marketing mix of a business.

A common challenge that growing businesses face is that as they grow, the needs of their prospects and customers grow with them. This can be problematic when you’re running a tight ship and operating with lean teams. More often than not, automation comes to mind as a way to remain lean, and still achieve the level of efficiency one desires.

But automation, in real terms, is much more than a form initiated email trigger. It is the sum total of a series of steps intended for customers to gravitate to the product or service you intend to provide them. If the automation is seamless, provides a great user experience and value to your customer, it ends up supporting your business message.

However, many times, we observe that automation tactics adopted by businesses are at odds with the overall business objectives.

It can be a serious issue and can significantly impact your customer experience. In an already tight market space, where more people are competing for the same $$ in the customer’s pocket, a misaligned automation step can be a serious failure.

Implementing an effective automation strategy can alleviate much of the stress. It allows you to continue scaling by removing the need for manual input across a range of marketing, sales, and customer service tasks. You need both a CRM and marketing system, but which one should we adopt first?

This is the key to effective automation lies in maintaining the single source of truth – the CRM.

Lets see what a Marketing Automation software can provide a business and how it differs from a CRM.

Marketing automation software

This is a system that is geared towards delivering marketing campaigns. These tools help marketers attract potential customers through the automated delivery of content. It also assists in streamlining the content creation process to help marketers build engaged, targeted traffic. The sales teams can convert these to paying customers.

Key features of marketing automation software:

• Lead nurturing — Seamless creation of templated emails and relevant content to the right leads at the right time is a key feature. This activity supports a business in reaching out to customers when and where they need the relevant information. Most marketing software also assist in lead qualification.
• Automated delivery — A majority of marketing software allow customized delivery of content – based on user behavior. They also have the ability to stop the delivery if a specific condition is observed. These so-called “artificial intelligence” based tools are really getting popular these days in the market.
• Campaign analytics and visualization — Mature marketing automation software assist you in creating automations that periodically measure data.They are also adept in showing campaign performance in visual ways which can be easily digested easily.

CRM and Marketing Software?

A CRM is the key element of the marketing and sales arsenal which provides intelligence to the marketing software in use. It can curate content based on the observable lead nurturing process for a prospect and drive the initiative to convert prospects into paying clients.

Simply put, a CRM can :

1. Provide better customer experience
2. Improve productivity of the teams handling marketing and sales
3. Increase collaboration within teams
4. Provide much greater insight into customer behavior in a historical perspective.

In effect, its a marketing software on steroids.

Unokha’s Approach to handling CRMS

Unokha has adopted a scalable framework that allows our clients to derive maximum mileage from the CRM and marketing automation.

The framework is built upon the principle of the “CRM First”, It hinges on the CRM being the single source of truth in our marketing efforts.

It proposes that all automation initiatives are based on triggers that are valid, verified and the reported metrics are all available in the CRM.

We go through the process of identifying the specific requirements of a business and then deciding whether a business needs a CRM or a Marketing Automation software.

Unokha also advises on how the different elements of the business can be put into one seamless automation experience. We assist in selecting the glue code.

If you need more insights on how a CRM can be made to assist your business reach a higher growth path, reach out and we can schedule a call to take you through the process.

And if you are open to a “15 Days No questions Asked” Trial of one of the most popular and powerful CRMs. Just let us know and we can assist in getting you set up with the CRM in no time.