We all know the saying: the customer is always right. But what if you could always be right for the customer?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform tools help businesses manage customer data, including purchases, returns, queries, interactions, and reviews, all of which can help paint a clearer picture of your target audience.
With the data provided by CRMs, marketers can also identify key traits of their customer base including demographics, geographical location, and ordering preferences (individual versus bulk, free shipping versus priority shipping, etc.). Together, this information helps business leaders to better understand the buyer journey, allowing them to more effectively address audience needs at all stages of the funnel.
There are 3 levels of functionality core to CRM software to be aware of as you consider digitally transforming your marketing efforts:
The core functionality to your choice in CRM is to establish processes essential to your sales operation. A CRM streamlines contact management and sales team business development through a platform designed to track and manage lead progress along the customer journey. This includes managing customer data and interactions and verifying results.
Automation and analytics are more data-driven than their process-oriented operational counterpart. The main purpose of an analytic within a CRM is to collect and interpret customer data. Automations are used to identify patterns in customer behavior to better address customer pain points and future-proof the user experience.
Intended to improve business practices and provide additional organizational information to internal and external stakeholders, collaborative aspects of CRMs make clear the relationship between the business and the buyer. The logic is that insights about a business’s sales, marketing, and services processes can not only inform better business practices, but better customer experience as well.
These features can be effective on their own, or used in conjunction with one another. The right model for your business depends on how you plan to use the data you collect, and in some cases, whom you plan to share it with.
In general, with better customer data, we are better equipped to understand our customers at all stages of the buyer's journey
If we know that our audience makes many of their purchases through Instagram, for example, we may focus more of our top-of-funnel efforts on social media. On the other hand, if we’ve noticed that prospects do not return our calls or emails after we do a product demo, we may want to focus our marketing efforts on more straightforward sales collateral.
With CRMs, we can also use aggregate data about our audiences to create unique buyer personas. These personas help marketers to “set the tone, style, and delivery strategies for their content,” based on the actual interests, preferences, and desires of their customer base.
Here’s an example. Consider a grocery store: everyone needs food to survive, but not everyone needs the same food, the same quantity of food, or even the same quality of food. Jill, mom of 3, buys in bulk for her kids’ school lunches, while Darelle, a college student, is a vegan who buys alternative milks based on price, not taste.
Jill is buyer persona 1: marketing directed towards her will promote quick family meals, healthy options for kids, and on-the-go snacks. Darelle, buyer persona 2, might respond better to marketing focused on organic food options, coupons for non-dairy products, and community gardening projects. By using CRMs, marketers can create personas that allow them to put themselves in the shoes of a variety of potential audiences and address their differing priorities and needs throughout the customer journey.
Although Analytical CRMs are the most practical resource for creating buyer personas, as the focus of these CRMs is almost entirely customer data, operational and collaborative CRMs can also inform ideation, creation, and delivery of content to target audiences.
It’s simple: improving relationships with your audiences leads to better sales results. That’s why CRMs are so important to creating a tailored marketing experience for your prospects that makes them feel seen and heard.
Want to learn more about how to take advantage of CRMs in your journey to digital transformation? Check out our eBook, Elevate Your Marketing Through Digital Transformation