Turning prospects into loyal customers is a multi-step process that requires the combined efforts of cross-functional teams. Fortunately, there are several types of technologies available to make the task easier, such as customer relationship management ( CRM ) software and marketing automation ( MA ) software.
But it’s not just about how much easier it makes your job. When the two software programs work together, the process becomes more streamlined and can potentially convert more prospects into qualified leads , faster and more effectively.
More and more companies are experiencing the value of integrating the two systems: 52% of marketers implement marketing automation platforms that can integrate with other existing solutions in the company to improve their digital marketing efforts.
In this post, we’ll look at what marketing automation and CRM software do, and why they need each other to better grow your business.
CRM and Marketing Automation
Before we dive into why marketing automation and CRM should be integrated, we need to understand their specific functions.
What is marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software helps marketers promote and optimize content without manual applications, reducing repetitive tasks while optimizing workflows and conversion rates. For example, automating content distribution and analyzing reports that show how prospects interact with it.
It allows you to extract real-time data from when leads visit your website, open an email, fill out a form, or read a blog, and makes it easily accessible to the business.
Ultimately it simplifies the business processes required to acquire a lead, nurture it, and turn it into a sales- qualified lead .
Among the best marketing automation software we find HubSpot , Salesforce Pardot and Marketo.
Since it is a very important topic for us, we have dedicated a complete article to what it is, what it is for, and why marketing automation is essential.
What is Customer Relationship Management Software?
A CRM is a software for sales and service team management to manage their pipeline and lead qualification processes. It tracks customer data historically, including phone conversation dates and notes, past purchase records, and email interactions as they move through the buyer journey.
Essentially, with this CRM system, your salesperson can see the complete picture of a prospect or an acquired customer, their history and the path taken to become a customer, and always find the right proposal at the right time.
Best CRM for Marketing Automation
HubSpot is the all-in-one marketing softwarethat lets you manage everything from your website to emails to social media posts, all in one integrated platform. You can have everything you need: CRM and Marketing Hub for the automation part. Plus, within the same platform, through the Sales Hub , you can use the component dedicated to sellers for complete integration of marketing and sales processes.Learn more about how to choose the best CRM software for your business in our dedicated article.
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Why Integrate CRM and Marketing Automation
When marketing automation and buy phone number library CRM software work together, they provide a seamless, frictionless journey for your leads from visitors to customers. Integrating the two systems will give your salespeople a complete picture of a prospect’s interaction ar numbers with your company, allowing them to see the full story from the first marketing contact to when it was handled by sales.
A marketer attracts a lead through a blog post (like this one)
The lead found the content interesting and decided to download a lead magnet and fill out the form. Once that happens, the marketing team generates an email marketing campaign to activate the so-called lead nurturing .
These activities evolve the lead into a marketing qualified lead (MQL) . After some work and additional helpful content, the lead requests a product demo , thus transforming into a sales qualified lead (SQL) . Now the sales rep who is handling the demo, through marketing automation software and CRM, learns about the interactions the lead has had along this journey.
This way, you can see who the potential customer is and what company they work for, what offers they have downloaded, what posts they have read, and use them in your strategy for preparing the dedicated demo. In this way, salespeople are prepared to respond to the lead’s specific needs to lead them to purchase.
With this path we ‘”pushed” the lead through the funnel , and turned it into a customer by optimizing time and resources.
Read more about lead management in our dedicated article .
Benefits of CRM Integration with Marketing Automation
Starting from the previous example, the integration of CRM and MA software allows you to:
Provide better visibility to marketing and sales teams
Both teams know where they are in the process and what their next actions should be going forward.
Shorten the Sales Process
Without automation, it takes much longer to find leads. Software allows you to push prospects through the sales funnel faster.
Delivering a Consistent Message
Marketing and sales professionals are aligned when it comes to communicating with the customer. It is easier to deliver consistent messaging when you have all the contextual information available.
Unify Data Management
With software working together, salespeople don’t have to search outside for customer profile information, but with unified data management, they can get ready to sell right away.
Improve Pipeline Management
Both teams can see and monitor the progress of a lead step by step.
Create an automatic lead scoring system
With CRM and marketing automation platforms, you can create a lead classification process and prioritize them, helping sales understand which are the hot leads to follow up on.
Read ” What is lead scoring and why is it useful ” to learn more.
Minimize Human Error
If you have a manual system, it is more likely to generate human error and have prospects slip through the cracks. Also, such a system cannot scale .
Marketing automation and CRM should be connected , so your sales team has the right tools to close deals.
Combine your CRM and marketing automation efforts
Integration can help you find out why leads are “not moving” from MQL to SQL or why deals are not closing. CRM and marketing automation make your marketing team, sales team, and customers happier because they optimize your marketing and sales processes for time and resources.
