Small businesses are leveraging CRM (customer relationship management) systems as a way to streamline daily tasks through advanced technologies to better interact with customers and improve business relationships. CRM and email marketing for small businesses offer direct marketing correspondence tools that are more personalized and more effective, help generate leads and nurture existing business relationships. CRM email marketing helps your business stay top of mind for both B2B and B2C customers.
What sets CRM marketing email systems apart from standard email systems is that it enables small businesses to focus more on the individual client and individual company on the receiving end. Compare this to the batch-and-blast email method of the past where emails were sent into the void of masses and you hoped for a successful open rate. As time has shown, that simply is not effective. Combined CRM and email marketing have helped streamline small businesses’ communication standards by assisting business owners in drafting a well written, well-placed email, thus increasing the probability that someone will not only open the email, but read it and engage.
Check out Keap’s guide to its top 10 Email Marketing Best Practices
What is CRM email marketing?
CRM email marketing software provides email marketing capabilities that leverage CRM tools to create more personalized and direct marketing with prospects and clients. Running a small business with CRM marketing gives you the power to create robust email marketing campaigns with your target audience. Your overall goal is a conversion and the best way to do that is to include a call-to-action (CTA). Your CTA needs to direct your audience somewhere, so you could say something along the lines of: “If you’re interested in learning more about our product, click here.” The link should redirect them to a landing page on your website. You can also create a sense of urgency by stating, “Hurry, this deal expires in 24 hours.” Limiting the offer always captures the attention of your audience, as they are more apt to jump on a deal that they know won’t last forever. And the best part about working with email CRM tools is the ability to automate all of these functionalities.
At this point you may be asking yourself “What is the difference between marketing automation and CRM?” Marketing automation software helps small businesses nurture their leads by simplifying and automating marketing-focused actions and tasks. A CRM is the system that contains all of the company’s interactions with current customers and prospects. CRM email marketing software assists small businesses in extending correspondence to customers in a quick, easy and cost-effective fashion by helping marketers overcome timing, frequency and tracking and optimizing challenges. An email CRM system provides automation to move leads through the sales pipeline by reaching out to them during the appropriate phases of their sales journeys. Marketing automation is devoted to raw, viable, nurtured, active and marketing qualified leads, whereas CRM caters to sales-accepted leads, opportunities and closed deals.
What are the benefits of CRM email marketing?
Combined CRM and email marketing create quite the dynamic duo when it comes to getting the attention of your target audience. You also want your customers to know they can always rely on you to return a message within a decent amount of time without making them feel neglected. Check out the following features that prospective CRM customers can benefit from:
Email CRM systems help small business owners promptly respond to incoming leads and existing contacts by sending highly personalized communications that drive action or sales.
CRMs with email marketing can be leveraged by sending alerts directly to your phone to notify you when a prospective customer takes a certain action in your email. Alerts ensure you never miss out on opportunities to follow up with interested prospects.
Generate email messages automatically when you move a lead from one sales stage to the next. The CRM will ensure you never miss a step in your sales process, helping your sales team close leads consistently.
CRM with email marketing campaigns makes it easier to establish an automatic process for sending emails to new leads with pre-written templates you can customize that guide your lead to the next step.
How to choose the best CRM for email marketing
When it comes to choosing the best CRM and email marketing for small business, it’s important to know what to look for in a CRM platform that provides robust email marketing tools. For specific marketing purposes, many CRM systems have built-in email tools including templates, marketing pipelines, SMS messaging, analytics dashboards and sales forecasting capabilities. The ease of use helps businesses keep track of open rates, observe user behaviors and automate email blasts and responses.
For small businesses looking to launch an email campaign with their CRM, Keap’s CRM email marketing feature makes it easy with its vast library of preloaded flexible, functional email templates for a variety of opportunities, helping small businesses create powerful email communications. Keap’s email marketing is also an effective channel for small businesses to generate revenue, nurture leads, close business and keep their customers in the know.
Learn how Keap’s CRM software can take your email marketing campaigns to the next level