9 Ways Your CRM Will Build Your Brand
During times of transition (and global pandemic), it is wise to take some time to assess where your company stands and determine what changes and improvements you will make to not just weather this storm, but also grow and strengthen through it.
What is a CRM? This is a software for customer relationship management. Back in the old days, you might have used a rolodex to keep track of your contacts. Then that migrated into a digital version with Outlook. But now you can use a CRM app to track your prospects, relationships, current customers, and really everyone in your universe.
Why is it important? Well, no matter what widget you sell, you are in the “people” business. So the more you know about them, the better you will be at building a relationship with them and selling to them.
How does a CRM build your brand?
- Learn about your target audience – Whether you subscribe to the philosophy of DISC profiling, personality types, psychographics, or you just want to track your prospects by their demographics – the more you know, the better you can do. Your CRM will help to track and organize all of the information you have about your prospects and customers which will allow you to strengthen your relationship with them.
- Organize your system – Think of your marketing system as a tree. All of those different branches are connected, and all of the trees in the forest work together in an ecosystem. But how can you keep track of what will you send and when? You need to know that if X happens, then Y should follow suit per the process. Your CRM will help organize that system.
- Optimize your process – Marketing is an easy place to waste a lot of time, effort, and money. You don’t want to waste another second trying to wing it and hoping for a good result. Instead, formalize and optimize your process to get the best return on your investment.
- Automate your marketing – The great thing about a CRM is that you can automate those systems and processes so that the CRM becomes another salesperson on your team. You can set it up so that when someone visits your website they will automatically receive an email, ebook, or even an appointment invite. Then, depending on what action they take, your CRM will automatically follow up with them in a week or month or year.
- Track their actions – The more you know about your prospect and what gets their attention, the better you can customize the process to their wants and needs. So you need to know if they opened an email, visited your website, or downloaded something and see at a glance what they have been doing in social media. Now you have the insight to connect with them.
- Landing pages on your website – Don’t just drop someone on the home page of your website and hope they find their way. Instead, give them something that is relevant to their needs. Direct them to a specific landing page on your website that will give them exactly what they are looking for.
- Marketing, Sales & Service – Although CRMs are usually assumed for prospecting, they can also be great for sales and service. Utilize your CRM to manage the entire relationship and bring all of these teams together to better serve your customers more thoroughly.
- Analyze your data – If you want the inside track on what is working and what you should never do again, then you need to have good data and the ability to really analyze it. The reporting functionality will be a very clear sign of what you should do more of.
- Collaborate with your team – If all departments are connected together through your CRM, then you will get better collaboration and probably a better end product.
Remember, people don’t do business with a logo. They do business with people. So what is the people side of your business? How are you going to use a CRM to keep track of people, process, and progress as you grow your business?
It takes some time to get a CRM up and running, so is now the right time for you to make the commitment?
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