You need a CRM system

YOU HATE Excel (or you love it). But we cannot ignore that for certain purposes it is really time to move on. If your marketing strategy includes digital marketing, you are a teeny-weeny behind if you didn’t explore getting a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool yet.

Have a look at these 3 stunning facts: 

• According to Salesforce, CRM systems improve sales forecasting accuracy by an average of 42%. 
• Zippia shares that that businesses with well-utilized CRM systems experience a 300% improvement in lead conversion rates. 
• According to Aberdeen Group, companies that effectively use CRM tools to engage with customers experience a 27% increase in customer retention rates.

Source: https://www.dataaxleusa.com/blog/customer-relationship-management-statistics/

In this blog, which I happily co-created with my fav Dutch digital agency (Blue Dragon), we’ll give you a short and crisp introduction to CRM.

1. The reasons to stick to Excel
2. The reasons to move to a CRM
3. Why CRM might be already outdated

1. The reasons to stick to Excel
You must know there are better tools for customer data. But you are worried about the transition right? It is a monster. Cleaning up data, migrating the data, sorting it, potential customisation challenges, introducing the company to a new tool; forcing them to work with it because hey, it’s not exactly for free. All relevant concerns. But..

Sorry to be blunt, but it needs to be done.

And you don’t have to do it alone. Enough agencies and CRM partners in the world who can (trustfully so) help you with this.

2. The reasons to move to a CRM
CRM systems or platforms if you please are your magic wand for scalability. It connects your customer data throughout your company and teams, giving you insights you didn’t have before. Plus, it gives leads and customers an experience they never had before. Automation flows save you a lot of time, you’ll have more grip on the sales funnel and let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: data security. Customer data will be centralised and secured, the more you integrate your CRM throughout your business (much more than Excel).

A CRM back in the days was just a better looking and easier (for the dummies) to use Excel. Today, it goes way beyond that. They have modules for Marketing, Service, Sales, Operations, Finance en you can even build your website in it to track the whole customer journey in one system. And like everything today: it includes AI for an efficiency boost.

Watch this video, starring the amazing Loek Ofman from Blue Dragon, who gives you a brief introduction to CRM.

And read this article for more insights about the development of CRMs and CDPs.

3. Why CRM might already be outdated
Now if you think you are very on trend getting yourself a CRM, you have to know another customer insights development has already knocked the door. CDPs (customer data portals) gather information about your customers. Not so much sales oriented like CRMs, but it combines information related to individuals from multiple sources, performs predictive analytics, and you can use the results to guide marketing activities across multiple channels.

Sorry. You might have to read that again.

It includes for example behavioral data, demographic information, and engagement metrics. CDPs give companies data-driven insights to deliver personalised experiences, optimise marketing campaigns, and drive customer retention and loyalty.

I reached out to Adeola Sole, CRM and email consultant from London, for her point of view on this and she says: “CDPs are amazing and steadily outpacing a CRM because it in facts hold everything. I would prompt your readers to consider researching using a CDP if they want to have a holistic view of their customers and create custom segments that go beyond what an ESP (email service provider) can provide.”

Want to understand more about CRM and CDP? Please do get in touch with Blue Dragon. I’m a happy user of CRMs, but they are the specialist and eager to explain you more.