# Discuss how digital marketing could be very helpful for a retail business to maintain CRM.

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1. Concept

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It's a technology used to manage interactions
with customers and potential customers. A CRM system helps organizations build customer
relationships and streamline processes so they can increase sales, improve customer service, and
increase profitability.

When people talk about CRM, they are usually referring to CRM software, a tool that is used for
contact management, sales management, productivity, and more. CRM software digitizes processes
and automates tasks to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of customer relationship
management.

CRM helps users focus on their organization’s relationships with individual people including
customers, service users, colleagues, or suppliers.

CRM as Technology: This is a technology product, often in the cloud, that teams use to record,
report and analyze interactions between the company and users. This is also called a CRM system or
solution.

CRM as a Strategy: This is a business’ philosophy about how relationships with customers and
potential customers should be managed  

CRM as a Process: Think of this as the system a business adopts to nurture and manage those
relationships.

CRM Explained

Customer relationship management software is a tool that companies can use to:

 Record customer data for future references

 Track sales figures and determine what promotions are being the most productive
 Keep every member of a sales team updated with customer information, potential client
leads, and pertinent information they need to close sales
 Improve follow-ups and gain customer approval

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  Connect members of your sales team to the clients using GPS technology

Allow the sharing of files and information between sales team members so when one team member
cannot make a follow-up or complete a promise they made to a client another team member can step
in and make the customer happy.

2. CRM software

CRM software records customer contact information such as email, telephone, website social media
profile, and more. It can also automatically pull in other information, such as recent news about the
company's activity, and it can store details such as a client's personal preferences on
communications.

The CRM system organizes this information to give you a complete record of individuals and
companies, so you can better understand your relationship over time.

CRM software improves customer relationship management by creating a 360° view of the
customer, capturing their interactions with the business, and by surfacing the information needed to
have better conversations with customers. 

3. Important CRM

CRM enables a business to deepen its relationships with customers, service users, colleagues,
partners and suppliers.

Forging good relationships and keeping track of prospects and customers is crucial for customer
acquisition and retention, which is at the heart of a CRM’s function. You can see everything in one
place — a simple, customizable dashboard that can tell you a customer’s previous history with you,
the status of their orders, any outstanding customer service issues, and more.

Gartner predicts that by 2021, CRM technology will be the single largest revenue area of spending in
enterprise software. If your business is going to last, you know that you need a strategy for the
future. For forward-thinking businesses, CRM is the framework for that strategy.

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4. Business functions benefit from using CRM

While the importance of CRM has traditionally been as a sales and marketing tool, some of the
biggest gains can come in other areas, such as customer service, HR, supply-chain and partner
management.

Here’s how different business functions benefit from using CRM:

4.1.Sales teams can use CRM to understand their sales pipeline better.

Sales managers can access reliable information about the progress of individual team members in
achieving their sales targets, for example, and see how well individual sales teams, products and
campaigns are performing too.

Sales reps benefit from reduced admin, a deeper understanding of their clients, and the opportunity
to spend more time selling and less time inputting data.

4.2.Marketing teams can use CRM to make forecasting simpler and more accurate.

They can get clear visibility over every opportunity or lead, and map out the whole customer journey
from enquiry through to sale, so giving them a  better understanding of the sales pipeline or
prospective work coming in.

It’s also possible to include information from customers’ public social media activity – their likes
and dislikes, and their sentiment about specific brands and businesses.

4.3. Customer service teams can effectively track conversations across channels.

A customer might raise an issue in one channel – say, Twitter or Facebook – but then switch to
email, phone or live chat to resolve it in private.

Without a common platform for customer interactions, communications can be missed or lost in the
flood of information – leading to an unsatisfactory response to a valued customer.

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4.4. Supply-chain, procurement and partner management teams can manage relationships
better.

They can track meetings with suppliers and partners, record requests made, add useful notes,
schedule follow-ups and stay on top of expected next steps.

Reporting enables businesses to compare the efficiency of suppliers and so manage their entire
supply chain more effectively.

4.5. The HR team can use CRM to accelerate the recruitment process and track employee
performance.

CRM can help the HR function by speeding up the on-boarding process, automating the process of
managing candidates, analyzing resourcing needs and identifying skills gaps, and supporting the
pursuit of staff retention targets.
Think about how convenient it would be to consolidate all the streams of data coming from sales
teams, customer service staff, marketers and social media—and translate them into actionable
business information. A CRM platform lets you manage these streams of information across
channels without losing track, and gives sales, service, marketing, and beyond an integrated view.

5. Use a CRM System for Digital Strategy

Managing customer data with a modern CRM tool is good for business.

Example:

When you manage your customers better, you earn more conversions for your business and build
brand loyalty.

A CRM offers numerous benefits for your business, digital marketing efforts, and website
conversions. These benefits help your business directly improve your sales and ultimately grow.

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At Henkin Schultz, we’re familiar with CRM automation tools like Sharp-Spring and Hub-Spot.
Based on our experience, here are four great ways you can use a CRM system for digital marketing
purposes.

5.1 Get to know your audience.

Learning more about contact information from the leads within your CRM is a great way to develop
the right marketing message. However, acquiring these details is only as effective as the CRM data.

With the best information possible, your digital marketing team can take the strategy even further
with details like first name, last name, purchase date, location, and email address. Knowing this data
builds a clearer understanding of where leads are in the buyer’s journey.

5.2. Improve data marketing targeting. 

Additionally, having a good amount of contacts makes building lists for targeting that much better
for email marketing and digital ad targeting.

For example, you could pull CRM lead data for Facebook advertising campaigns by building custom
and lookalike audiences.

 Facebook Custom Audiences: Specific list of people from your CRM for your ad to reach
 Facebook Lookalike Audiences: Audience targeted by Facebook that has similar
demographics to those in a custom list you’ve imported

5.3.Track key performance indicators easily.

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable metric determining how effective your business
is at achieving objectives. With a CRM tool, your business can track exact metrics like number of
leads, customers, qualified leads, website visits, email list growth rate, and many more.

Additionally, connecting leads to CRM data is an excellent way to document where the contact falls
within the buyer’s journey. Having the right data is crucial to tracking qualified leads.

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5.4. Report on stronger metrics. 

Better tracking data means better reporting.

A data-driven approach can work wonders for your bottom line by creating a stronger understanding
of:

 Who your Customers Are

 What They Purchase
 How Brand Loyal They Are

With insights drawn from data, your business can also make more informed decisions regarding
sales and marketing efforts.

Need CRM Integration Ideas for Digital Strategy

If CRM system is equivalent to that of a trapper keeper, it’s time to modernize. Get more useful data
out of contacts. We can improve CRM process and create a better digital strategy for business
based on data.

We develop every digital marketing plan based on user behavior from website and customer
information. Then we track and analyze results to improve online performance further.

6. The Importance of CRM in Digital Marketing [2021]

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a critical component of a successful digital marketing

campaign.

CRM is the backbone that creates a sturdy base for the promotion and sales of any product or idea.

Basically, CRM refers to a set of applications that will use to manage things like customer databases,
customer interactions, and everything that pertains to customers, customer leads, and customer
satisfaction.

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Improving sales requires to improve customer relationships. Customer service has to be impeccable
if want to keep customers happy. Keeping customers happy is the only way to grow in business.

7. The Importance of CRM in Digital Marketing [2021]

One thing that every business person knows is that a happy customer will return. A happy customer
will likely tell three or more of their friends about your business.

An unhappy customer will likely tell six or more people about their experience with your business.
So, no matter what business you are in, keeping the customer happy is the key to success.

7.1. Digital Marketing Strategies Connected to CRM

One of the biggest digital marketing strategies is to collect simple data on customers when they are
browsing the web and looking for particular items.

Then using that information about the person and the item they were interested in and letting sales
ads about those items pop up when the person is on Facebook or Twitter.

The sales ad would remind the person of the item they were looking at, and drive customers back to
the sites where the item was for sale.

7.2. CRM Personalizes the Digital Marketing Campaign

Using CRM to gather data about customers’ likes and dislikes allows to target specific customers
with specific items that they are likely to have an interest in. CRM provides with the statistical data
concerning what the customer has purchased in the past, what they browse for when they are online,
and other factors like their age sets, their gender, and the areas where they live.

All of this personal data can be used in digital campaign. Instead of doing just one broad-based
campaign and hoping that the people who will be interested in the advertising will see it, We can
make sure that the people who are going to be interested in something are the ones that see that
particular item.

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7.3. Digital Connections

When using CRM strategies to create data sheets concerning the customers , and the leads to have
on other customers, then approach those customers in a one-to-one digital campaign.

It can connect with them by using their preferences to make suggestions on their social networking
sites so they see the advertisements and are reminded of the things they want or like.

You can send emails that personally suggest certain products and services, based on a previous
purchase the customer has made. You know how on Netflix you see the words “since you liked this
program” and there are links for you to follow to go to another program that is similar? You can do
that with your email campaign.

You can create blogs and articles that address the things your customers might be interested in by
looking at the data to confirm their likes and dislikes. When you have relevant information on your
page, that your customer or future customer finds interesting, then they will visit you.

7.4. Satisfaction Guaranteed

When you use CRM applications to create databases about your customers and your products, you
can also create a database about customer service calls.

When you start to look closely at your customer service calls, what the customer liked or disliked,
and what things you did to satisfy the customer, you are able to create a training program for each of
your customer service representatives that will allow them to create satisfied customers out of each
call.

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8. Conclusion

Learning more about contact information from the leads within your CRM is a great way to develop
the right marketing message. However, acquiring these details is only as effective as the CRM data.

With the best information possible, your digital marketing team can take the strategy even further
with details like first name, last name, purchase date, location, and email address. Knowing this data
builds a clearer understanding of where leads are in the buyer’s journey.

Improve your data marketing targeting. 

Additionally, having a good amount of contacts makes building lists for targeting that much better
for email marketing and digital ad targeting.

For example, you could pull CRM lead data for Facebook advertising campaigns by building custom
and lookalike audiences.

 Facebook Custom Audiences: Specific list of people from your CRM for your ad to reach
 Facebook Lookalike Audiences: Audience targeted by Facebook that has similar demographics to
those in a custom list you’ve imported

Track key performance indicators easily.

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable metric determining how effective your business
is at achieving objectives. With a CRM tool, your business can track exact metrics like number of
leads, customers, qualified leads, website visits, email list growth rate, and many more.

Additionally, connecting leads to CRM data is an excellent way to document where the contact falls
within the buyer’s journey. Having the right data is crucial to tracking qualified leads.

Report on stronger metrics. 

Better tracking data means better reporting.

A data-driven approach can work wonders for your bottom line by creating a stronger understanding
of:

 Who your Customers Are

 What They Purchase
 How Brand Loyal They Are

With insights drawn from data, your business can also make more informed decisions regarding
sales and marketing efforts.

Investing in CRM will help you build and strengthen relationships , challenge – Establishing and
maintaining strong relationships with them.

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Customers are important as no business exists without its customer base. In a nutshell, a good CRM
system helps you know better who is really interested in .

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