Every marketer knows integration is a marketing tool with unlimited potential. By integrating marketing automation with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, a smart marketer can engineer programs that drive qualified traffic, prioritize leads and measure end-to-end results. A fully homogenized process brings about an enhanced customer experience and accelerated sales.

So why don’t more people embrace it? The majority of executives frown from even the idea of integration, thinking it will involve more resources, a longer time frame and a higher probability for failure. Many are reluctant to complicate their existing marketing systems or initiate a new learning curve for their marketing, sales and customer support staff. The reality is that integration is quickly transitioning from an optional idea to a mandatory methodology; as more businesses find profitable ways to harness the power of integration, marketers who reject it are finding themselves at a disadvantage.

While the benefits of integration are many, there are four things that represent significant advantages for most businesses.

EXPANDING BEYOND LEAD GENERATION

There’s no denying that best practices have evolved rapidly in recent years, mostly due to technology. Yet some marketers cling to an outdated business paradigm, where lead generation is viewed as the only action that matters.

By opting out of integration efforts, they are giving out the advantage to their competitors and consigning themselves to the scrap heap of failed initiatives.

Why do these marketers ignore leads after qualifying them? Tradition really. In that now obsolete paradigm, they view any further activity as the sales team’s job or the service team’s responsibility. Their role, as they see it, is to identify marketing qualified leads (MQLs), transitioning those to the sales team, then moving on to pursue new leads – initiating the same cycle. By presenting relevant content such as emails or landing pages at the right time, you can escort your prospects and customers through the stages of their buying process. Tracking campaign results, offer acceptances and identifying lead sources can all net rewards of increased traffic, audience engagement, and higher revenue – none of which will be as impressive in a cycle that ends at lead generation.

SUPPLYING THE DATA YOUR BUSINESS LEADERS NEED

Most critical business decisions are only as good as the data they’re based upon.Integration provides this by syncing data two ways between your marketing automation and your CRM system. Consider the following objectives. Accurate forecasting models are needed to predict lead generation and close rates; velocity reports help forecast resource needs; closed-loop visibility into funnel abandonment and scoring methodology helps marketers spend marketing resources wisely. All of these are dependent on the depth, availability and accuracy of data – and decision-makers must have access to that data to understand factors such as cost per lead, opportunity, deal win, and deal loss.

HOLDING SALES ACCOUNTABLE FOR SLAs

The importance of timing can’t be overrated in an effective, high-functioning marketing automation effort. But to assess the success of your sales team’s efforts, oversight is critical – and that’s exactly what integration provides.

MOTIVATING CUSTOMER EVANGELISM & ENGAGEMENT

It’s one of the classic rules of marketing: it’s more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than to harvest a new one. And yet, failing to take care of existing customers is one of the most frequently relinquished opportunities in marketing automation.

This is where integration can offer an immediate lift. Tracking lead activity past the handoff and even past the win can continue the conversation, strengthen the relationship, and increase the lifetime revenue from that customer.

CONCLUSION

Integrating marketing automation with your CRM system isn’t just an advantage – in today’s competitive world of targeted marketing, it’s a necessity and it’s adamant to your company. Companies who continue to use smart integration strategies will reap multiple rewards: tighter alignment with their sales and customer support teams, customer engagement and loyalty, and rising sales.

When most people think of CRM (if they don’t scratch their heads and say, “Uhhh, what’s that?”), they think of SAP or Salesforce. Oracle’s or Microsoft’s particular solutions may also cross their minds if enterprise sales are a part of their lives. Countless other smaller vendors offer products that fall into its realm, but there are a few key points to keep in mind:

• A Customer Relationship Management system is just a database
• More than one business has been run successfully (to a point) with a spreadsheet for CRM
  • Interactions between businesses and customers are increasingly complex and multifaceted, meaning that the days of the Rolodex are over.

CRM systems are like snowflakes: no two are alike. However, all are designed to provide data to sales teams, marketers, and business leaders that lets them (1) Create strong relationships between companies and their potential customers, More than one business has been run successfully (to a point) with a spreadsheet for that (2) manage the sales cycle (3) improve sales approaches, and (4) measure the most important metrics a business can report. Multifaceted, meaning that the days of the Rolodex are over.

Many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to justify a large and expensive direct sales force, cold calling, chasing leads, following up, and otherwise selling and marketing. Most system can keep a large, traditional sales force organized, ensuring that one customer only gets one call a week from a telemarketer or the purchasing manager at a potential client doesn’t get three calls from three different salespeople when he sends an email with a simple product inquiry. The real beauty of the modern CRM platform, though, is its ability to short-circuit much of the arduous work of a sales team and aggregate data in such a way that it supports more modern approaches to inbound marketing and lead generation that doesn’t require countless hours of cold-calling.

A system as such should, in fact, coordinate the work of product management, marketing, and sales teams in a company such that the age-old marketing versus sales versus engineering rivalries go away and a business can focus on its product and its brand.

A growing number of these certain applications are incorporating robust business intelligence tools, as well. These components not only facilitate the analysis of sales and engagement data from a myriad of sources but also guide business stakeholders in key decisions regarding expenditures, features, and messaging.

CRM applications are increasingly social, often incorporate powerful analytics and business intelligence, and are available in such variety that any business can find an appropriate platform to better manage its sales and product development cycles.More to the point, there is little excuse not to use one of these tools which have become essential to effective communications, lead generation, lead nurturing, pre-sales efforts, and customer service.

Companies often look to customer relationship management (CRM) software to help their sales team organize and automate their processes. While this solution can do just that, the “customer relations” aspect is often put on the back burner. The consumer information gathered by it can vastly improve customer satisfaction by offering insight into the customer’s experiences. If used correctly, this invaluable information can lead to increased profitability and customer retention to your business.

What can it do for your business?

It can boost sales team productivity to help build stronger customer relationships. Most organizations know the benefits that this software solution can have on business processes. While your sales team is likely to be happy with the more streamlined process, this offers a valuable opportunity to take care of customers. Automation will make sure that your customer’s needs are addressed properly. The time saved can also be spent maintaining relationship with current customers and building relationships with prospective customers.

It can also help your sales team exceed customer expectation. CRM can be used to help your sales prioritize their tasks. By making it on the top list of their calendar, sales team members can set a reminder to follow up with customers. These reminders help keep the sales conversation – and your company – relevant to the customer.

It can also help you reach your current and future customers where they live. The role of social media in business is constantly evolving, but one thing is for certain: social media allows businesses to communicate with customers in ways they never have before. Social media is the only marketing tool that is not a one-way street – it requires interaction and conversations. This helps companies to build relationships and communities with their customers. Social CRM allows businesses to apply analytics to social media campaigns to track communication and engagement, making the process of customer acquisition and retention infinitely easier.

Lastly, you can also find out if your customers are satisfied. Customers won’t always report an issue or concern with a product or service if they aren’t asked. Most of the time, dissatisfaction is expressed simply by not repurchasing. This means less customer retention for your business – and a major headache for your customer, as they must find a new product to meet their need. By using CRM to conduct a survey of your customers’ satisfaction, you can learn to better serve your customers and meet their needs.

CRM solutions can drastically help improve your business process, but the many other features included can help you gain actionable insight into customers needs – allowing you to greatly improve the customer experience.