Last time around we delved into features that marketing automation offers which you can use alongside your CRM system. You can take a look at part 1 of Got CRM? You Need Marketing Automation Too! article, before we move on to pressing reasons as to why you need marketing automation along with your CRM system to get the best out of both.
Once upon a time, CRM used to be the penultimate tool for marketing and sales. But something changed along the way, making it useful only to sales. With the difference in features out of the way, the first question that would come up in anyone’s mind is why such a stark difference?
Why did CRM suddenly become less useful and why was there a need for something such as marketing automation?
The answer is something that we touched upon last time. So, let’s articulate it further.
Changes in Buying Behaviour
A change in the behavioral pattern of buyers has changed the entire buying process. Digital information has become easily accessible to buyers which they can consult themselves to make up their minds. They research your organization, your competitors, read case-studies and then take a decision whether to purchase or not. The B2B buying process has become much more intricate with the easy availability of information on the internet. A massive portion of the buyer’s journey falls under the responsibility of marketers. From generating these leads, to nurturing them and ultimately qualifying them so that sales can take over, all of this is done by the marketing team, ideally. Lead management has become a huge deal for organizations because of this change. Analyzing lead behavior is of top priority for marketers, and CRM does not really help with lead management.
So, how does marketing automation help with this change in buyer behaviour?
- Identifies prospects
- Helps generate leads
- Nurtures these leads
- Provides Lead scoring module to score leads based on their action
- Helps segment leads based on tastes and preferences
- Lets you know when a lead qualifies
- Shortens the sales cycle
Marketing automation gives you a detailed overview of lead interactions which includes but is not limited to web page visits, file downloads, social media clicks, digital footprints that tie them to your brand and other similar opportunities. Using only a CRM system will not allow you to tap into these potential opportunities.
But how do you sort this volume of data and put it in a system? How do you track the attribution and engagement across channels? How do you correlate all your initiatives to the revenue earned?
The answer is CRM. So you need to create campaigns on your marketing automation system while the data backs up in your CRM system creating a closed-loop. This will allow you to attribute your revenue to campaigns, measure your return on investments and give you information that will help you take data-driven decisions for your marketing team.
Having a good marketing automation solution with CRM integration seems to be the perfect setup for marketers.
One can say that marketing automation is the marketing counterpart to your age-old CRM. You will be able to deliver a personalized experience for all your leads using a combination of MA and CRM. No more under qualified leads for sales, now you get to send the best, qualified leads over to sales and they can follow a buyer’s journey right from the very beginning thanks to CRM integration.
This is the age of the customer. So be it.
Without straining resources, you will be able to create meaningful and personalized relationships with your customers. Not only that you can use your lead management system that is part of any marketing automation solution to strategize your use of assets. This nexus in the form of CRM & Marketing Automation will form the central command for managing all your marketing and sales campaigns across various channels. Both marketing and sales can work together towards smart decisions and improve the company’s revenue.
