Marketing module of CRM- a success tool for Marketing Managers
A Marketing manager works really hard to get through cut throat competition in the market. Every marketing personnel follows some or the other strategy to reach his targets. The ultimate goal is to get maximum profit for the firm. The Question is how to get it…..? It is the job of marketing team. In the present scenario the competitors are trying to block the opportunities on your way. The faster you capture your potential lead the better are your sales figures.
Marketing mix was earlier based on 4 P’s- Product, Price, Place and Promotion but now it is based on 4 C’s- Customer, Cost, Communication, Convenience/Channel given in two different theories. Now the marketer don’t exert too much on product and its features, they want to give what a customer wants. For convincing a customer they should know the targets and segments for their products. They should also know how to reach a customer through promotion and how to provide value for their money.
Marketing module of CRM, can help marketing managers to manage their stuff more efficiently. They can apply their strategies effectively than ever before. CRM-Marketing module gives a set of options just made for marketing team of 21st Century.
The starting phase is generating leads from marketing lists. A marketing list is a collection of contacts (individuals), accounts (organizations) or leads. A marketing manager can create a separate marketing list based on their criteria e.g. based on age, gender, location, etc. With CRM you can also capture information about customer’s previous purchases and amount spent on similar product. This information management is crucial for targeting the prospective clients. CRM provides an option of importing data from external resource into its database by using The Data Import Wizard. A static or dynamic list could be created. A dynamic list reflects any changes in the contact details of contacts, accounts or leads. It helps in capturing up to date information about potential customers.
The other important issue is communication with the client, i.e. promoting the product. Campaigns can be designed using CRM for planning marketing activities. Campaigns have separate marketing list (target group), products associated, and marketing activities. Estimated budget can also be with assigned with the campaigns. It helps in monitoring the expense for a particular campaign.
Marketing team sends personalized promotional emails, invites to trade shows, or any other marketing event. This can be followed by a phone call. The activities can be distributed among the team members. Even Departments like marketing and Sales can be assigned activities for a particular campaign. CRM provides for an E-mail template that can help you send personalized emails to every potential customer in a marketing list.
Creating a track of responses from interested people can be stored and responded for further inquiries, demos, etc. There is an option of tracking the campaign response in CRM. It helps in judging the effectiveness of a particular campaign. Also there are measures like Goal Metrics which can help measure the performances of your marketing and sales team.
The CRM –marketing module helps in channelizing the entire team towards increasing sales. It helps in a Closed Loop Marketing which helps in reducing the gap between Marketing and Sales teams. Generally Sales team and marketing teams are not aware of what efforts they are doing for the same project. CRM helps in coordinating their efforts and reducing unwanted actions. They can always stay connected and updated about each other’s activities which helps them manage their customer better.
The sales literature tells about the product and prices. It is a list which can be always available for the sales team on the go for their customers. The marketing team can create and attach a sales literature with a campaign for their sales people to use as and when they want.
The best thing about CRM is that - it is an intelligent system and it can help in informed decision making. Today it is not important that ‘what you are doing it, but how you are doing it’. You may not have a better product or service than your competitor but if you can make your customer understand how extremely useful your product or service is- then you are the winner. Today customer satisfaction and convenience is the most important. CRM helps in achieving it in a better way.