A Short Introduction to Understanding CRM and Marketing Automation Software Differences

When organizations are ready to implement CRM software it is a clear indication they are ready to prioritize scalability and business growth. Regardless of the business size, manual record keeping and spreadsheets get old and leave plenty of room for error. The fact of the matter is that using a CRM streamlines processes, eliminates errors, and enables growth. In fact, according to HubSpot, 95 perfect of sales reps who used CRM software reached 65% of their sales quotas compared to 22% at companies that were void of CRM technology. 

However, with organizational growth, things can get complicated, and this reason alone often leads companies to partner with growth marketing agencies offering sales enablement technology and strategies to simplify the process. After all, the more team members a company has relying on all the information stored within, the more complex tracking prospects can be. 

This article is intended to help leadership teams and internal management learn how to simplify systems while growing contact lists via CRM automation. This article will contain information that will help leadership teams see the value of CRM automation, while presenting tips on automating the functionality of your CRM software.

Main Differences Between Marketing Automation and CRM Software

Certainly CRM software can automate some of your marketing tasks, however your CRM alone may not be the ideal solution to automating all of your marketing processes. In order to understand this, let’s explore the main differences between marketing automation and CRM software.

Marketing Automation Software

A system designed to deliver marketing campaigns are intended to be used by marketing professionals. Marketing automation tools help marketers increase traffic through an automated content delivery system in which the creation process is streamlined to help marketers construct engaged, highly-targeted visitors that sales professionals can convert into paying customers. Four of the main marketing automation software features include the following:

Campaign Analytics – Automation software periodically measures data that reveals campaign performance, all through an automated methodology.

Workflow Customization  – Marketing automation software allows one to engineer specific workflows that reinforce marketing campaigns that can be customized to resonate with the desired audience and the deliverable on the table.

Lead Nurturing – The software should simplify email template creations and their delivery to intended leads using the right cadence. An automated lead nurturing campaign can align with the CRM to blast scheduled emails at the moment a lead opts into the list where they are nurtured through a lead qualification process.

Freemium Delivery – The software can automate gated content to new leads when they opt in to contacted by your organization. When this task is set up to be automated, your team members don’t have to manually send content to your leads, as the CRM software does this itself and automatically begins the lead nurturing process.

CRM Automation Software

While marketing automation software is intended to enable marketers to deliver content in an efficient manner, CRM software is meant to help sales and customer service teams manage and track their engagement efforts with potential customers.

When organizations want to interact with more leads, save tons of time and shorten the sales cycle, there are four ways they can use the CRM to automate efforts: (1) data entry automation, (2) automatically log all interactions, (3) setup personalized email sequences and (4) automate customer service.

According to Forbes, the typical sales team spend 17 percent of their time on data entry. Data entry automation through a CRM can save a plethora of time and help address sales pain points.

The CRM should be set to automatically log all emails and phone call interactions with leads every single time they are engaged. So long as these are kept up-to-date, teams will know where leads reside in the sales process.

Use CRM data to create email sequences that can be used for engaging leads. This is a simple process that allows team members to add personalization without manually having to create content.

Finally, any customer service automation tools used for engaging with leads (like a chatbots) should record and log all information into the CRM so it can be used in service-related inquiries.

CRM and Marketing Automation Align with a Multi-Channel Growth Marketing Approach

Now that you have a general idea of CRM and marketing automation, download our FREE guide on the WEBITMD Growth Marketing Stack and learn how the technology and strategies come together to help businesses hit their revenue goals!