CRM

CRM stands for customer relationship management. Traditionally, this refers to an approach to managing relationships with customers that uses data analysis about customer preferences and behaviour to provide deeper information about buyers and leads. However, as this approach has become more widespread, the acronym CRM has come to refer not just to the method, but also to the digital tools and software used to carry it out. A CRM is a critical small business marketing asset. It stores data about current and potential customers, analyses past customer interactions, and facilitates communication between clients and company representatives.Customer relationship management is one of the most important marketing trends today.

Whether you’ve just launched your own business or have been in the industry for a while, you’ll know it’s time to adopt a CRM if:

• You have difficulty visualizing the relationship between the customer analytics data on your various platforms.
• You find it tedious to navigate between different platforms and spreadsheets to get a big-picture view of your customers.
• Your marketing and sales teams aren’t aligned in their targeting strategy and get slowed down by redundant tasks.
• You have a hard time retaining customers, or too many leads fail to convert.

While you may start out managing your clients with a simple spreadsheet or email marketing tool, it becomes challenging to keep this data organized and cohesive as you acquire new customers. By creating a systematic record of customer data that’s easy to work with using integrated digital tools, a CRM system helps brands resonate more strongly with their target market.