By Dave Carr @Review.Casa
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Table of Contents
What is CRM software
CRM or Customer Relationship Management systems are essential if you are running any sort of business.
Contact management keeps the information about your customer within easy reach and enables you to market to them based on this information. Examples of good marketing based on customer information are sending them a birthday card or sending them a letter on the anniversary of when they started using your service.
Very few businesses do this right today!
One example I can name who sends you a card and a couple of packets of jelly sweets on the anniversary of you using their service is Guru hosting. When you receive a little token of appreciation like this it warms your heart for the business in question.
A simple act of appreciation like this may be the difference between keeping the customer for life and them only using your service for a year or two.
Why is customer relationship management software important for your businesses
Contact management systems will help you build amazing relationships with your customer. Amazing relationships are what keep your customer coming back for more.
Think about it people do business with people who have a relationship with them.
I have a customer called Phil and he’s been my friend for the last ten years, we interact socially and talk to each other about our family and friends and no topic is off the table. Before that, we worked on a couple of projects together and we built a relationship.
Phil is great at networking whereas I’m an introverted geek. My relationship with Phil has been responsible for over £20000 in business for me with referrals he has sent my way.
We would never have built that relationship if I didn’t know things about him and his family. Back in the day after a call, I would write down any little bits of information that would come up. His wife looking for a new job or his son not doing too well in maths and I would ask him about them the next time we spoke before we conducted any business discussion.
Today you do the same thing with CRM software and it’s much more efficient than messing about with paper and pencil.
Build better relationships with your contacts through contact management software
A contact management platform can automate the process of building better relationships with your customer, most can send emails based on information in the CRM and some can even automate the sending of physical mail too.
Keeping information about your customer is essential to building better relationships and making more sales.
CRM software makes it easier to make the information readily available, and usable and the best ones allow you to automate the building of relationships with your customer.
Contact management systems can mean the difference between one sale and many
Businesses that use contact management systems effectively are the businesses that do well.
“Covid-19 has hit businesses hard rendering 31% of US small businesses non-operational” – Oberlo
“According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as reported by Fundera, approximately 20 per cent of small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of the second year, 30 per cent of businesses will have failed. By the end of the fifth year, about half will have failed. And by the end of the decade, only 30 per cent of businesses will remain — a 70 per cent failure rate.” – Entrepreneur
Businesses that build relationships with their customers are more likely to stay in business.
I have given you the example of Phil who I built a relationship over time and he still sends me new customers today I’ve also given you the example of Guru hosting who sends a card on the anniversary of when you started using their service, these are two examples of a business using contact management to increase the lifetime value of a customer.
It’s much easier to sell a $3000 product or service to someone you already have a relationship with. Nobody is going to come to your website and spend thousands of dollars unless they know, like and trust you first.
9 Platforms that offer business contact management features
Here are 9 SAAS based platforms that offer contact management tools.
Active Campaign – Full CRM
It’s a very complete system and not for the faint-hearted 🙂 as the cost is based on the number of contacts you have in the system and can soon hit hundreds of dollars a month.
If you are looking for a complete marketing platform to run your business then ActiveCampaign might just be the platform you are looking for.
Moosend – Contact management and lead scoring
They have automation templates so you can easily set up email sequences and campaigns which can involve lead scoring.
Their support is very good and fast too.
If you want an economical email marketing platform with CRM capabilities to power your business then Moosend could be the platform you are looking for.
Keap – CRM and marketing automation
It was the first platform to offer CRM and true behaviour based marketing.
The platform is powerful and for many years was used by most of the top marketers in the internet marketing space.
The platform is still on the cutting edge of marketing and is extremely powerful.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue started as an email service provider and has evolved into a marketing and automation platform. They have customer relationship management features on their free plan and above.
Some of the features they offer are email marketing, SMS marketing, chat, Facebook ads, landing pages and marketing automation.
If you are looking for a marketing platform for automation and CRM then Sendinblue could be the platform for you.
Drip
It has behaviour tracking for advanced automation and leads scoring features built-in as well as automation templates which make it easy to set up workflows for welcome sequences and abandoned cart sequences.
If you are looking for an advanced email marketing platform to increase your revenues then Drip could be the platform for you.
Mailchimp
Today it allows users to do social media marketing, Facebook ads, Google ads, website builder, surveys and so much more.
It comes with CRM features and automation so you can target people based on information as it comes in.
If you are looking for an all in one platform to grow your business Mailchimp might be right for you.
Ontraport
Ontraport is a sales and marketing platform that offers Sales + CRM, membership sites, marketing automation, eCommerce and affiliate marketing to name just a few.
It’s a very complete SAAS based platform but the price is based on the number of contacts in your list and can soon stack up.
If you are looking for a comprehensive marketing platform to run and automate your business then Ontraport could be the right solution for you.
Builderall
Builderall is a relatively new all in one marketing platform with an impressive set of features. As well as the features you would expect from a SAAS offering of this nature you also get features like scarcity, video hosting, split testing, chatbots, membership sites, smart quizzes and of course a CRM.
If you are looking for an advanced marketing platform to run your business then builderall could be the right solution for you.
Groove funnels
Groovefunnels is a new all in one marketing platform that is currently under constant improvement and additions.
It is a new platform you have to realise that the free version has limitations and flaws.
Groove funnels have some contact management system features.
Read the full review to find out why it’s broken.
Start using a contact management system today to make more sales
Isn’t it time you started getting to know your customer!
By building a relationship with your customer you can make sure your business stays open long term by increasing the lifetime value of each customer by selling more and higher-priced products and services to them over the long term after all business is a marathon, not a sprint.
Using a contact manager or CRM will allow you to put really simple systems in place to make more sales per user and build lasting relationships with your ideal customer.
