Surau.co – Many people think this email marketing is a CRM, that’s because email is often used for marketing purposes and for business communication with customers.
Actually email and CRM are different tools. We know that email is just a tool that connects communication between people and teams, with customers, which is a one-way communication. Using email doesn’t necessarily make this tool exactly like CRM. Because email and CRM have different functions.
Email can be a good tool for a business, but it can also be a bad tool for a business. Why, if the sales team and marketing team ignore email delivery standards, customers and prospects can respond negatively to the company. Especially when a company sends an email as spam, it further undermines the trust of potential customers in the company.
Since such an incident, companies are forced to implement CRM applications to enable communication between prospects and customers with the company team.
As the name suggests, CRM is an application for managing the relationship between a company and its customers. CRM applications allow companies to contact potential customers in a more systematic way to avoid redundant communication.
If there is too much communication, customers will not believe what is offered. Therefore, if there are good boundaries in communication, the relationship between the company and outsiders will also improve.
CRM applications are not just for managing relationships between companies and customers/prospects. It is also possible to personalize messages sent to customers/prospects. When email is tailored to the needs of prospects and customers, it is clearly a communication that can lead to sales.
By now you have realized that email marketing is not a CRM. Email is a communication tool. CRM, on the other hand, is a tool that can be used to manage relationships and control which emails will be sent to marketing and sales teams to achieve sales and marketing success based on the information in the system.
CRM is a tool created by the team to integrate email marketing and communication history, while email does not have such a feature.
The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) may no longer be foreign to your ears. But what exactly is CRM and why is it so important? CRM is an approach to managing interactions between companies and customers, using data analysis from each customer to improve the relationship between customers and companies with the aim of bringing in sales.
Using email marketing to strengthen CRM is very effective for reaching new customers and increasing customer loyalty.
Why is That? Because the most personal channel is email. Customers want something personal in every way, and they expect you to understand what they want and send it straight to them, without them even telling you.
The following questions can help you ensure that the emails you send are opened, read and responded to which will certainly strengthen your CRM.
Read More: 6 Best Email Marketing Platform Comparison
Tips for Creating Effective Email Marketing & CRM
1. Is your email correct?
If you notice, nowadays many email marketing providers offer a feature where you can easily design emails through the provided templates (including MailTarget).
Unfortunately, even if your email design is great, it’s useless without interesting content. But at least, because the design template has been provided by the email marketing provider, you only need to think about interesting content.
When designing an email, always think about your customers who will receive the email, you are not just sending an email but you are trying to get customers interested in your email, so create a design that they might like, not what you like.
2. Is your email personal?
So, apart from creating a unique design, is the email you send personal? Add the recipient’s name in the email subject and provide an offer based on their previously purchased product data.
Personalization makes them feel as if the email was indeed sent by someone to them, rather than being sent by a machine. Of course this will improve your relationship with customers.
3. is it connected to social media?
Facts already speak, email marketing and social media have their respective advantages and can go hand in hand. Social media can be the easiest way for your customers to find out more about you. Having a special social media account for your business, is the right choice in improving customer relationships. But what does that have to do with email?
By adding social media icons in your emails, it means that your subscribers will find you more easily on other channels they like.
4. Is it responsive?
Another fact about email is that nowadays most people open their email via mobile devices, whether through smartphones, tablets, or other devices. When someone opens your email via a mobile device and there is content that doesn’t load, such as an image that doesn’t appear, or the design is messy, it’s certain that they are not interested in the email.
It’s vital to make your email marketing responsive and accessible across multiple devices. Many business people experience unresponsive email problems, how to solve them? Use an email marketing provider platform (such as MailTarget) which provides a feature where if you design an email, it will automatically open properly on any device.
5. What about your contacts?
Contact management by dividing the existing email list into several segments so that email delivery is more focused is an important thing to do. However, further building relationships with customers begins when they fill out a form and sign up to become your subscriber.
Send an email with a special offer, or thank you for signing up. An email like this is your starting point for CRM with that person.
6. Do you analyze data?
To make a good segmentation you certainly need to analyze the data. Consider A/B testing as a way of getting data about what kind of email your customers prefer.
The data you get will help you to better understand the characteristics of different customers. As a result, you will be able to send more effective, creative content, even including knowing what day and at what time you should send emails.
If you feel that the email you sent is unable to answer the questions above. It’s a good idea to re-examine what’s wrong and lacking in your emails because this means that there are still many areas that need to be improved in your email marketing and business CRM program.
There are many other tips that can help increase the effectiveness of your email marketing in the next discussion.