Data-driven marketing has become the norm in almost every industry. Companies have found that big data can significantly improve the ROI of modern marketing campaigns. However, they must use the right technology to get the most out of their big data initiatives.
There are a number of platforms that use big data to help marketers reach their target customers and engage with them more efficiently. Two of the best are Salesforce Automation System and CRMs.
Data-driven marketers must differentiate between these two big data marketing tools. They may find that they both serve purposes, but it is important to do your research and utilize them appropriately.
What Data-Driven Marketing Strategists Must Know About Salesforce Automation Systems and CRMs
If you thought Salesforce Automation System & CRM meant the same thing then I am afraid but you’re wrong, and you’re not alone in this. You must know the difference between the two tools and how they use big data for the greatest possible benefit.
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There are a lot of people who think that these two disparate big data marketing tools are the same. The goal of this article is to establish what SFA & CRM are and how the two differ from each other.
What is the Salesforce Automation System?
Salesforce Automation System (SFA) is a set of software apps that Salesforce integrates. They are meant for the sales team, so that they can efficiently improve their sales management strategy.
The SFA is designed to strengthen most digital sales systems through the use of automation workflows which make the overall process efficient, intelligent, smart, error-free, and better integrated.
The system is built in a way that helps the sales team manage business leads, contacts, and team performance in the most very efficient manner possible.
Most marketers will agree that it is like a CRM but only better. It far exceeds the boundaries of a traditional CRM. One of the reasons that it is so invaluable is that it uses some of the latest big data tools to deliver higher quality features to customers.
What are the data-driven features of SalesForce Automation System?
SalesForce Automation System uses some of the most sophisticated big data features imaginable. Here are some ways this tool uses big data to offer exceptional value to marketers.
1. Contact Management
Maintaining contacts is a very crucial activity that every business needs to do to generate more business and to NOT miss out on potential business due to mismanagement of business contacts. This has become much easier with big data platforms like SalesForce.
Salesforce Automation System does a great job with this, because it helps marketers manage business contacts much more efficiently.
SFA Contact Modules helps you organize contact data with name, address, phone numbers. It properly fragments and organizes contact information with the stage of the buying phase that they are in. This helps the sales team personalize their sales messages more efficiently and in a smart way.
2. Pipeline Management
Pipeline Management is an incredibly useful big data function that you get with Salesforce Automation System.
With Pipeline Management, the entire sales team can track the individual customer journey right as it enters the pipeline where the customer is and how far he/she is from closing the sales.
With this data, the sales team equips itself with personalized messages that are tailored towards moving the lead through the pipeline to, closing it as a sale.
3. Task Management
In SFA with all the sales software and apps aligned.
Of course, with the pipeline management in place, it prompts the tasks that need to be carried out by each team member involved in the entire process every step of the way to collectively accomplish the end goal.
Based on pipeline performance, it automatically assigns the tasks to the individuals involved in the process. It is the individual tasks that collectively lead to the accomplishment of the end goal of the team as a whole.
4. Email Management
Email Marketing is all the rage. It is not that redundant channel many marketers claim to believe. In fact, as per stats, 93% of B2B marketers use email channels for distributing content and 72% of customers prefer email as their main channel for business communication.
Salesforce Automation System has processes in place for email management.
After all, it is believed that most B2B Business would use SFA as a tool to manage their business.
Also, email is a crucial aspect of their marketing strategies, since B2B companies can use it for various purposes. They have discovered that SFA has many useful systems and processes in place that allow for better management.
Some of the best features that it offers are,
- Email ticketing system
- Email receipt module
- Data enhancement module
- Intelligent analysis module
With these amazing features from the suite of SFA, managing business emails becomes increasingly smart and efficient through data analytics.
What is a CRM anyway?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a special type of software known as Software as a service (SaaS) that helps business manage customer interactions throughout the customer lifecycle.
The purpose of a CRM is to keep all the customer data accurate to the most finite detail in one place. It is designed to make sure data is stored without leaving any anomalies.
Keeping the data in one place helps the business manage the whole thing quite efficiently and this fosters great customer relations and provides customers with stunning customer service that addresses their urgencies and needs right on time.
There are a number of CRMs out there tailored for business solutions. The popular ones being Salesforce and Hubspot.
Hubspot’s CRM in fact comes with a free plan so that you can use and assess if it’s the right one for you.
Features of a CRM Platform
1. Customer Management
Customer Management is a core feature of any CRM tool that can’t be underestimated.
Since a CRM thrives upon customer relationship management, features that facilitate managing customers in the CRM platform naturally comes up on the top of any priority list.
Any prospect that has remotely indicated an interest in the product can be considered a prospective customer and he/she needs to be registered in the CRM.
You never know when they may become a converted customer.
I remember this incident vividly when I was reading an article about inbound marketing on HubSpot and a day later I receive an (automated) email where they asked if I was interested in the product since I was reading a specific article about inbound marketing.
Now that’s a very smart way to manage customers I would say.
2. All data in one place
The point of using a CRM tool is to have all data in one place so that you can efficiently manage things and turn more prospects into converted customers.
This would not be the case if you are having to drift across multiple platforms to tie things together and make sense out of it.
CRMs provide you all data in one place pertaining to business functions like sales and marketing.
3. Reports and Analytics.
A CRM platform additionally provides you with reports and analytics of your CRM activities so that you actively receive feedback of your marketing and sales activity and at the same time find out to what extent has the CRM platform helped your business thrive.