Marketing News
While we are huge fans of using a customer database tool such as Zoho CRM for your business, one of the biggest pain points can be CRM analytics and reporting. After you and your team have gone through the process of dutifully inputting data and keeping things up to date, how do you measure sales and marketing success?
This article aims at preparing CRM users, especially those using Zoho CRM, for how you can slice and dice your data to make the most of your CRM analytics.
What is your goal for CRM Analytics?
Yes, this may initially seem like a silly question but we promise it is important. When we've asked clients this question, often there is a long pause. Sometimes the client will tell us they need to think about it more and get with the team. Why? Frankly, people know that data analytics is important but without a goal in mind it's just a bunch of...
There's something about marketing the intangible that seems to have unlimited potential for creativity when you're a marketer. Unlike product marketing, services marketing requires a unique approach to reach your target customer or client.
When we compare the effort of selling a widget to that of selling a service, there are noticeable differences. With a widget, there is usually just one primary person to target, one specific product use, and many obvious ways to promote it. The incredible challenge of building trust with the target audience is a big part of what makes services marketing so fun and challenging. We're often surprised to learn that many service companies do not have any kind of marketing plan.
How Building Relationships is Core to Services Marketing
Most marketing these days is already considered "relational" or based on building a...
Will a marketing communications strategy help sales and prevent breakdowns?
Simply put... yes. Documenting any strategy can make a significantly positive impact on whatever the focus may be in that context. Here we're talking about marketing, but there's a larger document you may also need in your business that some people refer to as a corporate communications plan. Do you have anything like this for your team and business?
Before getting into the details, let's pause to ask why we should be talking about communications strategies. For me (Candice), this topic recently came up when I started reading Amelia Bedelia to my toddler.
The story of Amelia Bedelia's incredibly silly and over the top mis-interpretations of her chores list make us laugh out loud. One of my favorite moments is when she reads, "Put the lights out" and interprets that to mean...
Every brand has their core values. When a colleague asked me (Candice) about Beckmann Collaborative's values about 5 years ago, I froze. I was so caught up in the day to day operations that I had not really paused to think about WHY I was doing this marketing strategy stuff. And I had not documented the values I expected in the WAY the work is done.
It is interactions like this one about core values that make me such a believer in building a strong community. Thank you to everyone who has ever contributed to the growth, learning, and innovation that Beckmann Collaborative has experienced in the past 7 years.
These are our core values
Wisdom, Integrity, Collaboration, and Freedom
Wisdom:
The thoughtful application of knowledge we gain along life's journey teaches us many things. Wisdom brings both grace and humility. Beyond consulting, we aim to educate...
When you run a business, email communication with customers and prospects is paramount. Email marketing continues to be an effective conversion channel, BUT it is a waste of time and resources if your emails are not showing up in customer inboxes. The rate at which your emails show up in recipient inboxes is called email deliverability. That's what we want to dig into today.
Your email marketing strategy must take into consideration several factors: technology, regulations, audience expectations, and your brand's content.
By "Technology" we mean everything from the software you choose to send out emails to understanding your metrics. More on that further down in this post. A big reason for writing this post relates to how changes in technology and regulations are impacting your email communication.
Consumer Privacy Regulations
More data privacy regulations continue to roll out,...
Yes, You NEED a Client Nurturing Strategy. This is not negotiable for B2B companies.
Before jumping into CRM workflows and automations that make client nurturing easier for you, we must begin with the Why. The key to increasing sales, building strong relationships, and reducing your marketing budget starts with the people you already know - Your Clients.
You may be surprised to learn that, "93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service." (Hubspot)
This data suggests that many companies could increase sales by simply building more trust and better relationships with their existing customer base. Some people call this customer retention, but here we're calling it client nurturing.
When you begin to prioritize client relationships over the marketing tasks that make a lower...
Have you considered the hygiene of your CRM Data?
Yes, dirty data could be a major problem in your organization. Maybe you have been doing some spring cleaning around the house. Well, it's also a good time to give your CRM data clean-up.
Clean, organized, and accurate data is essential for the success of your sales and marketing efforts. This is the data you use for personalization of your marketing campaigns and automations.
How Does Your CRM Data Get "Dirty" to Begin with?
"Dirty" or bad data is information in your CRM that is inaccurate, duplicate, missing, outdated, or simply input in the wrong format. These are the most common ways for your CRM to have "dirty" data.
1. Information gets outdated every year...
- 40% of email users change their email address at least once every two years
- 20% of postal addresses change each year
- 18% of phone...
How do you know if you NEED someone else to guide your CRM training?
Zoho CRM Training Checklist
We have put together a checklist of questions to ask yourself to use when deciding whether you can learn on your own or if it's better to get outside help.
If you landed here and are unclear about what a CRM system is or why you need it, then read this article first. It discusses the key reasons you should map out a CRM Strategy before jumping in to setting things up.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. This article talks about the software or systems businesses use to manage professional relationships (i.e. clients, customers, partners, and vendors).
Who is Your CRM Owner?
There should always be a person on your team who is designated as the "owner" of your CRM. This means he or she is accountable for the health of your CRM system and...
B2B companies without a LinkedIn marketing strategy are missing big opportunities.
Did you know that there are nearly 800 million individual users on LinkedIn in more than 200 countries?
And there are over 57 million companies with business pages on the platform.
LinkedIn is definitely the place to be for businesses and professionals to market themselves. According to LinkedIn, their growth rate is currently two new members joining per second. In Microsoft's FY21 Q2 update, it was reported that user sessions grew 30% over the previous three months, and the platform's total revenue increased 23% in that period.
Things have only continued to grow. This past January, Microsoft reported that LinkedIn had record engagement on the platform last quarter. "LinkedIn has become one of the world’s largest platforms for professional events, with...
Do you ever feel like your brand identity gets lost in the day to day operations of the company?
You aren't alone! Maintaining a strong, consistent company brand takes effort and a bit of planning.
The Beckmann Collaborative team usually asks new clients about their brand values, brand guidelines, and overall brand identity while we are onboarding. Surprisingly, the responses to these questions are often something like, "here's our logo, but we don't have any guidelines or anything."
Our reaction internally is something like this....
While a brand can be whatever you want it to be, not knowing or sticking with your brand identity is a problem.
Brand Identity: This is your brand's outward expression. It includes the company name, logo, brand values, value proposition, and all communications. It is how the world recognizes your brand as uniquely...
