If you are in the digital marketing world, you have probably heard of what a CRM tool is (customer relationship management). However, if you are not, and are a small business owner who has been pitched various CRM tools but are still a little confused about what it is, that’s okay! We’ll take some time to explain what a CRM tool is, and how a small business can take advantage of this innovative new technology.
What is a CRM Tool?
A customer relationship management tool is a catch-all phrase for software that can help automate, organize, and analyze any work you might be conducting with customers. As we will see later on, CRM tools can vary greatly – some just help organize communication lines and help automate a few basic tasks, while others can offer a lot of analysis and insight into one’s business or customers.
Typically, a CRM tool will provide a dashboard. On this dashboard, you may see a variety of different sidebars and additional tools, which will depend on the type of CRM tool you are using. Generally speaking, you could expect to see a place in which you will have your email list, contact information, and other information relevant to your communication with your customers. The goal of a CRM tool is to make your relationships run much smoother – customers and leads will be followed up with promptly, so no one slips through the cracks.
What are the Different Types of CRM Tools?
As we have already mentioned, there is a multitude of different types of CRM tools. Some work well for particular types of businesses, while others have different niches. For the time being, we will focus on two types of CRM tools – an Operational CRM tool and an Analytical CRM tool.
Operational CRM Tool
An operational CRM tool is concerned with providing customers with an organized and efficient experience with your business. An operational CRM tool is a holistic approach to customer relationship management. This type of CRM tool is guided by the question, How can I provide customers with the best customer service experience?
So, if you are having trouble with solving your high customer turnover rate, dissatisfied customers, or hefty customer support costs, a CRM tool that focuses on the operational end might be of benefit to you and your business. With this tool, you can automate some of your communication lines, track various communications, including phone calls, and have it all organized in one convenient dashboard – so you and anyone else on your team can be accessing the same information. Operational CRM tools can help organize sales (by interacting with potential customers), service, and marketing. It is important to note that just what an operational CRM tool can offer your business can vary greatly – some offer you a lot in the way of automation, while some might just automate email responses and follow-ups. It is important to do some research before fully investing in a CRM tool.
Analytical CRM Tool
Every CRM tool will have tools to help with organization and operation, though not every CRM tool will help with analytics. And if a CRM tool does have analytical capabilities, they may vary greatly. Without going too in-depth, we’ll highlight some of the insights that an analytical CRM tool can offer your business.
Just to review, an operational CRM tool will help you tighten up your communications, keep everything organized and automate some processes – like following up on emails with customers. An analytical CRM tool will do that and then some more. For example, you can have website analytics tracking. So, you can see when your website is being viewed most and most frequently, if new viewers are visiting your site, which pages are being engaged with, and if anyone is linking back to your website on other websites.
In addition to providing insight into how your website is performing, an analytical CRM tool can also help you understand how your social media accounts and marketing campaigns are performing. By tracking your Facebook ads, and your engagement on Instagram and LinkedIn, you can have an understanding of your marketing efforts that are backed by understandable and accessible data.
An Operational and Analytical CRM Tool: Ella Interactive
You might be wondering if there is a robust, innovative, and intuitive CRM tool, one that has both operational and analytical capabilities. There are CRM tools that can do this, but not all of them work well for small businesses: they might work well only for corporations or large businesses.
Ella Interactive, however, can be used by corporations, large businesses, and, most importantly, small businesses. To further set Ella apart from other CRM tools, Ella can offer some operational and analytical tools that are simply a cut above the rest. So, let’s highlight some of those tools.
Ella’s Operational Tools
You want to have an organized and efficient approach to marketing. With Ella, you can reduce the amount of time you spend posting your social media posts because it has the capabilities to schedule posts across multiple platforms. And you can also save time by automating and scheduling posts for months in advance. In addition to making your social media management more efficient and more effective, Ella can also track phone calls and automate your email marketing.
Ella’s Analytical Tools
Having access to understandable data is essential to your business’s growth and success. With Ella, you will have invaluable insights into your business – who your audience is, what sort of content they engage with, and how many new clients your marketing campaign is attracting. Whether it is keyword research and SEO audits, website analytics tracking, or even custom AI software. No matter what size of business you have, whether it is large, small, or a marketing agency, Ella Interactive’s operational and analytical tools can provide you with the resources to optimize your business for whatever solutions your marketing and sales team is aiming to solve.