If you’re not integrating your website with a CRM or automated marketing system you’re losing out!
Want your website to do more? Want to take people’s details straight into a CRM and begin talking to them without having to lift a finger? Well then you need Integrated websites.
We are going to delve into what a CRM is and how integrating your CRM with your website gives you the power to do so much more…
CRM
What is a CRM? Well firstly it stands for Customer Relationship Management. This is traditionally this is where your sales team stores and manage your database. From sending emails and sms’ to tracking communication and sales via pipelines to setting up reminders and notifications. This can all be done within a CRM depending on which software you choose.
How many businesses have a list of their clients either in an excel spreadsheet or their accounting software? I personally have come across too many. Having a CRM for a business is non negotiable. You have to keep track of all your prospects and clients and talk to them. If you are not talking to them how can you expect to grow your business? A CRM lets you keep all your contacts safe in the cloud so you don’t have to worry about if you lose your spreadsheet or your accounting software expires. One of the best sales CRMs and sales pipeline platforms available is PipeDrive.
One step better would be having a marketing automation platform where your CRM is just one component of that.
For now just having a CRM would be a great step. Get your database into the cloud and start monitoring communication and activity. Start speaking to people on a regular basis. This is normally the easiest and cheapest way to grow your business as your best customer is a past customer!
Our favourite and recommended CRM and Marketing Automation platforms are HubSpot and SharpSpring. We are a are partners of both platforms and can thereby offer great support and advice. Be sure to check them out and speak to us to learn more about the differences and why you need them.
What we are talking about today is integrating your CRM with your website and having the ability to do so much more.
Integrated websites
The first step might be something so simple but can make a world of difference.
Firstly we take all your current forms on your website and integrate them with your CRM.
This enables you to pass someones details straight from the website straight to your CRM. You are then able to send people an immediate personalised response thanking them for contacting you and send a notification to you so that you know you need to contact this person. The person contacting you now has the peace of mind knowing that you have received their enquiry and you have a record of their enquiry. No more lost leads. No more delays in responses. Only a first class user experience.
Once that person is in your CRM or Marketing Automation platform you are then able to send them on various educational or buyer journeys you might have developed over time(based on functionality). Saving you time and ensuring your business is running 24/7 without you having to do be there!
The next step would to place tracking code on your website so that you can monitor what your visitors are doing.
Now if you have a sophisticated CRM or Marketing Automation platform, like HubSpot and SharpSpring, you are able to monitor what each of your contacts does on the website. Set triggers that fire when a contact visits a certain page that let you get notified so that you can strike while the lead is hot. Start wowing your customers by knowing exactly what they were looking at giving them solutions that they were looking for.
No more asking what you can help with, but rather give answers to the questions they wanted to ask before they even asked them! A practical example of this is right now while you are reading this, I am tracking your progress and if you ever contacted us I would know that you were interested in integrated websites. We are also able to trigger certain pop ups and offers prompting you to services and solutions relevant to you.
A little bit scary? It is, but this is not new technology. This technology has been reserved for the big players, but in recent years it has now become more affordable. Start understanding more about your website visitors and put measures in place to optimise conversion and create a great user experience.
Keep track of your online store
If you had a eCommerce store you are able to integrate your CRM and Marketing automation platform with your website to keep track of sales and also know if people abandon their cart. Know what each person is interested in and when you need to contact someone. Ensure that people abandon their carts are sent communication asking if you can assist and ask why they didn’t complete their purchase. Customise your users experience based on this and increase your conversion rates.
Conclusion
We have just touched on some of the most simple ways to integrate your website and the immediate benefits of doing so. There is still so much to do, but just doing the basics can change the way your business operates. I often say to clients that if you don’t have a CRM integrated with your website then you have something that looks great but can’t do much.
If you are going through the effort of building a website then make sure you integrate it with a CRM as a starting point. You will thank me later when you do.
