How Customer Relationship Management Boosts Email Marketing Effectiveness

Email, the shorthand version of electronic mail, revolutionized the way we communicate. It predates the internet with the earliest versions of it coming out in the mid sixties. This mode of communication has potential to increase customer satisfaction and the speed by which new leads convert. Telephony email software has integrated the power of email with the efficiency of Customer Relationship Management.

Email marketing is also an old idea. Successful marketing teams still frequently rely on email marketing as a staple to their campaign strategies. Email marketing is a form of direct marketing, where commercial information is mailed directly to potential clients. Email often replaces other forms of text delivery, such as direct mail or printed newsletters, for several reasons. First, it is cheap to send massive amounts of electronic messages compared to printed paper alternatives. Second, email is fast. Email messages can reach their intended audiences within seconds of sending. Often printed mail takes several days to be delivered to those same people. Additionally, email is a "green" advertisement practice that reduces paper waste. Considering that over half of all internet users check their email each day, email reaches people.

Remote sales telephony software adds business solutions to the already useful email marketing machine. One of the ways it does this is by facilitating the sending of email messages. First off, a Customer Relationship Management system may have email templates stored in them. These templates are designed to fit the purposes of the company, and can automatically import important information from the CRM, including their name or business to write into the salutation, and of course their email address. With a simple mouse click these custom email messages can be sent to leads on the phone with a sales agent, allowing them to quickly provide additional information to leads. Potential clients receive not only an email, but also the impression that the company is responsible.

Contacts can be automatically placed on email campaigns, slowly warming them up to products that they previously turned down. These emails build trust with the lead when the emails provide helpful content. This process is call lead nurturing. Using email leads can be nurtured into conversions without taken sales reps away from calling and contacting new leads.

Email marketing business solutions also offer the ability to track when emails are opened. When potential conversions open an email about the company, automatically the Customer Relationship Management system routes a call to that lead. Sales reps contact him or her within minutes of them having read the email while the company is still on their mind.

This partnership of email marketing with Customer Relationship Management creates less work and more sales for sales agents. It increases contact rates, conversions, and revenues. And best of all it saves money.

David Harlow is an SEO consultant for Inside Sales. As a firm believer that people should know the facts, Harlow’s blog Inside Sales Adventures seeks to inform new comers to the industry about important terminology in insides sales, as well as to give tips on what to look for when shopping for industry software.