You may not think of CRM as a marketing tool, but the information it provides can be extremely useful to a marketer. You could be utilizing some great features of CRM not only to enhance your marketing, but also make your life a little simpler – and goodness knows we all could use a little more simplicity! Here are 3 ways to use CRM to enhance your marketing:

1. Make Use of Your Integrations

I’m hesitant to admit this, but when I first started using my marketing automation system, I wasn’t syncing my email lists from our CRM. Instead, I was importing static .CSV files. This wasn’t a long-term strategy. The static list required more upkeep because I’d have to check every couple of months to see who should be added or deleted. When you use your CRM/MA integration, you can segment directly from the CRM into the MA based on your exact specifications. Your marketing lists will always be current and synced to your database, which saves you time and keeps your lists clean.

KEY: Make sure your sales team is entering prospects using the CRM lead sources you designate for your campaigns. Without their cooperation, you could be blasting to fresh lists, but incorrect targets.

2. Align your Customer Journeys

Use your CRM to see how sales is mapping their customer journey. Does your marketing process align with it? Draw up your own customer journey to match. If your sales team doesn’t have a customer journey, now’s the perfect time to create one together! In a quick 30-minute meeting, you and your sales team can discuss the sales process and how marketing ties in. Once you visualize how those processes are functioning, you can work towards aligning them.

KEY: Make sure you understand how your sales team qualifies their leads and prospects. Are these individuals ready to buy or will you need to nurture them first? How is sales defining what counts as a lead and what counts as a nurtured prospect? Do you need to create any new lead source types for them to match up with your campaigns?

3. Keep Everyone in the Loop

The more transparency you establish between sales and marketing the more positive results you’ll see. For example, if sales knows you’re sending an email on Thursday about business intelligence tools, they can contact those people on Friday to follow-up. Use the CRM to create custom event modules or tags for email promotions, and then share those with your sales team. They can position that information front-and-center on their CRM dashboard to keep them fully up-to-date on your marketing agenda. Now, you’re helping them sell better, and you’re helping yourself be accountable for your marketing tasks. Tada!

KEY: If you’re not already doing it, you should include your sales team on all your promotional email lists. It’s the no-brainer way to keep them in the loop with what’s going on without having to invest any extra time.

These are good starting points for your marketing and CRM marriage, but they can’t be put into action unless you have some basic understanding of your CRM program. Do you or someone on your marketing team need CRM training? Check out our CRM training page for details on training courses by our certified experts.