Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Your Marketing System
Posted by Ron Harris on Wed, Jun 01, 2011
I had a great conversation with a marketing consultant about how his clients could effectively use Microsoft Dynamics CRM (MS CRM) as the foundation for their marketing system. I suggested that any time he is asked to build a form on a website where a visitor requests information or asks to be contacted, he should think about using MS CRM.
Most website forms today send an email to someone with the content from the form. The recipient has to distribute the inquiry to a sales rep to respond. Very often those inquiries are dropped and never get touched again. What a waste.
It is super easy for us to give the marketing consultant the code they can use to have the form interact directly with MS CRM. Once the form is setup, when a visitor submits the form, the contact is immediately added to the CRM database. CRM workflow can send a response email to the visitor letting them know we appreciate the inquiry and we will respond to them shortly.
I made some additional comments that really got the consultant thinking more broadly about what we could do if he setup his clients on MS CRM. If the form on the website asks the visitor to specify their product interest or reason for their inquiry, MS CRM workflow can adjust the response to offer a more targeted response. For example, if someone submits an inquiry asking for information on Widget Assemblies, then perhaps the workflow rules will reply with a template email about that product and then foward the inquiry to the sales person who handles Widget Assemblies. If the inquiry is asking about employment opportunities, MS CRM workflow replies with a different template and sends an email to the HR department. The possibilities here are endless.
Of course, the key to all this is that the person making the inquiry is now in the MS CRM database and can be followed up with by sales, marketing or other departments in the company. One thing that we know is that speed of response is super important right now. If someone is on your website, submits an inquiry, they want an immediate response. MS CRM makes sure that happens, and it makes sure you don't let the inquiry fall through the cracks.
The consultant was really impressed when I told him that his clients could sign up on MS CRM online for just $44 per user per month. It's $34 per user per month for the first year if they sign up before the end of June 2011. No hardware to purchase. Just a monthly fee that is probably less than the cost paid by the client for a cell phone.
This consultant was pretty involved in helping his clients with their marketing. He was excited to know that he could pay for a user to the client's MS CRM system and interact directly with the contacts stored in the database. Obviously, one of the tasks we would want to do is import current clients and prospects into the system so that marketing and the consultant could touch the contacts directly.
If you would like to talk about this idea further, please send me an email message or submit an inquiry here. Our goal is to help your company improve their marketing results and sell more. This is one way to do that and it is very inexpensive to start. Over time you may decide to add more users to MS CRM and have sales people use the system, but for now, this will make a difference for you. It's a fantastic starting point.