If you're a CMO and don't think you need to worry about technology or technology spending, think again.
Strategy and consulting firm Gartner is predicting that CMO's will be spending more on IT than CIO's by 2017. One critical aspect of technology spending will be your marketing department's spend on integration technology and services. More specifically, how effectively your marketing technology and data will integrate with your sales department's CRM will likely be a key success measure for your marketing team.
If your marketing and sales technologies aren't connected yet, here are some reasons to consider aligning them through a CRM integration effort:
- A single point of data truth - there is a natural tendency for data to become disorganized in companies. Spreadsheets get built and emailed around, lead lists are updated and maintained on corporate servers, sales calls to prospects are documented on (gasp!) pieces of paper. Be sure marketing data you collect is passed to a valuable place. A converted lead is more valuable in your enterprise CRM than it is in Google Analytics or HubSpot.
- ROI of Marketing Efforts - if your website is harmonized with your inbound marketing efforts, it will help attract and nurture potential customers. Ironically, the best way to highlight corporate investment in your marketing efforts is for a visitor that was initially converted to a lead on your website to show up as a closed sale in your CRM. The only for this process to occur is through a CRM integration.
- Identification of buyer behavior - sales team members are always on the lookout for qualified leads. If a lead has visited 30 pages on your website and converted on 4 pieces of advanced content, they are clearly exhibiting interest in your company's product or service (or they are a competitor of yours). A salesperson would be wise to call or personally email that lead. If your marketing and lead data (i.e. pages visited, conversions) isn't integrated with your CRM - that salesperson won't be triggered to reach out to the lead.
Considering CRM integration? Need some help thinking through your integration? Let us know.
Photo: Eole