Description
Book SynopsisSave time, save money, and grow your business with more effective CRM CRM For Dummies is the small business leader's guide to managing customer interactions. Customer relationship management is a critical part of any business, and it encompasses everything from business strategy and HR to sales, marketing, events, and more.
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
About This Book 1
Icons Used in This Book 2
Where to Go from Here 2
Part 1: Laying the CRM Foundation 5
Chapter 1: Embarking on Your Journey to Complete CRM 7
Bringing the R in CRM to the Forefront 7
Extending CRM to Your Entire Business 10
Knowing the Buzzwords 11
Using Strategies and Tactics 19
Finding Your Success with Complete CRM 21
Chapter 2: Gearing Up Internally for CRM 27
Overcoming Resistance to Change 28
Encouraging and Facilitating Innovation and Collaboration 33
Creating a Consistent and Effective Brand Communication Strategy 38
Working with the Gatekeepers in IT 40
Adopting a Data-Driven Mindset 43
Applying Your Culture to CRM 46
Chapter 3: Choosing the Best Software 49
Choosing between Software as a Service (SaaS) or On-Premise 50
Evaluating Software Vendors 52
Testing CRM Software 60
Making the Final Decision 63
Educating Users on Responsibility 64
Installing the Right Data Security Tools 64
Training Your Staff 65
Part 2: Setting Up Yourself for Success 69
Chapter 4: Organizing Your CRM through Segments and Personas 71
Segmenting Your Market 72
Identifying Buyer Personas 79
Developing Your Best Brand 81
Testing Your Brand 83
Delivering the Right Content 86
Avoiding Content Saturation 90
Chapter 5: Creating Story Arcs and Buyer Journeys with CRM 93
Building Brand Awareness 94
Improving Brand Perception 96
Making the Best Contact the First Time 99
Qualifying Leads 101
Getting Your Leads into Your Funnel 102
Using Workflows to Engage with Your Customers 105
Designing Workflows 109
Closing Leads with Effective Process 113
Using Opportunities versus Consumer Sales Funnels 116
Implementing Process Abandonment 120
Following Up after the Sale 123
Chapter 6: Defining Process and Your Data Model 125
Applying Management by Walking Around 126
Outlining Key Areas 127
Moving from Whiteboard to CRM 127
Defining Contact Data Fields 130
Scoring Your Leads and Clients 132
Part 3: Implementing Your CRM 135
Chapter 7: Setting Up Your CRM Elements 137
Contact versus Account-Based CRM 137
Defining Users and Their Roles 139
Using a Group-Centric Architecture 140
Setting Up Custom Data Fields 144
Storing Files 146
Signing Documents Automatically 148
Bridging Your Online Store and Your CRM 149
Integrating Billing, Quotes, and Invoices 151
Connecting Legacy and Related Software 153
Importing Leads by File 155
Chapter 8: Capturing Leads to Build Your CRM Database 157
Finding the Best Lead Capture Methods 158
Buying Leads from Third Parties 162
Bringing Leads in with Your Website 164
Tracking Sources with Campaign IDs 168
Deploying Signup Forms 170
Deploying Ticketing Forms 172
Appending Data 174
Building Automation into Forms 177
Chapter 9: Capturing Leads with Other Methods 181
Interacting with Chat 182
Interacting via SMS/MMS 184
Interacting over the Phone 186
Meeting over Web Conference 188
Interacting over Social Media 189
Meeting Leads in Real Life 190
Integrating Inbound Leads through Zapier 193
Chapter 10: Communicating Effectively with Email 195
Avoiding Spam 196
Adhering to Legal Requirements 199
Employing SPF and DKIM 200
Choosing the Right Email Service Provider 202
Managing Your Lists 205
Gathering New Leads 207
Designing Emails That Work 209
Tracking Email Marketing Campaigns 211
Personalizing Your Messages 217
Triggering Email from Actions 218
Chapter 11: Joining the Marketing Automation Revolution 219
Defining Automation 220
Designing Your Campaigns 222
Setting Up Triggers 226
Encouraging Leads to Activate Triggers 227
Automating Workflows around Lead Scoring 229
Designing Workflows 230
Chapter 12: Managing Your Knowledge Base in Your CRM 235
Knowing What to Put in Your Knowledge Base 236
Building Access Levels for Information 237
Structuring Knowledge for Internal Consumption 239
Sharing Knowledge with Leads and Clients 240
Chapter 13: Managing Projects with Your CRM 241
Setting Up a Project 242
Leading Your Project Team 245
Measuring Important Metrics for Your Team 247
Tracking resource utilization 247
Viewing overdue tasks 248
Budgeting projects and tasks 248
Chapter 14: Managing Events with Your CRM 249
Bringing People to Your Brand 250
Driving awareness with events 250
Educating leads and clients through conferences 251
Hosting Events 251
Establishing benefits of membership 252
Matching attendees by interests 253
Setting Up Registration Options 253
Determining what to ask for 254
Using logic to show only relevant options 255
Automating Responses and Follow-Ups 255
Connecting with Calendars 256
Part 4: Analytics and Improvement 257
Chapter 15: Measuring Business Performance with CRM 259
Constructing Funnels 260
Tracking sales progress with conversions 260
Defining the stages of a conversion 260
Measuring time and dropout rates for each stage 261
Activating workflows for stages 262
Analyzing Website Visitors 263
Measuring unique visitors and page views 263
Tracking referral sources 265
Measuring bounce rate 266
Keeping a tally on devices that visit your website 267
Watching where your visitors come from 267
Measuring time on site 268
Analyzing individual pages 268
Comparing your website properties 269
Comparing and contrasting campaign performance 271
A/B Webpage Testing 272
Setting up split percentages 272
Determining the best criteria for a split 273
Adjusting split percentages automatically 273
Managing Affiliates 273
Connecting campaigns to affiliate codes 274
Defining tiers for payment 274
Measuring Email Marketing 275
Watching read and click rates over time 275
Comparing performance to benchmarks 275
Measuring conversions from email campaigns 276
Tracking Social Media 277
Measuring impressions and actions 277
Calculating influence and lead qualification 279
Taking a Global View 279
Chapter 16: Gathering Feedback and Supporting Customers 281
Sending Surveys 282
Applying surveys to the right situations 282
Developing the questions people answer 283
Building logic into survey structure 283
Scoring survey responses 284
Triggering workflows from surveys 285
Connecting survey responses to your CRM 285
Supporting Clients with Ticketing Forms 286
Posting forms on your website for customer service 286
Automation with ticket forms 287
Setting standards and goals for your support team 288
Measuring important metrics 289
Chatting with Leads and Clients 290
Chapter 17: Using Analytics the Right Way 291
Defining Your Key Performance Indicators 292
Knowing what to measure and why 292
Setting reasonable standards 294
Reporting your KPIs 294
Developing policies for exceeding standards or failing to meet them 295
Sharing performance with investors and employees 295
Analyzing Your Website Traffic 295
Assessing SEO and PPC performance 296
Comparing campaigns and their impact 296
Scoring Your Leads and Clients 297
Predictive Analytics 297
Building a data model from behavior 298
Applying your predictive model to leads 300
Applying your predictive model to your business model 300
Sharpening your team’s skills 301
Part 5: The Part of Tens 303
Chapter 18: Ten Top-Notch Software Review Websites 305
Expert Market 305
G2 Crowd 306
SaaSGenius 307
GetApp 308
Technology Advice 309
Software Advice 309
Capterra 310
Finances Online 311
TrustRadius 311
Marketing Automation Club 312
Chapter 19: Ten Common CRM Mistakes 313
Not Getting Buy In from Your Team 313
Believing CRM Is about Software 314
Not Doing Your Homework First 314
Not Listening to Expert Advice 314
Not Going through Vendor Software Training 314
Not Setting Up DKIM and SPF 315
Buying Lists 315
Relying Only on Cold Calling 315
Not Journey Mapping First 316
Focusing on One Requirement 316
Appendix A: CRM Decision Matrix 317
Appendix B: Self-Assessment 323
Index 325
