Marketing is the buzz word that keeps a business alive and afloat, even as the business owner tries to swim to the shores of profitability. In the world of social media and all things digital, we often hear about the amplification of opportunities and the stiff competition when it comes to holding the rather fickle attention span of the person who is quickly scrolling through social media pages. In such a scenario, the business owner trying to build a presence online can only hope to capture the attention of the said prospect or customer by creating campaigns that drive reach and engagement even as the information of the prospects is captured effectively for use along the sales pipeline. How can a small or medium-sized business do so?
The answer lies in two simple words: marketing automation.
When we speak of CRM or Customer Relationship Management, talk of marketing automation can never be too far. The two have come to meet in a logical end that helps businesses achieve their goals. The use of Agile CRM or the Agile CRM alternatives now depends on how well and efficiently such platforms and alternatives can integrate CRM with marketing automation. But before we go there, let us understand why marketing automation is the need of the hour and why we need alternatives to Agile CRM:
- Big Data: In this era of all things digital, data only has one size that is supposed to fit all business, big, medium or small – big! Big data is the reality of conducting business online and in order to capture this data, it is imperative for Agile CRM and any alternative to Agile CRM, to understand this big data, collate it and then run campaigns around it based on the findings within the CRM system.
- Organized Approach: The digital way of doing business may propel a business owner to try all kinds of marketing elements and combinations, but efficiency will be achieved only when there is a structure and organized approach to the entire process. With CRM, it would be important to understand the various categories and questions of the customer and prospects. This information must be used to create and organize campaigns that specifically target that audience by answering those questions and offering relevant solutions.
- Sales Conversions: In the sales pipeline, the CRM platform is not the only element. Marketing automation is just as important to drive engagement without getting into the monotony of creating and sharing posts online, through various platforms like social media, landing pages email and much more. Hence, one needs to keep an eye out for alternatives to Agile CRM which efficiently integrate the CRM element with marketing automation in order to successfully close an increasing number of conversions.
- Better Team Work: This one cannot be stressed enough. It is very easy for the sales and marketing teams to collide since the lines are very thinly etched out and boundaries are usually blurred. Hence, with the careful integration of CRM and marketing automation – whether it is with Agile CRM or with any of the alternatives to Agile CRM – one can easily find a way to define each function and task as well as the stage at which each one needs to be fulfilled. This will eliminate duplication of efforts and missing out on tasks, or the lack of accountability as well.
In keeping with the above, let us have a look at some of the popular Agile CRM alternatives to understand what they offer us in the digital marketplace:
- EngageBay: if you are looking to close conversions in the digital market where there are opportunities galore, then this alternative to Agile CRM is the way to go. Not only does EngageBay bring you a number of features that combine marketing automation with CRM, but it also brings you these features at super affordable prices that have been structured into various plans for small and medium-sized businesses.
- OmniSend: This platform is also fast gaining popularity as one of the alternatives to Agile CRM, yet it only concentrates on the email part of the marketing automation gamut which leaves much to the imagination!
- ConvertKit: This platform helps you organize your CRM with your marketing automation efforts and functions so that you are able to make conversions on the basis of lead generation campaigns that basically run on email marketing ideals.
- Moosend: This is also a popular alternative to Agile CRM since it gives you a wide range of templates that can be used to design and send out email marketing campaigns for your marketing automation efforts.
- ActiveCampaign: With ActiveCampaign, you have a marketing automation campaign that helps you design, track and analyze the various deliverables within the email marketing campaigns that you send out there for your lead generation and nurturing efforts.
3 Best Real Estate CRM Software For Your Business
If we are to look at the above alternatives to
Agile CRM, we can easily see that EngageBay would be the best for your
marketing automation needs since it offers an entire suite of services at
affordable pricing.