Understand CRM Marketing in 5 Minutes: An Overview of Analysis Strategies and Benefits

What Is CRM Marketing?

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a system or tool used to collect and manage customer information, as well as the strategies implemented to build and maintain positive relationships with each individual customer.
Previously, when referring to the systems or tools themselves, terms like "CRM system" or "CRM tool" were common, but today they are often simply referred to as "CRM."
CRM marketing refers to the practice of leveraging this CRM to conduct efficient marketing activities.

In traditional marketing that does not utilize CRM, while companies could deliver information to customers via advertisements or direct mail, it was difficult for customer feedback to reach the company, limiting the ability to truly cater to customer needs.
Furthermore, even if vast amounts of customer data were available for marketing, human analysis alone had limitations, often resulting in missed business opportunities due to the inability to develop optimal strategies.

However, by using CRM to analyze vast and diverse customer data in real time, companies can now conduct marketing tailored to the individual needs and values of each customer, enabling the provision of better products and services. Additionally, because CRM allows for the data-driven measurement of results and effectiveness after implementing strategies, companies can improve efficiency while reducing operational costs.

Key Elements of CRM Marketing

The essential elements of CRM marketing are the accumulation and analysis of customer information through CRM.

When customers are individual consumers, CRM allows for the centralized management of all customer information, including basic details such as name, age, gender, address, and contact information, as well as purchase history, spending amounts, usage periods, responses to advertisements or campaigns, and customer support inquiry history.

Furthermore, when customers are businesses, CRM can centrally manage and share a wealth of information in real time across departments, including company name, address, representative name, capital, number of employees, business description, as well as information on sales contacts, deal amounts, number of contracts, cost of goods sold, contract values, contract dates, and contract managers.

In CRM marketing, this information is accumulated and analyzed according to specific objectives to formulate marketing and sales strategies. By executing these strategies and periodically verifying and improving their effectiveness, companies can enhance their overall performance.

Differences Between CRM and SFA

SFA is often discussed alongside CRM. SFA stands for "Sales Force Automation" and refers to tools and methodologies specialized in supporting sales activities. Its primary functions include customer information management, centralized management of sales status, activity management for sales representatives, and sales management/forecasting. Its purpose is to streamline sales activities, with customer information management serving as one of its functional components.

While "MA (Marketing Automation)" is also related in the sense that it collects and manages customer information, MA focuses on managing information about potential leads with the goal of increasing the number of prospective customers.

In contrast, CRM manages customer information with the goal of strengthening the relationship between the company and its customers. In short, while their purposes and applications differ, effectively integrating CRM, SFA, and MA can further enhance the operational efficiency of the entire enterprise.

[Reference Article] The Necessity of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in Marketing: Key Points for Product Comparison and Selection

The Background Behind the Importance of CRM Marketing

The reason CRM marketing is gaining importance is that market shrinkage due to a declining birthrate and aging population has made acquiring new customers increasingly difficult, making the retention of repeat customers a higher priority. Furthermore, the recent "diversification of customer needs" and the "impact of COVID-19" have brought CRM marketing into the spotlight.

Diversification of Customer Needs

With the spread of the internet and smartphones, customers have more opportunities to obtain information, leading to highly diversified and complex customer behaviors and needs. To be chosen by customers in a competitive market, companies must approach each individual accurately. This makes CRM marketing, which captures the unique needs of each customer, indispensable.

In B2B specifically, the decision-making process is complex due to the number of people involved, and it takes time to reach a purchase or contract. Therefore, to build long-term positive relationships and respond accurately and timely to detailed customer requests and needs, marketing that effectively incorporates CRM is required.

Reduction of In-Person Sales Due to COVID-19

Companies that previously relied heavily on in-person sales were forced to strengthen their online approaches, inside sales, and digital marketing due to the spread of COVID-19. Customer data accumulated in CRM tools can be acquired not only through in-person interactions but also through these digital approaches.

Therefore, by combining CRM tools with digital marketing, companies can continue to analyze customers and flexibly maintain and build customer relationships in line with changing circumstances, even when in-person communication is restricted. These features of CRM tools are attracting attention, and an increasing number of companies are adopting CRM marketing.

Benefits of CRM Marketing

The benefits of CRM marketing include the ability to "improve customer satisfaction," "provide optimal strategies for existing customers," and "streamline business operations."

Improvement of Customer Satisfaction

CRM marketing allows for the visualization of customer needs by analyzing customer data. Once a company understands what customers are looking for in its products and services, it can reflect that information in new product development and various initiatives, efficiently improving customer satisfaction. Higher customer satisfaction can also lead to increased LTV (Life Time Value) and repeat business.

Deployment of Optimal Strategies for Existing Customers

The accumulation of diverse data on existing customers through CRM makes it easier to follow up and approach them in sales and customer service activities. For example, by understanding and sharing each customer's interests and relevant news, sales and marketing representatives can deploy individually optimized approaches.
Additionally, because CRM marketing provides constant access to customer information and enables analysis, it is easy to execute timely and optimal strategies.

Expectations for Operational Efficiency

Implementing CRM allows for the automation of data analysis, which is expected to improve operational efficiency. In particular, adopting a cloud-based CRM allows work to be performed on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, enabling staff to check customer data while traveling to meetings.
Furthermore, by centrally managing customer data with CRM, necessary information can be easily accessed and shared with other departments. This eliminates the waste of searching through various systems and files to find the information needed.

Basic Strategies for CRM Marketing

Basic initiatives for building and maintaining relationships with customers in CRM marketing include the following:

Hosting Seminars

Hosting events such as seminars and workshops is effective for nurturing acquired leads into customers. In B2B, it takes time to reach a purchase or contract. To maintain a positive relationship during this period, event content should be set according to the lead's consideration stage and needs. Customers who take the time to attend a seminar can be judged to have a certain level of interest in the topic, making it easier to promote the company's products and services. Recently, seminars can also be held online, which reduces costs and effort while allowing for follow-ups with customers nationwide, leading to improved customer satisfaction.

Email Newsletter Distribution

Sending inserts or direct mail (DM) to customers with high purchasing intent is another CRM strategy. By extracting customers with high purchasing intent based on seminar survey data or purchase history and sending them materials to promote company products, companies can efficiently drive sales. In particular, including flyers or samples with purchased products has the advantage of being seen with a higher probability compared to emails.

Summary

CRM marketing is a marketing methodology that utilizes CRM to help centrally manage and analyze customer information and build and maintain positive relationships with customers. Incorporating CRM marketing into a company allows for responses to diversified consumer needs and enables optimal marketing activities for each individual customer, which can lead to improvements in customer satisfaction, LTV, operational efficiency, and existing customer retention.

If your company is facing challenges with customer acquisition strategies, why not consider incorporating CRM marketing?