TeamBlog

So, what is a marketing campaign in a CRM world?

A campaign is used in many realms of our personal and business lives. Think of it, political campaigns we are deluged with constantly; product announcement campaigns every few minutes within our favorite television and radio programs, even as we workout at the gym; weight loss campaigns to keep us in shape; and on and on. In this next few paragraphs lets deal with marketing campaigns intended to introduce a product or service of your company.

At the outset, we need to define what the GOAL of the campaign is! Many people begin their campaign designing cool artwork, logos, brochures, newsletters, fliers, coupons, etc. Unfortunately, in the majority of the non-professionally driven campaigns, the GOAL is left until the end or is assumed at some level.

Let’s begin a definition of what we expect from a marketing campaign and   management tool.

The goal in every case is to generate an opportunity to create a meaningful relationship between the product/service provider and the prospective customer.  This statement encapsulates the very essence of why any communication is performed.  Need a larger goal? More reasons? We’d think not as every transaction begins with a relationship to the company, the service or the product – the depth of relationship is the only variable.

The campaign management toolkit should assist us in creation, setup, execution and follow-through.  In the RedHorse CRM toolbox the tools are there, now it’s up to us to use them appropriately and fully.

Let’s outline our approach and needs:

A – We need to be able to pick our recipients from our CRM and determine who will receive our message;

B – The toolkit should provide us with the ability to generate the messages in multiple forms, eg. e-mails, merged letters, printed fliers, online conversations, etc;

C – Once the messages and media are created, the system should assist us in distribution of the e-mail, the hard copy letters, and potentially even the social media message;

D – It should be obvious to most businesses that tracking the costs and ROI should be a significant toolkit piece!  But, apparently not in many systems.  In RedHorse CRM – “It’s Included….”

E – Measurement of the cycle of distribution, receipts, responses and follow-up is key to a successful campaign in fact possibly more important than the message preparation.  We need to know number distributed, number received by the target parties, quantity of responses, and actions taken.

F – Last but certainly not least, it is CRITICAL that we use the prospects actions as an opportunity to respect their needs, service their wants, and assist them in a way that further develops the relationship.  Yes, Relationship is the Middle name of CRM.

With the RedHorse CRM system, all of the above is possible and “It’s Included…”

If  marketing campaigns and management is a concern of your business, feel free to contact us for a brief discussion of the tools and how we might assist you.

For more information about CRM systems click here.

Most CRM systems do not directly connect with external tables; data tables that are not part of the resident architecture of the program. In some CRM systems you can purchase add-ons and customized programs to allow the connection of the CRM to these external data sets. Normally, you would purchase the data toolkit (i.e. GoldBox, dbNetGrid and others), purchase the designers expertise and the debugging time all of which will be required to allow the connection to the external table. There are a few CRM systems that have the ability to connect directly without these extra expenses and 3rd party softwares. One I will use as my example herein is RedHorse CRM, a 2-3 year old CRM software that is hitting the market and just overwhelming users of some of the traditional CRM softwares.

Now, back to external tables. Many might ask, “What is an external table?” An external table is a set of data which is somehow related to the records in your customer database (CRM database). Normally these external tables are in the form of dBase files (dbf), MS Access databases (mdb), MySQL databases (ie. online web databases), MS SQL databases, spreadsheets and other items where sets of data are stored in an ordered manner.

Examples of where an external table might be used: a warranty database organized by customer number; a spreadsheet of customer products organized by a customer name or number.

If there is a “key” to relate your external data to the current CRM system, RedHorse allows this to be done. And, as you may already know…. “It’s Included…” Nothing extra to purchase.

The connection to the external tables is available if your data tables are a SQL View (a special selection of data from SQL databases and tables), is a SQL Database, or is addressable by an ODBC Connection. This ODBC connection is probably the most common method of programs addressing data. Most applications utilizing current data technologies have ODBC connectivity.

Imagine, being on a client record in the CRM and being able to address the data in the warranty database directly on a tab in the customers record in your CRM. In this case, it is assumed that the “CustomerNumber” is the common key relating the two data sets. That set of warranty information is maintained by another program or system but is accessible via ODBC.

A few ideas for you to consider are:

- Real Estate: If you are a real estate agent, you might need to be able to reference a list of homes or buildings that contain the amenities requested by a buyer. Fill in a set of amenities required and select the external table view to see those fitting the needs.

- Customer Service / HelpDesk Systems: Your sales team could have a visual peek into the helpdesk information system (this assumes you are not utilizing customer service and ticketing within RedHorse) while working with a client on a future purchase.

- Automobile inventory at a branch lot: From the corporate office you may need to view inventory at a remote sales lot. This relationship could be into the corporate inventory database keyed on dealership/lot number. So, from Dealership A’s record, one could go to an inventory tab to view the inventory at that location.

- Accounting Systems Linkage: If your accounting system is accessible via ODBC, you could connect the customer/client record of the CRM system to the appropriate accounting information. By designing the viewer side, you can provide users with appropriate information while protecting that which should not be accessed by all.

These are just a few examples. We have found that external table connectivity simply allows the CRM system to be a central access point for all information related to servicing the client base and growing a business.

Imagine ONE program, with ONE central point of data access, with ONE idea in mind! RedHorse CRM would be that ONE product ready to make your company and team number ONE! With External Table connectivity, RedHorse provides that “window to the world” from within the CRM system. The ability to not lose information that resided in an old system.

If you are in a position where this is a concern of your business, feel free to contact us for a detailed analysis of your needs.  We not only advise in this area, but enjoy the process and can assist you in becoming familiar with choosing the proper database management tools.

For more information about CRM systems click here.

Choosing a software for customer management can be a daunting decision. One must consider the traditional factors but in addition knowing which kind of data structure is supported is critical to the abilities of the software going forward. If your CRM / Customer management software is not in line with your business model and operations, it can be detrimental to your success.

We will explain how to determine if you are Account or Contact Centric. Or, is my business centered on people or people at a business.

The New Social Media – meaningful to your business?

If you fail to listen, the fallout could be detrimental to your business survival. So who are these whisperers, why are they so important, and what should we be doing to embrace this new mode of communication and communicators?

I heard recently, “.. people are born with Outlook now…!” This was in a discussion of Outlook and CRM products functioning together as one.

What should a good Outlook link contain?

RedHorse CRM has a tag line “Its Included….” We have found that “It REALLY IS…”

I must say “IT REALLY IS INCLUDED….” After spending more than a decade in another product (yah, you know the one) we got so used to our add-on products that made life easier, we forgot to stand back and look at ourselves.

Well, we have gone live!

As is true with many of these projects we feel a bit hampered in our abilities to do our job at the speed we did last week. Due to the learning curve and simply a new paradigm, and of course the untangling of data and operational knots we’ve created over the last 20 years.

We find ourselves moving slower and with more caution and I would venture to say ignorance. We find what we believe are “undocumented features – or bugs as some call it” but later find that we are simply approaching the issue strangely.

What an experience for us. We are so set in our ways and so engrained and trained in GoldMine we have a difficult time with other technology. I summarized on the phone yesterday to someone by stating, “It’s kind of like writing with your left hand (I am right handed). I know I can do it but I may be sloppier and slower but I will get there.”

Short time today but will add more at a later time.

NICE product, just different for us.

After 4 hours of time, we are waiting for our hundred thousand plus e-mails to convert into the RedHorse product. We’ve had a bit of database corruption in the past we were not even aware of.

Converting from any software in your company or even upgrading it can be concerning for even the most seasoned experts. Follow us through this conversion from GoldMine to RedHorse CRM.

Plan, create, execute and measure – the key to marketing in a down economy. You can use your own resources but you may need assistance in determining where “your data” is. In today’s economy we have allowed the negative media to guide our actions out of fear and defeat. It is time to just DO IT. Stop following the herd.

Using proper tools and existing data we can build a strong customer base and keep adding to our revenue streams.