Lead Liaison

CRM and Marketing Automation: How Do They Work Together?

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Customer relationship management (CRM) software collects customer data and manages sales opportunities. It’s basically used as a sales tool. Marketing automation generates leads and collects data to create personalized communications. It’s essentially a lead generation and nurturing tool.

They might be two different things, but they only reach their full potential if you use them together. They’re like peanut butter and jelly. Sure, you can put them on separate sandwiches, but they become so much more when you mix them together.

Let’s look at some reasons why you need to combine your CRM and marketing automation processes.

Build Relationships Before Sending a Lead to Sales

When your CRM and your marketing automation solution work together, you can interact with and nurture your leads before they even make it to the sales team. This saves the sales team time since they no longer have to sift through the sales data to determine how to nurture the leads. Instead, the marketing automation process takes care of this. It analyzes data and sends the right information to the right people. It moves people through the sales funnel and qualifies them. By the time the sales team gets the lead, they know so much more about the person.

Closed-Loop Reporting

Have you ever wondered which campaign closes the most deals? You can find out when you run your marketing automation and CRM systems together. You can use closed-loop reporting to find out what revenue goes with which campaigns. Then, you will know what’s working and what isn’t.

If you run the two processes independently, you won’t see the whole picture. You will know that you’re making money, but you won’t know how. That means you won’t have the information necessary to tighten up your marketing campaigns.

Assign Lead Scores

Your CRM collects all kinds of data for each lead, and it can be overwhelming. When you pair it with your marketing automation system, you can assign scores to each lead based on the data. Then, your system can rank the leads and send the data out to your sales and marketing teams. Everyone can have access to this important data and act accordingly. This allows both teams to communicate and understand each other better.

Your CRM and your marketing automation solution should go hand in hand. Don’t make the mistake of separating the two. When you pair them, your sales and marketing strategies will finally align.

If you are interested in learning more about how a CRM and marketing automation interact, request a free demonstration with an expert today!

Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison to Integrate Marketing Automation with Microsoft Dynamics 365

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Allen, TX – Marketing and sales solution provider, Lead Liaison, announced an integration this week with Microsoft, giving users on both platforms the ability to incorporate Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Lead Liaison’s marketing automation platform.

“I am delighted to announce this integration,” says Jen Worsham, Director of Marketing and Client Relations at Lead Liaison. “It’s exactly what our Microsoft Dynamics 365 users have been asking for and we’re very happy to deliver. We also look forward to partnering with other Dynamics 365 users to provide them with first-class marketing and sales solutions.”

Cecilia Flombaum, Director, One Commercial Partner at Microsoft Corp. said, “We’re pleased to see Lead Liaison’s support and integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Dynamics 365 benefits Lead Liaison with an adaptable solution that helps customers more efficiently manage their business development activities.”

Through Lead Liaison’s Dynamics 365 integration, marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) are in perfect sync. Users can either manually push Prospects from Lead Liaison into Dynamics 365, or use powerful automation actions to create new qualified Leads for sales teams.

Marketers can build sophisticated omni-channel marketing campaigns on behalf of sales, deploy prospect/customer nurturing, and much more with a complementary “Sync to MSD” automation action to create new, warm Leads or update existing Leads/Contacts in Dynamics 365. Sales reps can use a manual sync button to push Lead Liaison Prospect’s into Dynamics 365.

Lead Liaison fully synchronizes Leads, Contacts, and Accounts from Dynamics 365 with Lead Liaison Prospects. System communication is near real-time, with bidirectional syncing of standard and custom fields.

Accessing the integration requires a Lead Liaison Lead Management Automation (LMA)™ license, as well as an active Dynamics 365 account. Lead Liaison is an official Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partner to Microsoft.

About Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

Lead Liaison

What is the Difference Between a CRM and Marketing Automation?

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When you step into the world of marketing and sales, two phrases you will hear a lot are CRM and marketing automation. They can often be used within the same sentence, but they are not synonymous with one another.

A CRM, which stands for customer relationship management/manager, does exactly that – it manages your customer relationships by organizing your contacts (by company name, job title, potential deal size, etc.) and the interactions your company has with those contacts.

A marketing automation solution specializes in communicating with those contacts based off of many different factors that may are may not be tracked within the CRM. The goal is to educate or nurture those contacts until they are ready to buy. Or, if the contact has already made a purchase, marketing automation can help continue that relationship to encourage renewals or repeat business.

What is the difference between a CRM and marketing automation?

CRMs manage your company’s interactions with current and prospective customers, while marketing automation helps create, automate, and distribute those interactions. Marketing automation can also measure the effectiveness of those efforts, so that companies can minimize “wheel-spinning” and really focus on what works for their specific business.

If you are familiar with marketing and sales terms, you may have heard some (or many) references to “the sales funnel.” At the top of the funnel, you’ve got a large group of people who may or may not be interested in the products or services your company has to offer. As the funnel narrows, uninterested leads are filtered out, leaving Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) at the bottom – those that are ready to buy.

Marketing automation helps track prospect activity closer to the top of the funnel (but not the very top, as is commonly misconceived!), while CRMs are used to track interactions closer to the bottom of that funnel.

It’s important to note that marketing automation is not for the tip top of the funnel. It should not be used to “spray and pray” or “batch and blast” marketing material. Doing this will result in being flagged a spammer. Marketing automation should focus on prospects that are interested enough in your product or solution to be on your website, reading your educational content, and actively reaching out to learn more. They provide their email address to you.

Another common misconception is that sales teams and marketing teams are communicating to different audiences. This can be a dangerous and divisive way to think. In reality, marketing and sales teams should be working side-by-side to generate revenue. Marketing teams build brand awareness, educate and nurture prospects until they are ready to buy. Then, those prospects are handed of to the sales team as Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), however the communication and nurturing should NOT stop here (and neither does the involvement of marketing automation!). It only needs to shift gears. Once a prospect has become a customer, the education and nurturing should shift gears again – but never cease.

If you are interested in learning more about how a CRM and marketing automation interact, request a free demonstration with an expert today!

Lead Liaison

Training Management and Marketing Automation Work Hand-in-Hand Through Lead Liaison and Administrate Partnership

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Lead Liaison, a world-class sales and marketing solution provider, and Administrate, a cloud-based training management provider, have joined together to build an even better solution for their customers.

Administrate offers a complete training management system, delivered from the cloud, that helps companies manage learners, increase course bookings, and deliver better training. Lead Liaison’s Lead Management Automation (LMA)™ platform connects with Administrate to send qualified, nurtured leads directly into Administrate’s platform.

Lead Liaison’s marketing automation suite complements Administrate with a number of solutions to help track, qualify, distribute and convert more leads. This integration allows Administrate’s clients to reach potential buyers in more ways using emails, handwritten letters, postcards, text messages and more! Administrate’s clients will also benefit by being able to measure effectiveness of marketing and culminate sales-ready leads.

“We believe training professionals are best served by a seamless training and administration experience, and integrations like these are key to that goal. Excellent marketing is critical for any training company, and we’re really excited about this integration that links Administrate with one of the leading marketing automation platforms in the world. Mutual customers will save time, scale their operations, and ultimately grow their business!” John Peebles, Chief Executive Officer at Administrate.

The integration allows users to share qualified leads between the two platforms. It includes a “Sync to Administrate” action that can be used as a part of an automation inside of Lead Liaison, enabling qualified prospects to be pushed into Administrate as new opportunities. The “Sync to Administrate” action can also be used as a Fulfillment Action, to quickly sync new leads into Administrate following new conversions, such as a form fill; or, when a Prospect’s Lead Score rises above a predetermined value.

“I’ve been privileged to work in close collaboration with our partners at Lead Liaison. Together, we have created a connector which gives Lead Liaison users the ability to quickly connect an Administrate account and to push qualified leads into the Sales Opportunity module of Administrate’s CRM. We at Administrate are users of Lead Liaison’s marketing automation solution and have seen first hand how this automation can save time and provide a smooth transition from your marketing to sales teams.” said Troy Michels, Chief Product Officer at Administrate.

To see more details about the integration, or to find how to implement these solutions with your company, visit Lead Liaison’s Administrate Integration page here.

About Administrate

Administrate is one of Scotland’s fastest growing startups and serves hundreds of customers, thousands of users, and millions of students across six continents. In January 2016, Administrate was selected as one of the UK’s most promising startups for Tech City UK’s Upscale accelerator program. In 2017 the company was selected as one of the “Top 20 Training Delivery Companies” in the world by TrainingIndustry.com. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, the firm also has a USA office in Bozeman, Montana, and Middle East presence in Beirut, Lebanon. The company employs more than 60 people globally.

About Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

Lead Liaison

Connecting the Dots – Lead Nurturing After Event Lead Capture Is Important

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Did you know that 73 percent of B2B leads aren’t ready to make a purchase? They’re still gathering information, and while they will eventually pull the trigger, it probably won’t happen at the exact time of event lead capture. That is why it is so important that you have a lead collection system that integrates with your lead-nurturing platform. GoCapture!™ pairs with Lead Liaison’s marketing automation platform, allowing people to track leads through the entire lifecycle. If you use this system, you can collect the leads when you are at an event and then push them through the lead-nurturing process via marketing automation instantly!

Nursing Leads with Marketing Automation

When you gather leads with GoCapture!™, you can choose how to nurture them. The system begins the process by qualifying the lead based on your predefined qualification standards. It then begins nurturing them in the way that you determine. You can have the system send emails, postcards, handwritten letters, or SMS messages. Don’t feel as if you must pick just one, either. Omni-channel marketing is a proven method for success. 

Breaking Down Lead Statistics

When you use a fully-integrated system such as GoCapture!™, you have the advantage of tracking the lead through its entire lifecycle, starting with where it came from. This is vital if you want to put the right amount of marketing dollars into various events. You will be able to tell how much it costs to turn leads into customers at your various events. You can then use that information to determine future budgets.

For instance, you might find out that you convert lots of leads from trade shows, so it would make sense to put more money into that type of marketing campaign. However, you might find out that your lead conversions for conferences are weak, so you either need to spend less on conferences or change your marketing strategy for those specific events.

Lead generation is only powerful if you nurture those leads and turn them into customers. GoCapture!™ makes that as easy as installing the app. Then, it gets to work for you, capturing and nurturing leads to improve your bottom line.

Want to learn more about GoCapture!™? Click here to speak with an expert today!

Lead Liaison

Challenges With Event Lead Capture

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New technology means there are more lead capture options out there than ever before, but they come with some challenges. It’s important to identify the challenges and come up with solutions to those challenges. Let’s look at some common challenges and solutions.

Transcription Problems

Scanning business cards is growing in popularity, but what happens when you collect all of those cards? They have to be transcribed and entered into your lead generation system, but unfortunately, most services either don’t offer transcription or they charge a high price. GoCapture!™ is unique in the sense that it doesn’t just offer transcription. It does it for less than half the price of the leading competitor. This makes it easy to overcome this challenge.

Lost Leads

According to trade show insiders, as much as 80 percent of the leads collected at trade shows are never followed up. That isn’t because the exhibitors don’t want to follow up. It’s because the leads get lost in the shuffle. GoCapture!™ solves this problem by adding all of the leads into a centralized database, meaning that you can have hundreds of people collecting them, and they all go to the a singular, safe place.

No Internet Signal

Have you ever tried to make a phone call at a trade show? It isn’t easy due to the location. Most trade shows are buried deep inside of buildings, and the signals are weak. Unfortunately, lots of exhibitors need Internet signals to collect leads. That isn’t the case with GoCapture!™ though. The application works offline without any problems. By having a solution that works both digitally and offline, you can work in any situation.

 

GoCapture!™ makes it easy to overcome the various lead capture problems that sales and marketing teams face at events. If you want to get quality leads without running into trouble, this is the way to go.

Want to learn more about GoCapture!™? Click here to speak with an expert today!