Why Choose One When You Could Have Both
Discussing the difference between a CRM (Client Relationship Manager) and an Email Marketing Platform.
The most frequently asked question we have received lately is “I already have a CRM do I need to purchase an email program?” Our answer is yes.
What Is A CRM?
A CRM or a client relationship manager is just how it sounds, a hub of your business in which you can delegate and organize tasks, create and send contracts and invoices to clients and create workflows for your business. Though a CRM does manage current and perspective clients we like to think of it as “strictly business”. Honeybook is a popular CRM service that is used among small businesses and creatives and its who we currently use for our CRM platform. This is where we create proposals, contracts and organize where a client is in their onboarding journey with us. CRM's track payments and invoices and are useful as the hub of information regarding your business processes.
What If My CRM Has Email Marketing?
CRMs advertise an email marketing feature which can be confusing for some people. CRM emails are mostly used again for strictly business and from what we’ve witnessed not very design heavy and lean toward the generic side. These emails are the “get shit done” type of emails that cut straight to the chase, “Thank you for inquiring here is our list of services. Click here to see more” or “Thank you for choosing [insert business name] attached is your contract and invoice”. That’s not to say that all CRM emails are this way but for the majority that we have seen they present this way.
Though these emails are useful they do not meet the needs of your business in terms of email marketing and email campaigns. You know I could talk about email marketing for days, but email marketing and email campaigns are meant to be a conversation with current and prospective clients over a period of time. These emails are design heavy and aesthetically pleasing and showcase your brands personality and colors.
What Is an Email Marketing Platform?
An email marketing platform on the other hand is a platform dedicated to email marketing. Here is where you can create designed welcome sequences, nurture sequences, and sales sequences that can even be divided and sent to certain segments of your email list. If you speak to different types of client syour email marketing platform will allow you to not only have them in different segments but also have a sequence for each and every segment to fit their needs. Email marketing platforms are dedicated to achieving the results you want from email marketing campaigns and offer certain features that insure that.
An Email provider is a necessary purchase when deciding a must have for your business. We partner with Flodesk and have achieved amazing results not only for ourselves but for our clients as well. They have stunning easy to use layouts that are fully customizable, and we have been more than happy with their service. There are tons of email marketing platforms (Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, and more) that are out there but, ultimately having the separation that the CRM is for business matters and email marketing is for conversations over time and design is the proper set up for a small business.
Unity Is Sweet But Division Is Sweeter
Overall, when setting up your business in terms of systems we would recommend investing in a CRM and an email marketing program separately. The division of design and business makes more sense for us. Knowing that when we sign into our CRM we’re thinking of contracts, proposals and business tasks and when we sign into our email marketing program, we are strictly thinking about email campaigns has been amazing.
If you found this helpful please let us know down below in the comments as well as your opinions on having both a CRM and an email marketing platform. Also, If you have any questions regarding business systems and automations, or email marketing feel free to reach out! We love hearing from you!
