Best practices for eCRM

In this post we will be exploring the most popular strategies for implementing and designing an effective eCRM system for your company. These are some of the best practices that we have learned and implemented over the years from working with dozens of companies. The tips provided will be applicable to any type of business, but we mainly focus on retail and service-based eCRM strategies.

It seems like most companies still struggle with establishing a good understanding of their customer base and designing an effective CRM strategy. This often leads to poor marketing campaigns, increases in customer abandonment rates, and overall frustration for customers who feel like they aren’t being served adequately by their company. That is why this post will cover ideal methods for implementing a CRM system at your company.

1. Look at how your existing e-commerce system works

One of the first steps to establishing a CRM system is to evaluate your current e-commerce systems for some key customer data points. By looking at the information contained within an online store and understanding the types of customers who are purchasing items, you can start creating a customer segmentation model that will be tailored to each customer demographic. Here are a few examples of what you might find in a typical online store:

Demographic information: age, income, interests, home city and state, etc…

Shipping address: name (first name), address (street number & city), state/province/region (+zip code), country (e.g. Canada, Mexico, Australia, etc…)

Customer Preferences: The information that your customers have provided you in the past. For example, birthday, first name (if not full name), gender, language preferences (e.g. English or Spanish), purchase history, prior history of purchases online/offline (retail or service)

Customer history: The products and services that have been purchased by the customer throughout time.

Credit card information: yes or no, credit limit, security code, expiration date for the card, billing address (first name & last name), credit card info (card number & expiration date), name on the account

Shipping address and contact information: like the shipping address previously mentioned.

It is important to note that there are a number of other attributes that can be added to a customer database, which is why it is important to understand what you have on hand right now. The main goal in this step is to establish your core customer segments and define what types of offers should be sent out to each customer based on their purchase patterns. It should not be forgotten that some of these personalization strategies may be considered unethical by customers and banks, so it is very important to avoid misrepresenting any personal information.

2. Create a customer segmentation model based on the data collected above

Once you have gathered more data on your current customers, it is time to create a CRM system that will allow you to accurately target each customer with the right message at the right time. This can be done by creating a customer profile which contains attributes such as demographics, interests, preferences and history of purchases. This information can then be used to create a segmentation score for each customer. This score will then be fed into your CRM system, which will determine the types of database marketing messages that are displayed to each customer.

This can be done by creating a customer profile which contains attributes such as demographics, interests, preferences and history of purchases. This information can then be used to create a segmentation score for each customer. This score will then be fed into your CRM system, which will determine the types of database marketing messages that are displayed to each customer.

3. Add personalization on top of your e-commerce site to increase conversions and sales rates

One of the most effective ways to increase revenue from an e-commerce site is by means of personalization. Personalization looks at all the information that you have collected on your customers and displays different offers based on their interests and preferences. For example, if you are running a campaign for your service-based business (like LocalHire), then you might want to display an offer that says “Free Trial”.

If the customer has been purchasing from your company for a while, then it would make sense to show them a number of offers that have higher prices or cost more money. This is because they have already demonstrated enough interest in your business by making purchases in the past and they are now ready to consider more expensive services.

It is also possible to show different information on each page of an online store based on what the customer has been interested in previously (e.g. products they have purchased recently) and what they have shown interest in recently (e.g. items that are being shown most often).

4. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the best email marketing platform for businesses to use. It allows you to create a mailing list of your contacts and then use it to create offers, send them a newsletter and engage with your customers from time to time. MailChimp is simple to set up and very easy for new businesses to use, so if you are just starting out or looking for an easy solution, then it is definitely the option to go with.

5. Marketo

Marketo is one of the most advanced CRM platforms in the market today. It allows you to create messages, which can then be sent out to your contacts through targeted campaigns. This means that you won’t have to send out generic messages that don’t appeal to your customers. Marketo will make sure that every email message contains a personal touch, which is why it is considered a great option for e-commerce businesses. MailChimp and Marketo are great options for launching an inbound marketing campaign with – however, there is one thing that they do not do well: curate campaigns based on information received from your databases.

Conclusion

All of the options that have been mentioned above are great options to consider when it comes to launching an e-commerce marketing campaign. There is no right or wrong choice, so you need to figure out what’s most suitable for your business and test several different strategies. The main benefit of testing a few different strategies is that you will get a sense of what works best with your target audience and what doesn’t. You will be able to focus on the customers that you want to convert and how they can be targeted with offers in order to increase their conversion rates.