Intro to CRM & Web Lead Management

Despite working on many projects involving complex CRM integrations over the past few years, I've had a tough time understanding the big picture of how these systems work and how their services differ from one another. In late 2010, I made a goal to finally tackle this subject and get a better understanding of the CRM and Lead Marketing Automation landscape. I shared what I learned with the Newfangled team in a recent Lunch & Learn session, but also wanted to share it here for those of you who are similarly bewildered by the web lead management field.

What is CRM?

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is an umbrella term used to describe how a company manages interactions with existing and/or potential clients, both online and offline. Although there are a number of CRM tools out there (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM, etc.), the one most commonly used by mid-sized B2B companies is Salesforce. CRM systems track lead activity at every stage in the buying cycle, turning all the small, nuanced activities of the sales process into data points that can be analyzed to predict the sales pipeline.

The problem with web leads

Unlike traditional marketing channels (conferences, cold calling, direct mail, etc.), the web draws in a wider spectrum of traffic sources. While this can result in a higher number of leads, their quality is less consistent.  Directly funneling every form submission on a website to a sales team would lead to a lot of wasted effort. Another problem sales teams face with web leads is keeping up with the inqiuries in a timely fashion, since web leads can come in at all hours of the day. They need a way to get the right information to leads quickly, without it being an entirely manual process.

Enter lead management automation (LMA) services

Vetting leads - and then keeping up with the quantity of those leads - were two shortcomings of most traditional CRM tools. This is where lead management automation (LMA) companies emerged to fill the gap. The LMA market is still quite young, with dozens of competing startups claiming nearly identical services. Choosing between these companies can be a frustrating process, but a few leaders have emerged as the most reliable and user friendly of the pack*:

• Eloqua - the biggest, and most reliable of the bunch, but also the most expensive. A good fit for larger organizations who require a high level of support and uptime.
• Silverpop  - The up and comer, a good fit for mid-sized companies working within a budget and willing to work with a company scaling for growth (aka downtime).
• Marketo - cheapest and most user friendly of the three, but also the most limited functionality. Best for smaller companies on a tight budget with less complex technical needs.

*The best resource I found on LMA comparisons was a Forrester report by Laura Ramos, titled 'B2B Lead Management Automation Market Overview'

Lead management automation features

One of the most important services LMAs offer is nuanced lead profiling and scoring. Based on the answers provided by a lead through site forms or activity on the site (access to particular resources, purchase history, etc.), you can profile and score web leads. This score/profile can be used to route them into the right campaign sequence and ultimately toward the right sales team member. This ensures that the sales team only invests time in the most promising and best educated prospects.

LMAs also allow you to build a marketing campaign tailored to that lead's profile, including follow up email resources, webinar invitations, or personalized messages from the sales team. If done right, campaign materials are perfectly tailored to a lead's interests (as determined by the lead score/profile). These campaign sequences can guide the prospect through the same early stage sales processes that normally would be handled entirely manually.

These services also offer progressive form profiling and 'remember me' functionality, sparing the lead from the frustrating experience of repeatedly filling out the same personal information during their session. Instead, you can ask them to share progressively higher level information throughout the session (not all at once) or bypass additional forms altogether, but still associate all web activity with that lead ID.

CRM & LMA content management features

Over time, CRM and LMA companies have expanded their offerings beyond the core lead management and campaign sequencing services to address other underserved web marketing needs. They offer a number of content management services which allow marketers to quickly deploy microsites, landing pages, and build forms without having to rely on their in house development resources.

As a web development firm, we build many of the same tools that these CRM and LMA firms offer, but that doesn't prevent me from advising clients to use content management features offered by their CRM/LMA vendors. There are advantages to working within that third party environment when it comes to certain types of tasks - for example, microsites or landing pages where the design is distinct from the main site.  For marketing teams preserving precious internal development budgets, the ability to quickly launch microsites, landing pages, etc. without the need of development resources is a major benefit.

Should your site be CRM/LMA integrated?

While I think most companies could benefit from using a CRM system for managing sales leads, the degree to which you integrate it with your website will depend on how many online conversion points exist on your site and how much you rely on the web to generate new business. Likewise, not every company needs to build in a lead management automation system in conjunction with their CRM system.

In my opinion, it's only worth using an LMA if you can precisely tailor the marketing automation sequence to the prospective buyer's needs in such a way that the value of the content you're offering to that lead outweighs the 'ick' factor of obviously being fed into a marketing machine. It's a very fine line between proactively responding to a prospective client's needs and spamming them. Far too many companies abuse these systems and shoot themselves in the foot by overwhelming clients early in the sales cycle.