I came across an article today on how many people are not making the most of Email Marketing.  This struck me as true and very accurate.  The typical email marketer creates good content, and blasts it off to everyone in their list.  While the article touches on targeted content, triggers, and other topics of note, [...]

All too often, when doing a CRM implementation, my customers will request dozens and dozens of email notifications from the system, for every event from a new lead being assigned to a scheduled activity being due, to a note being updated on an account.  I once had a sales manager request an email notification every [...]

It is no secret that direct marketing plays an important role in most companies’ marketing strategy.  Yet at the same, time, most forms of direct marketing are an annoyance to customers, so much so that laws have been passed heavily regulating the means of direct marketing via electronic channels (email, fax, and voice;  SMS can’t [...]

There is more to CRM 2.0 than just the social aspect.  Sure, social media is all the rage, and as I’ve stated, it is the future of CRM.  Yet it is important that we don’t get too locked into the social revolution that we neglect the other opportunities presented to the evolving state of CRM.  [...]

I was just on a company’s web site, looking at a product that I was interested in trying out.  The site had a button “Call Me Now” which allowed the user to fill out the typical contact form, and would have a phone call placed immediately thereafter.  Sure enough, within seconds, my desk phone rang, [...]

For a decade now, marketers have been striving to obtain email addresses for their clients and prospects as the most critical piece of data for keeping in touch with customers.  In many cases, companies would incentivise sales forces and telemarketers if they could obtain that single piece of information from a client.  Because email as [...]

New CRM implementations will often focus on Sales and Support (in that order).  As an outgrowth of this (or perhaps as its cause) CRM software solutions tend to focus heavily on these two areas, often downplaying one of the most critical components of CRM, marketing.  Marketing is truly the neglected child of CRM, and marketing [...]

The modern call center has evolved from a simple answer-and-respond environment to a complex, multi-channel environment for servicing customers.  This revolution started with the advent of CRM and the Internet a decade ago, with the introduction of email and web portals.  Customer support has gone digital to the point that many “call centers” have gone [...]