Effective CRM

Most CRM professionals cast out huge nets to contact their database. Fishing in a large anonymous pool and catching what they can by working the law of averages. They work hard but not smart. Most databases are too large to do anything but work off volume, they say. But are they?

Here is where ROI analysis comes into play. Ex: You send the same message to 500 of your clients via email and DM. You get a 10% response rate on mail, but a 30% response via email. By recording this ROI on subsequent trials, you can increase the effectiveness of channels, and then move on to measuring the message itself.

Effective CRM depends on the cost-saving accuracy that ROI anaylsis brings to the table. Without data analysis, CRM professionals are wasting time and money repeatedly chasing business with the wrong message and thru the wrong channels.

For small businesses, a large IT spend may not be nessasary for recording ROI, if employees are diligent in track responses. However, large businesses would be foolish to save money on their IT budgets while hemmoraging their marketing spend on fruitless contact.