Marketing has evolved with technology. The Mesopotamians stamping their products with their signature marks are the oldest records of marketing. Eventually, the marketing campaigns evolved into print ads. Nowadays in this digital era, marketers use a wide array of internet campaigns for products or services.
In this age of information, data is transferred quickly. Hence, the importance of managing data must be emphasized. Else, the volume of information may simply overwhelm an individual.
One of the most important data the marketing team handles is contacts. Therefore, knowing how to manage contacts is an imperative skill. Learning about contact management can help marketers bring in more sales.
What is Contact Management?
Contact management refers to the system wherein the contacts are stored, organized, and secured. For marketers, this is primarily about the external contacts: prospects and leads. However, it can also pertain to internal contacts like the sales department and other members of the organization.
Acquiring contacts is a critical part of marketing. A company may have a good product but if people don’t know about it, it’s all for naught. This is why marketing people should generate as many leads as possible to raise brand awareness.
You must properly organize your contacts as it piles up. If this one fails to manage it properly chaos will ensue. You may lose track of your leads or forget to email a batch of potential clients altogether. Sending duplicate emails may put off customers as it may appear as spam already.
A cloud-based contact management application helps to organize your contacts.
How to Choose the Right Contact Management App?
You may come across customer relationship management (CRM) software when you look for a contact management app. However, this may not be the ideal solution if you just need contact management. CRMs are quite complicated to implement not to mention the expensive cost.
There are plenty of stand-alone contact management apps in the market. Make sure you select the one that:
- Integrates with most messaging apps, email providers, etc.
- Have useful features like notes and collaboration chats
- Safe and secure sharing of contacts
- Manageable permissions
- Fits your budget
Benefits of Contact Management
The goal of contact management for the marketing team is to ensure that the contact lists are organized. This applies to both internal and external contacts.
Internal Communications
A good contact management app leaves you no headache as you turn over to the sales department your newly generated leads. Salespeople will no longer complain of redundant entries.
Add as many details as possible under the contact entry using the notes feature of your contact management app. It could be things like “seems to like the color pink” or other data that has no field under the contact tab. This helps the sales department get warmer leads, thus a higher probability of closing sales.
Marketing peeps must also be able to connect to other departments like finance and HR. Having an excellent internal company directory makes transfers less and transactions smoother.
External Communications
Modern marketers know that marketing is a two-way street. It’s no longer just about making them buy your product or service. You listen to your potential customers and existing clients to better understand what they want and need. Compiling those data right under their contact information would be good for your market research to improve the product.
Label your leads according to the likelihood of them buying your product. You may also group them according to specific interests and attributes. Share those directly with the sales team so they know who to prioritize. This approach helps the team target the right contacts with the right message at the right time.
Conclusion
Delivery of highly personalized (or seemingly so) marketing content to prospects increases conversion rates. Marketers must use the available technologies not only in their direct craft of producing marketing materials and methodologies but also for the soft skill of contact management.
A successful marketing strategy includes proper customer engagement and education as this will not only boost your branding, but it will also help you build a stronger relationship with your customers. This would then translate to actual sales and, ultimately, ensure the growth of your business, which is the bottom line of any type of marketing strategy.
