There are five key steps to choosing the right marketing CRM for your business. This includes determining your budget, listing the features you need, sourcing the features you need most from your team, researching your options, and testing your best CRM options with the team to determine if it fits your company's needs.
Know your budget
The starting point for choosing a small business marketing CRM is knowing how much you can afford to spend on software per month or year. Many CRM companies charge per user. So break down your monthly budget per user. Then decide what you can afford each year. This is important because most CRMs offer discounts of up to 20% if you can afford the annual software subscription.
List the required features
To list the features you need, make a list of what you want your business to do or achieve with a marketing CRM. Some examples are learning more about prospects or customers, generating new leads, sending a segmented sequence of emails, automating tasks to save time, facilitating contact with prospects or customers, solving customer problems more efficiently or forecasting revenue.
Get input from your team
From your point of view, the list of required features can be huge. But your teammates may think otherwise. It's important to draw your team's attention to your list so they can add features they think are important to achieving their business goals. Be careful with this one. Empower team members from different parts and levels of your organization to add the skills they need.
Explore your options
Now that you have a clear list of features that you know will make your CRM more useful for your business goals, do a simple Google search for "best marketing CRMs." Review the marketing and feature CRM lists you received to determine the two or three options that best fit your budget and feature needs.
Check your options to find the best option
Most small business marketing CRMs come with a free starter or trial version. Use any of these options to test your CRM list for free. Then, give a champion on your team the opportunity to test each app and provide feedback. Choose the CRM that best suits you and your team's company needs.
