3 Clever Ways to Use Your CRM to Step Up Your Social Media Marketing

As a growing brand, one of the cornerstones of your marketing strategy is probably sharing stories and photos that show the world how much people love your products. It's easy enough to get sharable stories from consumers on social media, but its far tougher for your marketing team to get feedback from buyers or people who try your product for the first time. 

Good news. If your team uses a CRM to collect data out in the field, getting marketing testimonials doesn't actually have to be so hard. An active sales or field markeitng team equipped with a CRM can get loads of juicy marketing stories during their everyday work. Here's how: 

1. Photos

Are you convinced your use of stock photos in Facebook ads renders them as tacky and unappealing? Is it possible that your marketing team is sick of having to sift through multiple Google Drive folders searching for any photos taken by the sales team of your products on the shelves? 

Even if you are one of the very few who would answer no to these questions, it is still a good idea to explore the potential to use your company’s CRM application as a source for great visuals of your product, your team, and your customers in the field.  

Now What?

CRM mobile applications usually use a newsfeed style layout. Your company should encourage your sales team to use this space to post real time updates of their day to day activities - especially if those updates come in the form of pictures. 

This provides an amazingly under utilized opportunity for the marketing team to then take this live data from their CRM app and use it to create social media posts. The marketing team can take any photos from the field that are uploaded to the app and post them right away - all from one person's cell phone, using just the CRM and the social media applications!

For example, while these photos were published by a local retailer, any of these beverage companies could save photos like this the next time they visit an account and make them available to marketers through the CRM. 

We wish everyone who's running the #LondonMarathon the best of luck. You are all winners already. 🏃💦 #KeepHydrated #LoveLondon pic.twitter.com/TTx9yY9g1i

— Partridges Market (@partridgesfoods) April 23, 2017

If these photos live in the CRM app, and not just in whatever drive your company uses to permanently store things on, they will be accessible 24/7 by anyone using the CRM tool. They will be location and time stamped, connected to whoever posted it in case any questions arise, and completely proprietary (so long as they do not include information that would require a privacy policy statement). This is a sure fire way to satisfy your marketing team’s need for accessibility and resourcefulness.

2. Raw Data

While photos certainly make for attractive advertising, we all know that the real interesting data lies within the less eye catching numbers and figures of CRM.

Still, it is difficult to disseminate raw data in a consumer-friendly way, because many consumers are just not terribly interested in your sales metrics, or graphs and charts that demonstrate your business’s success.

Combat this indifference to these extremely important figures by again encouraging the partnership between your sales and marketing team in order to cultivate a healthy garden of this information within your business’s CRM application. The more information being uploaded by the sales team, the more your marketing team will have to work with.

Now What?

With this wealth of data, your content markeitng team should be able to create eye catching infographics or other exciting, innovative content that your audience will be much more receptive towards.

Check out the infographic we’ve made below as an example, and explore how other companies are finding ways to creatively express their business metrics through video, interactive gifs, and more.

3. Quotes & Testimonials

Where can your marketing team gather information for things like case studies or product overviews? Where can you find the most relevant information on what makes your product or service the best in the business? Again, look no further than your CRM application to find the answers to these questions.

Who better to have explain how great your product is to new customers than your existing customers! Your existing customers are the heart of your business, and there is a reason why they keep coming back for more. Their loyalty to your brand is priceless, and it becomes even more valuable when you can put that loyalty on display for potential buyers to see.

@EmeraldNuts takes "the customer is always right" to a whole new level #yesgood #branding https://t.co/LO2BpOXOVx pic.twitter.com/E0jOlYtzGU

— Red Sky (@RedSkyStory) April 6, 2017

Now What?

Using the CRM application to document any positive interactions the sales team has with your customers puts direct quotes and testimonials at the fingertips of your content marketers. With this ease of access, they can quickly identify standout information and begin creating content around it.

An example? One of your sales reps makes a trip to one of your best retailers. While they are there, the store’s manager mentions how they will need to restock your product sooner than expected, because of how popular it has been with not just shoppers, but his employees as well!

 With permission from the speaker, that rep could take that quote about your product and post it into your CRM app’s activity feed. From there, your marketers may say, “wow, this would be a great quote to use for our next ad campaign!” Just like that, your product’s newest testimonial advertisement is born.

It is clear that CRM and social media work hand in hand in ultimately creating a company’s image. CRM applications create a seamless way for businesses to share and access customer information, and social media provides a perfect platform for putting that data into perspective. Together, CRM and social media are revolutionizing the way we think about the business-consumer relationship.