Understanding CRM task management is an essential part of making your CRM successful for your business and your users. The data captured here inform your sales pipeline, and the activities of your sales staff, and can even tell you if any clients are being left behind. Keep reading to learn about CRM tasks in Zoho CRM.
What CRM Tasks are in Zoho CRM?
The activities you can create in Zoho CRM are Tasks, Meetings (formerly Events), and Calls.
Task: Use tasks to organize the things you need to complete within a certain time frame, but maybe not at a specific time. And remember, these can even be recurring. For example, schedule a recurring task for yourself every Monday to review all of your deals with an expected close date this week. Then schedule a Meeting or log each Call…
Meetings: The previous name for this was Events, an update was made in July 2020. This is an activity that takes place at a certain time and place and can include invitees. These can also be recurring for things like your weekly sales meetings, or quarterly reporting deadlines.
Call: This one probably doesn’t need further explanation. However, the important thing to know about Calls is that it is used for easily logging inbound and outbound calls to and from your clients as they happen.
Creating CRM Tasks For Yourself
You can create tasks, calls, or meetings from anywhere in CRM using the “+” button on the upper right of the main navigation. (Look just to the left of your avatar image.) This will pop up the activity, and you then enter in all of the relevant information, including Account, Contact, and/or Deal to be associated with your activity.
To cut down on the data entry, you can also create tasks from any Account, Contact, Lead, or Deal record. Navigate to the “Open Activities” section of the page and click the + next to Task, Call, or Meeting. Doing so will generate a pop-up with relevant Account, Contact, Lead, or Deal data pre-populated in your activity.
Where to find Activities in Zoho CRM
Great news here! This feature is baked right into Zoho CRM in a module aptly named Activities! Within you can see and manage tasks, meetings & calls.
The Activity View lets you filter records based on activity parameters such as date, time, type, etc. You create filtered views here like “Today’s Activities,” “Tomorrow’s Activities,” and “Overdue Activities” and save them for quick reference.
The CRM View can be applied to any Activity View using your choice of two formats.
The first view format is the “Tabular View.” This view presents as a list which can be sorted by column in whichever ways are most meaningful for you.
The second view is the Kanban view, which groups your selected Activity View into four categories: Customers, Open Deals, Leads/Contacts, and Others. Within those categories, activities are sorted with the latest at the top.
For both, clicking on any record will open the detail view for all the information and notes about your activity. Which leads us to…
Now you understand where to find and view calls, tasks, and meetings in the Zoho CRM Activity module. Next, let’s talk about the details within these activity types and why they’re important to that clean flow of information your business needs.
In the detail view of Zoho CRM activities, you find areas of information for the following:
Basic Details & Task Information: This area provides details like Task Owner, Due Date, Status, etc.
Notes: It is best practice to include some notes for your interactions with clients, or to add in details you would like to reference in the future. Keeping in mind that information here can be utilized by others in your organization should the account change hands, or require assistance from other associates on your team.
Attachments: Here you can add any documentation pertaining to your task, call, or meeting.
Links: Use this to configure custom links for your activity.
Upcoming Actions: Pending actions related to this activity.
From this activity detail view, you can close your task, call, or meeting and the system will mark the status as Complete. At this point, you’ll also see a prompt to schedule a follow-up activity. On tasks, click the “Reminder” toggle to select the time you’d like to receive a task reminder pop up. For Calls and Meetings, select the reminder time from the drop down menu. For Meetings, you can set a self reminder, and use “Participants Reminder” to send a reminder to invitees. (A good example of why two reminders might be used: set your self reminder 30 minutes prior to prepare, and send your attendees a reminder 10 minutes before so they can join on time.)
Creating Tasks for Other Users
In Zoho CRM, don’t forget that you can schedule activities for other users! You can cut down on the emails you’re sending internally by using the Activities function in this way. It creates a record of information hand-off, giving more visibility across teams. Here’s the quick info on how it works:
Tasks: Schedule tasks for other CRM users by updating the Owner field on the Task Information pop-up. Remember to check the “notify owner” check box.
Meetings: If you’d like to schedule a meeting for another user, put their name in the Host field when you create the meeting. On the meeting Information pop-up, choose “Add more details” to enter more information for the host in the Details field.
Calls: Call Owner is the field to update if you wish to create this activity type for another user. It’s important to note, you won’t see this option until the Call Start Time is set to a future time.
What Zoho CRM activity shortcuts or tips were you able to find in this article?
Whether you’re questioning how to get the most out of your CRM data or looking to make improvements to your sales dashboards and activity reporting capabilities, the ZBrains team of Premium Partner Consultants is here to help. Don’t hesitate to let us know how we can help with your digital business transformation along any step of the way from implementation and customization to consulting. Contact us any time!
CRM implementation failures can happen for many reasons. Most often CRM projects fail because the solution is ineffective and doesn’t improve your processes, the project was late, or it was over budget. Another indicator of failure is low user adoption.
If you’ve found this article, there’s a good chance you’re just starting to research Zoho CRM or Zoho One and how to implement it, or you’re down the road a bit further and you might need some help. We hope the information here about common reasons CRM projects fail and what to look out for will provide the insight you need to start off on the right foot – or even better – can help you get back on the right track with your project! Keep reading for 9 reasons CRM implementations fail, and the considerations you should address to ensure a successful Zoho CRM or Zoho One implementation.
#1) Not having a goal from the start
Every successful software implementation, especially customer relationship management software, begins with your business goals. Ask yourself:
What are the important success indicators or KPI’s for my business and sales teams?
How do I want my business to look in 12 to 24 months?
…5 years from now?
Make time to invest in your vision, and document it. Your vision for success, the targets you wish to achieve, and making sure you are specific about them in planning will have great returns in your CRM implementation.
CRM Failure #2) Not customer focused
We’re talking here about the experience of your system users and external customers. A successful CRM will make the work inside your business easier and more efficient for your associates by providing a trustworthy source of truth with the data it records. And the outcome is that your external, or paying customers, gain the benefit of working with a well-organized firm that provides excellent customer service as a result of having useful insight about them. Remember to give attention to both the users and external clients who will be impacted by CRM implementation.
#3) Lack of planning
The best foundation for your CRM implementation is impeccable planning, whether that’s Zoho CRM or another product you might be researching and learning about. Your plan should include:
Developing and understanding your goals (see CRM Failure 1).
Selecting a team or partner to see you through the journey and beyond.
Examining and documenting all workflows for every team using or inputting to CRM (see CRM Failure 2 & 4).
Fully understanding and documenting your organization’s technology stack.
Having a plan for testing, training & deployment.
Keeping the vision for your business’ future in sight.
CRM Failure #4) No one is using the tool (i.e. Poor User Adoption)
Involve your CRM users from the start and utilize their input and experiences as a part of the overall goals to gain buy-in for a system upgrade. Learn what is important to your users and important to your business, then plan for evolution. Consider the required phases to reach your goal. Think “crawl, walk, run”, and how a multi-stage plan will help with Zoho user adoption. (Tip: Watch out for scope creep here. Bad planning also causes scope creep. Don’t look at CRM implementation as a single project, rather a tool that you want to grow and improve with your business over time.)
Understand their challenges, workflows, and how a positive outcome will impact your business (greater efficiency!). Involving your teams in this process does help with overall adoption – and bonus – you may uncover new ideas to improve workflows with CRM! For example, data around processes like sales qualification can easily be entered, tracked, and reported in a CRM. No more managing clients through email inboxes. In the right CRM, your reminders, tasks, and saved filtered views can help deliver useful information at-a-glance.
#5) No Support (Yes, this includes training!)
Starting off knowing your internal champions and whether or not you have executive support for a CRM project is paramount to its success. In your planning phase, identify internal champions keeping in mind you may have more than one depending on the complexity of your business and the teams who will use your new CRM. Additionally, executive support will be indispensable when it comes to your implementation. In our experience here at ZBrains, this high-level buy in – not only regarding budget, but for strategy and execution – can make or break an implementation.
Ensure your vendor can train your teams on Zohoand offer ongoing support, if you need it. And chances are that you really will because after the switches are flipped, your teams need to be ready to go. Vendor support is crucial when taking into consideration the plan for your CRM and your business goals. Have you selected the right software and partner? We mentioned this in planning, but it cannot be stressed enough: CRM implementation shouldn’t be considered a one-off project. Look for a partnership that aligns with and enhances your business.
CRM Failure #6) It’s the wrong software
You find yourself thinking, “it just doesn’t do what I need it to do” and you’re putting workarounds in to practice left and right then chances are it hasn’t been built or customized to envelop your workflows. This goes back to project scope. Was an important process or workflow not considered during planning? Be sure that you are talking to your software consultant or partner about planning phases for your CRM implementation, and ensuring that each stage aligns with your business goals so you don’t end up with a software that isn’t helping you like it should. You need a software that works for your business and improves your work. Avoid applications that things down, or make straightforward tasks or reporting convoluted and difficult.
After you’ve implemented, you might find yourself thinking, “It’s not being widely used (by everyone) in my organization.” Be sure to check in: does everyone understand their role in using the CRM, and do they have the proper training to utilize the software in the best way possible?
#7) Your data is weird
When data is not well organized or largely incomplete, just because you put it into CRM doesn’t mean you’ll get great results. Knowing what data your business is tracking and why will help you understand the best way to organize it. Knowing what you want to get out of a CRM will absolutely impact what needs to go in, both in terms of the implementation and the data itself. CRM is often expected to be a single source of truth. This means that all of your associates must be on board with standards, governance should be deployed, and training is essential so that all of your teams have a similar sense of the data being entered, and how it is intended to be used. It’s an old adage you’ve heard before, but it’s still true: “Garbage in, garbage out.” When you have data integrity, your CRM implementation and results will shine even greater.
CRM Failure #8) Your vendor doesn’t get your goals
Have you found the right vendor for your CRM implementation? When you’re using lingo from field services and construction industries, or distribution and manufacturing, do they know what you mean? The right vendor already knows your language. They’ll use their time getting to understand your unique business needs even better. Here are some things to look for (and avoid) in a partner:
Avoid boilerplate solutions or partners who won’t take the time to meet you and investigate your operations.
If planning isn’t a priority for them, buyer beware. They may just wish to capitalize on scope creep. A consultant worth their weight will tell you, you can never give them too much information about your business and your goals.
Be sure to ask your potential consultants for references from businesses in industries like yours. Contact them.
Look for vendors who are interested in your partnership from consulting and implementation, through to future customization and optimization. Select a partner that wants to celebrate your growth and successes.
# 9) You’re trying to do it on your own
At your organization, maybe you’ve done a project like software implementation before, or maybe you haven’t, but you’re convinced to shave some expenses off the top by trying to do an implementation on your own. Be sure to ask yourself the right questions:
Are your key stakeholders available to commit the time needed to implement a new CRM?
Would this project take them away from their normal responsibilities and have a negative impact on your business?
Does your team have the necessary skills to scope, plan, implement, train, and support a new CRM implementation?
What would happen if any one of the team were to leave in the middle of the project? Could the others cover this gap in both skillset and time commitment?
If you honestly evaluate the internal costs (expense and timeline) against the cost of hiring a consultant, are you still saving money and time?
Do your answers to any of these questions leave you feeling wary? Consider finding a partner for your project. If you’re still searching for a partner, or you want assistance with a CRM implementation that didn’t meet your expectations, drop us a line. We’d love to get to know you better. Contact us any time.
Zoho Corporation is looking to revamp its image as it grows, adding more partners who service larger businesses. Historically, Zoho has been known as an inexpensive software option, especially useful for smaller businesses. However, when enterprise-level customers do come knocking, they’re frequently impressed.
Zoho has done just fine by gathering up smaller businesses, making the relationships “sticky” with suites of apps like Zoho One, and growing with (until recently) hardly any US advertising. But, Zoho is showing Salesforce isn’t the only game in town for larger businesses.
So, what does this mean for Zoho Corporation, for you (whether part of a small business or a larger one), and for us as Zoho consultants?
No matter what, Zoho still wants to help you
Businesspeople shouldn’t look at this move by Zoho as an eschewing of the company’s roots. Rather, smaller businesses make up the vast majority of the global market. And, chances are larger businesses have even more connections to smaller businesses that Zoho can use to its advantage–namely for referrals. So, no, Zoho won’t likely turn into a one-dimensional company from this move.
Is it better to be big, or small?
The question remains: Is Zoho still better suited for larger businesses, or is it better for smaller ones? Zoho purposefully paints with a very broad brush, offering software packages suited for both larger and smaller enterprises, with pricing plans to match.
The answer is it doesn’t really matter, and it all depends on your preference–as always.
Zoho purposefully gears themselves towards smaller organizations.
Their competitive price points make the barrier to entry very low. As well, Zoho’s plasticity makes it easy for some businesses to turn on an app and start using it in production right away. And, suites like Zoho One or Zoho CRM Plus provide a whole system of apps for less than their constituent parts combined. Recent additions like Zoho Remotely and the Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) ease small business pains related to working from home, or from the recent COVID-19 outbreak.
Zoho Corporation clearly values their SMB clients greatly. However, they expect some companies to grow larger as a natural function of their success.
Zoho’s customizability makes it a perfect choice for enterprise-level companies.
Anyone can turn on Zoho CRM and start tracking lead data. However, many Zoho apps boast a slew of features specific to automating workflow and simplifying processes for large departments. (Take blueprint, for example, available in Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk too.) Many Zoho apps can communicate with each other. Others can also integrate with third-party apps like QuickBooks Desktop. Furthermore, Zoho’s platform-as-a-service, Zoho Creator, puts it on par with Salesforce by allowing for creating custom apps and connecting with Zoho CRM.
Clearly Zoho has designed their apps with both small and large companies in mind. Some businesses may have growth plans that don’t include Zoho. And, for some, that is to be expected, a natural part of growth. But, Zoho purposefully designs software to last, and includes “sticky” apps that companies won’t want to stop using after starting to use them! So, even if some companies actually plan not to use Zoho forever, they sometimes find their plans change due to their users benefiting greatly from using the software. Again, this is a natural part of growth as a company.
What does this push to enterprise businesses mean for us as Zoho consultants?
As Zoho consultants, our job hasn’t changed. No matter the size of your business, our job remains to devise the best Zoho solution for you given your business goals. We’ve done this for one-man shows and we’ve done it for companies with hundreds of users.
If Zoho begins to attract more large companies, however, Zoho Corporation will likely begin expanding upon newer apps like MarketingHub. They’ll also probably offer more industry-specific solutions, and improve upon Zoho Creator. Zoho will probably release those improvements to larger and smaller companies alike. And this, in turn, makes our job that much easier, as it makes Zoho that much easier to sell.
And, whether Zoho adds functionality to Zoho Creator itself or creates new apps specific to industries like field services, construction, or manufacturing, larger companies have everything to gain.
Why Use a CRM Consultancy When Implementing Your CRM?
No matter what kind of business you run, implementing a CRM correctly is no small feat. Sure, it may seem tempting to ease your way into any CRM by simply turning it on. But then, the wealth of features you’ll probably see before you might just make you hang up your hat before you even get started.
Working with a product like Zoho, which advertises itself as DIY, we see this kind of thing happen a lot.
And, we get calls about it weeks, months, or even years after the initial projects start. It’s still not off the ground, or No one is using the system correctly. People lose faith in themselves at that point.
Well, I want to tell you not to give up. Most CRMs are tricky to use correctly because they’re very powerful, and Zoho CRM is no exception to this. Play around with Zoho One long enough and you might get really confused at the array of 45+ apps. It’s not your fault. And, I believe software as powerful as Zoho should come with sufficient resources to help you along the way. Chances are you believe that too, if you’re reading this blog post.
With that in mind, let me tell you three ways using a CRM consultancy (like us!) helps greatly with proper CRM deployment. You may get some ideas of your own from this.
#1: Your CRM consultancy will make sure you’re using your system in the best way possible for your business.
Even with documentation, deploying a CRM and related business apps by yourself is at best a chore. At worst, it’s a show-stopper. With no one to help, it can be difficult to know if you’ve deployed your software the very best way. Tech-savvy team members certainly do help, but unless they themselves are CRM experts, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Having someone on staff who has worked previously with the CRM you’re deploying is closer to what you’ll need – but, if they too worked with a faulty system in the past, they may not know the very best way to do things either. Your best bet at a successful CRM implementation is with a CRM consultant at your side. If you plan to deploy Zoho CRM, for example, you’ll want a Zoho CRM consultancy to assist you.
Ordinarily, using a CRM consultancy helps with figuring out the best way to use your CRM by exploring how you do business. That can involve everything from a business process analysis, review of current software systems and purposes, and interviewing key personnel to gauge their responsibilities. It also takes into consideration the business owner’s vision for the company moving forward, as this vision usually highly impacts how your business software is utilized.
Once this analysis is complete, your CRM consultancy will have everything they need to present you with a clear plan for moving forward, and you’ll have what you need to make an informed decision on what exactly you’d like to do, which parts of the plan make sense, and which parts need revision. It’s not a simple process, but it’s necessary for you to get the very most out of your new system.
#2: Your CRM consultancy will make sure you have a high adoption rate so you don’t end up with another failed project.
Even if your CRM is set up correctly, that doesn’t guarantee your staff will always use it the right way. We’re all human, but sometimes we find our customers’ Zoho CRMs set up in ways that actually hurt productivity. And, it’s not their fault! Those people did what they thought was easiest and best, and no one was there to tell them yes or no. And, of course, CRM usage (adoption) eventually dwindled because the CRM wasn’t deployed in a way that actually provided value to the users.
While a good CRM consultancy likely won’t recommend bending the rules of CRM to fit someone’s arbitrary desire, one can usually account for quirks by setting up additional reminders, workflow automation, and the like, to steer things in the proper direction. Setting up the system the right way ensures the CRM works better without needing additional customizations that end up bloating the system and making things more confusing in the long run.
Your CRM consultancy will be able to figure out the extent of the “quirks” during the business process analysis. They will complete interviews, and make recommendations. This is to set up workflow automation, reminders, or custom function that actually help your team’s performance and make them want to use the system more.
#3: Your CRM consultancy will ensure your system stays up-to-date and scalable, depending on your plans for the business.
Aside from helping to solve your current problems and make sure your new CRM has a high rate of adoption, the next-most important thing a CRM consultancy can do is make sure your system can also solve future problems. And, it’s not as if your system can anticipate problems before they come up all by itself. Rather, the system needs to be configured to act that way! And, the way a consultancy does this is simple in theory, but a little complicated in practice.
A good CRM consultancy will be able to predict what problems can come up based on how you already do business. They can help with how you plan to grow your business. To understand these parts of your business, a CRM consultancy will carry out interviews. They speak to key personnel to understand their current business responsibilities, current system duties (if any), and their trajectories in your business. Then, based on business knowledge, the consultancy will put a plan in place that accounts for those future problems.
Future-planning like this can solve problems as large as a planned change in your business model in five years and as small as how to organize the departments in your website chat widget once you ramp up your website traffic to a certain number per day.
Looking to the future
As proper deployment of your CRM leads to success for years to come, don’t take it lightly. You may have the time and ability to tackle your deployment head-on, but if you’re unsure, it’s best to contact a certified CRM consultant. Around half of IT projects fail to some degree, whether out-of-budget, working only partially, or a complete loss. You stand a much better chance of succeeding by putting your business sense together with someone who has CRM sense. Together, you really do have the best of both worlds.
On that note, will our worlds collide anytime soon? Contact us and let’s see if we’d be a good fit for your CRM system goals.
Published on: April 2, 2019Category: Zoho CRMLast Updated: June 14, 2023 Comments: 0
Today’s blog post is a guest post brought to you by our partner, Century Business Solutions. Century is a technology-based merchant services provider that specializes in software integrations – kind of like we do. Aside from being a partner of ZBrains for years, they provide zoho credit card processing integrations to programs like QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics – and even Zoho CRM. Because of the similarities in how we think, this post is in line with lots of other material you’ve probably read on this blog – and expands upon the topic of processing credit cards in Zoho much further. So, without further ado…
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3 Reasons to Choose Zoho for Credit Card Processing
Running a business is hard. But, you probably already knew that.
Despite the challenges and the late hours, you keep striving to bring success to your company. The reason you get out of bed every morning might be as basic as needing to keep food on the table or as visionary as wanting to change the world.
Whatever your reason, you want your business to do well.
Processing credit cards in Zoho is a simple adjustment that will save you time and money and make your work life more efficient.
ZBrains, a Zoho Premium Partner and Zoho consulting company, can set you up with a payment processor that works seamlessly with your Zoho CRM software.
Money is always a big concern for businesses. Companies should take opportunities to cut costs whenever possible. And if you’re currently using Zoho CRM but are processing payments outside of your CRM account, you’re probably paying a lot more than you need to.
Why is that?
It has to do with the level at which a card is processed.
All card transactions fall into one of three processing categories: Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3. The higher the level, the lower the processing fees.
Integrated payment software solutions are designed to pull all relevant customer data, merchant information, product specifications, tax amount, and more from your CRM software when processing a credit card. When you send more line-item details with a transaction, the card is qualified at a higher level, and you pay less in credit card processing fees.
When your payment processing is separate from your CRM system, your cards are qualified at lower levels (Levels 1 and 2) because key information is not automatically sent with transactions.
All of this is to say that when you sign up with a reputable payment processor that integrates with Zoho, you’ll cut down on monthly processing costs. Not to mention you’ll also save a ton of time through automation, so you won’t have to manually re-enter transactions into your CRM account.
Which leads us to our next point…
No More Double Data Entry
The dreaded double data entry dilemma.
An unfortunate struggle known to all who process credit cards outside of their Zoho CRM system.
If that’s you, then don’t lose hope. There’s a light at the end of this tunnel: an integrated payment solution.
An integrated payment solution enters into your CRM system and allows the two systems to work as one. Which means—drumroll—no more double data entry!
It’s a fine thing when you can run a card and your CRM automatically reflects the transaction.
Go ahead…imagine what that would mean for you.
At the end of a long work day, instead of expending time and energy manually re-entering transactions into Zoho, you and your team could work on growing the business.
Not only will integrated payment processing save your business a considerable amount of time (especially for businesses with a high transaction volume), it will also prevent human mistakes from occurring by automatically updating information directly in your CRM software.
Convenience is Key
Time moves fast. And when you end up wasting a lot of it, you can feel pretty defeated.
That’s why products are geared towards providing convenience and saving you time. Microwaves make heating up food a cinch, phones make it easy to contact someone, and your car gets you around town within minutes—granted the traffic is light.
Time saving products and services aren’t just beneficial for your personal life. Your business can be hugely impacted by simple changes, like utilizing a payment processor that works in Zoho.
Think of it like this. An integrated system will keep all your payment processing in one place, so you don’t have to switch between systems when taking a payment. It will make it easy for you and your team to stay organized and reduce the chance of human error. And it will allow you to set up recurring payments for customers who have repeat orders.
Integrated systems also use tokenization to make processing payments more convenient. Tokenization is a method of creating a unique string of numbers and letters to replace a credit card’s information. The token is used when a customer pays an invoice or when the merchant charges their card. The actual card number and CVV code are stored securely in the payment processor’s vault.
Tokenization reduces the amount of time and energy you and your team spend re-entering card information. Once a customer pays an invoice or the merchant enters the card information into their integrated payment solution, their card data will be stored as a token for future purchases.
Sounds pretty good, right?
If you’ve been processing payments without an integrated payment provider, then you’ve been doing things the hard way. But thankfully, making the switch to an integrated solution is easy.
Start Your Journey Today with Zoho Credit Card Processing
If you’ve been nodding your head while reading and are ready to learn more about how to process credit cards in Zoho, then:
Contact our partner, ZBrains. They’re experiencedZoho consultants, and as such, they’re equipped to customize your payment needs and add efficiency to your business.
Allow them to set up the payment integration for Zoho CRM.
Sit back, relax, and watch as your payment processing gets a whole lot easier.
Making the Most of Your Zoho Investment: Tips for Getting Buy-In from Your Team
On a time crunch? This is a 7-minute read about Zoho for beginners.
If there’s one thing we’ve said before but really can’t stress enough, it’s the importance of proper adoption when deploying Zoho apps for the first time. Don’t worry, I can already see your eyes glazing over with that barrage of buzzwords. Because I understand your pain, I’ll try to make this “Zoho for beginners” article as painless as possible while also being informative. The truth is there are several solid suggestions to ensure you have the strength of your whole team behind you when getting started on Zoho – and you can avoid spitting instructions at a bored or disgruntled room.
We may be salespeople here at ZBrains, but we aren’t psychologists, so there won’t be any Jedi mind tricks here, aside from those already built into Zoho’s software (they are the clever ones). Without further ado, let’s get started!
Zoho Cliq: Your Canary in the Coalmine
Before you buy a new car, you’ll probably want to test-drive it. When considering Zoho for beginners, you’ll definitely want to make sure everyone test-drives their apps, too. In this case, I want you to think of Zoho Cliq as a precursor to more involved Zoho apps like Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Inventory, Desk, Projects, and others. Cliq, as you may already know, is Zoho’s answer to Slack, a popular intra-office chat software.
Cliq is nice because it does basically the same thing as Slack, but it comes pre-integrated into Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, and Zoho People – the idea being that your staff who use primarily one app the whole day don’t have to log into another app just to chat with other folks in the office.
The other nice thing about Cliq is it’s really darn easy to use, at least for most people. You could add a safeguard against low adoption to your Zoho rollout by choosing to deploy Cliq for your whole team first, then letting the questions roll in. And, if there aren’t any stragglers, you can safely assume you can roll out more difficult and important apps like CRM with only the usual training-related questions. (And, fortunately for you, we provide Zoho training, so that’s even less on your plate.)
Zoho Desk: like a Miniature CRM
Ready for yet another driving analogy? Good, I’m not either. But, the fact is there’s another way to prepare for something as complex as Zoho CRM. Rolling out Zoho Cliq first is great at letting you know who your “problem children” might be, but it’s not the same as sticking them into the fire, so to speak, and watching them try to survive. And, I don’t want you to think about doing that. Instead, consider deploying a slightly more complex app, something that has a lot of the same features as the CRM without being the CRM itself. That app is Zoho Desk.
Desk has ways to sort through customers, prioritize emails in the form of tickets, and progress tickets through a series of possible actions with Blueprint, a feature that was first introduced in Zoho CRM. From an administrative standpoint, it even includes workflow automation, so your CRM admin-to-be can get their feet wet with that, too. That way, they can be better prepared for working with it more heavily in the CRM.
Even if Zoho Desk isn’t quite as easy as Cliq for year team to get their collective head around, it’s what our Chief Solutions Architect James Converse calls a “soft landing” point. Essentially, if you’re gonna crash-land, make it on a nice comfy mattress instead of the hard asphalt. That’s the essence of Zoho for beginners, and ensures you get some early buy-in.
All Done Testing? Time to Implement in Earnest
If you’ve already gone through these motions and it looks like your staff is ready to roll with you on Zoho, then that’s great! Staff buy-in is one of the most important pieces of a successful Zoho deployment, especially if it involves using more than one Zoho app.
When it comes to Zoho implementation, you have the option to do it yourself or hire a consultant to help you. There are advantages and pitfalls to both ways of doing it, so we’ll analyze those here:
Ensuring Zoho Adoption When You Implement Yourself
We usually tell people the most important part of any Zoho implementation isn’t the deployment of their specific custom fields, modules, and screens. Nor is it the programming of workflow automation and blueprint (when necessary), or the writing of custom functions to ensure their system adheres to very specific business logic. It’s not any of that. Actually, it’s a lot more basic.
It’s the training.
Training in this case is almost like buy-in, and sometimes the two are interchangeable! Some of your staff will give you their buy-in from being trained, and others will need to buy into an idea before opening themselves to the idea of learning a new system – but, it all looks the same in the end.
In any case, properly training your staff ensures everyone uses your system the way it was meant to be used. You’ll probably need to train administrators at your business and have those admins train your other staff members. Maybe you’re the only admin – and, that’s fine too. But, you’ll need to confirm that each person using a specific app knows exactly what to do in that app and when to do it.
For example: in Zoho CRM, you might want to impart to a salesperson how to enter leads into your database, how and when to convert them to contacts, accounts, and deals, and how to use the Activities module and tasks to structure their day. And that’s just a small portion!
Obviously, administering a Zoho for beginners training yourself is a big deal. It isn’t for everyone, especially if you’re already trying to run a business. You just don’t have time!
Ensuring Adoption When Using a Zoho Consultant
Fortunately, you don’t have to work terribly hard to ensure proper Zoho adoption if you hire a Zoho consultant to help with system deployment. That’s our job! We’ve done Zoho implementations many, many times, and while no business is exactly the same as the next, basic training on Zoho CRM and other apps tend to be pretty regimented. We almost always give training sessions in advance of the actual app deployments. And, we allot some time at the end of our training sessions for a Q&A session. The answers to those questions usually get everyone’s noggins joggin’, and this makes the following Zoho consulting sessions to configure custom fields and screens that much more fruitful.
Now, you’re probably wondering how we find out about your business enough to recommend a Zoho plan that includes training on it, right?
The Truth About Our Zoho Consulting
It’s true that (nearly) everyone needs proper Zoho training, but after the training sessions our consulting sessions become much more tailored towards your business. Zoho can be both a blessing and a curse in that it gives you multiple ways to do almost anything in business. The question is always:
“What’s the best way to do all these things in the context of my own business?”
We figure out exactly which way to go with you by sitting down for a consulting session called a Business Process Analysis. In a BPA, we spend time with you and your team in order to get our heads around your whole business – then we make our formal recommendations to you, kind of like a doctor. Only, this isn’t just a five-minute wham-bam appointment. And, there’s no smelly waiting room either.
You may be starting to see just how much goes into deploying Zoho. It’s not something we take lightly, and you shouldn’t either. We’re here to help you every step of the way, from planning, to training, to deployment – and beyond.
To Recap
We covered a fair bit in this article, so to recap, we:
Suggested implementing Zoho Cliq or Zoho Desk as a way to prepare your staff for a more complete “Zoho for beginners” deployment
Demonstrated training as a way to get ultimate staff buy-in
Discussed the value of a business consulting session to get a plan in place to ensure you do everything the right way.
This isn’t a call to carry all these out yourself, of course. In the grand scheme of things, you may be working with much more than Zoho CRM, Cliq, and Desk. (There’s Zoho Books for your finances…and 40+ other apps in the whole Zoho One suite.) And, as Zoho consultants, we’d probably do it in a reverse order (point 3, then 2, then 1). But, that may not be your style, so if you don’t want to engage with a Zoho consultant like us, you could really do any of these to help ensure buy-in from your staff. Regardless, as mentioned before, hopefully these points on Zoho for beginners get the old noggin joggin’.
What is CRM? A way to Save Time, Money, and Gain Functionality
As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Unfortunately, that phrase fails to address which way is best. Over time, business owners have found countless ways to run their companies, using a various combination of roles, software, and automations to increase their bottom line. In the end, business owners often fail to optimize their strategy for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they figure they don’t have the time to optimize. Maybe they are set in their ways and are not open to change. This leads us to the question:
‘What are the benefits of CRM?’
As you can expect, our answer is multi-faceted. Put simply, a CRM (customer relationship management software) benefits a business by saving time, saving money, and adding functionality to it. Read on to learn about all the ways a CRM can benefit your business in the short and long term:
Organize Data and Prioritize Efforts
Businesses of multiple industries can benefit from CRM software. The simple act of organizing data into one centralized location will tremendously help you, your employees, and your overall process. In essence, the more you know about your customers the better you can serve them. Imagine arming yourself with knowledge of all their pain points, their inefficiencies, and archaic practices. Your employees can readily retrieve any and all information about each client, including purchases, preferences, and all other pertinent details.
CRM Software Helps You Gain Visibility
When you nurture a better understanding of your customer needs and behaviors you are better equipped to identify the correct time to promote your product. In this way you give yourself the best possible chance at increasing your revenue. Solid CRM software helps you achieve this better understanding, to the benefit of your entire team. If you are interested in learning more about Zoho CRM and how it can help your business our team of Zoho Consultants is more than happy to help!
Automate and Optimize
We live in a world that is more automated by the day, and it behooves you to follow suit to survive. Fortunately a CRM is the perfect tool for establishing multiple useful automations. It is especially useful for automating all the smaller tasks associated with a sale. Your team will appreciate the automated forms, reports, and follow-ups, taking these burdens off their collective shoulders. Furthermore, this allows them to devote more time to closing deals, resolving customer pain points, and upselling when appropriate.
Whether you are a veteran of CRM software, or a complete rookie, learning Zoho CRM can be a daunting task. Luckily, the ZBrains team is here to help! Take advantage of our Zoho CRM Training and enjoy 90 minutes of private training on Zoho CRM and all the applications that connect to it.
Published on: March 4, 2019Category: Zoho CRMLast Updated: March 30, 2023 Comments: 0
Zoho CRM vs Close.io CRM: Different Strokes for Different Folks
In the search for the best CRM for your business, you have more than just a handful of options – and more of them are popping up every day. Beginning in 2013, Close.io has emerged as a competitor to Zoho, so it’s time we took a good look at both platforms to determine the pros and cons of Zoho CRM vs Close.io.
In the spirit of delivering instant gratification, we’ll say this to start: Choosing between Zoho CRM vs Close.io really depends on the type of business you run. Even more to the point: Do you run a call center with very few business software needs aside from the CRM? Then, consider Close.io.
What makes Close.io so appealing?
In a word: Simplicity. When people come to us at ZBrains with some questions about getting Zoho to work best for their businesses, they often remark that Zoho seems simple, but in taking a look under the hood, they realize there’s a lot than can be done to customize or improve the software, and the DIY approach that Zoho Corp themselves like to tout isn’t always the best. Not to mention Zoho CRM can connect to a slew of other Zoho apps, potentially.
Conversely, with Close.io CRM, the interface looks very simple and easily customizable – perhaps even on your own. Close.io is very direct in its approach to selling you, the consumer, on their software, too: whereas Zoho is a family of apps, Close is a CRM equipped with a powerful phone integration, SMS integration, and email integration – and, that’s it. For some businesses, this is enough – at least to start with. But, it’s probably not for everyone.
How do the features of Zoho CRM vs Close.io stack up?
Close.io is banking on its simplicity to entice potential customers, so I’ll go through the list of features advertised on Close.io’s own website and compare those to anything Zoho offers in the same realm.
Close comes with a feature akin to Zoho CRM’s Feeds called Timeline View to make sure you see what you’ve already done (and, likely show an administrator what you’ve been up to as well). You can manage your pipeline with a built-in feature that reminds me of Zoho SalesInbox, which organizes emails in order of importance, by associated deal size, etc.
Close.io also includes canned and customizable reports, a search tool that covers the whole CRM, as well as custom lead module views so you can filter through leads easily and see only the ones you need. All of these are useful features to have, but nothing revolutionary.
The Phones: Where Close.io Shines
The chief difference between Zoho CRM vs Close.io CRM, other than the latter’s lightness, is its native power dialer, predictive dialer, and SMS integration. Power dialers are very useful in situations when you have a sales staff that needs to spend as much time on the phone as possible, as it automatically dials numbers and minimizes the time your team spends disconnected, as it were.
Close.io combines this power dialer with a predictive dialer (in select software editions), which takes the power dialer up a notch by only dialing numbers that have the best chance of connecting. This, in turn, allows users to have more successful phone conversations, and also reduce the number of calls that don’t connect.
Lastly, Close.io CRM packs a built-in SMS message integration, which allows users to send texts straight from the CRM – either individually or in bulk.
Zoho, while sporting many native phone system integrations such as RingCentral and Jive, doesn’t have a built-in power dialer or predictive dialing system of its own. (You can use the Zoho Twilio SMS integration to send text messages for an extra development fee, however. See other Zoho Unified Communications options here.)
The Integrations: Close.io CRM vs Zoho CRM
Both Close.io and Zoho CRM boast a fair number of native integrations, but Zoho’s advantage in this regard is almost unfair. This is because Zoho isn’t just a CRM but an entire family of apps designed to support each other. With Close.io you get their CRM, of course. You get access to help desk integrations, marketing campaign tools, a website messaging app, lead generation apps, and reporting apps. It also includes third-party sync tools like Zapier – to connect other third-party apps. Some of these integrations are native and others are third-party.
Zoho’s native integrations help its case significantly
On the other hand, with Zoho, you also get access to many of those same kinds of tools: a help desk (Zoho Desk), marketing automation (Zoho Campaigns), website messaging (Zoho SalesIQ), advanced analytics, and about 35 other apps. The difference with Zoho is all of their apps integrate natively and, in many cases, have the same UI so the user experience is much more unified than it would be otherwise.
The importance of your software being able to communicate natively with other apps in the same family can’t be understated – take it from someone who regularly counsels business owners on whether to use Zoho Books andInventoryin conjunction with CRM or use a Zoho CRM integration with QuickBooks. Sometimes the QuickBooks integration is the only way to go – and we’re happy to supply the integration to those in need – but whenever the business has a choice, we always recommend going native and staying away from third-party integrations, as those are inherently less stable than something that’s already part of your software system.
What’s more: Custom Zoho apps make Zoho CRM a big winner
[caption id="attachment_3510" align="alignleft" width="300"] Make your own masterpiece (app) with Zoho Creator[/caption]
The thing that really separates Zoho CRM from Close.io CRM, however, isn’t just the number of apps it can plug into – it’s the ability to build your very own custom apps and connect them to the CRM, using the power of Zoho Creator. Granted, you may need some Zoho consulting to determine the best possible way to build your app, or connect it to the CRM, using the context of your entire business. But, the very possibility (and notable companies verifying its success) make Zoho an enterprise-level solution that Close.io simply cannot parallel, even with its collection of native features and integrations.
Zoho CRM vs Close.io CRM Pricing: It’s no contest
Whereas in many areas, Zoho CRM and Close.io are pretty comparable, pricing is an area where Zoho shows its sheer power by not only undercutting the competition, but by offering much more bang for your buck.
Close.io has three service tiers ranging in price from $65 to $145 per user per month. For a team of ten employees, that’s between $650 and $1,450 per month in software licensing costs. Add in the costs of any third-party connected apps, and you could be looking at several hundred dollars more per month in recurring costs.
Zoho, on the other hand, also offers different tiers of service, ranging from $20 to $65 per user per month. But, this isn’t even where Zoho really shines. Zoho’s flagship offering, Zoho One – a suite of over 40 business apps whose numbers and features grow on a monthly basis – is just $45 per user per month*, as long as all of your W-2 employees use the system. (1099 contractors are not affected by this; only W-2 employees are forced to have accounts.) For a similar team of ten employees, you’d be looking at up to $450/mo. Even factoring in a few hundred more dollars for other apps you may need to use along with Zoho One, the costs are only comparable to the lowest level of Close.io. And you get so much more functionality. *Prices updated June 2021
Which one should you choose? Depends on your business trajectory
Despite the huge difference in pricing between Zoho CRM vs Close.io, and despite the gap in functionality as well, Close.io is strong in one very specific area: communication integrations. Clearly, they are targeting a specific sort of business. The question is, do you run that kind of business? And, will that type of business ever change or grow as you scale?
Close.io CRM is fantastic for heavy phone sales. They also give you the ability to connect many different business apps you may already use. But, Zoho excels in many other areas besides CRM, and their pricing structure makes choosing Zoho an absolute home run in the short term and the long run.
Sage 100 has been on the forefront of accounting software for over three decades. But the unfortunate truth is that Sage Group is coming out of one of its most brutal years to date. For years Sage has worn their perceived “boring” company label as a badge of honor. Until recently they were one of two firms on the London Stock Market that achieved 10 years of uninterrupted earnings per share growth. A slow start in January 2018 coupled with a profit warning mere months later have spelled the beginning of the end for the once dominant Sage 100.
Reasons for the DeclineBut what they may not know is that we at ZBrains offer Zoho ERP software that can do both of those things.
It took many years for the decline to really manifest, but longtime users of Sage probably could have seen the writing on the wall. Sage took the plunge into cloud-based software relatively late in 2016 with Sage Live (now called Sage Business Cloud Financials), and, like relative newcomer QuickBooks Online, Sage Live did not have nearly the feature library as did its on-premise brethren. It was simply a case of too little, too late. Sage’s bread and butter was and still is this on-premise software, and once the last users migrate away, Sage won’t have much to show for their efforts over the years.
The decline of Sage likely has many long-term Sage users wondering: now what? Fortunately, Zoho Corporation entered the cloud-based software game years before Sage did, all the way back in 2005 (with a rival to the Microsoft Office Suite; Zoho CRM was launched in 2006). For that reason, Zoho has had much more time to build out their list of features, expand their applications, and offer a piece of software that can hold its own against many other cloud-based – and even on-premise – accounting systems. Zoho Books, Zoho’s accounting system, offers a host of great features to meet your basic and advanced accounting needs. The following is a road map to help you know your options when looking to transition off Sage 100 and onto something a bit more modern.
The Zoho Advantage
Zoho Books has multiple significant advantages over its Sage 100 competitor (which we discussed in our Zoho Books vs Sage 100 comparison). The Zoho accounting software is easy-to-use, inexpensive, and cloud-based. Though it may not be capable of handling Payroll in all US states just yet, Gusto is a viable option. Moreover, the built-in API makes Gusto an alternative we can integrate with. (Currently Zoho only handles Payroll processing in California, Texas, and Indiana).
What’s more, Zoho offers greater mobility, with a corresponding mobile app for each of its applications, including Zoho Books. Zoho Books can also handle multiple currencies, a feature that Sage 100 lacks, at least without the help of an expensive upgrade. Plus, perhaps the most significant benefit of the Zoho suite of applications is its inexpensive nature, especially in comparison to Sage 100. The bottom line is that with Zoho you get the valuable combination of saving money and gaining functionality. It’s a win-win that is hard to beat!
ZBrains Answers to Common Questions
Seasoned users of Sage 100 know that it can handle Work Orders and Material Resource Planning (MRP), while Zoho cannot. But what they may not know is that we at ZBrains offer Zoho ERP software that can do both of those things. This means you can manage them via Zoho without breaking a sweat.
Some users of Sage may be concerned about Zoho’s lack of fixed asset depreciation functionality. But the fact is that most small and medium-sized businesses simply send their fixed asset depreciation information to their CPA. Maybe you utilize your own fixed asset depreciation software, in which case you can continue to use it because of Zoho’s shortcomings in this regard.
Next Steps
Ultimately, Zoho has a full arsenal of applications to help in your transition from Sage 100, whether you choose to do so now or later. (Learn more about what others are saying about Sage 100 here)
Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Creator all provide the same functionality lost when switching off Sage, at a fraction of the price.
Still not convinced? Contact our Zoho consulting team to learn more and discover all of the top notch functionality of Zoho, in an effort to land on the answer to the eternal question: What can Zoho do for you?
Our teams would be glad to help you as you make this decision. Contact us any time!
Unless you have some fantastic luck, you could say the beginning of every good sale starts with good marketing. Zoho Corporation, what with their regular schedule of updates, is well aware of this fact. In fact, they have been putting together a very exciting new platform – Zoho Marketing Automation. It hat aims to capitalize on this notion and give users more marketing power and control – and in that way increase sales and put more money back in their customers’ pockets.
This addition to the Zoho marketing stack is designed to encompass every marketing tool they’ve built. They’ve combined those tools with elements of Zoho Analytics, added a very attractive, and updated UI smacked onto it… The tool’s name: Zoho Marketing Automation.
Obviously, the implications of Zoho releasing such a tool in the context of its present suite of apps are far-reaching.
In today’s post, we’ll go through the new features Zoho Marketing Hub Automation brings to the table, how the app can affect (and improve) use of Zoho CRM, and what the app’s existence means for other related Zoho apps.
Solving a common problem: Lack of a Marketing Hub
Many of our customers already come to us looking for help connecting the various software components of their business. The marketing “stack,” or suite of individual apps, is an important part of this. Though with the sheer number of tools available to help, each with somewhat overlapping functionalities, your confusion over where to start and which ones to use would be forgiven.
And, Zoho has a reason for presenting all the tools to you in this way. As businesses and commerce itself both trend toward being more digitized, it becomes more and more important to have all the digital tools necessary to market effectively to potential and current customers. Previously, Zoho offered different apps to fulfill different marketing duties. This includes Zoho Campaigns for email marketing and Zoho Social for social media posts and monitoring. However, even with integration between these apps, it isn’t the same as having everything controlled by a single app. Zoho putting all these different tools together under one umbrella is their ultimate answer to the question, “How do I manage the entire marketing funnel effectively, from A to Z and beyond?”
Here are some key features of Zoho Marketing Automation:
Lead Generation: The platform provides tools to capture leads from multiple sources, including websites, landing pages, and social media. By using customizable forms and automated workflows, businesses can effectively capture and manage leads.
Lead Nurturing: Zoho Marketing Automation helps businesses nurture leads by delivering personalized content based on their interests and behavior. It allows for targeted email campaigns, drip marketing, and lead scoring to identify the most promising leads.
Email Marketing: The platform offers a robust email marketing solution, allowing businesses to create and send personalized email campaigns. It provides email templates, A/B testing, and automation capabilities to enhance campaign effectiveness.
Campaign Management: Zoho Marketing Automation enables businesses to plan, execute, and track marketing campaigns across various channels. It provides tools for campaign scheduling, budget management, and performance tracking, helping businesses optimize their marketing efforts.
CRM Integration: Zoho Marketing Automation seamlessly integrates with Zoho CRM, allowing for the synchronization of customer data. This integration helps businesses gain a holistic view of their customers and enables personalized marketing campaigns based on customer insights.
Analytics and Reporting: The platform offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities, providing businesses with valuable insights into campaign performance, lead conversion, and customer behavior. This data helps optimize marketing strategies and improve ROI.
Social Media Marketing: Zoho Marketing Automation supports social media marketing by allowing businesses to schedule and publish posts on popular social media platforms. It also provides social media monitoring and analytics to track engagement and measure the impact of social media campaigns.
With Zoho Marketing Automation, businesses can automate repetitive marketing tasks, engage customers more effectively, and drive better results. By utilizing its comprehensive features, businesses can nurture leads, increase conversion rates, and build stronger customer relationships.
What does Zoho Marketing Automation bring to the table, then?
Marketing Automation covers all of a customer’s journey, not just some of it.
And, there are a lot of features to note here, so strap yourself in…
Lead tracking.
As with both Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Marketing Automation provides web forms with which to funnel your prospects, leads, and contacts into different marketing “buckets,” each bucket with its objective and type of content. These web forms can be placed on your website, but they can also be integrated directly with services like GoToWebinar and EventBrite for a more unified experience. As far as features go, this is parred for the course from Zoho, but this next one is downright exciting…
Web behavior tracking.
Once you’ve obtained a lead’s information via a web form, you can use Marketing Automation’s Web Assistant feature to tell you exactly where that person went on your website, how long they were there, and where else on your website they clicked. This borrows a bit from services like Google Analytics. But, combined with information your lead already submitted, it allows you to identify their path to becoming a customer. And, for everyone who didn’t submit information to you, Zoho Marketing Automation still gives an aggregate page popularity map, page click-through likelihood tracker, and many other useful reports.
Custom email campaigns based on interest.
You can use behavioral data gathered by Marketing Automation to send very targeted email campaigns based on the products or services your leads are most interested in. Once they receive this info, you can give them lead scores based on how they interact with your content: did they skim or really read it? Did they click a link and stay on the page for long? You can then choose to send leads who score the highest to your sales team automatically. This will ensure the team doesn’t waste time reaching out to anyone unqualified.
Tailor the customer journey by persona.
You can also use Zoho Marketing Automation’s data to modify your website itself so leads convert more quickly and easily in general. Modify your customer journeys not only by product or service interest but by their very persona. This is one of those things that will make your potential (or current) customers more satisfied with your content and your company on the whole, though they may not know exactly why. One of the few instances where mind games are okay to play!
Continue engaging your customers long after they’ve bought from you.
When you look at a list of customers, you’re looking at a list of people who already trust you. If you have services or products that pair well with those that your customers have already consumed from you, you can use Zoho Marketing Automation’s data to make decisions about sending more email campaigns, custom surveys, and other promotions to help you sell more and sell easily.
Plan future campaigns based on your exact ROI.
Arguably the most important stat to a marketer is Zoho Marketing Automation’s Marketing Planner. It calculates the ROI of individual marketing channels and the respective campaigns within each channel. This enables you to focus more of your effort on campaigns that deliver and kill off the ones that don’t produce.
These features of Zoho Marketing Automation are sure to improve the lives of the marketers who plug it into their campaigns. And, this is not just by informing them of what’s working and what isn’t, but by telling them exactly how profitable they are to the company. From then onward, it’s incumbent upon the sales department to take all this great information from Marketing Automation and run with it.
So, how does that look, exactly?
Zoho Marketing Hub Automation feeds Zoho CRM. Then, the CRM beefs up your sales potential
If utilized correctly, introducing Marketing Automation to your suite of apps has the power to turn a fledgling sales department into a breakout team. For an already powerful team, it could make you into a group of downright all-stars. And, while it’s true that Marketing Automation integrates with CRM. It can sync a good deal of information directly into the hands of your sales team; it’s not the raw data that concerns them the most.
Of course, there’s value in knowing things like:
The amount of time a lead has spent on your website
The number of pages they looked at, and their exact click path
Which email campaigns they acted upon and which ones they ignored
But, it’s even better to combine this data with the power of Zoho CRM – and some workflow automation programming – to inform your sales team:
Exactly how to open the lead based on how long they spent on your website
Just what products or services to pitch based on the exact combination of pages viewed
How likely that person is to become a customer based on their email campaign interaction. And, when they might say yes based on behavior of others in that persona category
Which warm leads to go after, and exactly when to go after them
Of course, a well-seasoned salesperson can glean a lot of this information by looking at the raw data from Marketing Automation. But, any salesperson worth their salt knows time is money. So, why spend time figuring out yourself what Zoho CRM’s calculations and workflow rules can figure out for you in a snap? You could even integrate blueprint into the mix and place hotter prospects into different stages in the Leads or Deals module, and save even more time. The sky’s the limit when it comes to translating the data from Zoho Marketing Hub Automation into actionable CRM data for your team. (And, if you’re confused about what exactly to do, our team of Zoho consultants can help you with that and anything else.)
Transform Your Marketing with Zoho’s Automation Powerhouse
An All-in-One Marketing Automation Platform Zoho’s Marketing Automation is an all-in-one platform designed to cater to businesses of all sizes. From startups to enterprises, it offers a wide range of tools to manage every aspect of your marketing campaigns seamlessly. From lead generation to customer retention, the platform covers it all, ensuring you have everything you need under one roof.
Powerful Lead Generation Capabilities Generating leads is the lifeblood of any successful marketing strategy. With Zoho’s Marketing Automation, you’ll gain access to powerful lead generation tools, enabling you to capture, nurture, and convert leads effortlessly. By leveraging advanced lead scoring and tracking features, you can prioritize leads that are most likely to convert, optimizing your sales efforts for maximum efficiency.
Personalized Customer Journeys Understanding and catering to your customers’ unique preferences is vital for building strong, lasting relationships. Zoho’s Marketing Automation allows you to create personalized customer journeys, sending targeted messages and offers based on individual interactions and behavior. By delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, you can significantly enhance customer engagement and conversion rates.
Seamless Integration with Zoho Suite As part of the Zoho Suite of applications, Zoho’s Marketing Automation seamlessly integrates with other Zoho products. This integration empowers you to combine marketing automation with CRM, sales, and other business tools, ensuring smooth data flow and enhancing overall efficiency. You can easily sync lead information, track customer interactions, and automate sales processes, providing a unified experience for your teams.
Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns Expand your reach and engage customers across multiple channels with Zoho’s Marketing Automation. Whether it’s email marketing, social media, SMS, or web notifications, the platform enables you to design, launch, and track multi-channel campaigns from a single interface. This versatility allows you to connect with your audience wherever they are, maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
Advanced Analytics and Reporting To make data-driven decisions, you need comprehensive insights into your marketing performance. Zoho’s Marketing Automation offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities, providing detailed metrics on campaign success, customer behavior, and lead conversion rates. Armed with these valuable insights, you can fine-tune your marketing strategies and drive continuous improvements.
So, does this mean I can throw away Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Social?
It’s not a bad question. Earlier, we mentioned Zoho Marketing Hub Automation combines many aspects of Zoho Campaigns with Zoho Social. And, essentially, it adds a lot of intelligence to those apps. But, does that mean you should just stop using Zoho Campaigns or Social?
My answer: If you’re afraid Zoho is just going to turn off your apps or delete your old campaigns, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Zoho’s usual MO when it comes to building apps that improve upon existing ones is to either allow users the option to use either app (or both apps) in question. (A good example of this situation is in Zoho Books vs Zoho Invoice.) Or, they may even choose to merge Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Social, and Zoho Marketing Hub Automation formally into one app.
But, I would guess the latter move would be very complicated and labor-intensive. Not to mention, having only Marketing Automation as an option might even be overkill for some companies. We wouldn’t want Zoho to turn into Salesforce…obviously!
Another value add: look for Marketing Automation in Zoho One
Zoho Corporation has added Marketing Automation to the Zoho One platform. This just further cements Zoho as one of the best values out there, in my humble (and admittedly biased) opinion. Leveraging the power of Marketing Automation and CRM, you have the opportunity to feed data already coming from your website through both apps and present your sales team with new action items. Nothing could be better for a sales department.
In Summary
In 2020, getting through 1000+ words might be a little too much to handle. So, I’m happy to provide a short synopsis of this article.
Marketing Automation is Zoho’s answer to the big marketing automation competitors like HubSpot, et al. And it packs the features to go along with its name. Apart from tracking click paths and seeing how to best convert web traffic, you can also send email campaigns and launch social posts right from the app. This means you could theoretically replace Zoho Campaigns and Social with Marketing Automation. With Zoho Marketing Hub Automation, you’ll get just what you put into it. So, as long as you connect it to your website and allow the relevant data to flow in, the resulting reports should be pretty easy to understand. And, if they aren’t, you can always contact us and we’ll sit down and help you.
As always, we’ll keep you informed of any Marketing Automation, CRM, or other developments in Zoho. If you have any questions about anything here, we’d love to hear from you.
Basic Details & Task Information: This area provides details like Task Owner, Due Date, Status, etc.
Basic Details & Task Information: This area provides details like Task Owner, Due Date, Status, etc.
You find yourself thinking, “it just doesn’t do what I need it to do”
Businesses of multiple industries can benefit from CRM software. The simple act of organizing data into one centralized location will tremendously help you, your employees, and your overall process. In essence, the more you know about your customers the better you can serve them. Imagine arming yourself with knowledge of all their pain points, their inefficiencies, and archaic practices. Your employees can readily retrieve any and all information about each client, including purchases, preferences, and all other pertinent details.
Ultimately, the integrations we’ve created for 
Close.io’s pipeline management[/caption]
Zoho CRM’s phone integration[/caption]
Make your own masterpiece (app) with Zoho Creator[/caption]
