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Email marketing lets you reach vast numbers of people simultaneously.

However, its success depends on your emails landing in your subscribers’ inboxes.

If you’re noticing underperformance in your campaigns or a sudden drop in open rates, you could be on an email blocklist.

Understanding blocklists, the implications for your business, and strategies for both removal and avoidance are crucial.

This blog post will guide you through the essentials of blocklists, help you determine if you’re listed, and provide tips to keep your email marketing effective and clean.

What is an email blocklist?

An email blocklist is a database that includes email addresses, IP addresses, and domain names identified by spam filters as problematic.

Email blacklists are a specific type of email blocklist that focuses on the sender’s IP address to prevent spam. This is done by identifying and blocking emails from IP addresses reported as spammers.

Web servers use these databases to prevent spam from reaching users by blocking or rerouting emails to spam folders.

Being on a blocklist can significantly disrupt your email marketing.

It can prevent your campaigns from reaching their intended audience and their mobile devices and impact your business negatively.

Blocklists are maintained by both email and email service providers, and individual users and can be IP-based or domain-based, affecting how emails from those addresses are handled.

The impact of being blocklisted

When your legitimate emails are blocked or filtered, your business suffers.

Effective email marketing is vital, especially for B2B companies, where it’s often the most used content marketing and sales channel.

Blocked communications mean lost sales opportunities and potential damage to your brand reputation and customer relationships.

Being on a blocklist can significantly complicate your email marketing efforts, impacting the deliverability and success of your email marketing campaign.

This requires additional vigilance and planning for your campaigns and newsletters.

If your IP, email, or domain lands on spam, IP, or domain blocklists, you could face major obstacles that might impact your profitability and the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. So, you must frequently check your blocklist status.

Being listed on multiple blocklists may damage your domain’s reputation, your company’s image, and the overall success of your email marketing campaigns.

This not only affects your current email deliverability but can also lead to further complications with other monitoring authorities often referred to as ‘spam police’.

Understanding different types of blocklists

Not all blocklists will have a severe impact on your marketing, some are minor and rarely used by email providers.

However, large, widely-used blocklists like a Spamhaus block list, a SpamCop blocking list, and Proofpoint can severely affect your email deliverability.

How blocklisting occurs

Avoiding blocklists means understanding how they work. There are public blocklists, private ISP blocklists, and enterprise spam firewalls. ISPs can blocklist IPs at their discretion, often without notice. Practices that can lead to blocklisting include:

• Poor email list hygiene, such as not removing inactive subscribers, ignoring unsubscribe requests, or not checking for bounced email addresses
• Sending to spam trap addresses, which are set up specifically to catch spammers
• Creating content with spammy keywords like “guarantee” or using excessive punctuation.

How do blocklists get compiled using spam traps?

Blocklists are developed through a surprisingly swift technical process. Spam filters evaluate incoming emails based on a scoring system.

Accumulating too many points from certain actions can result in a sender being blocklisted. We’ve listed some of the typical spam folder triggers below.

Emailing inactive recipients

This involves sending unsolicited messages to long-inactive users or to those who have previously marked emails as spam, as well as emails that consistently bounce back.

Spike in email volume

An abrupt increase in the volume of emails sent around key times like Black Friday or holiday seasons can trigger issues..

Increased sending frequency

Suddenly ramping up the frequency of emails without prior notice can lead to a surge in spam complaints, raising triggerspam filters.

Large email lists

If an email list grows unusually fast, spam filters may suspect it’s a purchased list, a common practice for spammers.

Altering email header information, such as the ‘From’ and ‘Return path’ details, to forge sender identity is a definite way to get blocklisted.

Actions such as sending spam or distributing unsolicited bulk emails are also triggers for being added to a blocklist.

These practices involve sending email messages, often in large volumes, to recipients who have not consented to receive them, often leading to a negative user experience and complaints.

If you are using an email marketing or email service provider, they will likely alert you if your activities resemble spamming behaviour.

Checking and responding to blocklisting

Regularly monitoring your email performance can clue you into potential blocklisting if you experience a sudden change in metrics like open rates or engagement.

Tools like MultiRBL, MX Toolbox, and Barracuda can help check if your IP is on a blocklist.

If you find your IP address or domain on a blocklist, many organizations offer an appeal process to remove it.

After clearing your name, maintaining email marketing best practice is essential to avoid future blocklisting, so your campaigns reach their audience and your business thrives.

What to do if you find yourself on a blocklist

Many businesses experience being on a blocklist at some point because of the sheer number of existing blocklists.

Being listed can signal that it’s time to refine your email practices, especially if you’re on a major list managed by an Internet Service Provider, significantly impacts your email deliverability. Here, we’ve listed what to do if you find yourself on a blocklist.

1. Identify the blocklist

Start by determining which blocklist(s) include your domain. You can use various tools to check this which we’ve listed below.

• MXToolbox: This offers tools to check MX records, perform blacklist checks, test email servers, check domain health, and more. Monitoring services are available with a subscription.
• Spamhaus: Spamhaus checks domain names and IPs against their databases.
• Blacklist Alert: Blacklist Alert lets you check an IP or domain.
• MultiRBL: MultiRBL offers a comprehensive check against nearly 350 blocklists.
• DNSBL: This focuses solely on IP addresses.
• WhatIsMyIPAddress: WhatIsMyIPAddress checks IPs against over 60 blocklists.
• Project Honeypot: This provides detailed listing reasons and information about neighboring IP addresses.

2. Assess the impact

If your domain appears on just a few minor blocklists, it may not significantly affect your overall email deliverability.

However, presence on multiple lists, especially those used by large ISPs, requires immediate action.

3. Request removal

Most blocklists provide a method to request removal. You can typically find a link to the blocklist’s resolution center directly from their website.

Here, they will guide you through the necessary steps to de-list your IP or domain. This often involves demonstrating that you’ve rectified the issues that led to the listing, such as improving email list management, your email templates, or adjusting your email-sending practices.

By promptly addressing the reasons you were listed and reaching out for removal, you can minimize the impact on your email campaigns and keep your emails flowing.

How to prevent your email marketing from being placed on a blocklist

Preventing blocklisting is far more manageable than removing your email from a blocklist. By using preventative measures, you can ensure your email campaigns maintain high deliverability.

One crucial strategy is to only email opt-in subscribers, emphasizing the importance of obtaining explicit and informed consent.

This practice is essential to prevent your emails from being flagged as spam, ensuring they reach the inboxes of recipients who have recently confirmed their willingness to receive your communications.

Here, we’ve listed other ways to prevent your email marketing from being put on a blocklist.

Only email opt-in subscribers

Your email campaigns should target individuals who have actively consented to receive communications from you.

This informed consent is usually given through a subscription form on your website or a landing page.

Adhering to this practice isn’t just about good marketing etiquette, it’s often a legal requirement under regulations like GDPR.

Avoid purchasing email lists

Purchasing email lists might seem like a quick way to expand your reach, but it’s fraught with risks, including the potential inclusion of outdated or fraudulent addresses and spam traps.

Moreover, buying lists can violate data protection laws such as GDPR, leading to significant fines and damaging your email deliverability.

Implement double opt-ins and encourage whitelisting

Double opt-ins verify that a subscriber’s email address is valid and that they genuinely wish to receive emails from you, enhancing the quality of the message senders to your email list.

Encouraging subscribers to whitelist your emails ensures your communications bypass spam filters and reach their inboxes.

Maintain a clean email list

Regularly cleanse your list of inaccuracies, such as typographical errors, inactive subscribers, and bounced emails.

A clean list reduces the risk of hitting spam traps and helps maintain a healthy sender reputation.

Optimize your email practices

Ensure your emails are crafted following the best practices we’ve listed below.

• Sender name: Use a recognizable sender name
• Subject lines: Avoid spammy keywords. Craft subject lines that pique interest without being misleading
• Content quality: Keep your content concise and reader-friendly. Use well-structured templates with clear headers to improve readability
• Unsubscribe options: Clearly provide an unsubscribe link. Making it easy for users to opt out can decrease the likelihood of being reported as spam

By following these guidelines, you can significantly reduce the risk of being blocklisted and ensure your email marketing efforts are successful and compliant.

Wrapping up: email blocklists

Navigating email blocklists is vital for ensuring your marketing campaigns reach their audience.

Blocklists can significantly impact your email deliverability, affecting your engagement and overall business growth.
Understanding the causes of blocklisting and implementing strategies to avoid or get off these lists is crucial.

Regular monitoring of your email status, using tools to check for blocklisting, and adhering to best email practices help in maintaining effective email outreach.

Utilizing reliable platforms like Capsule’s CRM to manage your campaigns can greatly enhance your efforts in maintaining a healthy email and active mailing list. It’s native integration with Transpond, our email marketing automation suite is a game-changer for sales and marketing teams.

Sign up for Capsule’s 14 day free trial and see the positive changes in your marketing efforts.

FAQs

How did my email address get blacklisted?

What is the difference between a blacklist and a blocklist?

How do blocklists work?

Real estate is a profitable yet challenging industry. Due to the field’s competitive nature, a firm understanding of real estate industry marketing is crucial for those in this sector.

Here, we’ve listed some real estate marketing ideas inspired by the top leaders in this industry.

We’ve given you these as inspiration for your own businesses. So, whether you’re getting started or you’re a pro realtor – our top real estate marketing ideas and tips offer outstanding inspiration.

Let’s get into it.

Content Marketing

To dominate the digital real estate space, creating a blog or landing page isn’t enough.

Your content must be extensive and consistent, offering everything potential clients might need to know about buying homes and working with you. Consider these strategies:

• Enlist professional freelancers to create a continuous stream of engaging content for various platforms such as your website, emails, and social media
• Tailor your content to different customer segments and stages of the buyer’s journey
• Keep content varied and interesting, from buyer tips and how-to guides to stories about your brand and details about desirable properties and locations.

Digital PR

Elevate your real estate brand online through aesthetic website design, effective SEO, and active social media engagement:

• Maintain a consistent presence on social media to engage with consumers and visibility
• Ensure all digital content is optimized for search engines to improve your site’s visibility.

Paid advertising

While SEO and content marketing are long-term strategies, paid advertising facilitates immediate traffic boosts and lead generation:

• Use real estate platforms to feature your listings
• Invest in PPC campaigns through Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, paying only when users engage with your ads
• Consider partnerships with Influencers and sponsored posts where appropriate, to reach broader audiences quickly.

Implementing these strategies can help your visibility and effectiveness in attracting and converting leads in the real estate market.

Building a website

Developing a website lets you showcase your real estate offerings to prospective clients. Ensure that it’s updated regularly including listings to keep potential buyers returning.

Adding unique features like a mortgage calculator provides additional value and sets your site apart from others.

A website serves as, essentially, your shop window where potential buyers can learn about your properties and the services offered, helping your agency’s visibility and accessibility.

Websites are an excellent tool for building your brand story and showcasing client testimonials and customer success stories which helps attract more qualified leads.

Implement virtual viewings

Offer potential buyers a glimpse of furnished homes through virtual viewings. This saves physical viewing costs and also enriches the property’s appeal.

Virtual viewing helps buyers imagine living in the space, improving their decision-making process.

Especially useful in today’s market, virtual viewings are practical previews without physical visits, improving the attractiveness and saleability of homes.

Offering these virtual tours, for clients to view properties in their own time, means you can reduce scheduling conflicts to speed up the decision-making process.

Use professional-grade video and virtual reality technology to create immersive and interactive home tours.

Creating a blog

Produce an SEO-optimized blog by using tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs to find relevant keywords and topics that attract potential clients.

Blogging is a great way to establish industry authority and credibility, keep your audience informed and maintain your relevance in prospective clients’ minds when they consider buying.

This strategy is great for new real estate agents who want to establish credibility and expand their client base.

Execute email marketing strategies

Dispatch regular newsletters that compile highlights from your blog posts and updates about new real estate opportunities.

Put captivating visuals, and links to detailed listings, and integrate multimedia such as video tours or virtual realities of properties.

Utilize email strategies that maintain a connection with former and prospective clients, ensuring your presence is consistently in their thoughts. This boosts your chances of getting referrals and securing repeat business.

Improve the likelihood of your emails being opened by writing attention-grabbing subject lines.

Utilize drone photography

Capture expansive aerial footage of your listings with drone photography to provide comprehensive views that showcase the property’s layout and its environment.

Drone photography provides a clearer understanding of the property’s surroundings. It’s ideal for showcasing properties set against striking landscapes or scenic backdrops, where the location is a significant selling point.

By placing adverts in local newsletters, newspapers and other region-specific publications, you boost your exposure to the demographic most likely to utilize your services.

Consider contributing a regular feature in your community’s newspaper, for instance.

This could include success stories from satisfied clients, local real estate market updates, or informative articles for first-time homebuyers.

The goal is to offer content that resonates with the readership and establishes you as a knowledgeable authority in the field, drawing more visitors to your website and expanding your social media following.

Initiate experiential marketing efforts

Directly engage with prospective buyers by organizing interactive events such as community tours or educational workshops about the home-buying process.

You’ll bring your real estate brand to life through real-world interactions, and boost client engagement and conversions.

In a highly competitive market, experiential marketing helps you build deeper community relationships.

Create partnerships with local enterprises

Collaborate with neighborhood businesses to showcase your listings, incorporating them into community events or open houses.

These collaborations highlight the local lifestyle and draw visitors to explore the property, increasing buyer interest.

Such partnerships boost your visibility at local events, and foster community-based referrals, enriching your local network.

Help your property promotions by employing targeted ads on social media platforms, and carefully selecting your audience to maximize exposure and engagement.

Targeted social ads enable you to pinpoint and capture the demographic most likely to be interested in your listings.

Incorporating video content into these campaigns on platforms like Instagram or TikTok can also showcase your personality, increasing conversions.

Host informative webinars

Partner with local businesses like home improvement services to host webinars that provide valuable insights into the real estate market.

These sessions can be crucial for those considering entering the market.

Webinars position you as a thought leader in real estate drawing a broader audience and potentially generating leads.

Always ensure webinar participants opt-in to receive further communications from you, s you can follow up with targeted comms.

Solicit referrals

Various real estate professionals gain new clients through referrals. Regularly engage with your past clients and encourage them to refer their contacts to you.

Referrals are among the most reliable sources of new business, as they come with a pre-established trust in your services.

Reach out with a personal touch, perhaps through an email, asking if they know anyone who might need your services and inviting them to a social event you’re hosting.

Creating videos can significantly differentiate you from competitors in the market. These could be sophisticated client testimonials or simple direct-to-camera pitches demonstrating your expertise and offerings.

Video creates a more personal connection with potential clients, showcasing your expertise and the unique aspects of your services.

Utilize traditional advertising

Incorporate traditional advertising methods such as print ads and billboards to complement your digital marketing efforts, particularly in local markets.

This approach helps you build an omnichannel approach, where print-based adverts complement your digital adverts.

These strategies can rejuvenate your marketing approach and increase your client base by leveraging innovative and traditional marketing techniques.

Showcase client testimonials

Collect feedback from clients you’ve successfully assisted and display these testimonials prominently across your marketing materials.

Testimonials build trust and credibility with potential clients by showcasing your successful track record.

Share these testimonials widely—on your website, in newsletters, and on social media—to maximize their impact.

Select an effective combination of local, topical, and widely used hashtags that match your audience for your social media posts on Instagram and Twitter.

These hashtags help connect you with the appropriate audience.

• Local hashtags: #[city]realestate #[city]realtor #[city]realestatebroker #[city]living #[city]homes #thingstodoin[city]
• Topical hashtags: #realestatetips #homebuyertips
• Broad hashtags: #realtorsofinstagram #luxuryhomes #newhomes

Optimize your website for mobile use

Ensure your real estate website is mobile-friendly to accommodate the growing number of users browsing on smartphones and tablets.

This optimization helps with user experience and accessibility, increasing the likelihood of engaging potential clients.

Search engines favor mobile-friendly websites and provide a better browsing experience, which can lead to increased traffic and longer visit durations.

Choose a responsive design for your site that automatically adjusts to any device size, ensuring functionality and a sleek appearance across all platforms.

Develop a robust presence on your social media accounts by actively posting, engaging in community discussions, and responding to queries.

Utilize platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to demonstrate your expertise and market knowledge.

A strong social media presence establishes trust and authority, connecting you with potential clients and keeping you top-of-mind in your local market.

Consider hiring a social media manager if you don’t have time to maintain consistent engagement, ensuring your online marketing presence is strategic and effective.

Create and keep up with an email newsletter

Regularly send out a newsletter that includes updates on new real estate listings, real estate tips, and local market trends to keep in touch with your clients and prospects.

Email newsletters are a direct line of communication that keeps your audience engaged, informed, and reminded of your expertise and services.

Segment your email list to provide personalized content that meets the specific needs and interests of your prospects helping with engagement and response rates.

Distribute business cards

Design and distribute high-quality business cards that make a great first impression, and have your contact details on them so it’s easy to reach out to you.

Business cards are great for networking, providing a quick and easy way to exchange contact information during in-person meetings.

Keep the design of your business cards clean and straightforward, focusing on essential contact details like your name, phone number, and email address.

From pens, notepads, or tote bags at events or as part of a welcome package to new clients, branded items are a constant reminder of your services.

This helps with brand recognition and loyalty among clients.
Choose high-quality items that clients want to keep and use, ensuring your brand stays visible longer.

Develop an FAQ section

Set up a comprehensive FAQ section on your website if there are lots of questions about your real estate operations and the intricacies of the property transaction process.

Well-informed clients about your services are more likely to reach out for engagement.

Develop local city guides

Create comprehensive guides to the neighborhoods where you sell, highlighting key amenities, schools, and unique cultural aspects.

City guides help home buyers understand the lifestyle and community they’re considering moving into, increasing confidence in their purchase decisions.

Include resident testimonials and high-quality photos of the area to add authenticity to your guides.

Provide online home styling tips

Sharing online guides for home styling and decoration can boost the marketability of listings.

By illustrating various decorative styles through your property listings, you help sellers better showcase their homes.

Home styling tips add value to both buyers and sellers, improving your reputation as a knowledgeable and reliable real estate agent and advisor.

Organize home-buying seminars

Offer seminars that guide new buyers through the complexities of purchasing a home, including getting a mortgage and identifying key property features.

Workshops like these help your prospective buyers by giving them essential information to help their property search. It builds trust and demonstrates your expertise.

How to develop a real estate marketing plan

To effectively market your real estate business, it’s crucial to have a structured plan. Below we’ve listed how to create one:

Formulate a vision

What are your aspirations for your business in the near and distant future? Creating a vision statement will clarify your objectives and guide the strategic direction of your business.

Pinpoint your target audience

Identify your primary market. Are you targeting sellers, renters, or first-time buyers? Understanding your audience makes your marketing campaigns more precise.

Set clear objectives

What are your marketing goals? Outline what you intend to achieve and establish metrics to assess the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.

Define your unique selling proposition (USP)

Distinguish yourself from competitors by defining what makes your offerings unique. Consider what benefits you provide that competitors don’t and how your personal touch adds value.

Allocate tools and budget

Choose the most effective marketing strategies suited to your USP and target audience. Allocate your budget accordingly to maximize the impact of each tactic.

Track your performance

Decide on the key performance indicators (KPIs) for each marketing tool and track their success to ensure they meet your goals. For example, for a paid social media campaign, you might track impressions, click-through rates, and how long the campaign lasts.

Considering a real estate marketer?

Hiring a marketer depends on your specific needs and capacity. If you lack the time or expertise for tasks like web design, SEO, or content creation, getting a professional might help.

Implementing your plan

With a solid marketing plan, you’re better equipped to attract and engage potential clients effectively. Planning not only helps in achieving your business goals but also in making informed adjustments to improve your marketing outcomes.

How CRM can help you deliver real estate marketing strategies

Establishing a robust real estate marketing strategy is crucial for engaging both potential and current clients effectively.

Using real estate marketing strategies helps real estate businesses tailor their marketing efforts to meet specific needs and preferences of prospective buyers.

Employing advanced real estate marketing tactics, supported by dependable platforms such as Capsule’s CRM for real estate agents, can lead to outstanding outcomes.

Explore the possibilities with a 14-day free trial of Capsule’s CRM and experience firsthand the transformative effects on your real estate marketing efforts.

FAQs

What does marketing in real estate do?

What are the 4 P’s of marketing in real estate?

As your business grows, managing multiple sales teams across different regions or product lines becomes increasingly complex. Without a plan in place, these teams can become siloed, draining your resources and leading to inconsistent customer experiences.

By implementing a unified sales pipeline and communication strategy, businesses can harmonize efforts across all teams, ensuring everyone is using best practices and moving toward a shared goal.

In this article, we’ll explore strategies for managing different sales teams effectively and efficiently. We’ll also examine how you can set up your sales pipeline for different teams for the best results.

The importance of maintaining cohesive sales teams

Having more than one sales team isn’t a bad thing. Multiple teams are useful when your business offers a variety of solutions or you’re selling in varied markets (particularly those that differ significantly, such as those with different languages or unique regulatory requirements).

Specialized teams can tailor their approaches to each market’s particular needs, making each interaction more relevant and effective. Team members can also develop their expertise on specific product lines or customer segments, allowing them to make better recommendations and offer better customer service.

However, operating multiple sales teams has its challenges. Communication across teams can be difficult, especially when they operate in different time zones or speak different languages. There’s a risk of each team developing its own culture and practices, leading to an inconsistent sales process and customer experience.

This can make it harder to accurately evaluate performance across teams, where it’s hard to tell if a team’s results are down to their different approach or differences in their market.

Key strategies for managing multiple sales teams

Overcoming these challenges requires thoughtful organization and management. The right balance enables businesses to enjoy the strengths of specialized teams without compromising on alignment. With the following strategies, you can harmonize your efforts and enhance the overall productivity of your sales teams.

Implement a centralized management system

To keep different sales teams aligned, they need access to the same information. This all starts with your customer relationship management (CRM) system. Using a CRM platform as your ‘single source of truth’ across all teams ensures they have access to the information they need when they need it. Similarly, sales managers get an overview of team performance and sales metrics across the organization.

Of course, sharing data across your teams won’t do you any good if that data isn’t accurate. Establish standardized practices for data entry and management to ensure consistency in how data is recorded and used. In turn, accurate data leads to accurate reporting and forecasting, enabling you to make smarter business decisions.

Make communication a priority

Maintaining effective communication can be a challenge for any business; add multiple sales teams into the mix and it can feel impossible. Rather than leaving it up to chance, schedule regular meetings to ensure all of your teams are aligned on company goals and strategies. Use these meetings for progress updates, sharing relevant insights and resolving any issues.

Taking it further, dedicated collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Asana allow for asynchronous communication and knowledge sharing. For example, you can share documents, look back through past conversations and manage projects — keeping everyone updated in real-time.

Choose relevant performance metrics

If you’re managing more than one team, they need to be treated the same. Just as importantly, they need to feel like they’re being treated the same; any hint of bias or favoritism will negatively impact morale and performance.

Avoid this by communicating (see above) how you’ll measure success across the teams. Choose sales metrics that’ll allow you to measure success and identify areas for improvement, taking into account both individual and team performance.

This contributes to a sense of fairness and unity among teams, as everyone is evaluated against the same criteria. Your teams are then more likely to be motivated and perform at their best, knowing that their efforts are recognized and rewarded in line with company standards.

How to build pipelines for multiple sales teams

Whether you’re managing one sales team or 100, a sales pipeline is a valuable tool for tracking prospects through the sales process. For multiple sales teams, a consistent pipeline means consistent sales, enabling you to evaluate performance and optimize your process.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up a sales pipeline that’s optimized for more than one sales team.

Step 1: Define your sales stages

Every sales pipeline comprises a series of stages, each reflecting a step in the customer journey. With the right stages in place, your sales team can use the pipeline as a roadmap, outlining the essential sales activities and when they need to be executed.

Analyze your sales process and identify the key milestones. What steps does every prospect have to go through before they become a customer? At this point, just focus on the stages that are identical for all your sales teams.

For example, the default pipeline in Capsule is:

• New
• Qualified
• Meeting
• Proposal
• Negotiation
• Contract

This is suitable for the majority of sales teams. However, if there are other stages you want to include in your pipeline, you can easily make changes so the pipeline perfectly matches your process. Ensure the defined stages are clear and easily understandable to avoid confusion and misinterpretation, which is more likely when multiple teams are involved.

Step 2: Customize your pipeline so they’re relevant for all teams

In some cases, where you have the same process, you won’t need to change your pipeline. However, if you’re running different teams for different products, or you’re running teams in different regions, you’ll likely need to adapt your sales process.

Customizing your pipeline — while retaining the same overall structure — means that your process will still be consistent but can be adapted to each team’s unique needs.

This will require some research to ensure you understand all the nuances involved in each sales process. For example, with international sales teams, your pipeline might need to be adjusted to accommodate local market practices or customer behaviors. These adjustments enable your regional teams to operate effectively within the pipeline’s broader framework.

Step 3: Define criteria for each stage

Review your different stages and check that it’s clear what each one involves. Ideally, each stage should be self-explanatory; for example, only prospects who’ve received a proposal should be in the proposal stage. However, where there’s any ambiguity, you should define when a prospect would move on to the next stage.

Develop clear, standardized criteria for moving deals from one stage to the next, based on measurable actions or other results, applicable across all teams.

For example, you could use customer actions, engagement levels or other key performance indicators (KPIs) that signal the prospect is ready for the next stage. This standardization helps keep deals moving smoothly while also making it easier to evaluate team performance on a comparable basis.

This is also a good time to identify reasons why a deal might stall between stages and how to get it moving again. For example, in Capsule, opportunities can be flagged automatically when you haven’t contacted them in a predefined amount of time (customizable to each milestone), so you can see any prospects you need to follow up on.

Step 4: Add relevant tasks and automation

Managing multiple sales teams, especially if they’re using significantly different processes, often involves juggling lots of different tasks and priorities. Miss out one small step and the whole sales process can fall apart.

Using your knowledge of each sales team and its relevant pipeline, document the requisite tasks for each stage, creating a to-do list with the best practices. At any point in the process, your reps should be able to see exactly what they should be doing next.

You can further streamline the process with workflow automation. Look for repetitive tasks within your sales pipeline that you can automate, such as updating customer records or sending follow-up emails. CRMs like Capsule offer powerful automation features to tackle these activities, freeing your team to focus on more valuable activities.

Capsule’s Tracks feature provides sales reps with a templated task list, showing them what needs to be done for each step in the process. You can then use automation (available on Growth plans and higher) to start the relevant track when your defined criteria are met, such as a prospect moving to the next stage in the pipeline.

Step 5: Monitor and optimize pipeline performance

As we’ve seen, one of the big benefits of a defined sales pipeline is its consistency and how that allows you to accurately measure team performance. Use your CRM’s analytics and reporting features to track sales metrics for each pipeline stage, then use what you’ve learned to make any necessary adjustments to your process and optimize your sales strategies.

While maintaining some universal performance metrics, adapt additional metrics that account for regional or product variations and challenges to maintain that fair assessment for all teams.

You can also use your pipeline to identify individual leads and prospects that would benefit from some extra attention. One of Capsule’s popular contact management features is dynamic contact lists. For example, you can filter for contacts where the “opportunity lost” reason was timing. You can then follow up with those prospects after an appropriate break to see if the timing has changed.

As it’s a dynamic list, it’ll be updated in real-time. Once you’ve found a useful list, you and your reps can use it to instantly spot new leads that meet your chosen criteria.

Managing multiple teams with a singular focus

Overseeing different sales teams can be challenging, especially when they’re spread over different offices, countries or time zones. Even when you’re all together in the same location, teams can develop their own culture and process, which isn’t always in line with the company’s goals.

However, with the right strategies in place, multiple sales teams can be your secret weapon, using their unique strengths and expertise to drive revenue without compromising on consistency or alignment. Make the most of your CRM and use it to connect your teams, while maintaining communication channels and setting clear expectations for performance. With a tailored sales pipeline, each team will have everything they need to progress deals and boost revenue for your company.

Discover how a CRM can help you track and manage multiple sales teams. Enjoy Capsule’s free starter package or start a 14-day free trial and see how Capsule’s features can help you break down silos and unite your teams.

It’s undeniable that acquiring new customers costs more than retaining existing ones. Prioritizing customer retention is essential for boosting revenue and achieving sustainable growth. Building an email list is a key strategy to achieve these objectives.
Keeping customer loyalty can be challenging but attainable through providing continuous value. Email marketing is one of the most effective methods to engage your audience when done properly.

Two critical factors for an effective email list-building strategy are:

1. Sufficient website traffic
2. Effective sign-up forms on your website
3. Ensuring these two factors are central to your email list, will help form a successful strategy.

What is an email list?

An email list consists of email addresses collected from customers, prospects, or visitors by businesses or individuals. These addresses can send personalized marketing emails, messages, newsletters, promotions, or updates directly to recipients’ inboxes.
Email lists enable marketers to:

• Foster and sustain relationships with their audience
• Boost customer engagement
• Improve sales or conversions

Email lists can be segmented by demographics or purchasing behavior. For example, using tailored content to enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

The main aim of building an email list is to expand your pool of potential leads, gradually converting them into loyal customers.

Why you should build an email list

Building an email list is crucial, especially for new ecommerce businesses, as it offers numerous benefits. For many ecommerce stores, the email list is their most treasured asset.
Here are the advantages of creating your own email list:

Cost-effectiveness

While digital advertising costs heighten as their efficacy declines, email communication remains more economical.

Personalization

Unlike ads, emails can be personalized and automated based on customer actions, providing a more targeted approach.

Precise audience targeting

As targeting on social media platforms like Meta becomes less effective, email allows for more accurate segmentation based on specific criteria such as demographics or behavior.

Ownership and control

Your email list is a valuable asset you own outright, independent of any other platform.

Relationship building

Unlike the broad reach strategy of digital ads, emails allow for personalized interactions that nurture customer relationships along their journeys.

What defines a quality email list?

Quality email lists support the best email marketing campaigns. Creating emails with excellent design, compelling copy, and intriguing offers is only useful if your list is properly segmented and targeted.

Here are the three pillars of crafting an exceptional email list that drives sales:

1. Quality: Ensure you’re collecting authentic, comprehensive information from individuals. Avoid purchasing email lists at all costs. Email addresses from bots, spam accounts, or inactive users are worthless as they do not engage or convert into sales.
2. Relevance: Targeting is crucial. It’s challenging enough to convert prospects who are interested in what you offer; including individuals who have no interest in your products or services only increases your churn rate. Focus on individuals who demonstrate a genuine interest in your offerings.
3. Quantity: After establishing a foundation of quality and relevance, shift your focus to expanding your list. Grow your reach thoughtfully to encompass new or broader audiences without compromising the integrity of your existing engagements.

Essentials of a good email list

Before building an email list, you should understand some best practices. Here are, the key attributes your email list-building tactics should include.

Permission-based

Ensure your email list comprises individuals who have explicitly consented to receive your emails.
Purchasing email lists is a no-go; it’s unethical and can harm your brand’s reputation.

Accurate and current

Maintain a list with valid, up-to-date email addresses. Regularly sort through your contact list by removing inactive or bounced emails to keep engagement high.

Relevant to your audience

Your email subscribers should have a genuine interest in your offerings. Ideally, being a part of your target demographic will make them more likely to interact with your messages.

Contains engaged subscribers

Aim for a list of active users who frequently open, click, and interact with your emails. These subscribers are more likely to convert and share your content.

Segmentable

A well-segmented customer email list allows for targeted and personalized communication. You can undertake customer segmentation for your list based on thing such as demographics, buying behavior, or engagement level.

Continuously growing

Focus on steadily growing your list. Employ strategies like offering lead magnets, running social media promotions, or partnering with other brands to attract new subscribers.

Unsubscribe options available

Making it easy for people to unsubscribe from your list might seem counterproductive, but it respects user preferences, helps with their experience with your brand, and in many countries, an essential data privacy law.
By focusing on building a relevant and engaged email list and continuously refining your strategies, you can significantly boost the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts over time.

How to create an email list

Now we’ve gone through the essential best practices, it’s now time to go through how to do the do. Below we’ve listed various steps to set up your own email list.

Introduce timed pop-up CTAs

Instead of generic pop-ups, consider implementing timed pop-up ads that activate under specific conditions. These conditions could include exit intent or after a user has spent a certain amount of time on a page.
This strategy ensures that the pop-up is relevant to the content the user is engaging with or appears when a user shows signs of leaving the site. Well-timed pop-ups can significantly increase user engagement by offering targeted value, such as a relevant free ebook or a discount code, boosting the user experience and increasing the likelihood of conversions.

Personalize your CTAs

Personalization can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your calls to action. By tailoring CTAs based on the page’s content—such as a specific blog post or landing page—you directly address the user’s interests.

This level of customization makes the call to action more relevant and appealing, leading to higher conversion rates and more engaged subscribers.

Inject humor into opt-out options

Making your opt in forms and opt-out options witty can pause users before they decline your offer. A playful message beneath a CTA, like “No thanks, I already know everything about email marketing,” can make users think twice, adding a human touch and reducing the monotony of standard “yes” or “no” options.

This strategy can decrease bounce rates on pop-ups and increase the likelihood of a user giving your email list a chance.

Implement a scroll box

A scroll box that appears at a strategic point in the user’s journey through your page can capture interest without being intrusive.

Use A/B testing to find the most effective placement—whether it’s after reading 50% of a blog post or right before they leave the page.

The key is to catch visitors when they’re most likely to be engaged but not interrupt their reading, making the signup form top-up option feel like a natural next step rather than a disruption.

Highlight the value in your CTAs

Shift the focus of your CTAs from action-oriented commands like “sign up” to value-driven invitations such as “Get your free guide” or “Access exclusive tips.”

By emphasizing what users will gain rather than what they must do, you align more closely with their motivations and interests. This makes the proposition of joining the sign up form for your email list more attractive and beneficial.

Offer incentives

People are more likely to sign up for your email list if they feel they’re getting something immediately beneficial in return.

Incentives like a one-time discount, free shipping, or access to exclusive content can make the decision to provide their email address feel more advantageous.

Make sure these offers are compelling and relevant to your audience’s needs and preferences, which will help convert casual website visitors into loyal followers.

Leverage a referral program

Encourage your existing subscribers to become brand advocates by incentivizing them to share your newsletter with their networks. Offering rewards for each successful referral integrates seamlessly with the natural desire to share valuable content with friends and colleagues. This approach can exponentially increase your reach and subscriber base, leveraging the trust and personal connections of your existing audience.

Opt-In during checkout

Incorporating a subscription opt-in option during the checkout process is an effective way to grow your email list with minimal friction. Customers are already engaged in a transaction with you, so adding a simple checkbox for them to receive updates and offers is a logical step that can yield high opt-in rates without being perceived as intrusive.

Gamify sign-ups

Introduce elements of gamification such as spinning wheels or quiz-based interactions to make the whole email signup form take-up process fun and engaging. This approach not only entertains users but also provides them with a unique and memorable experience that can lead to higher engagement rates. Offering rewards based on game outcomes can further incentivize users to join your list.

Promote on social media and email signatures

Utilize every touchpoint with your audience to promote your email list, including your social media accounts and platforms and your personal or professional email signature.

This ensures that all your networks are aware of your email offerings and provides multiple avenues for sign-up. Highlighting your newsletter in these spaces can also attract subscribers who are already interested in your brand, making them more likely to engage with your content.

Create more landing pages

Each additional landing page provides a unique oppotunity to cater to the diverse needs of your audience. By creating multiple targeted pages, you can address specific customer concerns and interests, increasing the relevance and appeal of your content.

More landing pages also mean more opportunities to test and refine your approach, leading to better overall performance in subscriber acquisition.

These expanded strategies will help you build an email list that grows in size and is comprised of engaged and interested users who are more likely to become long-term subscribers and advocates for your brand.

Select a robust email marketing platform

Initially, simple tools like Gmail or Outlook might handle basic email tasks and a small number of contacts. However, as your list expands and the need for automated campaigns grows, a dedicated email marketing tool like Transpond becomes essential.

Opt for a platform that scales with your growth and offers comprehensive features for crafting engaging emails. Also, consider platforms that include additional features such as landing page builders, other marketing tools, automation, and A/B testing capabilities, especially if you’re aiming to grow your list organically.

Leverage personal networks for email list growth

A straightforward approach to expanding your email list is by tapping into your personal contacts. Chances are, several individuals within your personal or professional network might be interested in your offerings.

Initiate contact by sending a personalized email detailing the benefits of joining your email list and how it could add value to them. Encourage people and these contacts to spread the word among their networks to further extend your reach and collect email addresses.

Similarly, if you have an established user base for your product but lack a dedicated email list for marketing purposes, consider reaching out directly. Inform your users about the opportunity to receive updates on new content and developments by subscribing to your email list.

Advanced tactics

Once your email list foundation is set and subscribers begin to join, you can explore advanced tactics to propel your list’s growth.
Here are six innovative strategies to enhance your email list building efforts.

Integrate chatbots to engage visitors

Chatbots have become a game-changer in automating interactions with site visitors, saving time while offering personalized engagement.
This enables automated messaging that can convert conversations into subscriptions by providing timely offers or support.

Boost signups through targeted ad campaigns

Utilize the focused environment of landing pages to drive email signups from ad campaigns. With precise tools in Google AdWords and Facebook Ads Manager, tailor your campaigns to target specific demographics, ensuring your offers reach the appropriate audience and maximize sign-up potential.

Conduct surveys to engage and inform your strategy

Surveys are invaluable for gathering insights directly from your audience while also capturing their emails. Tools like Google Forms facilitate this process, allowing you to integrate questions that align with your marketing goals and offer incentives for participation.

Offer value-driven content to attract subscribers

Beyond your products, provide content that addresses your customers’ needs, such as how-to guides, case studies, or expert tips. For instance, offer a free delivery or a downloadable content piece as a lead magnet that provides immediate value in exchange for email signups, establishing trust and encouraging further engagement.

Organize social media contests and giveaways

Leverage the viral nature of social media contests to rapidly expand your email list. Collaborate with complementary brands or influencers who share your target audience to increase the reach and appeal of your giveaways. Consider using a dedicated landing page or pages for these events to streamline participant experience and improve tracking.

Each of these strategies not only helps grow your email list but also enhances engagement by offering your audience tailored, interactive experiences that resonate with their needs and preferences.

Wrapping up: building an email list

In summary, building an email list is essential for nurturing both potential customers and existing customers. Clearly, it’s a cornerstone of any effective digital marketing strategy.

It enables online businesses to run personalized email campaigns directly targeting the unique needs and preferences of their audience. This strategic approach not only boosts customer satisfaction but also drives business growth.

Incorporating robust email list building techniques into your marketing efforts, supported by a reliable platform like Capsule’s CRM, sets the stage for remarkable results.

Sign up for a 14 day free trial to create world class email campaigns with automations and advanced sequences.

Projects is a tool in Capsule that allows you to create and project manage any process with multiple steps. It’s very similar to the Sales Pipeline but with a key difference: Sales Pipeline is used for anything involving revenue, and Projects for pretty much any other multi-step process.

You could use Projects to ensure accurate order fulfillment or to manage onboarding your clients. Or in this case, to plan and run an event.

Since event planning can be complex, it’s often divided into several key stages. That’s where Projects come in. And by pairing your Project with Tracks, our customizable task automation, you can plan and run events effectively, efficiently and easily.

In this article, we’ll cover how Projects work, walk step-by-step through a template for planning and running an event, and explore additional Capsule features that might make event management that little bit easier. And just so you know, Projects are available on all plans – why not try it out for yourself?

How do Projects work?

The main display in Projects is your project board. You can view it in Kanban style or as a list with filters.

You can create multiple project boards with our Growth, Advanced, or Ultimate plan, For instance, one project board to manage client onboarding, and another for event management.

You can then add various ‘projects’ to your event management process. So, if you want to plan different events, you’ll see multiple projects on your project board. You can track the progress of both events simultaneously, in the same view.

Make sense?

Let’s see how you could use Projects to plan and run an event.

Your template project board for effortless event planning

If you’ve ever planned an event before, you’re probably familiar with the overwhelming number of tasks involved. But planning and executing it doesn’t have to be as stressful.

Projects helps you visualize your event in several main stages so you can easily track your event’s progress. What’s more, these stages can be customized:

• Build your project board with as many (or as few) stages as you need;
• Choose names relevant to your process (no need to force your unique processes into preset pipelines that don’t really work for you);
• Define each stage with short descriptions, so everyone who uses that project board understands the individual purposes and when to move the event forward.

Let’s plan your first event in Capsule. This sample project will help:

Stage 1: Set your objectives and budget

Before you invest time and effort into planning your event, you’ve got to be sure you know why you’re doing it. Are you hosting an event to build brand awareness, generate and convert leads, or hone relationships with clients?

Whatever your reasons, identify meaningful metrics so you can measure the success of your event.

For instance, you could track:

• the number of attendees;
• the volume of your brand mentions using social listening tools following the event;
• or simply recurring revenue driven by your event.

Make sure the metrics selected match the goals you set and accurately mark the event as successful (or otherwise) meeting these objectives.

Before starting, it’s important to have a budget in place. Ask yourself: how much is necessary to spend, and how much you’ll need to make (either at the event or in the following sales) to cover your running costs.

The tasks you should line up for your first stage could look a little something like this:

• Meet with key stakeholders to discuss goals
• Research general costs of key expenditures (catering, venue, etc.)
• Meet with the accounting team to confirm your budget.

If sourcing internal staff presents a challenge, this is a good time to decide if you need external suppliers to help bring the event to life. You might want to add further tasks like:

• Research available suppliers in your budget for floor staff, security, marketing and communications, etc.

Top tip – Use Tasks and Tracks to keep your event on course

Tasks are any small job you can tick off once completed. You can make them on the fly simply by clicking the ‘Add Task’ button on the right-hand side of a Project.

You can also set them up to repeat. So if you do something monthly, you can create a task that repeats every month – or however often you need.

Most businesses have sequences of tasks to be carried out in a particular order. With Tracks, you can define a process of jobs unique to your business and use this track repeatedly.

You can even apply them to other Projects, so you’ll see all the relevant tasks necessary for completing your event without missing a deadline for any event you manage on that project board.

Stage 2: Book a date and venue

Once you’ve set goals and budget, you’ll need to secure a date, time and venue for your event. If you’re working in Kanban view, drag and drop your project into the next stage.

Now, do some desk research on venues and events in the local area. You should consider:

• Identifying suitable dates
• Researching venues in your desired area
• Booking a venue
• Securing transport and accommodation for employees

Top tip – Store relevant emails to your Project

Keep track of your event-related communications using the Mail Drop Box. To attach an email to a project, include the Project’s unique Mail Drop Box address in the BCC field when you send or forward the email.

Find the unique dropbox address in the main body of the Project if it doesn’t have notes or emails recorded.

If the Project already has activity logged you can find the Mail Drop Box address by clicking the ‘Actions Menu’ and selecting ‘Attach an Email’.

Read more about our Mail Drop Box.

Stage 3: Inviting guests, partners and influencers

With your venue in the bag, it’s time to start building out your event. By inviting speakers and influencers to appear at your event, you can drum up greater interest, reach more people and tap into their network.

It’s best to have some industry influencers in mind when planning the event. But if you haven’t, tools like Sparktoro or interviewing known attendees help identify thought leaders in the industry and the big topics they’re talking about.

You could also partner with non-competing companies who service your atte

Top tip – Keep all your event meetings and call notes in one place

We’re so over being overwhelmed. Break your meeting notes out of your brain and keep them securely in Capsule. Log notes and calls directly into your Project with the ‘Log Activity’ button.

Here, you can select the type of activity carried out (call, site visit, etc.) and leave relevant comments. Logged activity is time stamped too, providing a clear timeline of actions completed.

Got files to attach? No biggie. Simply drag them into the file area or use the ‘Browse’ button. Read more on logging activities.

Stage 4: Advertise the event

Now you know what’s happening, where, and who with, you can craft your messaging and create fantastic marketing assets to publish across your marketing channels.

Make sure to target channels you know your audience uses, and automations to provide tailored email invitations.

Top tip – Automate your event communications with Transpond

Create automated email sequences to manage your flow of communications with Transpond’s seamless integration.

Using Capsule’s lists and Transpond’s email templates, you can easily segment and target potential attendees with consistent messaging in slick formats.

For this stage, you could build a Track with the following tasks:

• Establish messaging
• Brief your copywriter and designer
• Roll out paid ads on (E.g. social media, display campaigns)
• Dispatch direct mail
• Launch email marketing
• Arrange print ads
• Initiate your partner/influencer collaboration campaign.

Having a project board helps you prevent missing key marketing opportunities, and enables you to promote your event in all the right places at the right times.

Top tip – Tag or email a list of contacts linked to your event

For bulk actions like email marketing or tagging relevant contacts, first, you need to view the contacts in a list.

To do that click ‘Open as List’. You can then use the options on the right to export the contacts, send an email, add a note, or apply a tag. Here’s an example.

Stage 5: Post-event

Stage 5: Post-event
Now, review whether your event has succeeded against the goals you set initially.

It’s easy to slip back into your usual routine and let those newly acquired leads and warm customer relationships go cold. That’s why we recommend setting tasks and tracks to keep in contact with your attendees.

Set tasks here to:

• Reach out to attendees for feedback on your event: what they liked and what could make the next one a bigger success. Automation tools like Transpond make email campaigns a breeze.
• Warm your new leads: set up calls and send emails to keep the interest alive;
• Add attendees to new marketing campaigns;
• Review the event against your goals.

Once you’ve completed all your tracks, you can close your project (wahoo!). It won’t appear in the Kanban view, but you’ll still be able to find it in the list view for any other retrospective analysis.

Top tip – Directly link Opportunities to your events

Perhaps you’ve invited a warm lead to your event hoping to meet in person and seal the deal? With Projects, you can keep everything connected. Link a Project with an Opportunity to bridge the gap between pre and post-sale activities.

Once linked, you’ll see the details of your Opportunity on the left-hand side of your Project view. Find out how to link Opportunities to Projects.

Using Projects to run successful events

Planning and running an event doesn’t have to be a headache. With Projects in Capsule, you can easily mastermind, manage, and measure multiple events from the comfort of your desk. Outfitted with repeating tasks and the ability to log all your calls, emails, and activities, using Projects to plan an event seems like a walk in the park.

Discover how a CRM can help you manage current and future events. Enjoy Capsule’s free starter package or start a 14-day free trial and see how Capsule’s features can help you save time and deliver unforgettable events that make a difference.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I customize Capsule Projects?

What’s the difference between Projects and the Sales Pipeline?

Why is Projects useful for running events?

How do I store emails on Projects?

How can I log an activity on Projects?

Can I email a list of contacts that is linked to my Project?

Can I attach files to Projects?

Can you link a Project to an Opportunity?

Can I filter my Projects?

Do I need software to plan an event?

What are the benefits of using a task management tool within project management software?

A whopping 87% of brands believe that email marketing is indispensable for their success.

That’s a clear signal: if you aren’t already focusing on your email marketing KPIs, it’s time to start.

From open rates to conversion rates, each KPI offers insights into your campaign’s performance. They also play a fundamental role in increasing your ROI and maintaining a healthy subscriber list.

Ready to up your email marketing game? Let’s check the 10 key performance indicators you need to start tracking.

Why you need to track email marketing KPIs

Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. The average ROI of email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent. However, to ensure that the ROI is being met,

Tracking email marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) becomes essential for maximizing your campaign’s success.

It helps you:

1. Assess campaign success: KPIs like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates show how well your emails meet their goals.
2. Steer your strategy: Insights from KPIs help you decide which content works best. This lets you focus on what drives engagement and conversions.
3. Improve personalization: Awareness of what your audience prefers and how they behave allows you to tailor your marketing emails more effectively.
4. Increase ROI: Analyzing KPIs helps optimize how you spend your budget.
5. Keep your list healthy: Metrics such as bounce rate and unsubscribe rate indicate the health of your email list. This makes for better deliverability and campaign success.
6. Plan for the future: KPIs help predict trends and plan better campaigns based on historical data.

That said, here’s a look at the 10 most important email marketing KPIs to track.

10 email marketing metrics

Email marketing comes in many different shapes and sizes. One thing remains consistent, however – metrics.

1. Conversion rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of email recipients who complete a desired action. This could mean making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource.

Why track it?

Conversion rates allow you to discern how effective your emails are in motivating subscribers to take action. A strong conversion rate means your content resonates well with your audience.

Conversion rate is a reliable metric when interpreted correctly. It provides clear insight into how well your email content converts intent into action. However, it should not stand alone. Pair it with other metrics like open rates and click-through rates for a comprehensive view.

This metric is highly valuable because it directly ties to revenue or desired outcomes. A high conversion rate indicates your strategy aligns well with subscriber needs and preferences.

How to calculate it

You can calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of people who completed the desired action by the total number of emails delivered. Then, multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.

Here’s the formula:

Conversion Rate = Number of conversions / Total number of visitors

What to do when it’s low

If you find your conversion rate is lacking, take these steps:

1. Refine your call to action: Make it clear and compelling. It should be easy to find and understand.
2. Segment your list: Send targeted emails based on subscriber data. This increases relevance and potential engagement.
3. Create engaging emails: Your emails need to be engaging, or better yet, entertaining. Use attractive visuals and concise language.

2. Click-through rate

Click-through rate (CTR) shows the percentage of people who click a link in your email. It measures how much your audience engages with your content.

Why track it

You should track CTR to see if your emails grab attention. A high CTR means your messages hit the mark. It tells you people find your emails worth exploring more. This metric can also be used to tweak your campaigns as they go.

CTR is a straightforward, reliable indicator of email effectiveness. It pinpoints which messages work and which don’t. This makes it easier to balance your approach and improve results. CTR also lets you test new ideas quickly. You can see what changes make a difference.

Keep an eye on your CTR. Use what you learn to make each email better than the last. This will keep your audience engaged and active.

How to calculate it

To calculate CTR, divide the number of clicks by the number of delivered emails. Then, multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.

Here’s the formula:

CTR (%) = Number of clicks / Total emails deivered X 100

What to do when it’s low

CTR can range from 1-5%. However, a good benchmark is about 2.5%. If your CTR is lower than expected, consider these steps to improve:

1. Revise your subject lines: Make them clear and enticing. A/B test different phrases to see what captures attention best.
2. Enhance email design: Use a clean layout with easy-to-find links. Make sure your call to action stands out.
3. Personalize your content: Tailor emails to fit the interests and needs of your audience. Personalized messages often lead to more clicks.

Both CTR and conversion rate are directly tied to your results. This brings us to another metric, arguably the most important one – ROI.

3. ROI

ROI, or Return on Investment, measures the profitability of an investment. In email marketing, it calculates how much money you earn compared to what you spend on your campaigns.

Why track it?

Tracking ROI is super important because it shows the financial effectiveness of your email marketing strategy. It helps you see if the money you’re investing in email campaigns is paying off. This metric guides decisions on budget allocation and strategy adjustments.

ROI is often used to justify your marketing spend by showing the direct financial returns. It’s valuable because it quantifies the success of your campaigns in clear monetary terms. ROI is generally reliable as it directly reflects earnings against expenditure, but its accuracy depends on correct attribution of sales to specific emails.

How to calculate it

Calculate ROI with this formula:

ROI (%) = Revenue from email campaign – Cost of email campaign / cost of email campaign X 100

Revenue per email helps understand the direct earnings from each sent email. Here’s how to calculate it:

Revenue per email = Total campaign revenue / Total emails sent

What to do when it’s low

If your ROI is less than anticipated, consider these steps to revamp:

1. Review and adjust your spending: Sometimes, the costs can outweigh the benefits, especially if you’re investing heavily in areas that don’t yield high returns. Analyze your budget to see where you can cut costs without sacrificing quality.
2. Test different offer types: Experiment with various promotions like discounts, bundles, or exclusive content to see which ones drive more revenue. Different incentives might appeal more effectively to your audience and uplift conversions.
3. Leverage automation for efficiency: Automate parts of your email campaign to save time and reduce labour costs. Use automation like Transpond for basic email responses, follow-ups on abandoned carts, and nurturing leads. This can increase conversions without additional active management.

To achieve positive ROI, your emails need to be delivered. Tracking email deliverability can confirm this.

4. Email deliverability

Email deliverability measures whether your emails reach the subscriber’s inbox or get lost, like ending up in spam. It checks the journey of your emails from sent to received.

Why track it?

You need to track deliverability to make sure your emails actually reach people. Good deliverability means more people see your messages. This affects everything from reader engagement to sales. Without tracking, you might not know if your emails are getting blocked or ignored.

Tracking deliverability allows you to spot problems early. Maybe your emails look like spam, or you’re sending too many at once. Fixing these issues means more emails reach their target. This increases your campaign’s effectiveness.

Deliverability is a key metric for any email campaign. It’s well-grounded because it shows exactly where your emails end up. You can trust it to guide improvements in your email strategy.

How to calculate it

To calculate deliverability, you divide the number of emails delivered by the number of emails sent. Then, multiply by 100 to get a percentage. Here’s the formula: Deliverability rate (%) = Emails delivered / Emails sent X 100

What to do when it’s low

According to EmailToolTester, the average deliverability is 83.1% across 15 different email service providers. If your deliverability is lower, here’s what to do:

1. Authenticate your emails: Set up protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These confirm your emails come from a trusted source, which can increase deliverability.
2. Modify your sending frequency: Sending too many emails can lead to spam flags. Find a balance that keeps subscribers engaged without overwhelming them.
3. Engage inactive subscribers differently: Identify subscribers who haven��’t interacted with your emails recently. Try re-engagement campaigns or remove them if they remain inactive.

Improving email deliverability directly impacts your campaign’s open rates. When your emails consistently reach the inbox, you increase the likelihood that they will be opened. Good deliverability practices help avoid spam complaints. Once you have strong deliverability, your focus can shift to optimizing open rates.

5. Open rate

The open rate is a metric that shows the percentage of email recipients who open an email. It measures the initial engagement of your email campaign.

Why track it?

Tracking the open rate is essential. Why? Because it indicates how well your emails grab attention. A high open rate suggests your subject lines are effective and your audience is engaged. Monitoring this metric reveals the appeal of your email content at a glance.

This metric is appreciated for testing different strategies and optimizing for better engagement.

The open rate is valuable as a basic indicator of engagement, but it has limitations. It depends on whether the email client loads images, as opens are often tracked with a tiny, hidden image. Therefore, while useful, it’s not always completely reliable on its own.

How to calculate it

Calculate the open rate with this formula: Open rate (%) = Number of opens / Total emails delivered X 100

What to do when it’s low

Campaign Monitor found out that the average open rate hovers around 20%. If your open rate is lower than desired, you can take these steps to refine your approach:

1. Purge your email list: Remove inactive subscribers who haven’t opened your emails for an extended period. This helps focus on an engaged audience and could boost your metrics.
2. Improve email previews: Use preheader text effectively. This is the short summary text that follows the subject line when viewing an email in the recipient’s inbox. Make it compelling and complementary to your subject line.
3. Conduct A/B testing on sender name: Sometimes, changing the sender name from a company name to a personal name can increase open rates. Test different sender names to see which generates more opens among your subscribers.

A higher open rate indicates that your emails are engaging and well-received. This suggests effective subject lines and relevant content for your audience. However, to truly optimize open rates, you must also consider the bounce rate.

6. Bounce rate

Bounce rate in email marketing refers to the percentage of emails that were not successfully delivered to recipients’ inboxes. It measures the health of your email list and the effectiveness of your email delivery practices.

Why track it?

You need to track the bounce rate because it indicates potential issues with your email list or email delivery settings. A high bounce rate may signal problems such as outdated or incorrect email addresses, or issues with your email server being flagged as spam.

Keeping an eye on your bounce rate contributes to a clean email list and helps your communications actually reach the recipients. It’s useful because it directly affects your campaign’s effectiveness AND your sender reputation. Bounce rate is a reliable metric because it provides clear, actionable data on delivery failures.

How to calculate it

Calculate the bounce rate with this formula:

Bounce rate (%) = Number of bounced emails / Total emails sent X 100

What to do when it’s high

A widely accepted benchmark for bounce rate is 2%. If yours is higher than that, consider taking these steps:

1. Verify email addresses: Check your list for any incorrect or outdated email addresses. Remove or update them as needed.
2. Strengthen list management: Implement stricter signup protocols. Use double opt-in methods to ensure that subscribers provide valid email addresses.
3. Check your sender reputation: A poor sender reputation can lead to high bounce rates. Use tools to monitor your reputation and address any flags that might cause emails to bounce.

High bounce rates can undermine the effectiveness of your email campaigns by impacting your sender reputation and reducing email deliverability.

Conversely, high unsubscribe rates indicate dissatisfaction with the content or frequency of your emails. This can further degrade engagement metrics.

7. Unsubscribe rate

The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of people who opt out of your email list after receiving an email. This metric measures subscriber disengagement and dissatisfaction.

Why track it?

Tracking the unsubscribe rate allows you to understand how well your content aligns with subscriber expectations. It directly indicates whether your emails are relevant or irritating to your audience.

Keeping an eye on the unsubscribe rate provides critical insights into the health of your email marketing campaign. It helps you gauge audience satisfaction and refine your content strategy. While this metric is straightforward, its reliability depends on the context of the campaign and audience behavior. This makes it a useful but not sole indicator.

The average unsubscribe rate is about 0.17% so folks aren’t too keen on unsubscribing. Anything much higher than that, and you can start to worry.

How to calculate it

Calculate the unsubscribe rate with this formula:

**Unsubscribe rate (%) = Number of unsubscribes / Total emails delivered X 100

What to do when it’s high

If your unsubscribe rate is high, here are three steps to help manage and reduce it:

1. Fine-tune send times: Test different sending schedules to find the best timing for your audience. Try to steer clear of overloading them at inconvenient times.
2. Refine your messaging: Maximize the value of each email. Avoid generic content that might prompt subscribers to leave.
3. Conduct exit surveys: When users unsubscribe, offer a quick survey to understand their reasons. This feedback can be the key to improving future emails.

When subscribers frequently unsubscribe, it reflects a disconnect between your content and their expectations. This trend can reduce subscriber lifetime value (SLV), as fewer subscribers stay long enough to contribute significant revenue.

8. Subscriber lifetime value

SLV calculates the total revenue a single subscriber generates throughout their relationship with your email list. This metric is consequential for grasping the long-term financial contribution of each subscriber. Great for forecasting.

Why track it?

Tracking SLV reveals the economic value derived from your email marketing campaigns. It assesses the effectiveness of your customer retention strategies and the overall health of your subscriber base.

How? SLV gives you information on individual subscribers’ profitability. You can use this to better focus your marketing efforts and manage your resources. On top of that, it emphasizes the value of keeping up a high-quality subscriber list as opposed to just growing the number of subscribers.

How to calculate it

To calculate SLV, use this formula that accounts for subscriber churn:

SLV = Average purchase value X Average purchase frequency X 1 / Churn rate

A “good” SLV varies by industry but generally, the higher the SLV, the more valuable each subscriber is. A good rule of thumb is that SLV should be at least three times higher than the cost of acquiring a new subscriber.

What to do when it’s low

If your SLV is lower than desired, here are steps to enhance it:

1. Increase transaction frequency: Encourage more frequent purchases through targeted promotions or exclusive offers.
2. Raise average order value: Introduce bundled products or higher-value options to increase the revenue per purchase.
3. Reduce churn rate: Implement strategies to retain subscribers longer, such as better customer service, regular feedback loops, and personalized email content.

More subscribers means better ROI, but you have to focus on both acquiring new subscribers and maximizing the value of existing ones. High SLV indicates strong long-term revenue potential from loyal customers. Meanwhile, a growing list increases your reach and potential customer base.

9. List growth rate

List growth rate shows how fast your email list is growing. It tracks the net increase in subscribers over a period. This rate factors in both new sign-ups and unsubscribes.

Why track it?

You need to track list growth rate to see how well your marketing attracts new subscribers. It shows if your efforts to grow your list are working. With it, you can modify your strategies based on what works.

Monitoring this rate unveils what sort of reach you can count on. You learn quickly if you’re gaining or losing ground. This metric is simple but powerful for planning your marketing moves.

How to calculate it

Here’s how you calculate the list growth rate:

List growth rate (%) = New subscribers – Unsubscribes / Initial list size X 100

What to do when it’s low

If your list growth rate is too low, try these steps:

1. Add new incentives: Offer better perks for signing up. Think of free trials or discounts.
2. Simplify sign-ups: Make it easy to join your list. Ensure forms are short and straightforward.
3. Show off success: Use testimonials to highlight the benefits of subscribing. Show how others have gained.

Email sharing can boost your list growth rate, too. When subscribers share your content, they expose your brand to new potential subscribers. This organic growth strategy complements traditional list-building efforts.

10. Email sharing rate

Email sharing rate measures how often recipients share your email content with others or forward it. This metric is super useful for understanding the virality and appeal of your email content.

Why you need to track it

Tracking this rate helps you identify which types of content resonate most with your audience and allows you to replicate successful elements in future campaigns. It’s a direct measure of your content’s shareability. A high sharing rate typically indicates that recipients find the content good, fun, or valuable enough to spread to others.

Email sharing extends your reach beyond your current subscriber list.

Why? Because it introduces your brand to new potential followers organically. However, its measurement’s reliability may vary as not all emails are shareable by nature. The intent to share can be influenced by many factors including relevance, incentives, and the ease of sharing.

How to calculate it

To calculate the email sharing rate, divide the number of emails forwarded or shared by the total number of emails delivered. Multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage: Email sharing rate = Number of shares / Number of emails delivered X 100%

What to do when it’s low

If your email sharing rate is less than planned, consider these strategies:

• Improve content quality: Make sure your content is informative, engaging, and relevant. High-quality content is more likely to be shared.
• Encourage sharing: Include clear calls to action that encourage recipients to share the content. Make sharing as easy as possible with visible buttons or links.
• Segment your audience: Tailor your emails to match the interests and preferences of specific segments of your audience. Personalized content has a higher chance of being shared.

Conclusion

To excel in email marketing, you need to do more than just send emails. You must track the right metrics. Metrics like conversion rates and click-through rates show how well your campaigns work. They reveal what content engages your subscribers and what falls flat. Each metric provides insights that help you improve your content and strategies. Make your emails count. Keep an eye on these essential metrics for more engagement and better ROI.

Remember, every email is a chance to connect with your audience and drive results. Use it wisely.

Do you find social media marketing overwhelming? You’re not alone. Over 60% of businesses face hurdles in generating engagement and accurately measuring the ROI of their social media efforts​​.

What’s more, 97% of people who make online purchases have engaged with social media in the past month​​. The potential for growth and engagement through these platforms is immense, yet harnessing it requires strategic thinking and a solid understanding of what content resonates with your audience. Luckily, there are plenty of agencies offering packages to manage this for you.

The right package for managing social media can be particularly helpful. If you want to promote your brand online, you don’t have to do it alone. You can get help from professionals.

Read on to find out what a social media management package is, 10 different types of social media packages, and how to choose the right bundle for your needs.

A social media management package helps businesses handle their online presence effectively. These bundles usually include several services:

• Developing a social media strategy;
• Creating content like posts, graphics, and videos;
• Scheduling and publishing content;
• Managing community interaction and engagement;
• Running social media ads and promotions;
• Tracking performance and reporting analytics.

Social media marketing agencies customize these packages to fit different budgets and business sizes so that there is something for everyone.

The benefits are clear. You save time and resources, boost your social media results, keep up with the latest trends, and gain access to expert advice.

Before you choose a package, think about what your business really needs. Check what each package offers, its cost, and customer reviews. Make sure the service matches your audience and business goals. Choose wisely to make the most out of your investment in social media.

There are many types of social media management packages. Each of them comprises different features and benefits.

1. The complete social media management package

The full social media management package includes everything you need to improve your online profile. It makes many things easier when it comes to social media marketing, like:

• Formulating strategies;
• Creating interesting content;
• Planning posts;
• Handling community interactions;
• Analyzing data and providing feedback;
• Running targeted ad campaigns.

A social media marketing agency can save you time and effort by combining these services into one package. This lets you focus on other areas of your business while maintaining an active and appealing social media profile.

It’s made to work across a variety of platforms so that your material connects with the right people on each one. This all-in-one method makes it easier for your audience to interact with you, resulting in better performance across all your social media profiles.

Such an inclusive package understandably comes with higher fees than more focused, platform-specific packages.

Read more about growing your business with marketing.

2. Social media advertising package

Typically, social media advertising packages encompass a range of services, from ad creation to performance analytics across multiple platforms.

These packages have some important features, such as:

• Strategic ad placement;
• Targeting specific audiences;
• Keyword research;
• Budget management.

As a result, your advertising dollars are spent effectively. Automation tools are often included to streamline the ad posting process, which helps optimize campaigns and maximize engagement and returns.

3. Platform-specific social media management package

Social media packages designed for certain platforms help you make the most of your time on Facebook, Instagram, X, or LinkedIn. The key to this kind of package is to make the most of the special characteristics and audiences of the selected platform for your business.

For example, a social media marketing company might use Instagram’s visual appeal or provide educational material that speaks especially to LinkedIn professionals.

Usually, such bundles include a wide range of services catered to the particular platform. Among these are:

• content production, scheduling, and publishing;
• interaction tactics;
• campaign efficacy analytics.

They are perfect for companies leveraging the capabilities and typical user behaviors common to a particular social media platform.

Watch our webinar, “Social selling masterclass” with Alexander Low.

4. Content scheduling and social presence package

This package lets you post regularly on a variety of different social media channels, so your brand is always visible without the customer having to do anything every day. Agencies plan material aiming for high volumes of interaction using tools like Transpond.

This service usually includes:

• Post scheduling across various social media platforms for consistent visibility;
• Performance monitoring and an adaptive strategy;
• A technological approach to maintain activity on each of your accounts, alongside one-to-one reviews with your account manager.

With these packages, you can keep your social media accounts busy and interesting, and regain more time to work on other parts of your business. They use both automation and human oversight to ensure that the content is timely and valuable and fits in with your overall marketing strategy.

Automate with Transpond

Managing multiple social media accounts can be time-consuming. With the right tools, you can automate posting across platforms and ensure your content reaches your audience at the right time.

Transpond offers a seamless solution to schedule posts, manage content calendars, and track engagement from a single dashboard.

Try Transpond today and see the difference that social media management paired with automated email marketing can make to your marketing goals. Or discover how Transpond can streamline your social media management.

In a community management package, agencies interact with the people who follow your brand online. As part of this service, agencies offer immediate replies to comments, direct messages, complaints, and public posts.

Making your audience feel heard is a great way to build a loyal group. This method involves:

• Keeping an eye on your social media to manage the reputation of your company;
• Igniting conversations to promote genuine comments and active participation;
• Interacting with followers and other users to build a positive community.

This could make customers more loyal and encourage them to talk about your brand. Your business can also get useful feedback from these kinds of interactions, which can help with product growth as well as improve customer service.

In essence, this package sustains and grows your brand’s social media presence by keeping the talk positive and the conversation going.

6. Visual content creation package

A visual social media content creation package is all about creating aesthetically appealing photos, graphics, and videos that will help your brand’s social media profile.

This package makes your multimedia content stand out, without straying from your brand persona and style. High-quality videos and consistent visuals help to maintain a professional look across your social channels.

Making high-quality graphic designs that grab people’s attention involves careful planning and specialized tools. Social media marketing agencies typically:

• Create images and videos formatted to specification for different social media channels and devices;
• Ensure the materials they supply are high quality;
• and produce visuals based on detailed briefs to offer the greatest impact.

Effective visuals can greatly increase engagement, which is why it is so important to craft social media strategies that work.

What’s more, many visual content packages now come with advanced features like scheduling and analytics. This makes the whole process easier, from making the content to publishing it online and reviewing its success. This combination can help you get more done on social media and save you time.

Discover how social media can facilitate lead prospecting.

7. Onsite content creation package

Businesses that want to improve their website with new, high-quality material should get an onsite content creation package. This package usually incorporates useful blog posts, articles, and other forms of written content that improve your site and can also be repurposed for social media.

These packages are made to fit your brand’s style and marketing goals, so the content will connect with your target audience and encourage them to take the actions you want.

8. Influencer outreach package

Using an influencer outreach package makes it easier to find and work with influential voices in your niche or industry. This package usually takes care of all parts of influencer campaigns, from the first contact and negotiations to managing the relationship and evaluating the campaign’s success.

For this service, social media marketing agencies use services like Afluencer and Heepsy to find influencers with the right following and engagement metrics. Agencies want to find influencers who:

• Have a large following;
• See a lot of engagement on their posts;
• Authentically interact with their followers.

An influencer outreach package often comes with campaign management tools that let brands track and plan their interactions with multiple influencers.

This kind of package can greatly increase a brand’s exposure and audience engagement by using the reputation and reach of influencers in specific communities.

While the word “influencer” might conjure up ideas of Gen Z applying beauty products or sporting flashy clothes, influencers can be anyone with authority and reach in a given interest or industry. Think Steven Bartlett and Rand Fishkin for example.

And the potential returns are nothing to turn your nose up at: influencer marketing has an average ROI of 600%, sometimes reaching 2000% when managed particularly well.

Looking for big names in sales? Here’s 15+ sales influencers to follow in 2024.

9. Social media audits and strategy package

Social media marketing agencies offering an audit package analyze the performance of your social accounts. This means checking engagement rates, audience growth, and the effectiveness of your content. The aim is to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Using these insights, the agencies can provide a personalized strategy and action plan to boost performance and contribute to your larger marketing goals.

Agencies offering this package advise on what kinds of posts to make, when to publish them, and how best to interact with your audience. They also often provide tips for managing your paid ads.

10. Social media training and consulting package

The social media training and consulting package provides essential support and guidance for businesses aiming to strengthen their internal team’s ability to manage social media. Social media marketing agencies usually go through these steps:

• Analyzing your current social media marketing strategy to pinpoint areas that need improvement;
• Providing customized coaching on topics such as content marketing strategies, platform-specific tactics, and engagement techniques;
• Training on analytical tools to make sure they’re measuring the right things;
• Ongoing consultation with updates on the latest trends and tools, plus strategic advice to refine and adapt your social media marketing.

These social media marketing packages give your team the information and skills they need to effectively manage social media. It can help you get the most out of social media marketing through expert advice and thought leadership.

A lot goes into selecting the correct social media marketing services for your needs. There are a few things to consider before you choose a package.

Assess your needs

To choose the right social media management package from a marketing agency, conducting a SWOT analysis of your current social media efforts can be very beneficial. This involves four key steps:

1. Strengths: Think about what your business does well on social media. This could mean having a lot of engagement, an influx of new followers, or content types that generate traffic, sign-ups, or whatever your conversion goal may be. Knowing these strengths can help you decide what to look for in social media marketing packages.
2. Weaknesses: Figure out what parts of your plan are missing. Poor engagement on particular social media platforms, low conversion rates, or content that doesn’t connect with your audience are all common problems.
3. Opportunities: Look for things outside of your control that might help your performance on social media. This could include new tools, platforms, strategies, or markets that haven’t been tapped into. With the right social media package, you can take advantage of these opportunities.
4. Threats: Think about the problems or risks that could hurt your social media efforts, like changes to algorithmic updates, increasing competition, or changes in how people use social media. The correct social media marketing package should include ways to protect your account from these threats, so your social media profile stays strong.

Next, you should look at setting goals.

Set clear goals

Decide what you want to accomplish with your social media interactions and community management. Are you looking to boost engagement rates, grow your follower base, improve customer service responses, or drive revenue?

Once you know your goals, you can find the relevant package to support them. Here’s how to set SMART goals for your social media strategy.

1. Specific: Aim for a precise objective. For example, “Increase the engagement rate on Instagram posts by 10%”;
2. Measurable: The goal has to be quantified. In this case, tracking the engagement rate gives you tangible numbers to track;
3. Achievable: Set goals that are realistic given your resources and timeline. If a 10% increase is reasonable based on past data, it’s a good target;
4. Relevant: Choose goals that align with broader business objectives. E.g. “Increasing engagement can lead to higher brand visibility and sales conversions”;
5. Time-bound: Set a deadline to achieve the goal. For instance, “Achieve this 10% increase within the next quarter.”

Using this example, your final SMART goal would be to increase Instagram engagement by 10% in the next quarter.

Choosing the appropriate social media bundle can help your digital marketing reach your business objectives. Search for packages that include analytics tools, as tracking your SMART goal performance requires access to first-party data.

Choose providers who offer tailored plans for the social media platforms relevant to your target market.

Understanding what’s included in the package

To choose the right package, you need to delve into the details and goals of each social media management package and how it could help meet your company’s needs. Here are a few things to question and consider.

Does the package focus on daily contact and engagements; analytics that monitor the success of your campaigns and interactions; or content production involving the creation of posts, photos, and videos suited to your audience?

Check that the provided services fit your objectives. For instance, is the package proficient at managing Facebook and Instagram if that’s where your target market spends most of their time? It’s also worth checking if the package offers frequent analytics reports that enable you to gauge success.

You may also want to consider packages that provide scalability and flexibility to evolve with your company and social media needs.

Pricing and budget

Check that the package makes sense financially. Make a definite budget for social media management and follow it. You can avoid overspending and concentrate on packages that offer the greatest value.

Specific features and capabilities

See what features correspond to your particular objectives. If increasing engagement is your goal, you should make packages with sophisticated analytics and engagement tools your top priority. Look for options with good content production and distribution capabilities if you want to raise brand awareness.

Cross-integration

Whether or not a package integrates with your current processes and systems can make a huge difference to your agility and efficiency. It should integrate seamlessly with your existing tools to increase productivity without interfering with your work.

Client reviews and demonstrations

Always read other customers’ reviews. These can reveal information about how dependable and successful the bundle is. They can also uncover hidden costs and installation fees. If possible, ask for a demonstration to see how the service functions and whether it meets your expectations.

Once you’ve thoroughly assessed these factors, you can choose a social media management package within your price range. It should effortlessly combine

Choosing the right social media management package can transform your business, offering more engagement, increased visibility, and authentic interactions that turn admirers into customers.

With the right package, your social media efforts can align perfectly with your business goals, encouraging growth and connection. For a vibrant, engaging social media presence that truly reflects the spirit of your brand, a social media management package may be the answer.

Discover how a CRM can help you manage marketing and sales leads. Enjoy Capsule’s free starter package or start a 14-day free trial and see how Capsule’s features can help you engage with prospects and increase revenue.

Only a third of sales professionals rate their new sales process rollouts as excellent. Clearly, sales managers need to take their training methods up a notch.

Sales reps face a daily stream of challenges. Each day throws a mix of calls, emails, and unique customer interactions their way.

Easy to get lost, isn’t it?

That’s where a well-crafted sales playbook comes in. You can use it as a complex guide for your sales team. With a playbook, your team can eliminate guesswork and swiftly pinpoint the exact strategy for any situation.

This article is your step-by-step manual for developing an effective sales playbook. Ready to step up your sales game? Let’s get started!

What is a sales playbook?

A sales playbook is a collection of tactics or methods that outlines the roles and responsibilities within a sales team, details strategies for engaging with prospects and customers, and provides guidance on executing sales processes.

In most cases, it is a web document.

What is NOT a sales playbook?

A business playbook – a business playbook is different from a sales playbook, as it covers best practices across the entire business, including sales, marketing, operations, customer service, etc. A business playbook is a broader document that provides a consistent approach for the whole organization, not just the sales team.

Sales kits – while a sales kit provides specific content and resources to help sales reps (e.g. talking points, email templates), it is more narrowly focused on the “what to know” and “what content to show”. In contrast, a sales playbook provides a more comprehensive guide covering the overall sales process, best practices, strategies, and tactics.

Sales plays – these are specific tutorials or sets of repeatable steps and best practices for sales reps to use in particular sales scenarios or stages of the sales process. Sales plays are components that can be included within a broader sales playbook.

Why do you need a sales playbook?

A sales playbook is a must-have for any team aiming for high sales performance. According to Salesforce, companies equipped with a sales playbook are 33% more likely to be top performers.

A sales playbook can help:

• Expedite onboarding new hires. A playbook fast-tracks the onboarding process for new team members. It serves as a comprehensive guide, helping them understand your sales process, products, and strategies efficiently.
• Keep your team members on the same page. Everyone is familiar with the common practices, approaches, and messaging, which promotes consistency in the way sales are handled.
• Roll out products easier. Each new product rollout means a re-evaluation of buyer personas, sales strategy, and sales enablement materials. A sales playbook helps tackle the issue in an organized manner.
• Save reps time. A playbook offers precise solutions and tactics for typical sales situations. As a result, reps spend less time deciding what to do next. They can devote more time to sales rather than planning.
• Improve customer experience. A systematic strategy taken by your sales team results in more polished and reliable customer interactions. The general client experience is improved by this uniformity, which raises satisfaction and loyalty.

Despite its importance, 40% of sales teams don’t have their own sales playbook. Such a gap frequently causes inconsistent execution and results from sales attempts.

This brings us to an intriguing question: what exactly makes up such a playbook? Let’s peel back the layers to uncover the core components of a sales playbook, each designed to turn strategy into action.

10 key sales playbook components you need to include

A sales playbook is the blueprint for sales success, packed with essential components. Each part plays a role in guiding your team to victory. Let’s introduce the most important elements of a sales playbook:

Company overview

A company overview in a sales playbook is fundamental. It shows who you are and your company’s aims. The overview usually contains the following:

Mission statement

It’s your company’s heartbeat. It tells everyone why you exist and what you aim to do. It guides all your strategies and moves.

Example: “We strive to empower creatives with innovative tools that unleash their full potential, making every design project a masterpiece.”

Vision statement

Think of the future you want. Your vision shows where you’re headed, pushing your team to go further.

Example: “Our vision is to be the leading provider of design software globally, transforming the creative landscape by 2030.”

Core values

These are your must-haves. They shape how your company acts and how your team works together and with customers.

Example: “Integrity, Innovation, and Customer Success — These values guide our operations, influence our decisions, and shape how we collaborate with our clients and each other.”

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

This is what makes you stand out. It’s the special thing your products or services bring to the table.

Example: “Our software offers the fastest rendering in the industry, combined with an intuitive interface that accommodates both novice and professional designers.”

Company history

Tell your company’s story. Highlighting your growth and journey can boost team spirit.

Example: “Founded in 2010, we started in a small office with just three employees. Today, we’ve grown to a multinational company with over 2,000 employees, celebrated for disrupting the design software market.”

Market position

Look at where you stand in the market. Knowing this helps you plan better and spot chances to grow.

Example: “Currently positioned as the third-largest provider in the graphic design software market, we are known for our rapid innovation and customer-centric upgrades, consistently outpacing our competitors in user satisfaction ratings.”

The company overview is the foundation of your sales playbook – it’s the story of who you are. It gives your team the info and inspiration they need to sell well and turns them into brand ambassadors, proud of where they work and what they sell.

Product or service overview

Your team can learn everything there is to know about your product via the product overview. This section enables sales staff to communicate to prospective customers the worth of your goods or services.

What’s inside:

Features

Here, we break down what the product does. It shows how each feature meets customer needs.

Example: “Our latest project management software includes real-time collaboration tools, integrated time tracking, and automated reporting functions. Each feature is designed to address specific needs, such as reducing project timelines and improving team coordination.”

Benefits

We talk about the perks of using your product. Think improved productivity or saving money. Show actual numbers.

Example: “Using our project management software, teams have reported a 40% increase in productivity and a 25% reduction in project costs due to more efficient management processes and decreased downtime.”

What makes it special

This part points out why your product beats the competition. What makes your offer unique is what matters.

Example: “What sets our software apart is its ability to integrate seamlessly with over 50 other business tools without any performance lag which guarantees a perfect fit into any existing business infrastructure.”

Real examples

We give scenarios showing your product in action. It helps buyers picture using it themselves.

Example: “Consider a scenario where a marketing team is working on multiple campaigns. Our software allows them to assign tasks, divide them into groups, track progress in real-time, and receive automated progress reports, which makes it easy to stay on schedule and adapt to any changes quickly.”

Happy customers

Show positive feedback from users. It proves your product works well.

Example: “Sara from Austin shared, ‘Since we switched to your software, managing our projects has become a breeze. The intuitive design and powerful features have made a huge difference in how we work. It’s reliable and exactly what we needed.'”

Price details

Here, you find out how much it costs, along with any deals or plans available.
Example: “The software is available at a base price of $50 per user per month. We offer tiered pricing with discounts for larger teams and long-term commitments, as well as a flexible enterprise package that can be customized to meet specific business needs.”

Product overview fills in the blanks for your sales team. It makes sure they know the product inside out. The result is that they can discuss it with confidence and respond to inquiries immediately. And, real-life examples and customer stories make the product relatable. Knowing the price details upfront makes the sales talk smoother.

It’s all about selling smarter, not harder, which brings us to messaging.

Messaging

The messaging part of a sales playbook tells your team how to talk about your products or services. Your reps need to hit the right notes with your audience. Here’s what you need to include and why it matters.

What’s inside:

Value proposition

The top reason someone should buy from you. It’s your main message.

Example: “Our smart thermostat helps you cut energy costs by up to 30% by automatically adjusting the temperature based on your daily habits and weather conditions.”

Elevator pitch

A quick pitch that makes people want to learn more. Keep it short and punchy.

Example: “Imagine lowering your energy bills without sacrificing comfort. Our smart thermostat makes it possible by learning your schedule and adjusting itself. Save money effortlessly!”

Key messages

The big points you want everyone to remember about what you’re selling.

Example: “Our product is not just smart; it’s caring. It reduces your energy use, saves you money, and you control it from anywhere through your smartphone. It’s the simplest step toward a smarter home.”

Success stories

Real stories where your product made a difference. They show your value through numbers and results.

Example: “Last winter, the Smith family from Vermont used our thermostat and saw their heating costs drop by $200. They managed their home’s temperature remotely, never wasting energy.”

FAQs

Common questions and straight answers. This prepares your team to respond well.

Example:

1. What if my schedule changes often?

“Our thermostat adapts to changes in real-time. Just use the app to set your preferences.”

2. Is it hard to install?

“No, installation is simple and we provide a step-by-step guide. You can set it up in less than 30 minutes.”

3. Can it integrate with other smart home devices?

“Absolutely! It works seamlessly with most major smart home systems, enhancing your connected home experience.”

Clear messaging accomplishes several objectives. It makes your product’s benefits abundantly evident. Everyone on your team shares the same story. The result is a powerful brand.

When your team knows what to say, they feel sure. Sure reps sell more. They turn curious people into buyers.

Such clarity and unity boost your sales reps’ confidence because they know exactly what to say. And when they use the right words, they’re more likely to turn curious folks into paying customers.

Yet, to win with messaging, you need a solid sales team structure.

Sales team structure

The structure section of a sales playbook outlines how your sales team is organised. You should put in place a system that lets each member know their role, responsibilities, and how they fit into the bigger picture. You need this setup for smooth operations and hitting sales targets. Here’s what that covers and why it’s important.

What’s inside:

Roles and responsibilities

Define each position on the team. Who does what? Make it clear.

**Example:

Sales Associate: Handles day-to-day customer interactions and closes sales deals.

Sales Manager: Oversees the sales associates, sets targets, and develops strategies.

Account Executive: Manages key accounts and builds relationships with high-value clients.

Hierarchy and reporting lines

Show who reports to whom. It helps with communication and accountability.

Example

Sales Associates report to the Sales Manager.

Sales Managers report to the Director of Sales.

Account Executives also report directly to the Director of Sales.

Team segmentation

If you have different products or markets, explain how you divide the team. This could be by region, product type, or customer segment.

Example:

Regional teams: Our team is divided based on geographical regions to cater to local market nuances.

Product teams: Each product line has a dedicated team specializing in that specific offering.

Customer segment teams: We segment teams to focus on different customer groups, such as SMBs, enterprise clients, and startups.

Sales territories: For teams that cover specific areas, outline these territories. Who covers where?

Example:

North region: Covered by Team A, focusing on urban and suburban areas.

South region: Team B handles this region, with a focus on both rural and metropolitan areas.

Tools and resources

List the tools your team uses. This includes CRM systems, work scheduling software, data analysis tools, and communication platforms.

Example:

CRM system: Capsule CRM, for managing customer relationships and sales pipelines.

Scheduling software: Google Calendar, for booking and managing sales appointments.

Data analysis tools: Plecto, for visualizing sales data and trends.

Communication platforms: Slack and Microsoft Teams, for internal communications and coordination.

Training and development

Mention how you train new hires and keep the team’s skills sharp. Continuous learning is key.

Setting up your sales team structure correctly is a game changer. It makes everything run smoother. Each person knows their job and nails it. There is no confusion and no one steps on each other’s toes.

Plus, clear reporting lines mean everyone knows who to talk to, making things move faster. When you split the team by region or product, each rep can really focus and push sales in their area.

Bottom line: a solid team structure sets the stage for surpassing sales targets and propelling your company ahead.

This leads us to the next significant element: sales plays.

Sales plays

Sales plays are your team’s actual responses to possible scenarios. They show how to talk to prospects and close deals in the form of a manual or instruction. Here’s what they usually cover:

What’s inside:

• Prospecting plays: Strategies for identifying and reaching out to potential leads. These include cold calling, email outreach, or social selling techniques.
• Qualification plays: Steps to assess a prospect’s fit and interest level. This guarantees your team focuses their efforts on leads with the highest conversion potential.
• Presentation plays: Guidelines for presenting your product or service to prospects. It contains how to tailor your pitch to meet the specific needs and pain points of each prospect.
• Closing plays: Techniques and tactics for closing deals. This might include creating a sense of urgency or offering a limited-time discount.
• Follow-up plays: Methods for staying in touch with prospects after initial contact. Effective follow-up can keep your product top of mind and eventually lead to a sale.

Why do these matter? Sales plays give your team a clear strategy. They cut down on guesswork and boost confidence. With these plays, your team can handle any sales situation. They make your sales process smooth and effective. In addition, it helps your team grow, sell, and earn more.

Commission framework

The sales commission part in a sales playbook spells out how you pay your sales team for their wins. It’s the part that explains the mix of base salary and bonuses, how much they earn from deals, and any extra rewards for hitting big goals. Here’s what you need to cover:

What’s inside:

1. Base salary vs. commission: Detail the balance between fixed salary and performance-based earnings.
2. Commission rates: Specify the percentage of sales revenue or profit that reps will earn from their deals. Rates can vary based on product lines, sales volumes, or deal sizes.
3. Tiered commission structure: If applicable, explain how commission rates increase with higher sales levels.
4. Bonus incentives: Outline any additional bonuses for reaching specific milestones, such as quarterly sales targets or selling new products.
5. Payment schedule: Clarify how often commissions are calculated and paid out.
6. Rules and conditions: Include any rules regarding returns, cancellations, and clawbacks. Reps can then understand the conditions under which they can earn and keep their commissions.

A clear commission framework keeps your sales team driven. The crux lies in making sure they know exactly how their hard work pays off. Such clarity and fairness result in fewer problems and more confidence.

When reps see the potential for real earnings, they’re motivated to sell more and stick around longer. Aligning bonuses with company goals also means everyone’s working towards the same big wins.

A solid commission plan is a powerhouse for your whole business’s growth, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of your target audience. In order to accomplish this, we need to understand buyer personas.

Buyer personas

Buyer personas are detailed profiles of your ideal customers. They help your sales team understand who they’re selling to. Each persona includes information like demographics, goals, pain points, and buying behavior. The personas section guides your team on how to tailor their approach to different types of customers.

What’s inside:

1. Background: Job, career path, and family situation.
2. Demographics: Age, income level, location.
3. Goals and challenges: What they aim to achieve and the obstacles they face.
4. Buying behavior: How they make purchasing decisions.
5. Preferred communication: How they like to receive information and communicate.
6. Willingness to pay: How willing they are to buy the product or service.

Buyer personas make your sales efforts more effective. They let your team see the world from the customer’s perspective. The resulting knowledge helps in crafting messages that resonate and solutions that fit.

Personas guide your team in addressing specific needs and concerns. They show how to appeal to each type of customer.

On top of that, personas help in identifying the most valuable leads. It means your team can focus their efforts where they count the most.

In essence, buyer personas are tools that sharpen your sales strategy. They help your team speak the right language to the right people.

The sales methodology section has similar goals.

Sales methodology

The sales methodology section is your team’s game plan for turning leads into customers. It’s the part of the playbook that shows how to approach, persuade, and close deals with prospects. Here’s a quick look at what it covers and why it’s a big deal.

What’s inside:

1. Finding leads: How your team spots and reaches out to potential customers.
2. Who’s a good fit: The checklist to see if a prospect matches what you’re selling.
3. Building relationships: How your team connects with prospects, learns what they need, and offers solutions.
4. The steps to a sale: Each phase your team goes through, from saying hello to sealing the deal.
5. Staying in touch: How to keep customers happy and coming back after the sale.

A solid sales methodology keeps everyone on track. It means your whole team uses the same playbook, making your sales efforts more streamlined and successful. That way, they can close deals smarter and make long-lasting relationships along the way.

It also makes training new sales reps easier. They get a clear map to follow, which helps them get up to speed faster. On top of that, it lets you see how things are going and where you might need to tweak your strategies.

Your sales methodology is the heart of how your team operates. For these operations to run correctly, you need to measure them. This is where the KPI section of your playbook comes in.

Key performance indicators and goals

Key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals in a sales playbook outline the sales metrics and objectives that your team should aim for. These indicators and goals help measure success, guide sales efforts, and show where improvements are needed. All this can be integrated with your CRM using solutions like Plecto which can usually display the data in real time.

Here’s a breakdown of what this section includes and its importance.

What’s inside:

• Sales targets: Specific revenue or unit sales numbers to hit in a given period.
• Conversion rates: The percentage of leads that turn into customers.
• Average deal size: The typical revenue per sale.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): How much it costs, on average, to acquire a new customer.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): The total revenue a business can expect from a single customer account.
• Lead response time: How quickly sales reps respond to new leads.
• Anual contract value: the total worth of a contract over the course of a year.
• Customer satisfaction scores: Feedback and ratings from customers about their buying experience.

KPIs and goals give your sales team clear targets to aim for. They turn abstract ideas of success into measurable numbers. Everyone understands what they’re working towards.

These metrics also allow for tracking progress over time. They show where the team is excelling and where there’s room for improvement. You need these insights to make data-driven decisions.

Setting and reviewing KPIs keeps the team aligned and focused. It encourages a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Assessing performance against these indicators regularly can motivate your team and help address challenges, on the spot.

KPIs and goals drive your sales team towards growth. They make certain that every effort is strategic and contributes to the overall objectives of your business.

Internal resources and tools

Internal resources and tools in your sales playbook are all about giving your sales team what they need to win. This section lists the tech, info, and support that help reps sell better and faster.

1. CRM software: The go-to system for keeping track of customers and sales.
2. Sales tools: Platforms that give your team sales materials and training.
3. Chat and email: Apps for talking with the team and customers.
4. Training videos: Videos and demos that teach your team about your products.
5. Competitor info: Info on what the competition is up to, so you can sell smarter.
6. Time management: How your team members are measuring their efforts.

The right tools and info can make or break your sales team’s success. CRM systems like Capsule CRM keep customer details all in one space, making follow-ups a breeze. Sales tools put key materials at your team’s fingertips, boosting their confidence. Chat apps keep everyone in the loop, making teamwork easier.

Knowing your products inside and out means your team can answer any question thrown at them. Training resources keep everyone sharp and help them understand the competition. That’s how you show customers that your product is the best choice.

These resources and tools are the nuts and bolts of your sales machine. They make your team faster, smarter, and more connected. Investing here means you’re setting your team—and your business—up for a win.

10 steps to creating an outstanding sales playbook

Now that you know what to include in your sales playbook, let’s take a look at the actual steps of doing it.

Review your sales process

Start by taking a close look at your current sales process. This means mapping out each step from the moment a lead comes in, to the final sale and follow-up. Understand what’s working and what isn’t. Identify the stages where deals tend to stall or where your team excels. This review will highlight areas for improvement and best practices to include in your playbook.

To go about it:

• Map out each step of your current sales process.
• Identify successful tactics and common roadblocks.
• Analyze conversion rates at different stages.
• Gather feedback from sales reps on challenges faced.
• Compare your process with industry best practices.
• Highlight areas needing improvement or optimization.
• Document effective strategies that consistently lead to sales.

Consult departments

Pulling together a top-notch sales playbook means getting the whole company in on the action. To make it happen:

1. Talk to your marketing team: Find out how they reel in leads and who they’re aiming for. This helps match your sales pitch to marketing efforts.
2. Listen to customer service: Learn about the big wins and the questions that pop up a lot. Use this to prep your team for what customers might ask.
3. Catch up with product development: Stay in the loop on what you’re selling now and what’s coming next. Knowing your product inside out makes selling it easier.
4. Discuss with finance: Get the lowdown on pricing and deals. That way, your team knows the best offers they can make.
5. Partner with HR: Tap into training resources to boost your team’s skills. HR can also clue you in on what motivates your sales crew.
6. Chat with C-level execs: Understand the big picture and what the company is shooting for. Your playbook should help hit these targets.

This packs your playbook with insights from every corner of your company. Your sales team has the full scoop to hit their marks.

Outline your playbook goals

Creating a good sales playbook means setting goals that turn it into a powerhouse tool for your team. Remember, these goals have to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Here are some potential goals you might pick:

• Increase lead conversion rates by 15% within the next 6 months.
• Boost average revenue per customer by 10% by the end of the year through upselling and cross-selling techniques.
• Reduce the average sales cycle length by 20% within the first quarter following playbook adoption.
• Achieve a 10% lower turnover rate among sales reps and leaders by the end of 2024.
• Aim for a 20% increase in the company’s overall revenue by the end of the fiscal year by applying the playbook’s insights and strategies.

Through these objectives, the sales playbook becomes a strategic tool that drives improvements and success throughout the organization.

Establish target audience

Establishing your target audience takes a bit of research and strategy, but it’s worth every step. Without a target audience, sales teams can’t work properly. Here is how to establish your own:

1. Gather data: Start with what you know. Look at your current customers, sales data, and website analytics. Surveys and interviews can also offer deep insights.
2. Spot patterns: As you sift through the data, look for common characteristics. These might be demographic details, buying behaviors, or shared challenges and goals.
3. Draft personas: Use the patterns you’ve found to create profiles for your typical buyers. Give them names to make them more relatable. Detail their backgrounds, needs, and decision-making processes.
4. Check with your team: Share these personas with your sales and marketing teams. Their frontline experience can help refine and validate your profiles.
5. Make them real: Add quotes from real customer interviews or feedback to bring each persona to life. This helps your team empathize and understand each persona better.
6. Use them: Integrate your target audience into everything you do. From marketing campaigns to sales pitches, confirm your efforts align with the needs and preferences of your personas.
7. Keep them updated: Markets change, and so do your customers. Regularly review and update your target audience to keep it accurate and useful.

With a clear target audience, you give your team a roadmap to help understand and engage your clients effectively. Your sales and marketing strategies can hit the right note. Engagement, conversions, and customer satisfaction will follow.

Set up KPIs

Setting up the right KPIs for your business involves a thoughtful process that aligns with your company’s goals and challenges. Why? Because they’re crucial for guiding your sales team. KPIs inspire performance and often energize your team members.

• Understand your goals: Begin by examining your company’s objectives. Your KPIs should directly reflect your goals.
• Identify key business processes: Examine the activities at the heart of your business, such as sales, customer service, or product innovation. These areas will help you pinpoint where performance metrics are most needed.
• Consult your team: Talk to sales leaders and team members for insights into the daily workings and challenges of your business. Their frontline experience can reveal essential areas for measurement.
• Choose actionable metrics: Pick KPIs that you can influence. If your team’s actions can’t impact the metric, it’s not a practical KPI for your business.
• Make them measurable: Each KPI should have a clear, quantifiable target. This could be a specific number, a percentage, or a straightforward yes/no outcome.
• Set benchmarks: Define what success looks like for each KPI, using past performance, industry standards, or ambitious goals as your guide.
• Review and adjust: KPIs should evolve with your business. Regularly assess their relevance and adjust them based on your company’s performance and changing goals. Double-check everyone gets the KPIs. They need to know why they matter and how their work fits in.
• Communicate clearly: Everyone in your organization needs to understand the KPIs, their significance, and how their work contributes to these goals.

Next up, refresh your training materials. This step ties training directly to those KPIs. It gives your team the right tools to hit those targets.

Update your training materials

To keep your sales team at the top of their game, you need to regularly update your training materials. Creating a sales playbook is a great place to do this.

Evaluate your existing resources to pinpoint outdated information, gaps in content, or areas that could benefit from deeper exploration. Engage with your team to gather feedback; they can offer valuable insights into what’s effective and what might be missing.

Incorporate the latest sales techniques, tools, and industry trends and help your team remain competitive and well-informed. Align the content of your training materials with your current sales goals and strategies.

Before rolling out the updated materials to the entire team, test them with a select group and use their feedback to make necessary adjustments. Additionally, verify if your trainers or senior sales reps are well-prepared to deliver the new material effectively.

Finally, establish a schedule for regular reviews and updates to your training materials. Keep them current and continue to meet the needs of your sales team.
Next, share it with your team.

Make the sales playbook accessible

The playbook needs to be available at all times. Luckily, there’s an abundance of ways you can make your sales playbook instantly accessible to everyone across your team.

1. Use cloud storage: Think Google Workspace & Capsule integration or Dropbox. Put your playbook here so it’s easy to find and share.
2. Pick sales enablement tools: Highspot or Showpad work great – they keep your playbook handy for quick looks.
3. Post on your intranet: Got Confluence or SharePoint? Perfect spot for your playbook. It’s one click away.
4. Go mobile: Make it accessible for sales reps on the phone. They’ll use it more, even on the go.
   Update often: Keep it fresh. Use these platforms to push updates straight to your team.
5. Notify your team: Let them know when new updates are live. Each sales rep will always have the latest info.

Finally, it’s time to measure your results.

Measure results

After you’ve introduced your sales playbook, you need to measure its impact. This goes beyond a mere glance at sales figures. It involves a detailed comparison of performance before and after the playbook’s deployment.

Start by setting a clear timeline that allows enough time for the playbook’s effects to come into effect. Depending on the nature of your sales cycle, this could vary from a few months to a quarter. Collect key sales data from before the playbook was introduced. Focus on metrics such as sales volume, conversion rates, and average deal size.

Once your set period has elapsed, gather these metrics again to get a clear picture of the changes. Analyze the data to identify any improvements; look for increases in sales volume, higher conversion rates, and larger average deal sizes. Make sure to consider seasonality.

Beyond the numbers, it’s also worthwhile to get feedback from your sales team on how the playbook has influenced their sales technique, confidence, and efficiency. Send out a survey to gauge their sentiment. If certain metrics haven’t improved as expected, investigate further to understand why and identify how the playbook could be enhanced.

This analysis should lead to adjustments in the playbook, followed by further measurement of its impact. Such a cycle of evaluation and refinement fortifies your sales and overall business strategy.

Final thoughts

And there you have it! Sales playbooks are powerful tools that can truly transform your sales process. Done well, they streamline your approach and empower your sales team to hit their targets with greater precision and confidence. A well-crafted playbook brings clarity, aligns your team with your business goals, and provides actionable strategies for every step of the sales journey.

Remember, the effectiveness of a sales playbook hinges on its adoption by the team, its alignment with real-world scenarios, and its ability to evolve with your business. Keep it updated, accessible, and relevant, and you’ll see just how much of a game-changer a sales playbook can be for achieving sustained sales success.

Discover how the right software can help your team by trying Capsule free for 14-days.

Are you reaching the right customers with your email marketing?

64% of small businesses are already tapping into the power of permission-based email marketing, and they’re seeing significant benefits.

Not only are consumers receptive to this strategy, but 71% of them actively choose offers that are relevant to their interests. Plus, with an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, the efficiency of this strategy is hard to ignore.

This article breaks down what permission-based email marketing involves, outlines its key advantages, and actionable best practices for your business.

Definition of permission-based email marketing

Permission-based email marketing (otherwise known as opt-in email marketing) is simple – people have to say “yes” to recieve your emails.. Email content is only sent to people who genuinely want them thanks to this strategy. Nothing spammy, just content they enjoy.

Implied and explicit consent

Implied consent comes into effect when a relationship already exists. Think of a customer who’s made a purchase. They haven’t said, “Send me emails,” but their action implies they might be open to hearing from you. Implied permission is usually not enough to start sending emails. However, some companies do it anyway. All they need is the email, it doesn’t matter whether or not the customer consented.

On the flip side, explicit permission requires a customer to check a box or fill out a form saying, “Yes, I want your emails.” This distinction is super important. Emails sent with explicit consent often see higher engagement because recipients have actively chosen to receive them. It’s safer to send marketing emails this way.

Double opt-in vs single opt-in

When growing your email list, there are two main routes: double opt-in and single opt-in. Each has its own approach to how subscribers sign up.

Single opt-in: This is the straightforward path. Someone enters their email, hits submit, and they’re in. No confirmation is needed. It’s quick and boosts your list fast. But, it’s a bit like leaving your door unlocked, anyone, even those less interested or bots, can wander in.

Double opt-in: After signing up, the subscriber gets an email asking them to confirm their subscription. Only after clicking a link in this email do they officially join the list. It’s one extra step, but it makes a huge difference. This method confirms your email subscribers are genuinely interested and reduces the chances of spam or fake sign-ups.

Only 9.19% of email campaigns choose double opt-in, despite the benefits to quality and engagement. The vast majority, (90.81%) stick with single opt-in, prioritizing list size over quality.

Choosing between double and single opt-in depends on your goals. If quick list growth is your aim, single might be the way. But for a list to be filled with engaged interested subscribers, double opt-in is the gold standard.

Transactional emails

Transactional emails are a big part of permission-based email marketing. They are triggered by specific user actions or account events, such as account creation, password resets, order confirmations, or shipping notifications. These emails are expected by the recipient and have an inherently high open rate.

Transactional emails present a valuable opportunity to engage with customers who have explicitly provided their email address and consent to receive marketing communications. With tools like Capsule and Transpond you can incorporate personalized content within these transactional emails. This way, you can strengthen customer relationships, drive engagement, and promote new features or offerings.

For example, after a customer makes a purchase, include a section in the order confirmation email that highlights a new product feature or service related to their purchase. This informs customers about the new offering and provides a seamless transition for them to explore and potentially adopt it.

Additionally, transactional emails can be personalized based on the recipient’s purchase history or account details. This further improves the relevance and impact of your messaging.

Benefits of permission-based email marketing

An effective email marketing plan could substantially improve your outcomes. Here are some of the benefits of a permission-based email marketing strategy.

Higher ROI

Opting for permission-based email marketing is like choosing a direct flight to your destination: it’s efficient and yields better results. This strategy guarantees that every email you send is to a recipient who has specifically requested communication from your company.

What does this mean for you? A higher return on investment (ROI). Since your messages are landing in welcoming inboxes, they’re more likely to be opened, read, and acted upon.

The bottom line? You’re investing in a targeted approach that increases engagement, drives sales, and ultimately, boosts your ROI. It’s smart emailing at its best.

Better click-through rates and open rates

Permission-based email marketing boosts your click-through and open rates. How? By making certain your emails hit the inboxes of people who want them. Add personalization into the mix, and you’ve got a winning formula.

75% of all marketers believe personalized campaigns drive higher click-through rates. It’s a no-brainer. When you tailor your messages based on what your subscribers want, they’re more likely to engage. In short, permission plus personalization equals more opens, more clicks, and more interest in what you’re offering.

More accurate data

With permission, you don’t have to hazard a guess as to who would be interested in your material. It makes all of your metrics far more useful and guarantees that your data represents a truly engaged audience.

Open rates, click-through rates, and conversion data become reliable indicators of your campaign’s success.

Why? Because they come from subscribers who chose to be on your list, their email addresses are valid, and you get additional information such as their preferences on opt-in.

This accuracy helps you fine-tune your strategies and make informed decisions. In essence, permission-based email marketing transforms your data from a broad estimate to a precise tool for growth.

Lower unsubscribe rates

Permission-based email marketing naturally leads to lower unsubscribe rates.

Here’s why: when people choose to receive your emails, they’re already interested in what you have to say. You’re not forcing your way into anyone’s inbox uninvited. This means fewer folks hitting that unsubscribe button because they’re getting relevant content they signed up for and want to see.

It’s simple, people will stay around if you give them what they want. This keeps your audience interested and your unsubscribe rates low.

Fewer spam complaints

With permission-based email marketing, spam complaints drop significantly. Why? Because every email lands in an inbox that asks for it. This reduces the chances of being marked as spam and improves your inbox health. A cleaner reputation with email providers means better delivery rates and visibility for your campaigns.

In the end, subscribers aren’t getting unsolicited emails. This keeps your engagement high and your brand’s email reputation solid. It’s a straightforward strategy for staying out of the spam folder.

Increased customer loyalty

Permission-based email marketing builds customer relationships. When subscribers give you the green light to email them, they’re signaling trust. Deliver valuable content that matches their interests, and you reinforce that trust. This turns casual subscribers into loyal fans.

They stick around because they see value in your emails, not simply as a source of deals but as a connection to a brand they align with. This loyalty is essential for long-term success. And, happy, engaged subscribers are more likely to advocate for your brand.

More qualified leads

With permission-based email marketing, you’re not casting a wide net and hoping for the best, you’re fishing with precision. This means your leads are warmer and more interested right from the start. It’s quality over quantity.

These folks are more likely to read, engage, click through, and buy because they already showed interest. So, when you send out an email, you’re reaching out to a crowd that’s halfway convinced. This turns your email list into a goldmine of potential customers ready to take the next step.

Legal framework and compliance in permission-based email marketing

Email marketing can indeed be a legal conundrum. To protect privacy, several anti-spam regulations have been implemented.

Let’s examine the major players:

• Canada’s CASL,
• CAN-SPAM,
• GDPR.

CAN SPAM Act

First, there’s the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. that covers all commercial emails.

This law says you must be honest about who you are in your emails. No fake names or email addresses. Your subject line must match the content, so itf it’s an ad – say it’s an ad. You also need to tell people where you’re located and how they can stop getting emails from you. And if they ask to unsubscribe, you’ve got 10 days to make it happen.

Get it wrong, and you could be looking at a $16,000 fine for each email.

CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation)

Heading north to Canada, things get even stricter with CASL. This law covers emails, texts, and some social media messages too. Before you hit send, you need a yes from the receiver. No implied permission, they have to clearly say they’re okay with your emails.

You also need to pack your emails with your contact info and an easy way out if they’re not into it anymore.

Breaking these rules? That could cost you up to $10 million.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

GDPR covers rules in the European Union and it takes privacy super seriously. You need to obtain permission before you send your email. And not just a tiny checkbox that’s already ticked, people have to actively opt-in. They can also tell you to forget they ever existed, and you have to listen.

Get this wrong, and the fines are massive. We’re talking millions or a chunk of your global sales.

So, what does all this mean for you? First, always ask before you send.

Make sure it’s easy for people to say yes to your emails. Keep track of who’s said yes and who’s said no and definitely don’t mix them up.

Be crystal clear in your emails about who you are, what you’re offering, and where you’re located, and always include a no-fuss way for people to unsubscribe.

In short, play by the rules. They’re there to keep everyone playing fair. Stick to them, and you’ll build trust with your audience..

Best practices for permission-based email marketing campaigns

81% of B2B marketers lean on email newsletters as their go-to content strategy. Why? Because it works. Let’s take a look at the best practices that make permission-based email marketing campaigns better.

Make it easy to register

Keep the sign-up simple. One opt-in form, with a few fields. Only the basics: name and aperson’s email address plus maybe a birthday field or interest checkbox.

Put this form where readers can’t miss it: your homepage, landing pages, at the end of blog posts, or during checkout. Additionally, use pop-ups with an email address field.

Offer a teaser of what they get by signing up. A discount code, contest, exclusive content, or early access to products work well. Tell them clearly what they’re signing up for. No surprises. This honesty builds rapport from the get-go. Quick, easy, and straightforward. That’s the sign-up goal.

Explicit consent is key

Always get a clear “yes” before sending emails. This means setting up a process where people actively choose to receive your messages. No hidden checkboxes or fine print. When someone signs up, confirm their choice with a follow-up email. This step proves they really want your emails and protects you legally.

It also shows respect for their inbox. Trust is gold in permission-based marketing. Keep it simple and honest.

Personalize the email experience

Use what you know. Tailor emails to fit each person’s likes, behaviors, habits, and history. It starts with data. Look into their past interactions and purchases then craft messages that speak directly to them.

Maybe it’s a birthday discount, a nudge about an abandoned cart, or news on products they love. Address them by name and suggest items based on their past buys.

Each email should feel like it’s made just for them. Why? Personal touches turn opens into clicks and clicks into sales. Plus, it shows you’re paying attention. That’s how you turn a subscriber into a fan.

Value proposition in opt-in

Tell them what’s in it for them. Make subscribing to your emails a no-brainer. Offer something they can’t resist.

This could be a first look at new products, a hefty discount, insider tips, or gated content.

Keep it fun, too. Your emails should be something they look forward to opening. Highlight these perks right at the sign-up. Show off the benefits of being on your list.

Make it clear, make it tempting, and watch those sign-up numbers climb.

Optimize for mobile devices

Most emails now pop open on a phone or tablet, over half, to be exact — 55% and climbing. So, make every email shine on small screens. This means big, finger-friendly buttons and text that’s easy to read without zooming. Layouts should adjust, no matter the device.

Images? Make sure they load fast and look good. A mobile-friendly email is more than nice to have. It’s a must for catching eyes and clicks. If they can’t read it easily on the go, you’ve lost them. Make every email mobile-ready, and keep your audience engaged.

Maintain email frequency balance

How often should you hit send? It’s all about balance. You want to stay on their radar without becoming a nuisance. Most marketers look at past customer engagement to decide. Did they open your last few emails? Keep up the pace. No bites? Maybe slow down.

The goal is to be informative without overloading their inbox. They probably already receive marketing messages daily. Remember, less can be more. Send emails that matter, when they matter. This way, your messages are always a welcome sight, not just another email to swipe away.

Segment your email list

Break it down. Your email list consists of people with different likes, needs, and habits. So, segment it, and your audience by age, location, what they buy, or how they interact with your emails. Why? Because tailored messages hit harder.

The proof? Segmented emails get 30% more opens and 50% more clicks than the one-size-fits-all kind. Tailor your campaigns to fit each segment. It’s like crafting a personal note to each group. The result is emails that feel relevant and personal and that’s what gets people clicking.

Incorporate clear calls-to-action (CTAs)

Get to the point. Email marketing messages should have a mission, that’s your CTA. Make it bold and make it clear.

What do you want them to do? Buy now? Learn more? Sign up? Say it loud and clear. Place your CTA where they can’t miss it.

Don’t leave them guessing – tell them what’s next, and they’ll follow.

Monitor and respond to engagement metrics

Keep an eye on the numbers. Open rates, click-throughs, conversions—these metrics tell a story. They show what’s working and what’s not. Did they open that email? Did they click the link? These insights are gold so, use them to tweak and improve your emails.

The best part? It pays off. A whopping 77% of marketers saw a boost in engagement this past year by doing just that. So, don’t ignore your data let it guide your permission marketing strategy. Watching these metrics closely means you’re always learning, and always getting better.

Provide easy unsubscribe options

Let them go easily. Sounds counterintuitive, right? But here’s the thing: if someone wants out, make it simple. A clear unsubscribe link is a must.

It’s about respect. Respecting choices builds credibility for your brand. Plus, it keeps your list healthy and engaged, setting up ground for further email campaigns. Worry less about losing one subscriber and more about keeping the rest happy. The result? Fewer spam complaints and a cleaner email list.

Test and iterate

Always be testing. Change up your subject lines, tweak your content, adjust CTAs, and play with send times.

Why? Because small changes can lead to big wins. Use A/B testing to see what clicks with your audience. Send out two versions, see which one performs better, and learn from it.

And here’s a kicker: Testing your marketing emails can seriously pay off. In fact, doing so could boost your ROI by up to 28%. Huge, right? Your email strategy should evolve. Because when you find what works, you can conduct a successful email marketing campaign.

Wrapping up

Permission-based email marketing is extremely effective. It turns your strategy from hit-and-miss to direct hits. You reach out to people who’ve said yes to your messages. This builds trust, boosts your metrics, and sharpens your focus.

The future? It’s bright but demands you stay agile. Laws will evolve. Technology will advance. Your approach must adapt. Always prioritize consent, value every subscriber, and keep messages relevant. Simplify your customer communications with Capsule, try free for 14-days and discover how it can help you.

Interest in why some sales teams consistently outperform? While the answers can be multiple, it often comes down to the sales methodology or approach applied in a particular team.

In a concept from 2010 – The Challenger Sale – Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson introduced a novel sales approach which has since been approached by thousands of sales teams across the world.

Today, we’ll look closely at what Challenger sales model is so that you can explore the benefits and best practices yourself.

What is the Challenger Sales Model?

Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson introduced the Challenger sales model in their The Challenger Sale book in 2010.

The Challenger model focuses on making customers think in new ways.

In this model, sales reps take on the role of a teacher. You’re helping your prospects learn something totally new about the prospect’s business. Things that make them go, “Huh, never thought of it that way.” Sales reps are equipped to give them those “aha” moments that make them see their needs and how to solve them differently.
Sales reps show customers insights they’ve never seen before – and this, naturally, shifts how they view their problems and solutions.

What are the three T’s in The Challenger Sale?

The model outlines three main practices:

• Teaching: Enlightening prospects with new insights
• Tailoring: Customizing messages to resonate deeply with the unique concerns and contexts of each decision-maker
• Taking control: Confidently guiding the sales process – particularly around complex discussions like pricing and value proposition.

Challengers stand out because they’re not afraid to nudge customers out of their comfort zones. They use this positive kind of pressure to question the usual ways of thinking, sparking action and decisions.

Challengers adapt to each situation with a unique approach and don’t rely on a set script. Instead, they’re always ready to switch things up. Sales reps listen closely to what the customer is saying and then tailor their message on the spot. This makes every customer conversation feel fresh and directly relevant to what the customer needs right now.

What are the 5 types of sellers in the challenger sales model?

In the Challenger sales model, sales reps are grouped into five distinct types based on their sales approach and interaction with clients. These types help identify different strategies and behaviors that salespeople naturally gravitate toward.

1. The hard worker

The hard worker shines in competitive and goal-oriented environments where effort and persistence directly correlate with success. Their relentless drive and willingness to put in extra hours make them excellent at volume-based selling.

However, they may struggle in scenarios that require deep industry research or strategic thinking. Their focus is more on activity and less on crafting disruptive insights.

2. The Lone Wolf

The lone wolf thrives in high-stakes situations where their intuition and willingness to bypass conventional processes can lead to big wins. They’re particularly effective in fields where sales cycles are complex and non-linear.

Their weakness lies in team-based environments or where strict adherence to sales protocols is necessary. Lone Wolf’s maverick style can lead to conflicts with structured sales strategies.

3. The relationship builder

The relationship builder excels in industries where long-term relationships and trust are paramount, such as high-ticket sales or B2B environments. Their strength is in creating customer loyalty and generating repeat business.

Relationship builders can see some struggles in transactional sales. Environments dominated by aggressive pricing and innovative product features are not their strong suit either.

4. The problem solver

The problem solver is most effective when clients require detailed, technical solutions. Industries like software, engineering, or healthcare often see problem solvers excel.
Their main weakness lies in their decisiveness. Some situations require quick, determined action and a high level of adaptability which they often don’t have.

5. The challenger

The challenger is particularly strong in complex sales environments where driving change or selling innovative solutions is required. They excel in situations where clients may not be aware they need a change.

Think B2B sales, disruptive industries, and high-value consultative sales. Challengers can transform hesitant prospects into committed customers.

Is The Challenger Sale book still relevant?

Yes, The Challenger Sale book remains highly relevant. Since its introduction, the Challenger selling model has proven to be a powerful technique in various sales environments – especially as buying behaviors and markets evolve.

Here’s why it’s still relevant:

1. Sales got complex. That’s where the challenger steps in. This method’s core is teaching, customizing the pitch, and keeping the reins in your hands.
2. Buyers know a lot. They’ve done their homework. But challengers? They bring the knowledge the buyers can’t just google. A new perspective is what they aim to show.
3. Markets are crowded. With everyone trying to sell something, standing out is tougher than ever. Challengers change the way buyers think. That’s how you get noticed.

So, why is The Challenger Sale still relevant? It’s simple: it covers today’s sales challenges head-on, making them a go-to strategy for standing out, being heard, and making a difference in your customers’ world.

[40% of top-performing sales pros}(https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/power-challenger-sales-model) embody the Challenger style. In complex sales scenarios, over half of the stellar performers align with the Challenger profile. Meanwhile, a mere 7% are relationship builders, ranking them at the bottom.

Challengers excel by teaching, tailoring, and taking the reins. In some cases, they transform the sales landscape.

The Challenger model shines in complex sales. In essence, it’s digging deep and showing the cost of inaction.

But for simple sales cycles? Not so much. These don’t let Challengers use their best moves, like offering new viewpoints or insights.

While top reps kill it with this method, average ones struggle. They find it hard to tailor messages or push for decisions. In short, the Challenger model rocks when sales are tough and the rep is sharp. Its success hinges on the sale’s complexity and the rep’s skill.

10 key steps to using Challenger model effectively

Using the Challenger sales model in practice means shifting your sales approach to focus on teaching, tailoring, and taking control. You can make it work for you by following these steps:

1. Teach, don’t just sell

Let’s break it down. You’re not there to only push a product, right? You’re there to share something new, something eye-opening.
This approach flips the script. Instead of being seen as yet another salesperson, you become a trusted advisor.

So, how do you do it?

Well, first off, you need to discover your prospect’s world. Get to know it inside out. Then, you come back with insights they haven’t even thought about.

You start talking about their challenges in a way that lights up a bulb over their head.

When you teach customers, you build this solid trust. Why? Because it’s clear you’re not there just to make a quick buck. You’re there to make a difference.

2. Tailor your message

What makes this point a turning point in so many cases?

Every decision-maker has their own set of worries, needs, and goals. Hitting the sweet spot means speaking directly to those pain points.

When you customize your pitch, you’re telling your prospect, “I see you. I get what you’re after.” And now, you’re offering a solution to their specific problem.

How do you win here? You need to get to know each decision-maker.

What makes them tick? What challenges are they facing? Then, use what you learn to shape your pitch and make it about them.

Show them that what you’re offering fits perfectly into their world.

And here’s why it’s worth the effort: tailored messages make your prospects feel understood. They’re more likely to listen, engage, and eventually buy. You’re the one connecting the dots between their problem and your solution.

3. Take control of the sale

Challengers take control of the sale, almost like captaining a ship. You’re in charge, steering everything towards the destination and closing the deal.

But here’s the trick: you’ve got to do it in a way that doesn’t scare everyone on board.

Sales can get messy. Without a clear direction, you and your prospect might end up going in circles. Taking control means you keep the conversation on track. You make sure it’s moving forward, heading towards a decision.

How do challengers pull it off? Start by setting the agenda early. Let your prospect know what to expect from your chat. Then, as you get into it, keep the focus on how your solution fits their needs. Sure, they might have concerns, especially about pricing.

That’s your signal to guide them back, showing them the real value of what you’re offering.

Taking control isn’t about being pushy. It’s about being confident. You know your thing. You know how it can help. So, you lead the conversation with that assurance, answering questions and addressing concerns before they even arise.

In the end, the main point is making sure your prospect feels they’ve made the right choice. Lead them through this process, and you help them make a decision that’s good for the customer’s business.

4. Challenge assumptions

Challenging assumptions is aboutgetting your prospects to pause, reconsider, and see things from a new angle.

Why go down this path? Simple. People get stuck in their ways. They think, “If it’s not broken, why fix it?”

But here’s the catch: just because something isn’t broken doesn’t mean it can’t be better. Your job is to show them that ‘better’ is within reach.

How do you do it? By presenting facts, figures, and stories that make them go, “Hmm, I hadn’t looked at it that way.”

Challengers gently nudge them to a window they’ve never looked out of. They offer a unique perspective, one that shines a light on unexplored possibilities.

Do this without putting them on the defensive. It’s a dance, you lead, but not too forcefully. You suggest, but don’t insist. Your goal is to start a dialogue, one where they’re open to exploring these new ideas with you.

And why does this matter? Because when you challenge assumptions successfully, you’re selling a new way of thinking. You’re positioning yourself not just as a vendor but as a visionary partner. That’s a compelling proposition – much more than you think.

5. Focus on value, not price

When you sell avoid getting straight into pricing. Doing so means you’re missing out on the chance to show why your solution stands out.

Why make value your headline? Because anyone can cut prices. But not everyone can offer a solution that truly clicks with your prospect’s needs. A challenger sales rep can.

When you emphasize value, you’re talking about the bigger picture – how your product or service makes life easier, boosts the bottom line, or solves a complex problem in a way that no one else can.

How do you shift that focus? Bring the unique benefits to the table. Maybe it’s your exceptional customer service, the innovative features of your product, or how your service can save time and money in the long run.

These benefits can build a compelling case for your solution – beyond the price tag.

This line of action aligns with your prospect’s long-term goals and challenges. Everyone is looking to get more for less, and showing how your solution delivers more – more efficiency, more savings, more growth – is what sets you apart.

6. Implement two-way communication

In two-way communication, you need to listen carefully, and then chime in with something that hits just right. In the Challenger sales model, this means flipping the script from a monologue to a real conversation where both sides get to talk – and listen.

Imagine being on the receiving end of a never-ending sales pitch. Not fun, right? People want to feel heard, especially when they’re thinking about buying something. When you tune in and actively listen, you’re building trust – and trust is what seals the deals in sales.

When it’s your turn to speak, make it count. Challenger sales reps tailor their response to what their customer shared. Show that you’re invested in what they’re saying. It makes your solution feel like it was made entirely for them.

Two-way communication makes the whole sales process a team effort. You’re in it together, finding the best solution.

7. Build credibility early on

Credibility is what everything else rests on.

In challenger sales, establishing yourself as knowledgeable and trustworthy from the get-go sets the tone for the entire conversation with your prospect.

Why start early? First impressions last. You kick things off by showing you know your stuff and you’re here to help.

You show the prospect that you’re a treasured resource.

How do you do it? Share your knowledge. But don’t just rattle off facts. Instead, share valuable insights that matter to them, solve problems they’re facing, or introduce them to new ideas that could benefit their business.

This shows you’ve done your homework and you genuinely care about their success, not simply closing a deal.

When you’re seen as trustworthy and knowledgeable, everything gets easier. Decisions that might have taken weeks can be made in days. Questions that could have been doubts become conversations.

It’s because at that point you become a trusted advisor to the customer.

8. Leverage constructive tension

You’re walking a tightrope. On one side, you’ve got your customer’s comfort zone. On the other, the place where real growth happens.

Leveraging constructive tension is all about guiding your customer across that tightrope to new territories.

Why bother with tension? Because comfort zones are cozy, but nothing ever grows there. Your customers might be hesitant to leave what’s familiar, but deep down, they know it’s necessary for growth. Your role is to highlight this.

Show them what lies beyond their comfort zone – better solutions, improved efficiency, or maybe game-changing innovations.

How do you strike the right balance? It’s all in how you present your ideas. You bring up challenges they might not have considered. You question the status quo in a way that’s intriguing, not threatening. You make them think, “What if?”

Suddenly, they’re moving along that tightrope, inching towards decisions they never thought they’d make.

This method requires finesse. You’re not creating tension for the sake of it, but doing it to open their eyes to new possibilities.

You’re helping them see that the risk of staying put outweighs the fear of stepping forward.

9. Implement the Challenger Sales Model in your team

Think about using the PAUSE framework to get your sales team, especially those into Challenger selling, to up their game. Sales leaders often use it as a step-by-step guide to becoming even better in those tough sales situations.

Why go with PAUSE? It chops up the sales training process into easy, doable steps. This way, coaches find it easier to lead their sales teams from point A to point B.

• First up, Preparation. This is where you lay the foundation. You figure out what each team member is good at and where they’re stumbling. This lets sales managers tailor their coaching just right.
• Next is Affirming relationships. This step is all about building trust. You create a space where it’s okay to give and take feedback seriously. When your team trusts you, they’re more open to trying out new things you suggest.
• Then, dive into Understanding behavior. Get to the heart of how your team handles different sales situations. Understanding their why helps you guide them toward new ways of thinking and acting.
• Moving on to Specifying changes. Now, you’ve got a clear idea of what needs to change. It’s time to map out how to get there. You’ve spotted the behaviors that need tweaking, and now you lay down a clear plan for making those shifts.
• Last, Embedding new behavior. Planning is one thing; doing is another. This part is particularly important for making those new tactics stick. You reinforce these strategies until they’re part of what your team does.

Putting the PAUSE framework into play can change how your sales team performs. It’s detailed but flexible, giving clear direction in the coaching journey and making sure every move is toward better performance.

10. Use a CRM like Capsule

If you’re in sales, you’re probably using a CRM, right?

Think of Capsule as your personal assistant, keeping all those crucial customer details in one neat package. From past chats to personal likes, it’s all there.

This means, that when it’s time to shake up a customer’s perspective, you’ve got everything you need to make it personal and impactful.

Sales reps lean on Capsule because it transforms every interaction into a strategic play. With Capsule, you’re always a step ahead, making every conversation count towards that win.

Check Capsule CRM pricing here.

Key takeaways

1. The Challenger Sales Model, introduced in 2010, revolutionizes traditional sales by emphasizing teaching over relationship building.
2. Research reveals 53% of customer loyalty comes from the sales experience, underscoring the importance of the sales approach.
3. Challenger reps, who teach, tailor, and take control, represent 40% of top sales performers, outperforming other sales types.
4. The Challenger approach is especially effective in complex sales, with over 50% of all-star performers adopting this style.
5. Only 7% of top sales performers primarily focus on relationship building, making it the least effective approach.
6. Challengers excel by pushing customers to think differently, offering insights that challenge their preconceptions.
7. The model identifies five sales rep profiles, with Challengers being the most successful due to their unique approach to sales.
8. Sales got complex, and the Challenger model addresses this by providing strategies that resonate with informed buyers.
9. Implementing the Challenger model involves mastering three T’s: Teaching, Tailoring, and Taking control.
10. The PAUSE framework offers a structured approach to embedding the Challenger method within sales teams, enhancing overall performance.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the Challenger Sales Model has changed the game for many. It is particularly effective in complex sales environments.

It’s about ditching the old “play nice” strategy and getting on with tactics that teach, tailor, and take the helm. This strategy makes a big splash by encouraging buyers to rethink their needs and solutions. However, it’s important to remember its best fit: markets where challenging norms and pushing boundaries can truly make a difference.

So, while it’s not the secret sauce for every sale out there, in the right situations, it can be just the edge you need.

Take control of your sales with your Capsule free-trial.

Is your sales team at risk of jumping ship?

Employee retention has never been more challenging. A staggering 51% of currently employed workers say they are watching for or actively seeking a new job.

Sales leaders are facing immense pressure to keep their top talent engaged and motivated. With over half of the workforce open to leaving their current roles, the battle to attract and retain skilled sales reps has become a priority.

A sharp sales incentive and commission structure will help you retain these top performers.

Designing a sales compensation plan that keeps your reps satisfied and productive is a delicate balance. Your base salaries and commission rates need to be competitive and you need to use strategic bonuses and incentives to reinforce your broader business goals.

Together, we’ll explore what incentives and commissions are, when to use them, common challenges, and useful software.

Sales commissions vs sales incentives

What is a sales commission?

Sales commission is a reward paid to salespeople, usually a percentage of the sales they make. It motivates them to sell more by directly linking their earnings to their performance.

It’s a simple idea: sell more, earn more. This setup pushes salespeople to work harder because they see an immediate connection between their effort and their paycheck.

What is a sales incentive?

Sales incentive is a broad term used to describe various rewards aimed at motivating sales teams. These rewards differ from sales commissions, which are often a fixed percentage of individual sales.

Instead, incentives may come from meeting team goals, achieving quarterly targets, beating sales records, or excelling in customer satisfaction.

They can be monetary rewards, like bonuses or profit sharing, or non-monetary, such as extra vacation days or event tickets. These rewards encourage employees to reach wider company objectives and improve the basic commission plan.

Now, why do companies like this setup? Teams with incentive programs report a 79% success rate in achieving their sales goals.

It makes sure sales teams’ align with the company’s goals. Say a company wants to sell a bunch of new gadgets, they can motivate r salespeople to push these gadgets by offering higher commissions or better rewards.

Also, top salespeople always look for the best deals, not just in what they sell but also in how they’re paid.

A strong compensation and incentive plan can pull in the best of the best. It’s a magnet for talent.

But, crafting such a program isn’t easy. You’ve got to hit that sweet spot where salespeople feel motivated, and the company still makes a profit. Think of it like setting the rules for the game. Too easy, and it’s no fun. Too hard, and nobody wants to play.

So, in short, rewards are a big deal. They motivate reps, help companies sell more, and attract top sales talent. The clue is finding that perfect balance to keep everyone happy and moving forward.

Sales incentives and sales commissions: key similarities and differences

Sales incentives and sales commissions are both useful tools for motivating sales teams, but they serve different purposes and operate under separate structures.

Similarities:

1. Both serve as variable pay on top of a base salary.
2. Both reward reaching specific sales goals and performance metrics.
3. Both are usually paid out regularly, like monthly or quarterly.

Differences:

Purpose

Commissions directly reward salespeople for their sales volume and revenue generation. They link pay precisely to individual sales results.

In contrast, sales incentives aim to motivate broader behaviors that benefit the entire team or company. They encourage activities that go beyond just making sales, like improving customer relationships or working well within a team.

Payout structure

Commissions are straightforward. A salesperson sells something and earns a set percentage of the sale. This rate usually stays the same over time unless the policy changes.

Incentives, however, are more varied. They might include bonuses, extra time off, cash rewards, or even travel vouchers. Sales reps can’t base their income on sales incentives.

Mindset

Salespeople often view commissions as a regular part of their earnings. They expect this pay as part of selling products or services.

Incentives, though, are seen as extra rewards. They are given for exceptional work or for contributing to the team’s success in ways that aren’t just about closing deals.

Flexibility

Changing commission structures can upset a sales team if not managed carefully. Salespeople plan their finances around expected commissions, so sudden changes can cause stress and frustration.

Incentives offer more flexibility. Leaders can introduce new incentives or adjust existing ones without disrupting the core pay structure. This makes it easier to adapt to new business strategies or market conditions without lowering morale.

When to use sales incentives and sales commissions

Setting up your motivation plan is a strategic move that needs careful thought. The key is linking what your business wants to achieve with how you reward your sales team.

Use sales incentives when:

1. You have a more mature business with a complex selling organization.
2. You have well-defined account management roles, rather than pure sales roles.
3. You have a solid goal-setting process and can set achievable targets for your sales team.
4. There are major differences in sales volume attributable to the sales assignment, not just the individual seller’s performance.
5. You want to incentivize collaboration and team-based performance, rather than just individual sales results.
6. You want to create a culture of continuous improvement and recognize progress towards goals, not just outcomes.

Use sales commissions when:

1. You have an earlier-stage business with new sales roles.
2. You are launching new products and need a strong sales push.
3. You have a more straightforward sales process with equal selling opportunities across assignments.
4. You are struggling to set accurate, achievable sales goals for your team.
5. You want a more direct, performance-based compensation structure that scales with sales results.

However, under the right conditions, combining incentives and commissions can be highly effective.

Use both when:

1. You want to directly tie compensation to individual sales performance and results, but also incentivize team/company-wide goals.
2. Your sales team includes both new hires needing motivation and seasoned professionals driving higher-value sales.
3. You have a limited budget and need to combine financial and non-financial rewards to motivate your team.
4. You want to reward immediate results but also encourage behaviors that lead to future success, like customer retention and market expansion.

Mixing incentives and commissions lets you motivate your team on multiple levels. Commissions get your team excited about immediate sales. Incentives push them towards strategic goals that benefit your business in the long run. This helps maintain a dynamic sales environment where short-term achievements and long-term growth go hand in hand.

Examples of sales incentives and commissions

Sales incentives and commissions are key tools in a sales strategy, each designed to motivate specific outcomes within a team.

Commissions drive immediate sales motivation

Commissions are direct payments given as a percentage of sales. They’re great for quick results.

1. For instance, to clear high-end stock, a company might offer a 20% commission on items selling over $10,000. For more regular items, the rate might be 10%. This setup drives reps to pursue more lucrative deals.
2. Another approach is tiered commissions, which increase with sales volume, for example: 5% up to $5,000, 10% between $5,001 and $10,000, and 15% beyond. This encourages reps to make more and larger sales.
3. A third example is using a sliding scale commission based on the margin of the sale. Suppose a company wants to prioritize profitability; they could set a commission structure that adjusts based on the profit margin of each sale. For example, sales with a profit margin under 10% might attract a 5% commission. Those with margins between 10% and 20% earn 10%, and sales exceeding a 20% profit margin reward the salesperson with a 15% commission.

Incentives are about broader business goals

Unlike commissions, incentives often motivate sales reps to target wider company objectives. Here are some sales incentive ideas:

1. Longevity bonus: To encourage long-term client retention, you might offer a $1,000 annual bonus to sales reps who maintain client relationships beyond one year.
2. Team performance bonus: You could introduce a $10,000 team bonus if the group exceeds quarterly sales targets by 30%.
3. Service excellence reward: Recognizing non-sales efforts, you might provide non-monetary rewards such as a premium parking spot for a month or a top-of-the-line office chair to sales reps who receive the highest customer service ratings each quarter.
4. Mentorship recognition: For senior sales reps who actively mentor new hires, you could offer additional paid vacation days.
5. Product launch SPIFFs: To generate excitement and sales momentum for a new product, you might offer a $500 bonus for every $5,000 worth of the new product sold within the first month of its launch.

Common challenges of sales incentives and commissions

Handling sales incentives comes with its own hurdles. Here’s how to tackle some common ones:

Disputes over commission calculations

Sometimes, sales reps might question their commission or incentive amounts. This can lead to distrust and lower motivation.

Use clear, detailed statements that break down each sale and how much they earned. The documents should be accessible at any time. Your sales managers and reps can then retain peace of mind. When everything’s transparent, disputes drop.

Data protection and validation

Protecting sales data is very important. Any leaks can hurt your business and your sales team’s trust. Data mistakes can lead to huge losses.

To avoid this, invest in secure commission software that encrypts data and backs it up regularly. Also, frequently validate data to catch and fix errors early. Your software should protect you against duplicates and other errors.

Establishing fairness and transparency

If the sales incentive or commission process seems hidden or complicated, it can feel unfair to your team. They may question your transparency.

Keep your policies simple and clear. Share them with the team, and hold regular Q&A sessions for any clarifications. Your documentation should be detailed but straightforward.

Adapting to changing business needs

As your business evolves, your reward structure might need to change too. Sticking to an outdated model can hurt sales.

Instead, review your compensation and incentive plans regularly. Be ready to adjust it to fit new business strategies or sales roles.

Keeping up with compliance

Sales commission practices must comply with local and international laws, which can change over time. The same applies to sales incentives.

Stay informed about relevant laws and adjust your reward plans as needed. Consider legal consultation to guarantee compliance.

xBringing teams together after mergers

Merging sales teams from different companies is tough. You will need to reassess everything from the ground up.

Review all the old commission and incentive plans. Create a new one that takes the best bits from each. Explain the changes clearly and support your team through the shift.

Implementing sales compensation software

Sales commission software makes tracking rewards easy. Here’s why it’s worth it and what to look for.

Why use commission software?

• Minimizes mistakes: Goodbye manual errors. Everyone gets paid the right amount on time.
• Clear view: Sales reps can see their progress anytime. This builds trust and keeps them motivated.
• Saves time: Less time calculating, more time selling. That’s better for your top sales performers.
• Quick changes: When sales plans change, software changes quickly too. Your team stays flexible.

What to look for in commission software

• Fits you: Your business isn’t like others. Pick software you can tailor to your needs.
• Integrates well: It should work smoothly with your CRM and accounting tools. This means less manual work.
• Smart reports: Get insights on sales trends and team performance. Use these to make smarter decisions.
• Easy to use: If it’s complicated, it won’t work. Choose software that’s easy for everyone.
• Grows with you: Your business will grow. Your software should too. Make sure it can handle more data over time.

Top picks for sales commission software

1. Xero: A leader in the market when it comes to payroll. Integrates with Capsule CRM for deeper insights.
2. Commissionly: A hit with small and medium businesses for its customisation and CRM integrations.
3. CaptivateIQ: Loved for its easy design and customisable reports.
4. Salesforce Commissions: Perfect if you’re already using Salesforce, thanks to its tight integration.

Pick the right commission software and you’ll spend less time on spreadsheets and more time hitting sales targets. It’s a smart move for any sales-driven business.

Conclusion

Creating the right sales incentive program does a lot. It grows your business and keeps your sales team going. Different plans suit different needs. The core? Be clear, fair, and ready to change when needed.

Review your program often. See who’s doing great and reward them. This keeps everyone eager to do more.

Also, using commission software helps a lot. It cuts down errors and keeps data safe. Plus, everyone can see how they’re doing anytime. Integrate it with a CRM like Capsule, and you get a one-stop-shop solution for your sales rewards needs. Check Capsule’s pricing here and register for a 14-day free trial.

Your sales incentive plan should be easy to get, fair, and match what your team and business are aiming for. Change your plan as things change in your business or the market. Pick tools that help you and talk clearly with your sales team. This way, it stays a strong motivator and a key to success.

FAQs

What are the best practices for setting sales commission rates?

How do you ensure fairness in a sales commission structure?

Can sales commission structures drive team performance?

What are the common pitfalls in sales commission calculation and how to avoid them?

How does the choice of sales commission structure affect employee motivation?

Many businesses focus on acquiring new customers. It’s understandable; maintaining a steady stream of fresh customers for your cash flow is integral to most business models.

However, it’s important not to overlook the revenue potential within your existing customer base. By shifting some of your attention to customer renewals and success, your business can unlock a treasure trove of growth opportunities.

In this article, we’ll look at some ways you can nurture your existing customers and increase their renewal rate. We’ll also examine how you can customize your sales pipeline to track customer renewals and increase revenue.

Why customer renewals are crucial for your business

Customer renewals refer to getting existing customers to recommit to your products or services. This could be extending a subscription, re-purchasing a service package or upgrading to a higher tier.

Renewals are a key indicator of customer satisfaction, loyalty and even the overall health of your business. When someone chooses to continue using your product or service, it means you’re delivering a positive customer experience that provides ongoing value. Satisfied customers are also more likely to recommend your business to others, becoming brand advocates and effectively providing free marketing.

Beyond being a signal of business performance, renewals provide a cost-effective way to maintain and grow revenue. As you’ve already paid the initial customer acquisition cost (CAC), the ROI on returning customers is generally much more favorable. Customers who renew are more likely to make further purchases and can be profitable over time. Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV) and annual contract value (ACV) is fundamental to predictable revenue, higher profitability and long-term business success.

However, keeping customers engaged over time can be challenging. Businesses must continually prove their value, especially in competitive markets where alternatives are readily available. Missteps in the customer journey can jeopardize renewals, making continuous monitoring and attention to detail a necessity for a high renewal rate.

Key strategies for improving your customer renewal rate

As an essential factor in any ongoing service or subscription business, customer renewals can’t be an afterthought. With these strategies, you’ll be able to increase your renewal rate and get the biggest ROI from your customer base.

Prioritize communications

If customers only hear from you when you’re about to invoice them for the next period, it shouldn’t be a surprise if they don’t renew. Regular ongoing communication is integral to strong customer relationships.

Personalize your messages based on the customer’s usage patterns, preferences and prior interactions. These tailored messages resonate more effectively, showing customers that you understand and value their specific needs.

When it comes to discussing renewals, start early. Give your customers plenty of time to consider their options and any changes to their plans. This gives you an opportunity to address any concerns that may prevent renewal and even potentially upsell them on a premium plan.

Schedule regular check-ins or review calls as part of the ongoing customer service process, particularly with high-value clients. Combine your personalized messaging with automated email campaigns that trigger based on subscription lifecycle stages to ensure no customer is overlooked.

Incentivize early renewals

As part of your proactive communication, reward your loyal customers with an offer they can’t refuse. Clearly communicate the benefits of early renewal incentives in renewal notices and account management discussions.

Provide incentives such as discounts, additional features or complimentary services if customers commit to a renewal ahead of time. These incentives can make your renewal offer more attractive and hard to refuse

It might feel like you’re eating into your profits, but offering these kinds of incentives is minimal compared to the costs of acquiring brand-new customers. Consider implementing tiered renewal options, where the incentives increase with longer commitment periods, encouraging longer-term renewals.

Monitor the performance of different incentive types to determine which are most effective and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Optimize the customer experience

By keeping your customers happy, they’re more likely to stick with you. Ensure that the user experience is intuitive and satisfying, from the onboarding process through to how your client uses your product/service.

This can’t be just a one-time exercise though. Conduct user experience audits to identify pain points in the customer journey, then act on what you learn. Regularly update and enhance your solution so that it keeps up with customer expectations and technological advancements.

Demonstrating that you value and act upon customer feedback can significantly enhance satisfaction and loyalty, improving customer retention.

How to build pipelines for improved customer renewals

Whether you’re looking for new or returning customers, a sales pipeline helps you track leads as they move through the process. Traditionally, pipelines are more commonly associated with sales teams, while renewals are managed as separate projects. However, pipelines can also be a valuable tool for customer success teams working with existing customers.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up a pipeline that’s optimized for customer renewals.

Step 1: Define your stages

Every pipeline is made up of different stages, each one reflecting a step in the customer journey. With the right stages in your pipeline, your team has a roadmap for managing deals with both new and existing customers. It enables a consistent approach, so all your sales and customer success activities are executed at the optimal time.

When it comes to customer renewals, analyze your current post-sale process. What are the key steps that happen once a customer signs up for your service?

For example, the default pipeline in Capsule is:

• New
• Qualified
• Meeting
• Proposal
• Negotiation
• Contract

This is suitable for the majority of sales teams, but for customer renewals, you’d need to change these stages. For example, you might have separate stages for onboarding, value realization, renewal awareness, and more. Typically this will be a shorter process than your standard sales pipeline, with fewer touchpoints.

Step 2: Customize your pipeline

Now it’s time to go a little deeper and ensure that each aspect of your pipeline is optimized for customer renewals. This may mean talking with your customers and sitting in on review calls. You can then adapt your renewal stages to cater to your customer’s specific needs and behaviors every step of the way.

In some cases, where the number of renewal stages doesn’t warrant a separate pipeline, you might be able to adjust your existing sales pipeline with some additional steps — just ensure that ownership and responsibility for each stage is clearly defined (see below).

However, you’ll likely find it more efficient to set up separate pipelines for your sales and customer success teams, enabling them to focus on their work without any distractions or confusion.

Step 3: Develop clear criteria for each stage

How do you decide when a customer is ready to move on to the next stage in your pipeline? Some stages will be self-explanatory (e.g., a “Renewal proposal” stage). However, some stages will likely need additional clarification. For example, if you have a “Value realization” stage, what does that involve?

How exactly will you help customers in this stage recognize the value they’re getting with your solution? When does the stage finish?

For each stage, establish specific, measurable actions or results that mean a customer is ready to progress. These criteria can be based on customer actions, engagement or other key performance indicators (KPIs). By getting clear on these requirements, you can identify potential issues (before customers churn) and accurately forecast future renewals.

In Capsule, one particularly useful feature automatically flags opportunities that haven’t been contacted in a set amount of time (customizable to each milestone). As a result, you’ll be alerted to any customers that your team needs to reach out to.

Step 4: Add relevant tasks and automation

Keeping track of all your current customers can be challenging, especially in startups and other fast-growing companies. If left to their own devices, customers may end up looking to your competitors.

By using your customer knowledge and your pipeline criteria (see above), you can create standardized task lists for your customer success team to follow, ensuring that they’re aligned with established best practices.

You can also save time and increase efficiency with workflow automation, using it to tackle all the menial and time-consuming tasks. Review your pipeline and note any activities that could be potentially automated, such as scheduling review meetings or updating contact information. Use your CRM’s automation features to tackle these tasks and free up your customer success for high-touch, one-on-one customer activities.

Capsule’s Tracks feature provides customer success teams with a templated to-do list, listing everything that needs to be done at each stage (such as making a phone call or following up via email). You can then use automation (available on Growth plans and higher) to trigger the track when the necessary criteria have been met, such as a customer moving to the next stage in the pipeline.

Step 5: Monitor and optimize pipeline performance

By following a set customer renewal pipeline, you’re able to analyze your team’s performance at different points in the process and see where there’s room for improvement. Use your CRM’s analytics and reporting features to track your customer health score at the different stages, then use that information to make any necessary to your customer success process and optimize your strategies.

Monitor key metrics such as renewal rates, customer satisfaction scores and reasons for non-renewal to understand where the pipeline may need adjustments.

As well as giving you ways to improve your overall process, you can also use your pipeline to spot individual customers who need extra attention. One of Capsule’s popular contact management features is dynamic contact lists, allowing you to pinpoint customers who meet your chosen criteria.

For example, you can filter for contacts with customer satisfaction scores (e.g. CSAT or NPS) below a specified level. You can then prioritize following up with those customers to get a better understanding of their issues and find ways to improve those scores. As it’s a dynamic list, it’ll be automatically updated as new customers meet your criteria, so you always have the latest information to hand.

Securing sustainable growth through customer renewals

While it may seem more useful to focus solely on acquiring new customers, nurturing and renewing existing customer relationships is key to sustained growth. With the correct approach, you can significantly boost your retention rates and unlock ongoing revenue opportunities.

By consistently engaging with your customers and closely monitoring their satisfaction and usage, you can identify early signs of churn and address them proactively. At the same time, happy customers are more likely to refer you to others, contributing to fresh business opportunities too!

Using a well-defined renewal pipeline ensures your customer success teams have all the necessary tools and insights to effectively manage renewals, enabling them to build customer loyalty and fuel your business’s growth.

Discover how a CRM can help your business increase customer renewals. Enjoy Capsule’s free starter package or start a 14-day free trial and see how Capsule’s features can help you engage with customers and increase revenue.

If you’ve been in business for more than five minutes, you’ve likely heard how it costs much more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.

However, when it comes to increasing revenue, many businesses instinctively look for different ways to top up the sales funnel with more and more leads, while ignoring people who’ve already bought from them.

Your existing customer base holds a wealth of potential that’s just waiting to be uncovered. By mastering the art of cross-selling and upselling, you encourage current customers to purchase more or higher-value products to boost revenue.

In this article, we’ll look at different ways to use more cross-sell and upsell methods to increase revenue. We’ll also examine how you leverage your sales pipeline to use these strategies more efficiently.

Why cross-sellinbg and upselling should be part of your sales process

Cross-selling and upselling are two of the most effective strategies for boosting revenue and increasing customer value in any business. Done correctly, both tactics improve customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing customers with additional value.

Cross-selling involves offering additional, complementary products or services — either at the point of purchase or afterward. The key to good cross-selling is relevance; the additional offerings must align with the customer’s original purchase or overall needs. For example, if a customer buys a new smartphone, you could suggest a protective case or an extended warranty plan. The goal is to increase the total purchase value while enhancing the customer’s experience by providing comprehensive solutions.

Similarly, upselling refers to encouraging customers to purchase a higher-end product than they are currently considering. Alternatively, you could offer additional features to their service that enhance its value. This strategy focuses on upgrading the customer’s choice by highlighting the superior benefits of the higher-priced option. For example, in a SaaS model, this might mean showcasing the additional relevant features available on the premium plans

Both strategies are powerful tools for increasing the average order value (AOV), directly impacting the business’s bottom line. However, if these aren’t implemented properly, you could inadvertently overwhelm your customer.

Businesses must ensure that these strategies are executed in a way that genuinely benefits the recipient. By focusing on providing value and enhancing the customer experience, cross-selling and upselling can become powerful tools in any company’s revenue-enhancing arsenal.

How to improve your cross-selling and upselling strategies

Simply being aware of the possibilities for cross-selling and upselling will benefit your sales team. However, to get the best results, you’ll need thoughtful planning and execution. Here are three tactics to bear in mind:

Use customer data for personalized offers

Rather than relying on guesswork, use your customer data to create relevant offers. With a good customer relationship management (CRM) system, you can easily track individual preferences, purchase history and behavior patterns. You can then utilize analytics and reports to understand what cross-sell/upsell strategies are best at meeting those customer needs.

You can also use dedicated recommendation systems to boost your cross-selling efforts. These tools uncover buying patterns in your data, including those that aren’t immediately obvious to a casual observer, resulting in more intuitive recommendations that can significantly increase your AOV.

Make every interaction relevant

Cross-selling and upselling isn’t just about knowing what offers to make, but also when to make them. Find the best moments based on the customer’s interaction with your business. This could be during the checkout process, immediately after a service interaction or during a follow-up call.

Ensure your offers are contextually relevant. For example, a car dealership might offer an extended maintenance package to a customer who has just purchased a new vehicle and is finalizing the paperwork, highlighting the long-term savings and peace of mind it offers.

Transparent communication

Your upselling and cross-selling should never come across as a trick or unwelcome surprise. Communicate with your customers and educate them on the additional benefits of an upsell or cross-sell item, rather than simply pushing for a sale.

Give them all the information they need to make the right decision for them, with detailed comparisons and content highlighting the value of your higher-tier products. Clearly articulate how an upgrade or additional product enhances their experience. Use demonstrations, case studies or customer testimonials that make the benefits tangible.

For example, in the tech industry, a company selling productivity software can share a comparative analysis — using real user data — to demonstrate how upgrading to a premium version can save time and increase efficiency.

How to build pipelines for cross-selling and upselling

A sales pipeline helps you track prospects as they move through the sales process. This is particularly useful for sales teams offering add-ons and upgrades, as you can easily tailor your process, monitor different offers and optimize future sales.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up a sales pipeline that’s optimized for cross-selling and upselling.

Step 1: Define your sales strategies

Sales pipelines are made up of different stages, each one representing a step in the customer journey. With the right stages in your pipeline, your reps can guide leads through the sales process — including any upsells or cross-sells.

Analyze your sales process and note down the key milestones that every prospect goes through to become a customer, from lead generation to closing.

For example, the default pipeline in Capsule is:

• New
• Qualified
• Meeting
• Proposal
• Negotiation
• Contract

Step 2: Customize your pipeline

Adding cross-sell or upsells usually doesn’t require massive changes to your sales pipeline; it’s more about ensuring that you’re a) understanding the customer’s needs and b) making an additional offer that meets those needs. Customizing your pipeline with this in mind means that reps are more likely to make those offers in a way that feels natural to the customer.

Consider tailoring your pipeline to reflect different pathways for your various products or services. For instance, customers using a basic service may see a different upsell path compared to those already on a premium service. You could also modify your pipeline stages based on whether or not the customer is likely to be interested in an upsell or cross-sell, based on engagement metrics or direct customer feedback.

In some cases, where the sales process is largely the same for all customers, you might be able to use the same pipeline with tags for segmentation. However, if there are significant differences or you want to create a dedicated upsell/cross-sell pipeline, create multiple pipelines to accurately capture the differences (available in Capsule on Growth plans and higher).

Step 3: Develop clear criteria for each stages

Everybody on your sales team should know precisely when to move a prospect onto the next stage in your pipeline. Having documented criteria for moving leads through the sales pipeline prevents deals from stalling and ensures reps know exactly when to make any additional offers.

Identify specific actions that trigger a move to the next stage, such as a customer expressing interest in learning more about a product after receiving a targeted communication. For example, your proposal stage might include multiple personalized proposals, highlighting the benefits and value of your upsell or cross-sell options.

This clarity enables you to ensure every potential customer sees the best possible offers, increasing the value to both you and the customer.

Step 4: All releant tasks and automation

Very often, the best way to increase your upsells and cross-sells is by ensuring your sales teams make those offers. By creating a standardized to-do list for your reps to follow, they’re more likely to make cross-sell/upsell offers at the right time.

You can further streamline the process with workflow automation, offloading all the repetitive tasks that suck up your reps’ time or may otherwise be forgotten. For example, you can automate follow-up emails for a set amount of time after the initial sale, checking that the customer is happy with their purchase and recommending complementary offers.

Use your CRM’s automation features to handle these activities, freeing up your team to focus on sales. Capsule’s Tracks feature provides sales reps with a templated task list, showing what needs to be done for each stage (such as reviewing customer engagement or highlighting the benefits of an upgrade).

You can then use automation (available on Growth plans and higher) to add the relevant track when the defined criteria are met, such as a prospect moving to the proposal stage in the pipeline.

Step 5: Monitor and optimize pipeline performance

By using a set sales pipeline for your sales organization, you can review your team’s sales performance at different points in the process and identify where cross-sells and/or upsells are more effective. Use your CRM’s analytics and reporting features to track sales metrics throughout the pipeline, then use that data to optimize your sales process.

Pay particular attention to specific metrics such as conversion rates from initial offer to acceptance, customer feedback on the offers and overall customer satisfaction post-purchase.

As well as giving you ways to improve your overall sales process, you can also use your pipeline to spot individual leads and prospects who might be interested in some of your other solutions. One of Capsule’s popular contact management features is dynamic contact lists based on your chosen criteria.

For example, you can filter for contacts where they’ve purchased in the last week and given positive feedback. You can then follow up with those prospects to see if they’d benefit from an upgraded product or service.

Creating more value for you and your customers

As businesses look for new and innovative ways to boost revenue, most of them ignore the vast potential within their existing customer base. Simply reaching out to current customers and asking how you can help will almost certainly result in more sales.

However, to get the best results, ensure you’re making relevant offers at the right time. When you focus on what will benefit the customer most, the upsells and cross-sells will follow. With a tailored sales pipeline, you can standardize the process, giving your sales team everything they need to make compelling offers that help your customers and increase your bottom line.

Discover how a CRM can help your business with cross-sells and upsells. Enjoy Capsule’s free starter package or start a 14-day free trial and see how Capsule’s features can help you create more relevant offers that your customers love.

Customer retention is a pressing challenge to businesses across various sectors, with significant churn rates impacting both traditional and online retailers. Losing customers not only impacts business continuity but also intensifies acquisition costs, as acquiring new customers is generally more expensive than retaining existing ones.

Understanding the signs of potential customer departure is crucial, and there are proactive measures you can implement to maintain customer engagement. This article will cover strategies to identify early signs of customer churn, using key sales analytics to predict its occurrence and intervene effectively to retain at-risk customers before losing them becomes inevitable.

What is customer churn?

Customer attrition, commonly referred to as customer churn, occurs when an individual decides to discontinue using a company’s products or services, effectively ending their customer lifetime relationship with the business.

The rate of customer churn is calculated by the percentage of customers who leave within a specific timeframe, such as annually, monthly, or quarterly. This metric is essential for businesses to understand the extent of customer loss over time.

How to calculate customer churn

You can calculate customer churn rate using the following formula:

Lost customers / Total customers x 100 = Churn rate (%)

Applying a churn rate formula allows you to standardize your data for consistent monitoring over time – it’s an easy way to track customer feedback and measure customer health in general. You can quantify your churn rate in monetary terms. This approach helps you assess the financial impact of customer attrition, providing a clear picture of revenue losses tied to customer churn.

Should I calculate my churn rate monthly, quarterly, or annually?

When deciding how often to calculate churn rate, it comes down to understanding the typical buying habits associated with your products or services. Take the example of opticians—customers might not need new glasses very often, maybe only replacing them every few years. This isn’t a sign of customer disinterest, but just the nature of the product.

For businesses where transactions occur more frequently, such as a coffee shop where many customers might stop by several times a week, it might make more sense to monitor churn on a monthly or even weekly basis.

It’s crucial to tailor your customer churn calculations to fit these patterns. Choosing the right interval—be it monthly, quarterly, or annually—helps ensure that you’re not misinterpreting customer behaviors as churn when they’re simply normal buying cycles for your industry. This approach prevents unnecessary panic and misdirected customer re-engagement efforts, giving you a clearer picture of your customer retention landscape.

Understanding customer churn

Tracking customer churn over time will offer valuable insight into when you lose customers and why. You might also quantify churn in financial terms for clearer impact analysis. When defining churn, you should also consider the purchase frequency typical to your industry.

For example, industries like eyewear or home furnishings often see extended intervals between purchases, which isn’t necessarily an indicator of disengagement or risk of churn.

Adjust your definition of churn to align with the expected purchasing patterns of your products or services, to avoid unnecessary re-engagement initiatives with customers who are not actually at risk.

Is customer churn always bad?

Customer churn is inevitable to an extent. It’s unrealistic to expect that every customer who initially supports your business will keep coming back indefinitely, especially if the service or product you offer is a long-term or one-time purchase.

However, a high or increasing churn rate over any time period is cause for concern and suggests you need to implement strategies to enhance customer retention.

What makes customer churn a problem?

It’s important to take action if you notice your customer churn rate picking up. Fail to do something about it and you could find yourself with further problems to deal with in the future.

Customer churn may affect brand reputation

Customer churn isn’t just about numbers; it’s a narrative that can significantly impact your customer lifetime value and your brand’s reputation. Think about it: when customers dip out because they’re dissatisfied, they don’t just go quietly. They might spread the word, share their bad experiences, and leave reviews that can deter potential new customers. The more this happens, the more you’ll likely find yourself scrambling to improve sales conversion rates.

That’s why it’s crucial to keep tabs on the pulse of your customer base. If you notice signs that someone might be on their way out, don’t hesitate to reach out. A simple conversation might not only salvage a wavering customer relationship but could also turn them into advocates if they feel their concerns are valued and addressed. It’s all about turning potential negatives into positives and showing your customers they really matter.

Your high customer churn rate is beneficial for your competitors

Each customer you lose through customer churn is a customer a competitor gains. The best way to prevent this is to make sure that you’re offering something your competitors aren’t, whether this is very competitive pricing or above and beyond with your customer service. Otherwise, a period of elevated customer churn for you could be a profitable period of customer acquisition for your competitors.

Customer churn could limit your company’s growth

Growing your business means growing and maintaining your customer base. If your customer churn rate is on the rise, it could stop you from making progressive decisions to grow your business.

Not only will it feel riskier to make major investments during an uptick in customer churn, but you could certainly benefit from a captive audience if you’re looking to launch new products or services.

What causes customer churn?

There are a few different reasons why you might start to see an increase in customer churn. Understanding why customer churn is happening will make it easier to improve the situation and prevent customer churn in the long run.

1. There’s no incentive for customers to return

One of the most effective ways to increase customer retention is to make sure your customers have a good reason to keep coming back. If customers feel loyalty is rewarded, they’re much more likely to return to your business whenever they need the product or service you offer.

If you don’t reward customer loyalty, there’s nothing to stop them from going elsewhere – especially if your competitors offer better pricing.

2. You operate in a seasonal market

If you operate in a seasonal market, you’ll find that your customer churn rate is consistently high. For example, if you operate a holiday park, you’ll find that you see an influx of customers during the warmer months, with a high churn rate towards the end of the year.

You can counteract this high customer churn rate by finding a way to extend your offering or adapt your business model so you can operate successfully year-round.

3. You can’t keep up with the competition

If you want to keep up with your competitors, you’ll need to regularly assess and refine your offerings, taking careful notice of competitors’ strategies. Innovation and regular updates to your products and services are essential. You’ll need to be prepared to introduce new features and functionalities that address customers’ needs and desires.

4. You need to look at your pricing

You should regularly look at your pricing to check it’s in line with market expectations and with your competitor’s pricing strategies. Above all else, customers will be on the lookout for good value – if you’re not offering value for money, chances are that they’ll head elsewhere.

5. You’re not attentive enough to your customer base

One of the best ways to nurture customer loyalty is to make sure you’re listening to your audience.

By asking for feedback and letting your customers know that their opinions matter to you, you’ll get a better understanding of what you can do to improve your offerings. You’ll also leave customers feeling as though your brand is more trustworthy and cares about what they think.

6. Your customer service needs work

Sometimes it’s as simple as customers feeling like your customer service just isn’t quite up to scratch. If the customer service you provide isn’t up to scratch, whether you aren’t attentive enough or aren’t able to help the customers as much as they need you to, you could see an increase in your customer churn rate.

Predicting customer churn with customer churn analysis

Prevention is better than the cure. Customer churn doesn’t generally come out of nowhere – there are often early signs that a customer is about to end their relationship with your business. Customer churn analysis is the technique of using customer churn data to inform your next steps, spotting and acting on the early indicators of customer churn.

If you’re practicing customer churn analysis correctly, you should see your customer churn rate drop. There are some key types of customer churn analysis that can be used to inform your responses to signs of customer churn.

Conversation analytics

Conversation analytics use AI technology to dig deeper into your digital correspondence with customers, looking at the intent, emotion, sentiment, and effort on both sides of the conversation.

Using this information correctly, you can often highlight the indirect ways that customers indicate they’re going to stop using your products or services.

Operational insights

Using operational insights, you can look closely at the journey of the average customer and identify flaws that might affect your customer experience, such as cumbersome checkout processes or inefficient customer service.

Every time a customer experiences difficulties shopping with you, they become more likely to churn.

Customer satisfaction surveys

Customer satisfaction surveys are like a roadmap leading you straight to the heart of your customer experience. They give you a peek into what makes your customers tick, what delights them, and what turns them off.

By diving into this feedback, you get a backstage pass to the entire customer journey, helping you pinpoint areas where you’re hitting the mark and areas that need a little love. Crafting these surveys is an art in itself – you want to ask the right questions to get the most insightful answers.

After all, the more you know about your customers’ experiences, the better equipped you are to keep them happy and coming back for more.

Preventing customer churn with competition analysis

By looking closely at the customer experience offered by your business compared to your competitors, you’ll be able to identify areas of your business that may be causing customer churn. Areas to analyze include:

• Pricing
• Quality of customer support
• Sales tactics
• Loyalty schemes
• Special offers for new and existing customers
• Customer engagement
• Overall quality of product or service
• Brand exposure
• Marketing strategies

How to reduce customer churn and increase customer retention

Reducing customer churn means doing everything you can to retain existing customers. By providing the best possible experience for your customers, chances are you’ll start to see less customer churn and keep your customers coming back to you. There are various steps you can take to predict customer churn and improve your customer retention rate.

Improve your marketing strategies

Improving your marketing strategies isn’t just about casting a wide net to catch new customers; it’s also about nurturing the ones you’ve already won over. Think about it like a garden—you wouldn’t just plant new flowers but ignore the ones that are already blooming.

Make your marketing messages resonate with the customers who have already bought into what you’re selling. Show them some love with exclusive deals, sneak peeks, and personal touches that remind them why they chose to do business with you in the first place.

This way, you keep your existing customers feeling valued and visible, while also attracting new ones. It’s about balancing the scale between courting new prospects while still showing plenty of attention to existing customers.

Provide ongoing value

Make sure you’re providing customers with useful information and support that can help them to get the most out of your products or services. For example, offer instructions, tutorials, and recipes – consider what types of relevant content can be used to support existing customers or enhance their enjoyment of your products and services.

Reward customer loyalty

If you don’t have a customer loyalty scheme in place, this is a great opportunity to incentivize customers to keep returning to your business. Consider introducing loyalty schemes that reward returning customers with discounts, free items, or other exclusive perks.

Upgrade your CRM software

Effective customer relationship management (CRM) is crucial for businesses looking to avoid customer churn. By choosing the right CRM software for your business, you’ll be equipped with tools and resources to help you better connect with your customers, supporting positive experiences and reducing the likelihood of customer churn.

Boost your customer relationship management with Capsule CRM software

Effective customer relationship management is key for reducing customer churn and boosting customer retention. With Capsule CRM, you’ll access a range of high-quality tools designed to make for better customer communications, from contact management, to email marketing tools to sales analytics.

With all these tools at your disposal, you can nurture better relationships with your customers, access key insights about your average customer’s experience, and identify areas for key improvement, reducing the risk of customer churn. Try it free today and explore the many benefits of Capsule CRM.

FAQ

Are there different types of customer churn?

Who is responsible for preventing customer churn?

Can you ever fully prevent customer churn?

Is customer churn a KPI?

Why does customer churn affect brand reputation?

For small businesses, especially in their first years, your approach to marketing can often be sink or swim. Making sure you get your message across – who you are, what you do and how to find you – is crucial when considering how to grow your business.

That said, marketing can get very expensive and, while bigger companies can spend millions on marketing, small businesses need to make every penny count.

Effective small business marketing means keeping your costs low and your impact high. We’ve put together a guide to marketing for small businesses to help you make well-informed marketing decisions that could help put your small business in front of all the right customers.

What is marketing for small businesses?

Marketing is all about spreading the word about your small business, products and services. It’s about taking positive action to raise awareness of your business account, your brand, your business website and connect with prospective new customers.

You’ll also use marketing to keep in contact with your existing customers, stay relevant and maintain your position in the market.

Part of your marketing strategy needs to be about keeping your existing paying customers returning to your business, rewarding their loyalty with offers or discounts, while reaching potential customers with a clear overview of how you offer them value (your value proposition).

All small business marketing should be mapped out with a carefully thought-out marketing strategy, which should start with defining your target market, the customer journey and carrying out thorough market research.

Identifying your target market

Identifying your target market as a small business owner means pinpointing the people most likely to purchase your product or service. You need to build an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Your ICP should be based on shared characteristics, such as:

• Demographics (age, gender, income)
• Psychographics (interests, values)
• Behavior (purchasing habits, brand loyalty)

Understanding your target market is crucial for small business owners because it shapes all aspects of your marketing strategy—from the design of your products and the crafting of your marketing messages, to the choice of media channels for advertising and value proposition.

To identify your target market, start by analyzing your current customer base to detect common characteristics and trends. Use market research tools like surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather more data about potential customers’ needs and preferences.

Analyzing your competitors can also provide insights into who finds your product category appealing.

Finally, refine your findings into a detailed buyer persona that represents your ideal customer, guiding your marketing efforts to be more focused and efficient.

Carrying out market research

Market research is used to gather, analyze, and interpret information about a market, including understanding your target audience, competitors, and industry trends.

Market research helps small businesses to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and overall business planning. For example, you can use the results of market research to:

• Assess the feasibility of a new product or service
• Gauge the potential success of marketing campaigns
• Identify needs amongst your target audience that aren’t currently being met
• Improve your existing products or services
• Collect thoughts on your brand or brand identity
• Explore new potential markets

All-in-all, market research enables small businesses to stay competitive and responsive to consumer needs and market dynamics.

Market research for small businesses

While big companies can often afford to shell out millions on market research, small business marketing needs to work to a much tighter budget.

The good news is that as a small business owner, there are plenty of ways small businesses can carry out effective market research to inform their small business marketing strategies.

Here are just a few ways that small businesses can carry out cost-effective market research on a smaller marketing budget:

• Surveys and questionnaires – you can send out surveys and questionnaires inexpensively by using platforms like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms
• Focus groups – gather a small group of people from your target market to provide opinions and feedback on your brand, products or services
• Product testing – offer members of your target market the chance to test your product or service in exchange for honest feedback
• Social media monitoring – regularly check social media channels for comments about your business, either through comments on your own pages or posted elsewhere
• Competitive analysis – carefully analyze your competitors and take note of how you could improve based on your findings
• Observational research – take some time to observe and analyze your paying customers’ purchase behaviors and preferences
• Suggestion box – if you have a brick-and-mortar location, consider adding a suggestion or feedback box so that your customers can suggest room for improvement or let you know what they think you’re doing right.

Implementing these strategies when mapping out your small business marketing can help small business owners to gain a competitive edge by understanding your market better and tailoring your offerings to meet customer needs more effectively.

What sort of small business marketing is right for my small business?

There are hundreds of different types of marketing, all suited to different businesses. With small business marketing, there are often restrictions on how much you can spend on marketing, making some marketing types more viable than others.

However, most of these marketing types can be adapted to work for a small business marketing strategy to some extent.

Content marketing

Content marketing is a dynamic inbound marketing tactic that involves crafting valuable and relevant material to inform and captivate your target audience, with the main aim being to rank highly on search engines.

This approach helps potential customers discover useful information about your products, your brand, or other businesses in your industry online. Forms of relevant content marketing include:

• Blogging (including optimizing for search engines)
• Organic posts on social media channels
• Digital guides
• Videos

The goal of content marketing is to equip your audience with knowledge that aids them in their decision-making processes regarding purchases. It’s one of the most accessible forms of small business marketing since you can produce and post content yourself at no cost, and it supports search engine optimization.

Of course, content marketing is only effective when it’s carried out properly, with the right planning and execution.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is an extension of content marketing and is generally considered one of the most powerful forms of marketing for small businesses today.

It allows you to meet your target audience on their own social media timelines, taking up a little space to get your message across.

Getting your social media strategy right is a challenge but it starts by choosing the right social media platforms for you and your audience.

For example, B2B companies often see more success on LinkedIn and Facebook due to their professional networking and broad demographic appeal.

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are more effective for visually-oriented businesses, like eateries, homeware manufacturers, clothing stores and such, thanks to their high engagement rates with visual content on social media posts.

Regardless of the platform, a well-crafted strategy is essential to connect effectively with your target audience.

You can also look into paid social media marketing. Paid social media marketing involves paying for advertising space on social media platforms.

This is particularly beneficial for small business marketing strategies as it allows you to target your specific target audience.

Influencer marketing

Some may consider influencer marketing a subset of social media marketing, while others consider it a separate, event marketing strategy. With influencer marketing, businesses can leverage the relationships influencers and thought leaders have already made with audiences.

Because influencers are thought leaders in their industries, they have gained a level of trust many small businesses never will, so their followers are likely to listen to product recommendations.

As a result, influencer marketing can help your brand earn more exposure, boost brand awareness, and increase sales.

Influencer marketing isn’t always particularly viable for small business marketing, as many influencers charge high fees for sponsored content.

There are two ways around this for small businesses who want to incorporate influencer marketing into their small business marketing strategy for business growth:

• Consider micro-influencers – ‘micro-influencers’ (influencers with around 10,000 followers or less) charge lower fees for sponsored content and often have a more local follower base, which can be very useful for small businesses looking to build a reputation in their local area
• Try ‘gifting’ – some influencers may be happy enough to post a review for gifted items or experiences from your brand, although it’s worth remembering they cannot be contractually obliged to post about gifts and you can’t guarantee whether their reviews will be positive or negative

Paid search marketing

Paid search marketing, often referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, involves advertisers paying to have their site appear high in the search results for a relevant search term, paying a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.

There are a few reasons why paid search marketing can be an ideal addition to your small business marketing plan:

• Quicker results – unlike organic search engine optimisation, which can take a long time to implement and even longer to see results, PPC often allows you to see increased traffic fairly quickly
• Targeted advertising – paid search allows for detailed targeting, including geographic location, time of day, and user demographics, meaning small businesses can tailor their advertising to reach the most likely customers.
• Cost control – with PPC, you can set a marketing budget for how much you want to spend per day or per campaign, making it easy to manage costs
• Measurable results – PPC campaigns provide detailed analytics that show exactly what you’re getting for your money, such as the number of clicks, impressions, and conversions

These features make paid search marketing a great tool for small businesses looking to grow their online presence and reach specific audiences quickly and effectively while adjusting strategies as needed.

Email marketing

Email marketing involves sending targeted emails to both customers and potential clients to keep them up-to-date on offers and news related to your small business.

Carried out carefully, email marketing can be a great way to secure new customers, keep in touch with existing customers and drive conversions. It can help you to connect personally with a mass audience.

To start email marketing, you first need to build a subscriber list, which can be challenging without prior groundwork.

However, once you have an email marketing list, you can engage your audience with a variety of emails, from product announcements to reminders about abandoned shopping carts and informative newsletters.

Creating an effective email marketing campaign means sending well-crafted emails with eye-catching subject lines, relevant content and clean CTAs. It takes practice to get right but can be very rewarding once you do.

It’s worth considering email marketing as part of your small business marketing roadmap – you can even streamline the email marketing process with the help of CRM software to make email marketing much easier and often more effective.

PR marketing

Public relations (PR) functions as a strategic marketing tool aimed at enhancing a business’s reputation through media exposure. It focuses on cultivating favorable relationships between a small business and the general public by securing earned media coverage, which helps manage and improve the company’s image and standing.

The goal of PR is to establish the company or key individuals within it as authoritative voices within their industry, thereby elevating brand visibility and fostering trust with the audience.

The downside of PR marketing is that it’s generally used by larger companies who can afford to outsource their PR strategies to a third-party company.

However, small businesses can often incorporate PR techniques into their small business marketing strategy to gain local exposure, through local newspapers or other regional media.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that PR marketing is a more high-risk-high-reward marketing strategy as a small business owner, so shouldn’t be your first approach to marketing your small business.

Print marketing

Print marketing utilizes physical media to enhance brand visibility. This form of marketing employs various channels such as magazine ads, brochures, and billboards to disseminate information about a company’s products or services.

While tracking the direct effectiveness of print campaigns can be challenging, strategic placements can yield good results.

If you’re looking to include print marketing within your small business marketing plan, it pays to choose your print advertising platform wisely.

Consider placing small advertisements in local newspapers or magazines, or if you have a larger budget to work with, you might place advertisements on local billboards or public transport.

Direct mail marketing

Direct mail marketing is the analog counterpart to email marketing – essentially, you’re just delivering physical marketing materials right through letterboxes rather than via email.

These materials often include calls to action and special offers similar to those found in emails. However, the effectiveness of direct mail can be limited as recipients may disregard these materials as junk mail, quickly discarding them without really reading them – it could even mean recipients start to see your small business as a bit of a nuisance.

Since direct mail marketing involves upfront costs and materials are often discarded by recipients, this is a fairly high-risk marketing strategy unless the content is particularly compelling.

Incorporating direct mail marketing into your small business marketing plan is generally most effective if you’re using it to deliver coupons or news about sales, since discounts may act as an incentive for new or existing customers.

Broadcast marketing

Broadcast marketing means to advertise through TV or radio. Again, this type of marketing is generally favoured by larger companies with high advertising budgets, as TV and radio advertising can be very expensive.

However, broadcast marketing can be used effectively within some small business marketing initiatives.

If you’re looking to build a customer base in your area, it may be worth looking into advertising through local TV and radio stations.

However, this generally isn’t worthwhile if your small business is based online or has a predominantly young target market – in this instance, advertising through digital marketing is much more effective.

Creating your small business marketing strategy

Once you know which marketing options are available and who your target market is, it’s much easier to decide how your small business marketing strategy should look.

Your marketing plan should include your budget and if/how you’ll split it, the length of your marketing campaign and how you’ll monitor your spend and conversions.

Decide your budget

Knowing how much you have to spend on advertising will help you to decide how you split your budget amongst your chosen marketing types. It’s worth spending between 2% and 10% of your annual revenue on marketing.

You should also consider what would be a reasonable return on investment (ROI) for your small business – your marketing costs should never outweigh your potential returns.

Decide your campaign length

Once you have your budget in mind, you’ll be able to decide how long your campaign can run. If you’re hiring advertising space (through print or broadcast advertising) this is fairly simple – whoever you’re advertising with will let you know how long you can afford to hire the space within your budget.

If you’re advertising through PPC or paid social media advertising, you’ll need to keep a closer eye on ad spends over time.

Monitor your success

To effectively track the success of a marketing campaign, it’s essential to establish clear, measurable goals aligned with your business objectives.

Start by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, engagement levels on social media, and overall sales numbers.

If you’re working with digital marketing, utilize analytics tools to gather data from various platforms – Google Analytics for web performance, and platform-specific tools for social media insights are invaluable.

Regularly review this data to assess the campaign’s impact, comparing it against your initial goals. Adjust your strategies based on these insights to optimize future campaigns. Effective monitoring of tools such as google analytics not only measures success but also provides insights for continual improvement.

How Capsule CRM could boost your small business marketing success

Capsule CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software can significantly enhance your digital marketing campaigns by centralizing and organizing all customer data for you, allowing for more targeted, personalized marketing efforts, and improving engagement and conversion rates.

With Capsule CRM, you can segment your audience based on various criteria such as demographics, past interactions, and purchase history, enabling you to tailor your messaging effectively. You can use Capsule to optimize your contact management. 

Capsule also offers automation tools that streamline campaign management, from scheduling emails to posting on social media, ensuring consistent and timely communication with your audience.

Try Capsule free today and find out how CRM could transform your small business marketing strategy success.

FAQs

Can you do small business marketing on a tight budget?

Is email marketing effective for small businesses?

How can I measure the success of my small business marketing strategy?

Is organic or paid marketing better for small businesses?

Sometimes, you simply have to break up with your CRM. Fortunately, whether it’s about features, pricing, or just a change of pace – alternatives exist.

Here are the four top contenders for Vtiger CRM in 2024, each offering unique advantages that might be just what your business needs to thrive.

What is Vtiger CRM?

Vtiger CRM is an AI-driven tool that helps businesses manage their customer relationships. It combines marketing, sales, and support teams into a single system.

This CRM system gives you a complete view of customer data and simplifies your internal processes. Businesses of all sizes can use it – simply because it adapts well and is affordable.

Key features of Vtiger CRM

1. Sales automation: Vtiger CRM helps keep track of potential customers and all their details, like past communications and account information. It also has step-by-step guides to help sales reps at every stage of a sale.
2. Sales enablement: Salespeople have the documents and templates they need to engage with clients. It also includes special tools to help schedule meetings.
3. Pipeline management: Vtiger CRM monitors deal progress and helps manage sales forecasting and targets, making it easier to plan sales activities.
4. Sales engagement: The solution includes shared mailboxes to help teams work together and tools for making detailed price quotes.
5. Analytics & intelligence: Vtiger CRM uses Calculus AI to predict trends and provide insights into performance.
6. Communication & collaboration: It supports teamwork within the company, adds video calls, and keeps all documents in one place for easy use.
7. Helpdesk automation: You can automate customer support by sorting out urgent cases, managing service agreements, and providing a self-help portal for customers.
8. Marketing automation: Handle email campaigns, online forms, and social media activities to better engage with customers.

Why should you look for Vtiger CRM alternatives

Vtiger’s features look promising but there can be limitations.

Here’s why:

Load times

Vtiger can be quite slow when processing your requests, such as uploading pictures or files. If you’re not the most patient person, you might want to try another solution.

Time-consuming set up

Setting up Vtiger can be quite time-intensive, especially if you don’t have a dedicated IT person or programmer. This can lead to frustration and delays in getting your CRM up and running effectively.

Unintuitive interface

Some users find Vtiger’s interface not intuitive, which can add to the learning curve. This results in longer training periods and can delay the full adoption of the system by your team.

Challenging upgrade process
What’s more, upgrading Vtiger between versions can be challenging. Such difficulties can disrupt your business operations and might require additional spending on technical support.

Best 4 alternatives to Vtiger CRM

If these disadvantages are a big deal for you, it might be the time to switch to a new CRM solution.

Check out one of the alternatives:

1. Capsule CRM

Capsule is an easy-to-use platform that helps businesses manage customer relationships.

Key features

• Sales pipeline: Businesses can visually track their deals at various stages.
• App integration: Capsule connects with popular apps like G Suite, Mailchimp, Xero and QuickBooks, enhancing its functionality.
• Task management: You can organize and assign tasks within your sales team using Capsule CRM.
• Email integration: Capsule works well with email services like Transpond, Gmail, and others you might use every day.
• Contact management: It’s easy to store and access contact information, allowing you to quickly find customer details whenever needed.
• Reporting and analytics: You get detailed reports and analytics to understand how your business is performing.
• AI Content Assistant: Always create high-quality email copy to avoid wasting time staring at a blank screen trying to think of what to write.

Pros of Capsule CRM

• Ease of use: Anyone, regardless of technical skill, can use Capsule CRM.
• Excellent integrations: It connects with many popular marketing and sales tools, increasing sales team efficiency.
• Efficient sales pipeline management: Monitoring your sales activities has never been easier.
• Flexible customization: You can tailor Capsule CRM to fit your business needs.

User reviews

• **April O’Leary: “Being able to take Capsule to any meeting, any place is extremely powerful. I have the app on my iPhone! It means I can take my business anywhere I need it to be and access my contacts and projects with ease.”
• Jan-Paul Kreukniet: “What I love about Capsule is how flexible it is. The majority of apps I use are supported, helping me streamline lots of business operations and activities in a single system.”
• Dave Baines: “Capsule helped us automate and free up time for more important tasks.”

Best for:

• Small to medium-sized businesses: Ideal for businesses looking for a straightforward CRM.
• Companies focused on growing marketing ROI: Excellent for businesses that heavily use email in their marketing, because of robust email capabilities.
• Sales teams: Suitable for sales groups that want to keep an eye on their sales, analyze data, and deliver great customer service.

Pricing

Capsule offers you a free plan for up to 2 users, which is extremely suitable for small businesses. The Starter plan includes more features at a reasonable price. You can check Capsule’s pricing here.

2. Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive CRM is a web-based customer relationship management tool optimized for sales teams. It focuses on using AI to simplify the sales process and improve overall sales efficiency.

Pipedrive CRM incorporates a visual sales pipeline, which provides clear visibility and insights from the start to the end of the sales cycle.

Key features

• Sales pipeline management: The premium package provides AI-powered assistant provides insights to optimize the flow and increase conversions.
• Activity reminders: Smart reminders powered by AI to keep sales activities on track.
• Customizable reports: Advanced reporting capabilities to analyze data and trends.
• Email integration: Seamless integration with email platforms, using AI to prioritize communications.
• Mobile app access: Access to sales data and AI features on the go through a mobile application.

Considerations and challenges

• Pricing: Pipedrive offers several pricing tiers, accessible to businesses of all sizes. However, more sophisticated AI features are only available in higher-priced plans, which may increase costs as business needs evolve.

• Feature limitations at lower tiers: The basic plans provide essential functionality but lack advanced AI features needed by more complex sales teams, such as deep learning insights and predictive analytics.

• Integration costs: While Pipedrive integrates with numerous third-party applications, using these in conjunction with AI capability might require additional subscriptions.

Pricing

Pipedrive’s pricing strategy starts with an Essential plan, suitable for small teams or startups looking to leverage basic AI tools.

For businesses scaling up and requiring deeper AI-driven insights, there are more advanced plans like Advanced, Professional, Power or Enterprise. They introduce more robust features but also come with higher monthly costs.

3. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a comprehensive cloud-based platform that supports the unique business needs of mid-sized to large enterprises. It manages customer relationships from all angles and helps businesses manage operations and customer interactions. Zoho CRM has tools for managing sales, marketing campaigns, customer support, and inventory – all integrated into a unified system.

Key features

• Contact management
• Sales pipeline management
• Workflow automation
• AI-powered conversational assistant

Considerations and challenges

• Learning curve: Some users find the interface and wide range of features overwhelming, and the learning curve can be steep.

• Integration complexity: While Zoho CRM integrates with over 500 apps, setting up and maintaining these integrations can be complex and require technical assistance.

• Customization limitations: Some users report that while the system is highly customizable, these customizations can be challenging to implement and maintain without specialized knowledge.

Pricing

Zoho CRM’s pricing structure suits a variety of business sizes and needs. Plans range from a basic free version for small teams to more advanced options that have deeper analytics and greater customization.

Each tier is priced per user per month, with discounts available for annual billing. This structure lets businesses scale their CRM solution as they grow, so they only pay for the features they need.

4. ClickUp CRM

ClickUp CRM software integrates all the data from various departments to help businesses improve customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty. This all-in-one platform lets sales teams keep their information up to date and manage project management tasks seamlessly.

ClickUp offers features to track workflows, customer interactions, and automate marketing efforts efficiently.

Key features

• Comprehensive task management
• Views for data
• Automated workflows and contact forms
• Integrated email management

Considerations and challenges

• Complex customization: ClickUp’s extensive customization options can be daunting and require time to configure and optimize for full effectiveness.

• Performance variability: Users may experience variability in performance, including slow loading times, which could affect efficiency.

Pricing

ClickUp has cost-effective pricing tiers, starting with a free plan ideal for small teams. This means businesses can maintain more sales without a huge investment.

The paid plans deliver greater functionality, such as powered integrations with other software. Each plan is equipped with essential CRM features that help keep customer data integrated and accessible.

How to choose the best Vtiger CRM alternatives

When looking for the best alternatives to Vtiger CRM, here are some simple steps to make sure you pick the right system for your business:

1. Know what you need

Before you start looking at other options, think about what you really need from a CRM solution. Consider how big your sales team is, how complicated your sales process is, what you do for marketing, and what important features you need like email integration or detailed analytics.

2. Check features and how it works with other software

Find a CRM that has all the key features your business needs: tracking contacts, managing sales, and planning projects. Integrations are important, too – your Vtiger alternative should also work well with any other software you use. It keeps your data up to date and makes your work process smoother.

3. Look at user experience

Pick a CRM tool that is user-friendly. You’ll spend less time training your team and they can start using it quickly. Take a look at what other users think about how easy the CRM is to use and how much support is provided.

4. Think about growth and cost

Choose a solution that can grow with your business – but won’t break the bank. It should have different plans that match your needs as your business gets bigger. This way, you only pay for what you need now. Plus, you can change your plan as your business grows!

Time to make the choice

Vtiger CRM effectively manages sales and marketing, but have you considered other options that might power up your team’s productivity even more?

When looking for the best fit, think about how easy it is to use, how much you can tailor it to your needs, how well it integrates with your existing tools, and whether it’s cost-effective.

Not sure where to start? Why not explore what Capsule CRM has up its sleeve as a fresh alternative to Vtiger? Sign up for free today!

FAQ

Can I switch from Vtiger CRM to another without losing data?

Are there free CRM alternatives that offer robust features?

How important is AI in CRM software?

Lead generation in 2024 can be difficult. Especially with potential customers trying to ignore just about every marketing message they see. Marketers are doing their best to reach their target audience with lower budgets and one of the most effective ways to do this is with gated content.

To some, it may seem like a cheap content marketing strategy. To others, gated content is a valuable lead generation method for getting more qualified leads through the door.

Let’s explore everything you need to know about gated and ungated content.

What is gated content?

Gated content is any type of content where the view someone has to take action to gain access to it. In other words, they have to provide something in exchange for the value of your content. Typically, the potential customer has to leave their contact details to access what you’re offering.

Some examples of gated content formats include:

• Checklists
• Guides
• Calculators
• Cheat sheets
• Ebooks
• Instructional videos and courses

And various other types of exclusive content that is otherwise not freely accessible to your usual target audience. When you gate content, you must ensure that it’s valuable enough for the potential customers to willingly exchange their contact details for it.

In other words, successful gated content is valuable content that you won’t typically find on a landing page or a blog post. If you deliver on your promise your gated content can build awareness, generate high-quality leads, and turn potential buyers into customers.

It’s a common content marketing strategy and many brands use it across industries, with different levels of success.

Gated vs ungated content debate

You may be wondering if gated or ungated content is better for your target audience. On the one hand, gating content helps generate qualified leads but on the other, ungated content can generate more organic traffic.

So, which route do you go? Here are some considerations to keep in mind when you gate content.

Benefits of gated content

Gated content helps generate qualified leads

Set up a lead capture form and some basic marketing automation and you can grab the contact info from valuable potential buyers. Leaving content ungated means that potential buyers could access your content without ever progressing further in the customer journey.

Digital marketers love gated content because it’s an easy way to generate leads and move them through the sales funnel.

Connecting with your exact target audience

Anyone can stumble upon a blog post and read it, but the person who leaves their email in your lead capture forms is more likely to make a purchase from you. They are in a different stage of a buyer’s journey and want the exclusive information you have that is otherwise not easily accessible on your website.

When you create high-quality content with a specific angle, you create it for a user persona and not just any website visitor. This helps your sales team because when they reach out to leads generated with gated content, they have a better understanding of who they are and know exactly what to pitch them.

More qualified leads

Gated content is usually created to target a certain audience. For example, if you set up an email marketing strategy to collect leads from a landing page, you’ll get all types of leads. Some are in the awareness stage, some are ready to purchase, and some are in between.

When you gate content, the leads you get are more qualified and likely to purchase. Traditional content marketing formats are not as suitable for lead qualification as ones gained through gated content.

Problems with gated content

Decreased reach

When considering gated vs ungated content, you need to consider how it performs in search engines. For on-page SEO, gated content won’t bring any value because you’re putting it behind a lead capture form.

When thinking about whether to leave content ungated, think about the content strategy behind it. If the keyword has lots of potential value and could attract thousands of visitors, then it is better to leave it ungated rather than collect some contact info from a handful of visitors.

User frustration

The average user today knows pretty much every digital marketing tactic in the book, so they may not be too happy about a landing page asking them for contact details. Depending on the stage of their buyer’s journey, a gated content piece could deter them from your brand instead of converting them into a paying customer.

It’s worth looking into your competitors and doing a quick check before gating a piece of content. For example, if a direct competitor does not require any information before someone can download their guide then they may choose to access their content over yours.

Trust concerns

If your gated content is targeting a larger base of visitors and you’re trying to build brand awareness, you might face some trust issues. While it is a powerful tool for lead gen, it may lead to some issues as visitors may not want to share their valuable information with you.

In an era of sophisticated cyber-attacks, potential customers have a right to be cautious about handing over their contact details. Be clear with them about what happens with their information once they enter it on your landing page or capture form. This can help reassure them about your company’s commitment to security and data protection.

Gated content examples

Wondering where to get started with your gated content strategy? Here are some superb examples that you can learn from.

Bouncer’s 2024 Email List Hygiene Report

Bouncer is an email verification service that helps businesses of all sizes verify their lists to ensure that the emails they’re sending out are legitimate addresses. This year, they published an email list hygiene report that is super valuable to just about anyone who sends emails.

Before jumping into the gated content piece, you know exactly what you’re exchanging your address for. There are insights from more than 250 responses, and 12 email deliverability experts giving their thoughts creating a total of 50 pages of valuable content.

Prodport’s top 10 Shopify conversion tactics

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms out there as it helps anyone with a modest budget get started with their own store. But what good is it to drive traffic to a store if it is not driving new conversions? Prodport created a guide for all Shopify store owners to help them get more sales out of their existing traffic.

Marmind’s guide on how to choose marketing resource management software

Marmind is a marketing operations tool that helps businesses of all sizes manage their marketing resources in one place. MRM or marketing resource management software is a relatively small category in marketing software and choosing the right kind can be really difficult.

While Marmind does sell this type of software, the guide promises – and delivers – an unbiased view that helps the reader make a purchasing decision.

Intercom’s customer service trends for 2024 report

Intercom is a giant in the customer support game and for a good reason. The product is well adopted with thousands of companies around the world using it for their CS and CX operations. This gives them plenty of data that they can use for gated content creation.

There are more than 2,000 entries all from existing Intercom customers. While the insights themselves are valuable, what’s even more valuable is that each one is a new opportunity to sell Intercom as a product.

Tableau’s best practices on building dashboards

Tableau is a business intelligence and data analytics tool that helps companies of all shapes and sizes perform data analytics. A huge part of that is data visualizations in the form of dashboards, this report can help you find out how dashboards work and how to build one for yourself.
Since Tableau has strong reputation, the gated content here is guaranteed to provide value to the end user.

Gated content ideas for lead generation

Want to offer high value with your gated content? Here are some great ideas for various gated content types of lead nurturing and driving more sales.

Ebooks

An ebook is one of the most common types of gated content and has become a standard in many industries. An ebook helps you present relevant data in a manageable, downloadable format.

Content marketers know that ebooks are great for repurposing. For example, you can combine several great blog posts into an ebook, or add new research and data to your existing content and turn that into an ebook as a form of gated content.

Whitepapers

The difference between an ebook and a whitepaper is that the latter is a more technical and authoritative document that explains a specific subject matter to an educated and informed audience. In other words, while an ebook could have a marketing or sales angle, the role of a whitepaper is primarily to educate and inform.

Whitepapers are commonly geared towards more technical audiences and they fit well into specific stages of the B2B sales cycle.

Webinars

The growth of webinar software has helped improve the prevalence of webinars. You can hold webinars for hundreds of people at once and use software to poll attendees, add calls to action or links, and split them up in breakout rooms.

As an extra, you can record them and have evergreen webinars that potential customers can watch on demand, which means that this gated content format is very reusable. When coupled with other digital marketing strategies (such as emails), webinars can be an extremely lucrative and cost-effective way to drive new leads.

Exclusive reports

Industry reports are commonly created as ungated content because gated content doesn’t perform well SEO wise. In other words, a report that anyone can view and quote is great for link-building and building brand awareness.

However, an exclusive report like the one mentioned above by Bouncer can be highly effective for user engagement. You’re giving highly relevant content to an audience that understands it rather than hoping it gets picked up by the right authors online.

Courses

Why let customers learn from YouTube videos when they could use your own content? For example, Ahrefs is an SEO tool that has a range of courses on various topics, from technical SEO to how to build links to a landing page. When someone opts in to get access to that content, they get instructions on how to do all the things mentioned, while using Ahrefs.

Research studies

It doesn’t have to be scientific research, but having hard data behind your claims can help persuade a decision-maker to opt for whatever you’re offering them. To make this type of gated content work, make sure you have all the relevant details: who did the research, what the methods are, and why the results are relevant for whoever is reading.

Free trials or demos

This is the most common type of gated content B2B, but it’s so easy to get wrong. If you’re offering a demo or a trial, you need to make sure that the product delivers on the promise and solves a pain point for your target audience. Make sure your free trial onboarding process is flawless and that the end user knows exactly what to do after signup.

For demos, doing them live is a bigger exchange of value compared to pre-recorded ones.

B2B gated content – yay or nay?

Gated content for B2B requires careful consideration. B2B audiences make important purchasing decisions and typically, the sales cycle is longer and the amount of money in question is usually higher. Your sales and marketing team need to carefully consider whether they should have gated or ungated content for this demographic.

The sales cycle is more complex

The B2B sales cycle requires a few decision makers so, you have to carefully choose when in the sales cycle you’re going to gate the content. If you gate the content too early, the leads won’t provide you with enough valuable information because the person consuming it is not likely to be a decision-maker.

Compared to B2C, a B2B sales cycle can take months, which can also mean that by the time someone is ready to purchase, your content may need updating.

The expectations for value are higher

People have high expectations when it comes to gated content.

Since they’re supplying their work email and phone number, the content you’re giving them should solve a specific pain point and be relevant to their business needs. It may be worth your time to do some research and talk to your potential customers about the kind of content that would make them interested before you spend any time creating gated content.

Otherwise, you risk doing a lot of work only to get no leads at all.

There are multiple decision-makers

When sharing gated content in the B2B sphere, you should be aware that the person reading may not be the person who can make a purchasing decision.

There are typically boards, departments, and relevant stakeholders that need to weigh out the decision on where their budget goes. So, the gated content should appeal to a larger group of people and it can be hard to accomplish that with a single piece of content.

The landscape is very competitive

Creating gated content in the world of B2B is one of the most common content marketing plays. You’re doing it, but guess what – so is everyone else.

In a competitive landscape, there is a good chance that someone else is producing more content, promoting it more heavily on channels like LinkedIn or something else. Other websites could be better at this strategy so you may consider “ungating” content or using a different kind of approach.

It’s focused on short-term results

B2B is all about building trust and gated content can be the opposite of that. For many stakeholders, forcing gated content early on in the relationship may feel like too much of a push in the wrong direction. In other words, it’s likely to do more harm than good. Get to know your audience first before creating any type of gated content.

It’s hard to measure how effective gated content is

Figuring out how effective a piece of content is can be anything but easy Since there are so many stakeholders and touches involved. You won’t know at which point someone decided to purchase making it hard to tell which person was influenced (or not) by a piece of gated content.

Even if you have the best CRM or sales attribution software, measuring the effect of a gated content piece is going to boil down to asking someone whether they read your ebook or not.

Wrapping up

The final decision on gated vs ungated content requires a lot of research for your use case. There are many potential benefits of using this type of digital marketing strategy. You need to offer your visitors something of high value and strike the right balance that will make the visitor give you their info in exchange for that content.

And if you want to drive sales and get increased revenue, you need a tool to give you in-depth sales insights from your leads. With Capsule CRM, you can track the buyer’s journey and turn your gated content into legitimate sales opportunities.

Grab your free trial of Capsule and boost your business operations.

Finding the right CRM for your business can be tough – it needs to match your pace and understand your needs. If Sherpa CRM (now known as Sherpa by Aline) isn’t fitting the bill, don’t worry. We’ve explored the market to bring you the top three alternatives of 2024.

What is Sherpa CRM?

Sherpa CRM is a tool designed to help people who sell senior accommodation care facilities to better connect with their future residents.

With the help of Sherpa CRM, you can make real connections with the people you talk to, understand their lives, and then show them how your homes can fit into their story. Sherpa gives you all the tech and know-how to do this well.

Key features of Sherpa crm

1. Niche specialization: Sherpa CRM is designed for the senior living industry. It lets leasing counselors build detailed profiles of prospects, including their life stories and future goals.
2. Sales dashboard and tools: Marketing, sales, and management teams can effortlessly track accounts and manage relationships with valuable insights into prospect readiness, as well as health and billing management.
3. Marketing automation and engagement: Integrations with platforms like ActiveDEMAND and HubSpot allow for automated lead nurturing and engagement. They offer powerful revenue intelligence and the ability to manage forecasts more effectively.
4. Lead generation and management: Sherpa CRM simplifies the process of capturing leads from various sources, including company websites and online referral agencies.

Why should you look at Sherpa CRM alternatives?

While Sherpa by Aline is a relatively popular choice in its field, it comes with limitations too.
Below, we explain some of them.

Incomplete information

Sherpa CRM allows users to enter information about their own company, equipment, and service plans. But Sherpa CRM doesn’t always reflect this data in its documents, with some companies reporting gaps in their information. Users have found themselves investing more time into verifying and correcting their Sherpa-generated documents.

source

Complicated proposals

In Sherpa CRM, creating proposals can be tricky business, making it difficult to send them efficiently.

Accuracy issues

According to user reviews, Sherpa CRM’s meter export feature doesn’t consistently produce accurate results for billing and tracking. This can trigger mistakes in billing or even simply understanding how much a customer is using your services.

source

The three best alternatives to Sherpa CRM

Let’s have a look at some other CRM solutions that might suit your needs a little better.

1. Capsule

Capsule is a simple and user-friendly platform that helps businesses keep up with their relationships.

Key features

• Sales pipeline: companies can track their deals throughout the different stages with a visual sales pipeline
• Library of integrations: Capsule integrates with popular applications such as G Suite, Mailchimp, and Xero, making it accessible and efficient
• Customization: When you set up Capsule, you can choose the features most important to your business. You can make it your own with tailored pipelines, project boards, as well accessible custom fields and tags.
• Email integration: Capsule integrates seamlessly with all email providers like Transpond, Gmail, and Outlook.
• Task management: With Capsule CRM, you can manage and allocate different tasks within your team, and keep a bird’s-eye view on the team’s productivity.
• Contact management: Capsule makes it easy to store and handle contacts so you can quickly access customer details anywhere you want.
• Reporting and analytics: Keep a firm grasp of how your business performs with detailed reports and analytics.

Capsule CRM – pros

• Ease of use: Users with any level of technical expertise can use Capsule CRM. Boasting powerful tools alongside a simple and intuitive design, Capsule’s CRM app is easy to adopt into your team’s daily lives.
• Fits perfectly into your tech stack: Capsule integrates with over 50 other softwares including Quickbooks, Zapier, and Zendesk, saving you time and effort spent on pulling data and activities between different platforms.
• Efficient sales pipeline management: Capsule offers instant oversight of your sales opportunities in a clear kanban view. Equipped with stale opportunity flagging and easy filtering, it’s easy to keep abreast of new business and closing contracts.
• Flexible customization: You can make Capsule CRM work for your business needs with various forms of customization. Use custom fields and tags to better understand your contacts, businesses, and opportunities. Or create custom sales pipelines and project boards to organize your activities in a way that fits with your business – not the other way around.

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User reviews

1. Anne-Marie M.: “We have used Capsule for just over 6 years first as a free account and then moved onto paid after about 2 years. We use Opportunities as a way of tracking our ongoing work that has been commissioned and Projects as a way of tracking quotes. We use ‘Tracks’ a lot and also the tags. We particularly like the email integration with GMail and also the Freeagent integration. We plan to use Transpond this year as we have just recruited a Social Media manager/ Administrator.”
2. Sue Keogh: “The thing I like about Capsule is that when I was first getting to know how to use it any time I thought, I wonder if it does this, it always did.”
3. Jan-Paul Kreukniet: “What I love about Capsule is how flexible it is. The majority of apps I use are supported, helping me streamline lots of business operations and activities in a single system.”

Best for:

• Small to mid-size companies: Ideal for those in need of a CRM that’s straightforward and easy to implement, without compromising on key features like sales analytics and the sales pipeline. Both features are significant in marketing and selling senior living solutions.
• Enterprises Perfect for larger companies looking to manage their sales and aftersales activities using automation. Features like tracks and task management empower your teams’ productivity.
• Pricing: Capsule’s free plan is available for up to two users, making it an ideal place to start for SMEs looking to sell senior living care.
  Or try out any Capsule paid plan for two weeks completely for free. For more information, check out Capsule’s plans and pricing.

2. Continuum CRM

Continuum CRM is a CRM platform for selling to senior demographics. It includes CCRC, Life Plan, and Life Care. In addition to team workflows, the platform lets you manage fees, merge documents, and track sales cycles.

Key features

• Fee management
• Document integration
• Shared calendars
• Workflow engine

Considerations and challenges

• Difficult onboarding: Users report difficulty using the CRM

Source

• Limited features: Continuum CRM offers basic features.

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Pricing

The prices aren’t listed online. To find out how much Continuum CRM costs, you need to contact the sales team for a quote.

3. Yardi CRM

Yardi RentCafe Senior CRM is a similar, purpose-built CRM tool for leasing accommodation. It aims to simplify leasing and improve retention as a mobile CRM solution. The tool also connects to its sister products in the RentCafe suite for data consistency.

Key features

• Lead management
• Electronic leases
• Real-time data integration
• Mobile app access

Considerations and challenges

• Customer service concerns: Some users complain that customer service options are too limited.

Source

• Performance issues: Users also report slow server speeds, which makes using their mobile app difficult on the go.

Source

Pricing

Similar to Continuum, you need to submit a request in order to get an idea of Yardi CRM’s pricing.

How to choose the best Sherpa CRM alternatives

Finding the best alternative to Sherpa CRM ultimately comes down to what fits your business needs. Use the following criteria to find the right one for you:

1. Ease of use

Consider how user-friendly the CRM software is. Is it important to your sales team to use an alternative with an intuitive interface? Does your team need a solution that they can quickly adopt and use on a daily basis?

2. Customization

Look for a platform that offers extensive customization options (e.g. to create daily reports) to match your sales process, reporting, and customer interaction needs. You may not need to customize all the features but focus on those that are most important to you.

3. Integration capabilities

Your CRM should work seamlessly with other tools you use, such as email platforms, social media, and accounting software. Checking out the available integrations could help you find the best alternative for your business.

4. Scalability

Can each CRM grow with your business? It should be able to handle an increasing number of customers and data without compromising performance.

Choose your CRM today

Sherpa CRM (Sherpa by Aline) is a great solution for managing your senior living community’s sales and marketing needs. But exploring other CRMs on the market could boost your sales team’s performance, organize your sales and management activities, and help you meet your business goals. Assess factors like user-friendliness, customization possibilities, integration capabilities, and overall cost to find your ideal fit.
Still unsure where to begin your search for an alternative? Discover more Capsule features and learn how Capsule CRM can help you build stronger customer relationships, make more sales and save time.

FAQs

Is Sherpa CRM free?

No, for detailed pricing you need to get in touch with Sherpa CRM’s sales team.

What should a business-to-business organization in the office technology industry or senior living industry look for in CRM software?

Companies should look for CRM software that offers detailed analytics, sales insights, strong integration capabilities with office tools, and flexibility to adapt to the industry’s unique needs.

Try Capsule CRM for 14 days for free to see how it can help support you.

Usually, CRM solutions are not one-size-fits-all – and that’s okay. If High Level CRM isn’t aligning with your business needs, it’s time to consider other options.

We’ve identified the best four alternatives to improve your customer relationships. Take a look at our comparison so that you can make an informed decision about the switch.

What is High Level CRM?

HighLevel is an all-in-one platform designed to boost your marketing and sales. It combines tools, support, and resources to help you achieve your marketing goals.

It’s a good solution for anyone looking to get their business going. HighLevel helps generate leads and manage conversations, and offers everything from landing pages to automated messaging. Using High Level CRM, you can manage various marketing operations in one place. Whether you want to grow your business, keep clients longer, or onboard more customers – HighLevel has a solution for you.

Our focus today will be on its ability as a CRM.

Key features of High Level CRM

1. Comprehensive platform: HighLevel combines marketing and sales tools in one platform.
2. Lead capture: It offers various tools like landing pages, surveys, forms, as well as calendars to capture leads.
3. Automated messaging: HighLevel automates messages through voicemail, forced calls, SMS, emails, and FB Messenger.
4. Payment collection: Integrations with Stripe allow you to collect payments on websites, funnels, or booking forms.
5. Pipeline management: High Level CRM keeps track of leads in the sales funnel, so you can manage your workflow efficiently.
6. Membership platform: The tool allows for the creation of membership areas with course management, with both free and paid courses.
7. White label solution: HighLevel offers a white-label platform so you can personalize the CRM and mobile app.
8. Community and support: It provides a community of digital marketers for networking and sharing strategies, along with 24/7 support.
9. Marketing automation: You can create multi-channel follow-up campaigns for engaging leads and automating booking.

Why should you look for High Level CRM alternatives

While HighLevel CRM is well-regarded for its comprehensive tools in:

• Marketing automation,
• Sales automation,
• and Customer Relationship Management,

It also presents certain limitations.

This might lead small to medium-sized businesses to seek alternatives to HighLevel CRM, for reasons such as:

Limited features on basic plans

The basic plans of HighLevel CRM offer a limited set of features. To access advanced email automation and detailed reports, you need to upgrade your plan. Small businesses might want to leverage these features but cannot afford to do so if they have a limited budget.

Pricing

Some businesses may find HighLevel CRM too expensive – monthly packages start at $97, so especially small businesses might not be able to afford it.

An intricate feature structure

HighLevel CRM has a lot of features in general, and this might be overwhelming for some users. People who need simpler tools might find HighLevel hard to use and have to spend extra resources on training.

Reporting tools

HighLevel CRM’s basic plans may not meet all your needs when it comes to reporting and analytics. Other CRMs might have more detailed reporting tools that work better for some businesses.

Best 4 alternatives to High Level CRM

Let’s have a look at some of the solutions that outperform HighLevel CRM in those aspects where it doesn’t necessarily shine:

1. Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM is an easy-to-use, intuitive platform created to assist companies in maintaining and growing customer relationships.

Key features

• Sales pipeline: Monitor your deals through various stages with a visual sales pipeline.
• Customization: Tailor Capsule to meet your business needs with customizable fields, tags, and dashboards for essential data storage.
• Contact management: Enjoy Capsule’s approach to storing and handling contacts, and get easy access to customer details.
• Reporting and analytics: Gain a detailed understanding of your business’s performance through comprehensive reports and analytics.
• Email integration: Integrate Capsule flawlessly with email services like Transpond, Gmail, and Outlook, and simplify the tracking and organization of email interactions with contacts.
• Task management: Effectively manage and allocate your tasks in your team.
• Mobile CRM: Handle CRM tasks from anywhere, thanks to Capsule’s mobile app with full functionality on different mobile devices.
• Custom lists and filters: Take advantage of the filtering and list-making tools that help businesses effectively segment and manage their contacts and sales information.
• Integration with other apps: Integrate it with popular applications such as G Suite, Mailchimp, Xero and QuickBooks.

Pros of Capsule CRM

• Ease of use: Capsule CRM is known for its straightforward and user-friendly, full suite platform, which is suitable for users with various tech skills.
• Excellent integration: Extremely smooth integration with other applications like Xero adds great value to businesses of all sizes.
• Reliable customer support: The customer support team is often highlighted for being responsive and supportive.
• Efficient sales pipeline management: Capsule’s sales pipeline visualization is valued for managing deals and predicting sales outcomes.
• Customizable and flexible: The software offers extensive customization options to fit different business requirements and processes.

User reviews

1. Spencer C.: “Easy to use and most importantly easy to keep using, so that vital customer and supplier interactions are recorded. The Customer support is great too. A product specialist responded directly to a suggestion I made to improve the dashboard to let me know that it is now available. Ease of integration is also a key benefit, whether that be with Zapier or native integrations. New functionality and integration are being added all the time too. Worth a trial if you’re a small/medium-sized business looking to use a significant proportion of the functionality of a CRM app.”
2. Sue Keogh: “The thing I like about Capsule is that when I was first getting to know how to use it any time I thought, I wonder if it does this, it always did.”
3. Anne-Marie M.: “We have used Capsule for just over 6 years first as a free account and then moved onto paid after about 2 years. We tend to use it in the way opposite way to most organisations. We use Opportunities as a way of tracking our ongoing work that has been commissioned and Projects as a way of tracking quotes. We use ‘Tracks’ a lot and also the tags. We particularly like the email integration with GMail and also the Freeagent integration. I know we plan to use Transpond this year as we have just recruited a Social Media manager/ Administrator.”

Best for:

• Small to medium-sized businesses: Best for those looking for a CRM that’s easy to start with and has all the necessary features.
• Companies focused on email marketing: A top choice for businesses heavily involved in email marketing and communication as it has a dedicated marketing add-on.
• Sales teams: Ideal for sales groups that need effective pipeline management, sales analytics, and lead tracking.
• Businesses needing customization: Suitable for companies that want a CRM tailored to their specific requirements.
• Companies seeking strong integration: Excellent for businesses needing a CRM that integrates well with other tools.

Pricing

Capsule offers a free CRM plan for up to 2 users. It’s a cost-effective choice for small and medium businesses. The Professional plan is affordably priced, particularly with yearly plans in mind. A complete CRM solution at a great price. View Capsule’s pricing options here.

2. Hubspot CRM

HubSpot CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management platform. It assists businesses in managing and analyzing customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. In addition to streamlining processes, Hubspot CRM helps increase sales.

Key features

• Contact management
• Email tracking
• Deal tracking
• Marketing automation
• Reporting dashboards

Considerations and challenges

• Pricing concerns: HubSpot can quickly get really expensive for many businesses. While it has a free plan, it does not include advanced features. The Professional plan offers more tools, but it costs $1,600/month. For small businesses or startups, this is a lot.
• Complexity and overwhelming features: Paid plans in HubSpot include many features most businesses don’t need, which can be overwhelming when it comes to onboarding.
• Limited features on lower plans: On the other hand, both Free and Starter plans offer very few features. This might be a problem for businesses that need more without paying a lot.

Pricing

Within a free plan, HubSpot gives you basic CRM features that are suitable for small businesses, but might not fulfill all their needs. However, as businesses grow, they might have to move to higher-tier plans. A Professional plan can cost as much as $1,600 per month and can quickly become even more expensive with various add-ons.

3. Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive CRM is a web-based customer relationship management tool tailored for sales teams. Its aim is to simplify the sales process and increase sales efficiency. Pipedrive provides a visual sales pipeline that offers clear visibility of sales operations from beginning to end.

Key features

• Sales pipeline management
• Activity reminders
• Customizable reports
• Email integration
• Mobile app access

Considerations and challenges

• Pricing: Pipedrive offers several pricing tiers, which makes it accessible for businesses of all sizes. The more advanced features, however, are locked behind higher-priced plans, which can become costly quite quickly.
• Feature limitations at lower tiers: The entry-level plans of Pipedrive provide basic functionalities that might not meet the needs of more advanced sales teams. Essential features like advanced reporting and full email integration are reserved only for higher-tier plans.
• Learning curve: Pipedrive is intuitive, but new users might experience a steep learning curve as they learn its functionality.
• Integration costs: Pipedrive integrates with many third-party applications. Integrations may require additional costs, which could raise the overall price of your tech stack.

Pricing

Pipedrive’s pricing strategy begins with an affordable Essential plan (14 EUR per seat per month), which should be the right choice for small teams. As businesses expand and require deeper insights, they can upgrade to more advanced plans such as Advanced, Professional, or Enterprise. These plans introduce more comprehensive features but also come with higher monthly costs.

4. Keap CRM

Keap CRM is a comprehensive customer relationship management platform. It promises to help businesses manage client accounts efficiently and improve customer interactions in order to boost growth.

Key features

• Inbound phone system
• Track analytics
• SMS marketing
• Google Ads integration
• Automated lead messaging

Considerations and challenges

• Complexity and learning curve: With its extensive range of features, including a page builder and integrations with multiple platforms, new users might find Keap’s offering overwhelming. As such, they may require additional time and resources to fully leverage the platform.
• Limited features on lower plans: Keap’s basic plans may not include all advanced tools. For instance, detailed analytics tracking or Google Ads integration are only available to subscribers of higher tier plans.
• Potential glitches and missing data: Some users mention that Keap can be problematic when it comes to its reliability. Factors like bugs, long loading times, and missing data should definitely be considered before making the final decision to choose this HighLevel CRM alternative.

Pricing

If you want to use Keap, you’ll have to pay $199 per month for the cheapest plan that gives you two users. Keap CRM is therefore one of the most expensive tools to use instead of HighLevel CRM, yet it offers more features and integrations.

How to choose the best HighLevel CRM alternatives

Be sure to consider the following factors before you start your research:

Data analytics and reporting

• Look for a CRM that provides detailed analytics and reporting capabilities. Some of the features worth looking for are: sales forecasting, customer behavior analysis, and performance tracking.

Integrations with other platforms

• Check if the CRM integrates smoothly with key platforms and tools your business uses. Look for compatibility with your email services, social media tools, e-commerce platforms, and other marketing tools that you use on a daily basis.

Customization and flexibility

• The ideal CRM should offer the right level of customization options to tailor the system to your business’s unique needs, including custom fields, pipelines, and reporting features.

User experience and support

• Choose a CRM that is user-friendly and intuitive to reduce the learning curve for your team. Also, consider the level of customer support offered, including training resources and live support – especially if you’re only just starting using CRM.

Pricing and scalability

• Assess the chosen CRM’s pricing structure to see if it fits your budget and offers value for money. Consider whether the platform can scale with your business to support you as your needs evolve.

Security and compliance

• Be sure the CRM has solid security measures to protect sensitive customer data, including encryption and secure data storage.

Key takeaways

1. Diverse alternatives to HighLevel CRM exist. Capsule, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Keap are notable competitors. Each offers distinct advantages for different business requirements.
2. These alternatives provide varying levels of customization and integration capabilities, necessary for tailoring the CRM to specific business processes and existing toolsets.
3. CRM user-friendliness can affect adoption, and in-turn effectiveness within a company – and Capsule CRM is praised for its intuitive interface.
4. Each alternative offers its own set of plans to cater to businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises.
5. Advanced features may require higher-tier plans. In a similar manner to HighLevel, many CRM platforms offer advanced integrations, analytics, and automation features as part of their more expensive plans.
6. Before making a decision, looking into current user experiences and reviews can provide insights into the real-world application and limitations of each CRM option.
7. Free trials or plans offer risk-free evaluation. Most CRM platforms, including the alternatives mentioned, provide either a free trial or a basic free plan. Businesses can test the software before committing.

Time to pick your CRM software

It’s fair to say that HighLevel CRM is a nice tool for marketing and sales. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look for alternatives. There are other good CRMs too. Capsule, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Keap are some of them. Before choosing which CRM to use for your business, it’s a good idea to test a few.

For the perfect balance of everything, go with Capsule CRM!

FAQ

What are the best alternatives to HighLevel CRM?

Who competes against HighLevel CRM?

How do I replace HighLevel CRM?

Can I use HighLevel CRM for free?

Are you feeling restricted by Octopus CRM’s LinkedIn-centric approach?

If that’s the case, it might be the time for a change.

While Octopus CRM excels in LinkedIn automation, there are better solutions that offer a wider range of functionalities tailored to broader business needs.

Let’s have a look at the best alternatives to Octopus CRM to find the perfect fit for your specific requirements:

What is Octopus CRM?

Octopus CRM is an all-in-one LinkedIn automation tool. It helps LinkedIn users automate their prospecting and business growth efforts.

The software offers features like sending automated connection requests and bulk messaging. It’s suitable for business owners, marketing agencies, recruiters, and sales teams.

Key features of Octopus CRM

1. Automated connection requests: Allows users to send personalized connection requests automatically on LinkedIn.
2. Connection requests by email: Enables sending connection requests via email to bypass LinkedIn’s weekly invite limit.
3. Bulk messaging: Users can message hundreds of their 1st level connections in bulk.
4. Auto endorse skills: Automatically endorses up to 7 skills on the profiles of LinkedIn contacts.
5. LinkedIn profiles visits: Visits hundreds of profiles automatically to increase visibility.
6. LinkedIn lead generation funnel: Facilitates the creation of a personal LinkedIn lead generation funnel, combining various features to convert prospects into clients.
7. Performance analytics: Offers statistics and metrics to evaluate the performance of LinkedIn campaigns.

Why should you look for Octopus CRM alternatives

While Octopus CRM has a pretty interesting set of features to offer, it’s not perfect. Below, you’ll find a few reasons why users decide to look for other solutions.

Limited customization

Octopus CRM offers a set of features that work well for basic LinkedIn automation. However, it might not fit perfectly with all business models or marketing strategies. Users might look for alternatives to get more customization options that are in line with their unique business needs.

Lack of inbox management

Users cannot manage their LinkedIn inbox directly within Octopus CRM – they have to switch back to LinkedIn to reply to messages. This can disrupt both workflow and efficiency, especially for those solely relying on LinkedIn messaging for business development.

Slow customer support response

Octopus CRM provides customer support mainly via email, with a response time of 4-6 hours. Users looking for quick solutions to their issues might find this frustrating. Immediate support through chat or phone is often a preferred option for resolving urgent problems, yet Octopus CRM doesn’t offer this option.

Compatibility with LinkedIn only

Octopus CRM specializes in LinkedIn automation. This is great for LinkedIn-focused strategies but falls short for businesses looking to integrate their efforts across multiple social platforms. Alternatives offering broader social media integration options can be more appealing.

Best 5 alternatives to Octopus CRM

Because of these shortcomings, you might want to opt for something different.

Lets explore 5 great alternatives to help your business:

1. Capsule CRM

Capsule CRM focuses on streamlining LinkedIn interactions and data management for businesses. With this platform, LinkedIn networking and data use can be integrated with a fully functional CRM system.

Key features

• LinkedIn contact import: Capsule simplifies the process of importing contacts from LinkedIn. Users can transfer their LinkedIn connections directly into the CRM.
• Visual sales pipeline: The platform provides a visual representation of the sales pipeline. As such, businesses can track the progress of any leads that come in via LinkedIn until conversion.
• Customization: Capsule simply suits your specific business requirements. You can use fields, tags, and dashboards that are relevant for managing LinkedIn contacts and activities.
• Contact management: It offers a structured approach to organizing LinkedIn contacts within Capsule after they’ve been imported, so it’s easy to access and manage professional details and interactions.
• Email integration: Capsule integrates with email services and at the same time facilitates the tracking of email communications with your contacts. This feature means your email interactions can be stored and remain accessible within the CRM.
• Task management: This CRM system allows you to plan and track tasks related to LinkedIn networking and follow-ups.
• Mobile access: With Capsule’s mobile app, users can manage their contacts and related CRM tasks on the go, so they stay connected and productive at all times.
• Data security: Capsule’s commitment to data security, evidenced by its SOC 2 Type II accreditation, keeps your data and interactions protected.
• App integration: The platform supports integration with popular apps, which further improves the utility of LinkedIn data across various business operations.

Pros of Capsule CRM

• Ease of use: Capsule CRM is easy to use and helps users manage LinkedIn contacts with more precision.
• Responsive support: Capsule’s support team answers fast and helps when you need it.
• Effective sales management: The CRM helps track leads from LinkedIn and plan more efficient sales processes.
• Flexible customization: Capsule lets businesses adapt it to fit their needs through a variety of methods, including via integrations and its API. This makes it easier to use LinkedIn for networking and sales.

User reviews

• Sue Keogh: “The thing I like about Capsule is that when I was first getting to know how to use it any time I thought, I wonder if it does this, it always did.”.
• Hamish Gill: “Capsule helps us keep on top of these relationships. We get in touch with customers every 30 to 60 days to ask about their needs so it’s great having a load of notes in there that covers the details of the last conversation we had.”
• Jan-Paul Kreukniet: “What I love about Capsule is how flexible it is. The majority of apps I use are supported, helping me streamline lots of business operations and activities in a single system.”

Best for:

• Small to medium-sized businesses: Good for companies needing an easy CRM to start with.
• Companies focused on email marketing: Thanks to strong email features, Capsule CRM is great for businesses using a lot of email.
• Sales teams: Perfect for sales groups wanting to manage LinkedIn leads, track sales, and analyze data.
• Businesses needing customization: Highly suitable for companies that want to customize their CRM.
• Companies seeking strong integrations: Ideal for businesses seeking a CRM system that can integrate with LinkedIn via no code solutions like Zapier.

Pricing

Capsule provides a free CRM plan for up to 2 users, which makes it ideal for small companies and teams. See Capsule’s pricing for more details.

2. LinkedFusion

LinkedFusion helps you manage your LinkedIn account with ease – you create multiple campaigns to build your own marketing funnel.

Key features

• Smart lead generation
• Seamless CRM integration
• Safe LinkedIn automation
• Detailed analytics dashboard
• Custom campaign builder

Considerations and challenges

• Occasional downtime: Reported disruptions can slow down LinkedIn outreach efforts.
• Integration issues: LinkedFusion’s connection with CRM platforms like HubSpot can be unreliable. This may affect sales and marketing teamwork.
• AI integration not up to par: Currently, not all AI features for campaigns meet users’ expectations. It could lead to less effective LinkedIn automation strategies.
• User interface complexity: The dashboard can be hard to navigate, especially if they’ve never used third-party software for LinkedIn before. Such complexity can make LinkedIn campaign management more difficult.
• Not a CRM: You’d need to set up an integration with a CRM to get full functionality to store and manage contacts.

Pricing:

Starts from $46.95 per user per month for the most basic plan. There are two more tiers available, and the monthly cost is $67.95 or $95.95 per user.

3. PhantomBuster

PhantomBuster offers a variety of LinkedIn automation tools. It works with LinkedIn Free and Sales Navigator to help you boost your outreach.

Key features

• Cloud-based automation
• Data scraping and extraction
• Automated outreach campaigns
• Social media integration
• Schedule automation tasks

Considerations and challenges

• Risk of misuse: There’s a chance that people might use PhantomBuster in ways that break the rules of LinkedIn or other platforms. It’s important for users to follow each platform’s rules, or else they’ll get blocked or banned.
• Limited free trial: The trial period for PhantomBuster might not be long enough for users to fully understand the platform. A longer trial could help users learn more about the tool before they buy it.
• Price for advanced features: PhantomBuster can quickly get expensive, especially for small businesses or individuals.
• Also not a CRM: It only handles the enrichment aspect of contact management.

Pricing

PhantomBuster’s pricing starts at $56 per month when paid annually. Those with bigger needs can opt-in for a Pro or Team plan for $128 or $352 per month.

4. We-Connect

We-Connect is perfect for automating tasks on your LinkedIn account. It supports creating your own marketing funnel with simple steps.

Key features

• Campaign management
• Message personalization
• Connection request automation
• In-depth reporting tools
• Safe-to-use compliance features

Considerations and challenges

• Frequent bugs: Users report that We-Connect often has bugs. These issues can disrupt LinkedIn automation activities. It makes the tool less reliable for consistent use.
• Slow support response: The customer support at We-Connect can take 1-2 days before users get help. This delay can be frustrating when immediate assistance is needed.
• Incognito mode suggestion: When bugs occur, support suggests using Incognito mode for troubleshooting. This solution is inconvenient and not a fix for underlying problems. It can be annoying for users looking for permanent solutions.
• Difficulty with large contact lists: Some users find managing large contact lists within We-Connect challenging. This can limit the effectiveness of LinkedIn campaigns targeting many prospects.
• Limited advanced features: Compared to competitors, We-Connect might lack some advanced features. This limitation can make it less appealing for users needing comprehensive LinkedIn automation tools.
• Not a CRM: We-Connect will only handle the connection aspect of LinkedIn.

Pricing

We-Connect offers 2 different pricing options. The LinkedIn Plan costs $49 per seat each month. The other, LinkedIn + Email, is $79 per seat every month. The good news is that if you choose annual billing, you get 2 months for free.

5. Dux-Soup

Dux-Soup makes LinkedIn account management smooth. You can use it to track your contacts, automate tasks, and create multiple campaigns on LinkedIn at once.

Key features

• Automated profile visits
• Auto endorse connections
• Lead generation toolkits
• Follow-up messaging
• Profile data scraping

Considerations and challenges

• Frequent glitches: Users of Dux-Soup report various technical issues when connecting their LinkedIn accounts.
• Content update issues: Updating content in a funnel does not change queued activities. Errors in messages can persist even after correction, leading to lowered effectiveness.
• Learning curve: New users may find Dux-Soup’s interface and features outdated. Dux-Soup offers many features, but the onboarding process does not cover them all.
• Active browser window required: The tool needs the active browser window to run campaigns, which can be problematic at times, according to one user.

Pricing

Dux-Soup offers plans for individual users as well as teams and agencies. The tool might cost you anywhere from €9.92 to €330 per month, depending on your needs.

How to choose the best Octopus CRM alternatives

Get ready to find the best Octopus CRM alternative with this handy checklist:

Factors to consider

Specialized solution

When choosing between a tool focused on LinkedIn tasks (such as Octopus CRM) and a broader CRM system, consider what you really need. If you mainly use LinkedIn for outreach, a specialized tool might be best. It can automate connections, messages, and help nurture relationships. But if you need to manage interactions across many channels and track leads through the sales process, a full CRM could be better. Think about what fits your business goals and budget before deciding.

Features and functionality

Look for a tool that offers the specific features you need for your LinkedIn automation and CRM tasks. Compare features such as automated messaging, connection requests, follow-up sequences, analytics, and integration capabilities.

Ease of use

Choose a platform that has an intuitive user interface. You want something that your team can learn quickly without extensive training.

Safety and compliance

Check if the alternative complies with LinkedIn’s terms of service to avoid risking your account. Some tools are more intrusive than others, leading to potential bans or penalties from LinkedIn. Some CRM systems integrate with LinkedIn as part of their offering and comply with LinkedIn’s rules – so that your account is safe at all times.

Integration with other tools

If you’re using other software for email marketing, CRM, or sales automation, make sure the alternative can integrate seamlessly.

Customer support

Look for a service that offers solid customer support that’s made for your needs. Support can be provided through help centers, live chat, email, and community forums. Choose a tool that is the most convenient for your work. If your team works in the same time zone, you might prefer a live chat to get your answers quickly during the same working day. In the case of a disturbed team working in asynchronous mode, waiting for emails might not be an issue.

Pricing and plans

Consider your budget and compare the pricing plans of different alternatives. Look for transparency in pricing and check if there are any hidden costs for add-ons – these can quickly add up.

Key takeaways

1. Octopus CRM is a great tool, but you should explore other solutions before settling on it. This will help you identify a tool that’s perhaps better suited to your unique business requirements.
2. Many users seek alternatives to Octopus CRM due to its limitations in customization and lack of broad social media integration. Alternatives may provide more flexibility and integration options.
3. When evaluating alternatives, pay attention to user interface ease, integration capabilities, customization options, customer support responsiveness, and price points. Each alternative has its strengths and challenges.
4. Verifying whether the chosen alternative complies with LinkedIn’s terms of service is necessary to avoid account penalties. The level of automation should be balanced with safety to protect your LinkedIn presence.

Time to pick your CRM

Choosing the right LinkedIn automation and CRM tool can help your business grow. To make this process easier, you need a tool that offers the right features, is affordable, and easy to use. Consider a tool that is scalable and can also be used for other channels and sales campaigns. This could be the right time to choose a CRM that offers a wide range of features and integrations, such as Capsule CRM.

FAQs

Can switching from Octopus CRM to an alternative improve my LinkedIn marketing results?

Are there risks associated with using LinkedIn automation tools?

How important is customer support when choosing a LinkedIn automation tool?

Can I use multiple LinkedIn automation tools simultaneously?