Whether you are just starting out in marketing or revenue operations, or you’re a seasoned veteran, the plethora of technology and systems within a business can be quite a minefield to get your head around. And it doesn’t help that many platforms have cross-over functionality!
So, to try and help untangle that intricate web of which-system-does-what, I thought I’d write it down, which ended up turning into a picture.
If you would like access to this diagram to see it up close, please download the PDF by clicking here
Let’s start with some key definitions:
- Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) – is the strategy used to build longer-term customer relationships by improving the customer experience to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – in the technology space, is the platform that primarily takes care of your sales, account management and customer service processes and interactions.
- Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) also referred to as Customer Journey Orchestration (CJO) – is the platform that executes and orchestrates omni-channel, always-on automated marketing communications.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – is the system that takes care of running your business, from accounting, logistics, manufacturing, warehousing, supply chain, procurement, HR, to project management and beyond. This technology is vast, with implementations that can easily span years between planning and actual go-live!
It’s worth noting that CRM systems are often considered the ‘source of truth’ for customer contact and purchase data. So with many MAPs on the market you have to undertake an integration to get both platforms working together and surfacing the data you need to execute your marketing and communications activities in an automated way.
Here at Edit, we have specialist teams who can help you with:
Developing your Customer Relationship Marketing strategy via our Transformational CRM programme.
Executing your always-on, automated, omni-channel journeys in Marketing Automation Platforms such as:
- Microsoft Dynamics Customer Insights – Journeys (formerly Dynamics Marketing)
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Acoustic
- Apteco Fast Stats and People Stage
Contact us today to see how we can help.
