Whether you’re just starting out in marketing or revenue operations, or you’re a seasoned veteran, there’s a lot to think about.

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!

However, here at Edit, we’re experts in CRM and marketing strategy, and here to cut through the noise, clear up the confusion and make the marketing lingo make sense.

Key definitions to kick things off

First things first, we need to get rid of the jargon to make sense of each of the different definitions.

Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM)

Customer relationship marketing 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)

Not to be confused with customer relationship marketing, in the technology space CRM stands for customer relationship management. This 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) – this is the platform that executes and orchestrates omni-channel, always-on automated marketing communications.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

This is the system that takes care of running your business, from accounting, logistics, manufacturing, warehousing, supply chain, procurement and HR, to project management and beyond. This technology is vast, with implementations that can easily span years between planning and actual go-live!

CRM as a single source of truth

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.

Let’s break it down further

To try and help untangle that intricate web of which-system-does-what, we thought we’d write it down, which ended up turning into a picture. If you’d like access to this diagram to see it up close, download the PDF here,

Navigating the minefield

If you’re still confused about CRMs, MAPs, ERPs, and everything in between, help is at hand.

We specialise in CRM and marketing strategy and have experienced, knowledgeable teams that can help you develop your Customer Relationship Marketing strategy to deliver connected customer experiences.

Alternatively, we can also help with executing your always-on, automated, omni-channel journeys in Marketing Automation Platforms, such as:

· Microsoft Dynamics Customer Insights – Journeys

· Salesforce Marketing Cloud

· Apteco

Basically, whatever your needs, and whatever you’re trying to achieve, our expert teams will be able to help.

Need help with your CRM strategy?

When you work with Edit, part of Salocin Group, we’ll strip everything back and use data to inform our decisions, so we can help you deliver seamless customer journeys that reach your audience in the right way, at the right time.

You see, data underpins everything we do, enabling us to create bespoke CRM strategies that truly work for you. The result? Better sales, more effective campaigns and no more confusion about strategy versus software tools.

So, if you are struggling to tell your MAPs from your ERPs, or if you need help nailing your CRM, contact us today to see how we can help.