Dynamics CRM Feature - Closed Loop Marketing

Louise Alderton, 31 July 2010

In many organisations there is a division between what happens in the marketing department and what happens in the sales department. This causes problems such as lack of visibility and efficiency. Each department is unable to support each other’s efforts and therefore overall marketing effectiveness does not improve because there is no way to measure what works and what does not.

You may possess a wealth of information and data about your customers but so long as there are barriers between the Sales and Marketing departments, each entity will have an incomplete view, making it harder to sell the right customer at the right time.

The solution is "closed loop marketing". This concept is about creating a common point of reference, it allows both sides to step back and see the big picture, and creates an alliance between sales and marketing. The ideal outcome of this system is the ease of data exchange where customers can be tracked throughout the process from suspect to sale.

Implementing the right technology creates a free flow of information revealing who the customers are and the best way to sell to them. A critical component of this, and in fact any marketing strategy, is having a centralised customer database easily accessible to both parties as well as being timely and actionable.

The concept of Closed Loop Marketing is a highlighted feature of Dynamics CRM. Not only does it create a centralised and accessible database, it has the ability to automate and coordinate sales and marketing interactions.

In Dynamics CRM, the goal of each marketing campaign is to provide Closed Loop Marketing. By ensuring that the campaign targets, campaign activities, and the results of the campaign activities are related and captured in a consistent format, the entire team can measure such data as:

• Number of leads produced

• Number of converted leads

• Number of opportunities

• Revenue produced from closed opportunities

• Cost for each lead

• Cost for each opportunity

The ability to know what was spent on a campaign and relate it to the actual revenue that resulted is the essence of closed loop marketing. A marketer with this kind of information can plan forecast, and target more effectively. Additionally, this information helps the marketing team assess the quality of lead sources and design campaigns that produce better results with each effort.

Closed-loop marketing requires a blend of people, process and technology.