SEO glossary · C

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is how a business manages its relationships with customers and prospects, and the software it uses to do so. A CRM system stores contacts, companies, conversations and deals in one place, so that sales, marketing and service teams can see the whole history.

What a CRM system does

  • Stores contact and company details, and every email, call and meeting
  • Tracks leads and deals through the stages of the sales pipeline
  • Schedules tasks and reminders for follow-ups
  • Captures leads from website forms, chat and ads automatically
  • Reports on sales activity, pipeline value and forecasts
  • Connects with email marketing, marketing automation and support tools

HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM and Microsoft Dynamics 365 are widely used, ranging from free starter plans to enterprise systems.

Why a CRM matters for marketing

A CRM shows which channels and campaigns bring customers, not just leads, by connecting marketing data to closed deals. That lets you measure customer acquisition cost and lifetime value, and send the right follow-up to each lead.

Getting started

  • Map your sales process first, then set up pipeline stages to match it.
  • Keep the data clean, with one owner per record and required fields that matter.
  • Connect your website forms, so no enquiry gets lost.
  • Store personal data in line with the GDPR.

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