Unlocking Valuable Insights In CRM and Marketing Automation
The following article was originally written for Lattice Engines which was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet in 2019. Learn more about D&B Lattice, our market-leading Customer Data Platform.
Predictive Analytics Insights from CRM and Marketing Automation
As the adoption of CRM and Marketing Automation matures, it’s no surprise that companies with these technologies are sitting on a wealth of data. Out of the box, CRM and Marketing Automation are designed to capture and store a rich set of information on customer and prospects. Many companies add additional customizations and integrations to turn these systems into robust marketing and sales data warehouses. In this post, I will discuss why and how the broad set of information stored in these two systems can be leveraged to power predictive analytics that provide insight into buyer intent and help marketing and sales focus their efforts on the highest-value leads.
Good sales reps are already pouring through CRM to review contact and account information prior to dialing a prospect. They are searching for opportunities created, looking at recently-won deals and surveying lost opportunities. Using robust APIs, companies are connecting CRM to internal systems that provide product trial and usage data and customer support data. While potentially time-consuming, the best reps know how to take advantage of this full complement of information to determine whether or not a prospect is ready to be engaged. They want to drive productivity by focusing their time on the highest-value leads.
At the same time, marketers are creating laser-targeted campaigns within their Marketing Automation platform based on lead demographics and behavior. They have customized nurture streams for leads that have attended a particular event or expressed interest in a particular product. Savvy demand generation teams are also enriching their leads with third-party data. Their goal is to target the right prospect with the right message at the right time and then pass them off to sales when they are most likely to convert. Data-driven marketers are maniacal about measurement and are keen to understand the attributes in Marketing Automation that indicate a lead is ready to buy and therefore ready to be passed to sales.
Lattice Predictive Lead Scoring enables marketers and sales teams leverage the broad and rich data in their CRM and Marketing Automation, along with the Lattice Data Cloud, to calculate a probability score or likelihood of purchase. API connectivity enables quick deployment and allows sales and marketing to form a comprehensive view of a lead across platforms.
Let`s take a look at some sample positive and negative predictors if buying intent that can be found within the crm and marketing automation:
Sample Predictors of Buyer Intent From CRM
Existing customer, Lost opportunities, Product usage data, Trialed products, etc.
Sample Predictors of Buyer Intent From Marketing Automation
Email response and opens, Website visits, Content engagement, Webinar attendance, Event participation, Etc.
These are just some of the attributes that carry predictive value. Companies continue to enhance the breadth and richness of data they store in CRM and Marketing Automation. Predictive lead scoring can leverage this rich data to help marketers pass on the most sales-ready leads and help sales focus their effort against the highest-value leads.