Lite1.7 Blog

Table of content

• Your Topics are Too General
• Your Website’s Content Is Overly Repetitive
• You Don’t Cite Sources
• You’re Trying to Perfect Everything
• You Blog Erratically
• You don’t invest

Your Topics are Too General

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to narrow down your niche’s subject matter to a specific area of expertise. It’s a good idea to look at what topics are working for your competitors. Go into more detail on these subjects to improve them.

Don’t ever settle for anything less than your absolute best. Be on the lookout for avenues that lead to greater specificity at all times.

Your Content is Too Similar to Other Sites

Plagiarism is a serious offense that should not be ignored. The mere fact that one website’s content differs slightly from that of another does not absolve one of responsibility. Many problems can arise if your posts are too similar to those of other people.

It is always better to have multiple sources of information than to rely solely on one. Consequently, you’re less likely to copy the original text and more likely to develop your own thoughts and opinions on the topic.

You Don’t Cite Sources

This is a basic step, but one that must be taken. In academic writing, it is mandatory to cite your sources whenever you make arguments, present data, or simply disseminate information. Because you’re being polite, your arguments will be stronger.

The lack of this makes it appear that you came up with these ideas on the fly.

You’re Trying to Perfect Everything

It’s admirable to strive for perfection, but for bloggers, it can spell doom. Bloggers put out a lot of content, so if you spend too much time on one post, it will affect your other posts.

If you want your blog to be a success, you shouldn’t be aiming for perfection.

You Blog Erratically

When you publish your posts, you should do so according to a predetermined schedule. You need to decide on this early on and remain consistent with it. If you post at erratic intervals, you run the risk of alienating both your followers and your readers.

They have to rely on you as the source of their content. Never let them down or confuse them by missing a post date or allowing your schedule to fall apart; this will only disappoint or confuse them.

You don’t invest

Every business makes a financial commitment. There has never been a successful entrepreneur who hasn’t invested money in their company. As a newbie blogger, it’s common for people to avoid spending money at all costs. None of them will spend money on premium WordPress themes or plugins. It may seem counterintuitive to spend money when you’re just starting out, but remember that it’s an investment for the future.

Marketing departments are being pressed to do more with less money, and they’re being held to higher standards than ever before (ROI). One of the best ways to meet these growing demands is to use marketing automation to eliminate and streamline repetitive tasks, freeing marketers to perform more human work.

However, what and how does marketing automation work? To learn more about digital marketing automation, keep reading.

• What is the purpose of digital marketing automation?
• What role does marketing automation play in your overall marketing plan?

 The purpose of digital marketing automation?

Marketing automation software and tools are used to manage, streamline, and automate various marketing tasks and processes. While human creativity, such as writing, designing, and strategizing, cannot be completely replaced by automation in digital marketing, it does allow marketers to create multichannel campaigns and eliminate repetitive tasks such as list building and social media posting. Teams benefit from data-driven insights and increased productivity as a result.

What role does marketing automation play in your overall marketing plan?

Each marketing platform has its own unique set of features and functions. Most digital marketing automation tools, on the other hand, follow the same six basic steps.

• Gather data

Data is the foundation of a marketing strategy. The first step in any business’s data collection process is to gather all of the relevant information about their clients, prospects, and leads.

It’s easier to create personalized and targeted marketing content when you have a lot of data points. Using marketing automation software, you can get this data directly from your customer relationship management (CRM) system.

• Creating content

Using the data and insights gathered in the previous step, create content for each step of the customer journey. This could include content on your website, blogs, social media, email campaigns, and even eBooks. When creating content, keep your audience in mind at all times. They are likely to look for educational materials before making a purchase. Further down the sales funnel, detailed information presented in an ebook format may be more relevant to your customers. A platform that includes built-in asset creation and management will help your content team work more efficiently. Brand-compliant content blocks that are reusable, dynamic content functionality, and subject line optimization can be used by users to create content.

• Identify distinct groups within your target market

Marketing automation starts to shine at this point. Automated marketing tools use the data gathered in the first step to create customer profiles so that teams can segment their prospects and current customers and deliver relevant content to each one. It’s more likely that teams that create content with a specific audience in mind will be successful in this step.

• Create advertising campaigns that are fully automated

Multi-channel campaigns that target specific audiences can be created following audience segmentation. A/B testing can be used to compare two variations of the same email to see which one performs better. Team members set up predetermined actions and triggers that cause their automation software to carry out particular functions (such as sending an email) in response to specific customer or prospect behavior (e.g., attending a webinar). From a single location, the best digital automation platforms make it easy for everyone to access the information they need.

• Let the software do its thing

Once the campaign goes live, the marketing automation software takes over. Prior to initiating workflows, it monitors customer behavior for predefined actions and triggers. In the end, these functions are responsible for guiding leads through the sales funnel and handing them over to the sales team. In order for a marketing automation platform to be truly effective, it must be able to adapt to the ever-changing customer journey. Customers’ actions are “heard” by the platform, which changes the experience or redirects them to a different campaign based on their preferences.

• Observe the outcomes

Throughout the process, teams can monitor and analyze results to better understand which materials are performing well. Marketing teams can use real-time monitoring to fine-tune their content, triggers, and campaigns to achieve the best results. Reports and dashboards allow you to analyze the performance of campaigns, assets, and lead scoring models.

 

Today, 75% of companies make use of some form of marketing automation. An 80 percent increase in customer conversions has been found by Forrester in these businesses. This shows that marketing automation is already having a positive impact on many businesses. What’s more, is marketing automation being used to its fullest potential? Is one platform’s data linked to another’s? In spite of the fact that marketing automation is helping the company succeed, there is always room for improvement. Find out how you can evaluate and expand your current marketing automation capabilities.

• What is the goal of marketing automation?
• What is the best way to plan for marketing automation?
• Is your marketing strategy ready to be automated?

What is the goal of marketing automation?

Marketing automation can be improved or implemented for a specific reason. According to Ascend2 research, 30% of marketers already use automation to manage repetitive tasks, such as sending email follow-ups based on user behavior. Marketing automation can also be used to better serve current and potential clients or customers. Over time, tracking a user’s unique buying path offers many possibilities to tailor the experience. Do you want to boost customer retention? Alternatively, why not shorten the final period of time? Depending on the strengths and needs of the company and its employees, any of these marketing automation roles could be a good fit. Determine your goals before searching for a tool that meets them.

What is the best way to plan for marketing automation?

Data and strategy must be collected and documented in order to prepare your company for a higher level of marketing automation. Here are a few more advanced preparation methods.

• Collection of lead and customer data:

Lead and customer data, including contact information, transaction and purchase history, and buyer behavior and interest insights, will form the foundation for effective marketing automation. If you don’t already have it organized in a CRM platform, gather and organize this data. A single source of truth must be established if information is accessible but stored in multiple systems. Cleansing and consolidation are necessary.

• Consider your audience and readers:

You can segment your audience based on demographic and behavioral data about your customers in addition to defining these segments. In what ways are the needs and concerns of the various groups different? How do you incorporate these differences into your content and strategy? A long-term benefit of marketing automation is the ability to test, analyze and modify your target audiences as you learn more about them..

• Test your approaches:

To begin testing hypotheses and strategies, a small, targeted campaign may be more beneficial than contacting everyone on the contact list at once using marketing automation. By comparing the results of your new campaigns to those that are still based on traditional methods, you can determine how much progress has been made. It’s also a good idea to look up industry averages so you can see how your efforts stack up against the competition.

Is your marketing strategy ready to be automated?

It is possible to incorporate data into campaign design, lead scoring and more profitable sales by implementing advanced marketing automation. The use of advanced intelligence (AI) helps to identify the most engaged accounts and the next steps needed to close a deal.

A willingness to learn from customer data and apply that knowledge to improve business and customer outcomes is all you need to get started with marketing automation. The best next step is to look into email marketing platforms after gaining this perspective on your goal.

With the help of smart and relevant information, content marketing generates interest in a company’s product, service, or brand. To what extent does the design of a website influence its content marketing?

• Can content marketing be affected by web design?
• Make a Remark or an Impression in Seven Seconds or Less
• Keep an Eye on the Pictures!

Can content marketing be affected by web design?

When creating a website with a lot of information, it’s crucial to keep accessibility in mind. If you’re going to publish anything online, you need to make sure that it’s easy to find and understand. In order to make it easy for visitors to find the information they need, the design of your website should be clear and concise.

Have you ever gone to a website and become annoyed because you couldn’t find what you were looking for? The same holds true for your visitors if they are forced to actively search for the content they are looking for. Adding a drop-down menu or search bar to your website’s navigation will make it ten times more user-friendly.

Make a Remark or an Impression in Seven Seconds or Less

If you’ve ever visited a website, how did you feel when you arrived on a page that was poorly designed? No, I wasn’t convinced by the website. No, it’s most likely not. Website design does not fall under the maxim “never judge a book by its cover.” Your website’s visual appeal will have a direct impact on your success. Customers place a high degree of trust in websites that have been designed and built by experts. Choosing between a scruffy lawyer and a well-dressed lawyer who offers the same service is like picking between apples and oranges; it’s in our nature to prefer the latter.

In order to build trust with your audience, you need to make your website look modern and up-to-date. It is imperative that your website has a clean, well-presented design that demonstrates your professionalism and inspires trust in your website and business among visitors.

Your website’s text and content should be visually appealing in addition to the overall look and feel. Some website owners go overboard with the number of fonts and colors they can choose from. Websites with a lot of fonts can appear unprofessional and overwhelming to visitors. Typically, you should use a different font for the title and the body of the text.

Your body copy must be clear and large enough to be easily read by the audience. A lot of people overlook these details, which can have a big impact on the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy when it comes to attracting new customers.

Keep an Eye on the Pictures!

There is a common belief that the best books have illustrations, but they don’t, and they should be. The majority of people are visual learners, so it’s in your best interest to include images and graphics to aid in their understanding of new concepts and information. Images and videos can help customers understand how to use the products or services you offer more clearly and effectively. Your website’s layout should be able to accommodate visual content and make it easy for readers of your site to scroll through photos and watch videos, from a design perspective,

Many factors must be taken into account when building your website, especially if you plan to use content marketing as your primary strategy. If your content isn’t presented in a way that encourages visitors to stay on your page, there’s no point in writing it in the first place..

All of an organization’s functions are capable of being improved. The increased efficiency of marketing teams as a result of marketing automation has been a game changer. Just one of the many benefits of marketing automation that your team can take advantage of. They know that they must stay on top of the trends in order to maintain business success. In the next section, learn about the benefits that marketing automation can provide for your team.

• What are the benefits of marketing automation for businesses?
• How do marketing automation and CRM work together?
• The best platforms for automating marketing

What are the benefits of marketing automation for businesses?

Marketing automation is all about getting more done with fewer resources. Companies of all sizes should invest in digital marketing automation tools. In order to better understand why marketing automation is such an important investment, let’s take a look at the benefits.

Departments’ alignment

Sales and Marketing departments, which frequently need to be in sync in order to maintain business success, will have an easier time accomplishing this with the help of marketing automation. Using automation, these two teams can reach a new level of cooperation.

Time

The first major benefit of automating at least a portion of your marketing efforts is that you will save time on tasks that were previously performed by hand. There are many daily tasks that can be automated to save your team time, such as posting to social media, sending emails, and following up with customers.

Measurable success

Marketing efforts can be more difficult to measure, whereas sales success is more easily quantifiable. Analytics can be analyzed more thoroughly when marketing campaigns are automated, allowing for a more comprehensive evaluation.

Marketing automation can impact your business in a variety of ways, as illustrated by the examples provided here. One of the most powerful combinations is to use an existing customer relationship management system (CRM) with automated marketing. Lead-to-opportunity and opportunity-to-close times are reduced when marketing and sales are working together.

Data duplication and omission are two of the most common problems in the absence of integration. Using sales data in a marketing automation system, a prospect or customer’s actions and behaviors can be used to send marketing messages. Incorporating data from marketing automation with CRM allows salespeople to see what a prospect or customer has interacted with. In this way, sales can speak directly to the customer’s or prospect’s concerns.

How do marketing automation and CRM work together?

To keep track of customer and prospect interactions, the sales team typically uses a CRM. An organization’s diverse marketing channels are all recorded by a marketing automation system in addition to its many other capabilities. Because of the shared data between the two systems, a more personalized customer experience and a shorter sales cycle can be achieved through their integration.

The ability to cultivate relationships with potential customers before transferring them to the sales team is a significant benefit of integrating marketing automation and CRM. An understanding of customer needs and pain points can help the sales team know what to say to the customer in order to build a trusting relationship. Customers will be happier as a result of both of these initiatives. By guiding these prospects through the customer journey together, long-term success is increased.

The best platforms for automating marketing

There is no doubt in our minds that marketing automation is an essential part of any company’s operations. The most difficult part of selecting a marketing automation platform is making the right choice for your organization. There are a number of factors to consider when deciding which marketing automation platform is best for your business.

• For each interaction, the right platform should provide a unified view of the customer’s behavior, transactional data, firmographics, and demographics.
• In order to create a seamless customer experience, make it easy for your marketing team to create personalized campaigns.
• Using an automation platform, you will be able to collect actionable data in real time and make changes to your plans as needed.
• In order to increase customer loyalty and retention, the automation platform provides the information needed to create specialized loyalty programs for your loyal customers. Integrate and improve existing processes with the most effective marketing automation platform you can find. Join forces with a team of seasoned professionals and a tried-and-true platform.

E-mail marketing campaigns are being re-evaluated in light of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). Also, MPP pre-fetches email content in order to generate a haystack of fake open times in order to hide the real open times by their users. When MPP went into effect in September, Apple Mail app users were more than 95% likely to enable MPP, and Apple Mail was responsible for about 50% of all email opens.

This has prompted marketers to rethink how they measure email marketing success. Now, let’s take a look at how things have changed and what’s stayed the same in the last year or so.

• Opens are still useful, if not essential, in today’s business environment
• Email clicks are partially filling the void left by open rates
• There are considerations for cross-channel behavior
• What comes next?

Opens are still useful, if not essential, in today’s business environment

Opens have become increasingly difficult to understand due to a chorus of people declaring them to be dead. At this point opens are still very much relevant for marketers. Most marketers will continue to see reliable open rates from at least 50% of their subscribers even after MPP adoption reaches its peak. To ignore this open information would be naive.

Opens are necessary for the following reasons:

Many B2B companies, CPG brands, media organizations, and other brands prioritized engagement over direct sales in their email marketing programs.

This includes campaigns whose primary goal is to engage rather than sell.

Advertisers who want to know how many people will see their ads and how much they should charge for their placement in emails.

When it comes to calculating CTOR, which helps you determine how well your envelope content aligns with your body content, as well as how efficiently your recipients are converted into clickers.

Identifying a group of subscribers that consistently open your emails will be an important part of using opens in the future, and then using that group as a proxy for all of your subscribers. Marketers frequently use subsets of their audience as a stand-in for the entire audience when running A/B tests. In order to comply with MPP, marketers must use the same methodology to track open rates as well as open-based metrics like CTOR.

Is the accuracy of open rate measurement affected by this method? Yes. This will help businesses make important choices, however. If you’re looking at a metric’s value, not its precision, you’re missing the point.

Even so, don’t write off Apple’s auto-generated openings as a waste of your time. For example, Apple Mail’s auto-open feature can verify an email’s authenticity and alert users to spam or block it. Auto-openings do have some use, but it’s marginal.

Email clicks are partially filling the void left by open rates

When it comes to email marketing, it’s not hard to see why open rates have been overused, despite their usefulness. High-frequency engagement indicators were easy to measure and easily quantifiable.

Opens were a common metric for gauging the success of subject lines. Due to the fact that the tests were able to reach statistical significance within hours, the winner could be implemented later that same day. A major flaw in this strategy is that campaign success is not accurately predicted by the number of campaign opens, making the achievement of statistical significance on this poorly aligned measure pointless. As a result, marketers were encouraged to use vague, mysterious subject lines that were more likely to pique subscribers’ curiosity than their interest.

Until now, the most important metric for figuring out when to send an email has been how many times it has been opened. Another issue is that most marketers do not want their emails to arrive at the time when subscribers are most likely to open them. They want their emails to arrive when their subscribers are ready to engage and convert. The two times are often in close proximity, but they aren’t always the same.

Send time optimization and subject line optimization tools now give disproportionate weight to email clicks while excluding auto opens as a result of MPP undermining opens. Now that these optimizations are more in line with bottom-of-funnel behavior, they will have a greater impact on the success of the brand’s marketing efforts. It will take these optimization engines longer to adapt to changes in subscriber engagement behavior because clicks are eight times less common than opens. Despite this, these tools are still extremely useful.

There are considerations for cross-channel behavior

Despite the fact that email clicks partially compensate for the loss of email opens caused by MPP, email marketers have lost a significant amount of insight into the engagement of emails. Cross-channel behaviors are therefore being used by marketers to fill the remaining void.

This is crucial, because of the importance of subscriber engagement, which is probably the most important factor affecting a sender’s deliverability out of the seven listed. The best way to know if a subscriber is safe to mail to is to look at their recent open rates. It’s important for marketers to take into account cross-channel actions when they have only auto-open data. It is a legal requirement that brands identify their most loyal and engaged customers as “active subscribers.” In the absence of mailbox providers altering their spam filtering algorithms, this is the best option. However, this isn’t ideal.

MPP is urging brands to look at subscribers in a more holistic way, not just in terms of their inbox placement. With today’s multi-channel world, this is long overdue. In an effort to better serve customers, email marketing is being integrated with other digital marketing channels. As a result, customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer data platforms (CDPs), which aggregate all customer data in a single location to provide a real-time 360-degree view of the customer, are becoming increasingly popular metrics for businesses.

What comes next?

Marketing via email relies on data in order to be successful. Apple and Google are leading the way in enforcing stricter privacy policies that limit or devalue data collection. This means that marketers will have to stay flexible if they want to keep offering consumers experiences that are highly tailored to their preferences.

With so many options available to consumers these days, retaining current customers is of paramount importance. As a result, businesses looking to increase customer retention will need to go beyond simply understanding value. Businesses must have a reliable metric for tracking and evaluating customer retention in order to develop a genuine strategy.

• Measuring the average percentage of customers retention rate
• Understanding retention in context
• Customer loyalty Programs: A means of increasing customer retention

Measuring the average percentage of customers retention rate

Customer retention measures how well a company is doing in keeping the customers it has worked so hard to win back, as well as the revenue it generates as a result. The average customer retention rate measures the percentage of customers who remain loyal to your company.

When deciding on a period to use for retention measurement, keep in mind the typical repurchase cycle of your product in mind. The most difficult part of the retention equation isn’t the math; it’s the time frame that needs to be taken into account. One week may be the repurchase rate for milk, for example. If, on the other hand, your product is a car, you might choose a four-year warranty period.

Understanding retention in context

Having a higher rate of customer retention means that your products and services are of value to your customers, and they are happy with the service they receive from your company. How do you define a high or low retention rate? To which the answer is: it is dependant.

Because of their industry, their clients, the nature of their products, and other factors, some companies have a higher (or lower) retention rate than others. Consider your company’s context when evaluating customer retention.

Customer loyalty Programs: A means of increasing customer retention

Your “starting point” for customer retention can be determined once you have a clearer picture of where you’re currently at. Plan to increase your average customer retention rate by a certain percentage each year. Think about the factors that influence customer retention — service quality, satisfaction with the brand and commitment were identified as crucial in 2020 — and choose those you can influence to raise your retention rate.

If you want to increase customer engagement, enhance the customer experience, and reward customers for their loyalty, a customer loyalty program can help. There are a variety of programs to choose from, depending on your goals.

Marketing automation software streamlines and automates the management of online marketing campaigns. Email marketing, social media marketing, and lead scoring are just a few examples. Automation allows marketing teams to accomplish more with fewer resources, which has numerous business advantages, such as a higher ROI and a better quality of leads. A number of marketing automation experts have made predictions for the year 2022 and beyond, and we’ve rounded them up here.

Using marketing automation, businesses can engage with their customers in real-time, based on real-time data

OMC Jonathan McClure, analytics and strategic services manager, knows the value delivered by marketing automation through customer engagements based on customer insights. A fully automated and seamless cross-channel experience is now readily available for marketers, making it simple for them to uncover insights through machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Marketing automation gains efficiency by automating more tasks

Marketers’ abilities and demands are constantly evolving as automation technology advances. Predictive analytics and omnichannel marketing automation will be possible thanks to artificial intelligence. Jonathan Bonghi, Apex IT’s marketing strategist, believes that marketing automation will be the driving force behind the next wave of digital transformation. Businesses that have a well-defined strategy and invest in robust data management are more likely to succeed than those who lack these two elements.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing automation allows for more accurate forecasting of customer behavior in the future

AI and machine learning will give companies an advantage over their competitors in the long run. Konrad Feldman, CEO and co-founder of Quantcast, agrees. For marketers, using AI and machine learning, they can get real-time insights into their audience, their needs, and where they’re looking. Improved online experiences and increased business performance are all a result of this.”

New ways of acquiring customers can be gained through the use of automated marketing

There is an increasing demand for AI applications to convert business intelligence into crucial business actions, according to Bluecore’s SVP of marketing and business operations, which help retail brands convert casual shoppers into long-term customers. Discounts are disappearing or at least becoming less common.

The industry standard for sending emails over the internet is SMTP, or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It employs proper authentication, increasing the likelihood of your emails being sent to recipients’ inboxes. Although you may receive a free STMP for a business email address from standard mailing services like Gmail or Microsoft Outlook, there is a limit to how many emails you can send using these services. To ensure that your emails are sent correctly, you should sign up with one of the well-known SMTP service providers. The top 10 STMP firms are shown below.

• Google Free-SMTP Server
• Pepipost
• Sendinblue
• Mailjet
• SendGrid
• Amazon SES
• MailDrill
• SparkPost
• Mailgun
• Postmark

1. Google Free-SMTP Server

A Gmail account is the only prerequisite for using the service. By amplifying the ease of interface with numerous applications, the company’s global infrastructure is meant to minimise downtime. While Google offers a free SMTP server, after the 14-day trial period, you’ll need to upgrade to a Google Workspace subscription plan, which starts at $6/month. You can send up over 2000 emails in 24 hours in this case.

2. Pepipost

This cloud-based SMTP email delivery service with an Email API for integrating your apps allows real-time reporting for tracking your assessment KPIs, and easy subaccount management. They also provide great user experience and live chat assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making them the most customer-friendly service because their customer service team never fails to react to your inquiries promptly.

3. Sendinblue

It’s one of the best SMTP services for sending bulk emails, especially those that are transactional. It offers the highest delivery rate and guarantees that your emails reach your recipients’ inboxes. The flexibility to integrate with your email builder or any other software that you may be utilizing is Sendinblue’s most appealing feature. It includes with a full API, an SMTP relay, and a WordPress integration plugin.

4. Mailjet

Mailjet is a web-based email service that lets you compose, organize, send, and optimize emails. It allows marketers and developers a transactional email solution for their marketing campaign. It also offers SMTP Relay or Sends API for bulk emailing.

5. SendGrid

SendGrid is the most reliable email delivery provider. With SendGrid, APIs, SMTP Relays, and Webhooks are available. It utilizes a simple and adaptable integration process. With SendGrid, interactive videos, online communities, and documentation are all used to provide support.

6. Amazon SES

Amazon SES is a platform for sending and receiving email that can be used for transactional messaging, marketing communications, notifications, and incoming emails. This SMTP interface allows you to integrate email sending into your existing ticketing system or email clients.

7. MailDrill

Mandrill is a company that specializes in transactional email. It’s for customised one-to-one emails or data-driven emails like e-commerce. Through API or SMTP connectivity, you may send and track emails.

8. SparkPost

Email Deliverability is the best. It’s a developer-friendly, scalable email distribution system. It’s an email delivery service that small and large businesses can use. It will assist you in anything from designing customer engagement emails to improving email delivery. It offers a variety of pricing options.

9. Mailgun

It offers the greatest SMTP service as well as a reliable transactional email solution. Email API, Email Validation, and Deliverability services are all provided by Mailgun. It allows burst sending, and you can send up to 250000 emails per minute using this service. It allows for simple SMTP integration.

10. Postmark

The system is designed for programmers and is best suited for transactional emails. It chooses the closest server for your transactional email automatically. In terms of response codes, SMTP differs from REST API. You will receive an immediate success or error message for the delivered message when using the REST API. SMTP, on the other hand, accepts all messages and logs bounces as errors.

In today’s market, salespeople have their pick of several customer relationship management (CRM) software programs. And they’re all quite useful in accomplishing the goal. Google Sheets, on the other hand, has two important benefits over competing products: If you’re already familiar with how to use it, it’s free.

In some cases, a Google Sheets sales tracker may be an attractive option for those who don’t want to invest in specialized software or who simply prefer a simple spreadsheet to move customers through the sales pipeline.

The question is, where do you begin? It is possible to use Google Sheets as a CRM platform that fits your basic needs, as explained below:

• Get a customer relationship management template
• Create your own
• Customize and adapt to your specific requirements
• Share it carefully

1. Get a customer relationship management template

Inspect the template to make sure it fulfills your expectations. Among other things, it should help you with relationship management and analytics, for example. Templates that are comprehensive and well-designed can easily be found online. Despite the fact that Google Sheets is free, it is possible that some of the templates are not.

A CRM for Google Sheets is available for free by simply entering your name, email address and phone number in the form provided by HubSpot CRM.As a result, the options available to you when shopping online are numerous. The best course of action is to test out a couple of them and see which one best suits your requirements.

2. Create your own

If you’d want to build a simple CRM in Google Sheets from scratch rather than using these templates, that’s totally ok too. With Google Sheets, you can create a list of contacts and organize their information into columns for name, phone number, email, notes and so on. It is possible to import a list of contacts from Excel or Outlook into the spreadsheet, and then begin filling out the columns.

If you’re a one-person operation serving a modest number of clients, this should suffice. You will, however, need a system that does not necessitate as much manual data entry and can handle vast volumes of data as your list increases and your staff expands, as well.

3. Customize and adapt to your specific requirements

With Google Sheets, you have the freedom to tailor the program’s features to your own needs. In contrast to a general design or software platform, your CRM database and sales spreadsheet will present data that is vital to you, not what is displayed by the default.

You should alter the flow of Google Sheets as you use it to keep track of your client interactions. Examine how you’re using the software and make adjustments until you’re putting in the least amount of data feasible while still making optimal use of what you do have available.

4. Share it carefully

If you collaborate with others, your CRM may need to be shared. Fortunately, Google Sheets has a “Share” button in the upper right corner that allows you to share it with a small group of people or allow anybody with the link to read and change it.

However, you should proceed with caution, especially if you’re working with a sales CRM. If both of you contact the same sales prospects, for example, this might lead to problems. If you use Google Sheets, you’re on your own when it comes to protecting yourself from this scenario.

When deciding who has access and editing rights, make sure you do it wisely. In order to avoid interfering with one another while working on the spreadsheet, you might want to create separate sheets, each containing a different list.