Inbound Marketing Commandment #10: You Must Use a CRM

As part of the LeadG2 series on "The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing," today we're looking at the ninth of The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing: You must use a CRM. (Tweet This)

If you are wanting to be successful with inbound marketing, you're probably wanting to generate leads. As we looked at earlier in previous inbound marketing "commandments," it’s critical to your lead generation efforts to be consistently publishing valuable content, ensuring that the leads are being followed up on, and monitoring the progress of these leads through the sales funnel. The last step is essential, and without the use of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, you can’t adequately follow up and keep track of these leads.

Lead Follow-Up and Pipelines

If you want to get serious about your inbound marketing efforts, the use of a CRM is mandatory. No, you can’t keep track of your leads effectively via a spreadsheet or some offline method. You have to have a CRM that’s updated regularly and serves as the master record for everything that’s taking place with your inbound efforts.

Two of the biggest benefits that companies using a CRM experience are being able to track the progress of leads through the funnel (so management can see at a glance where leads are in the process) and being able to develop pipelines that help with business forecasting. Without the use of a CRM to track how your leads are progressing through the sales pipeline, you are simply making guesses at how your inbound marketing program is functioning.

Even though it’s listed at #10, this might be one of the most important inbound marketing commandments.

The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing

Thou shall not put pen to paper before conducting research and understanding your target persona. (Tweet This)
Sales must be involved in your inbound strategy at each stage from conception to implementation to follow up. (Tweet This)
Your website must be mobile optimized or responsive. (Tweet This)
You must have a written plan for lead follow up that’s agreed upon by both sales and marketing. (Tweet This)
You must have someone responsible for your inbound marketing program. (Tweet This)
Consistently be publishing content on your blog. (Tweet This)
You must have premium content (white papers, guides etc) on your website if you intend to generate leads. (Tweet This)
Do not ignore SEO / Organic search. This is your website’s lifeblood. (Tweet This)
Thou shall not publish content for the sake of Google. Write for humans not Google. (Tweet This)
You must use a CRM. (Tweet This)