Hottest CRM trends in 2015 (and what's ahead for 2016)
I’m a sucker for year-end lists summarizing the top trends of the past year: is there any better way to while away your post-lunch-ate-too-much-gingerbread-stupor than to pontificate about the state of technology today? I doubt it. So grab some eggnog and catch up on the hottest CRM trends.
Marketing Automation is here to stay!
According to Focus Research, marketing automation has seen the fastest growth of any CRM-related segment in the last 5 years, and by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship without talking to a human. Solutions like Pardot, HubSpot, Marketing Cloud, and Act-On have seen huge growth in both the small business and nonprofit sectors. If you’re not yet ready to invest in a marketing automation solution, the good news is that many smaller-scale solutions like Cirrus Insight are doing lite automation like allowing you to automate CRM tasks from your email inbox. MailChimp calls itself a marketing automation solution on its NPR ads, and indeed can facilitate tasks like email scoring.
Takeaway: invest in communications staff who equally love data and content. The days of passing off email newsletters to an intern are over and your constituents expect thoughtful, personalized engagement long before you talk to them directly.
UI matters
One of the big announcements at Dreamforce this year was the development of Lightning: Salesforce’s new UI or user interface. Salesforce has been due for a UI upgrade for years now and is seeing increasing competition on this front from simpler CRMs like HubSpot, but it still remains to be seen how soon the average Salesforce user will reap the benefits of simpler design since it has been slow to roll out so far.
However, on the Salesforce application front, many solution providers are making beautifully-designed apps which is setting a new standard for Salesforce user expectations. Consultants like us are also increasingly being asked to customize Salesforce: see some of our handiwork here with 6 stunning examples of custom Salesforce design.
Takeaway: if you think Salesforce could be a whole lot prettier and user-friendly, you’re not alone. Reach out to chat with us about how we could help you upgrade to Lightning or customize your design.
Training is getting more and more accessible (read: no more excuses for poor user adoption!)
As we recently discussed, CRM training is getting more prolific all the time and with that comes a higher expectation for how much the average Salesforce user should know. It’s no longer enough to have one CRM admin who knows everything about your system: you need a variety of users with different roles and knowledge bases since CRM is increasingly becoming the place where your entire business connects.
Takeaway: Get out in front of training at your organization by staying up on the resources from the Success Community to Trailhead, and pointing your staff in the right direction.
Engagement, people
It’s been a couple years now since Salesforce Communities came out, and it is just now starting to really take off and show how it can be so much more than Facebook or LinkedIn. Engaging with your constituents beyond email is becoming more and more necessary: take a look at how your favorite brands do this and consider how you could apply similar strategies at your organization.
Takeaway: include a conversation around “engagement strategy” in your 2016 planning. Be clear on what engagement metrics matter to your organization, and discuss how to grow these in 2016.
Content keeps on rising
According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2015 Report, 84% of small businesses are predominantly using inbound marketing. Blog posts are the new billboards! We are starting to see businesses adopt paid content strategies: the NYTimes’ top sponsored content (ads) see engagement equal to non-sponsored articles. How does this fit into CRM trends, you ask? CRMs have long been about relationship nurturing, and more and more, content is a way to nurture your contacts.
Takeaway: if direct mail or other outbound marketing strategies still dominate your outreach, it may be time for a shift. Start small with a blog that answers your constituents’ top questions, perhaps with one post a week.
And the top trend…
Integrate everything
This trend has been a major player for years now in the CRM space, and it is still vital to engage a consultant if you want to integrate complex solutions like Quickbooks or password-protected areas of your website. However, this year we saw a rise in simpler applications like Workato and Zapier that provide integration such as auto-filling a google doc with event registration data, so you can readily share with external teams.
Big picture
On a broader level, this year has seen a rise in the connection between public and private sectors. The private sector is realizing that it needs to step up social responsibility programs and nonprofits are getting more creative every day with how they engage private sector partners.
Takeaway: whether you work for a nonprofit or private sector company, consider how you can reach across the aisle and engage the other side.
What did we miss? Let us know in comments! Want to talk more with our team about what these trends mean for your organization and how you can get on board in 2016? Check out our latest whitepaper to learn more about one of the top trends: Marketing Automation for Nonprofits.
