To scale your business and keep running it without losing your mind, you must stop doing everything manually. That’s where CRMs and lead generation tools come into play.
Which one do you need at this stage? Or should you invest in both?
Some features do overlap but CRM systems and lead generation tools have different goals. So, let’s look at them individually to find the right solution for your business!
What are CRM systems?
CRM (customer relationship management) systems are platforms or software to manage all your interactions with potential and current customers.
They’re designed to keep all their information in one place, together with touchpoints and communications.
So, a CRM’s goal is to optimise your customer relationships and, consequently, help you make more sales.
Key features of CRM systems
- Contact management – Collect and organise all the information you have on your prospects and customers. That way, you can easily track your past interactions and personalise your future communications
- Communications – Manage customer enquiries, complaints and tickets, logging all your interactions and making notes (so that, no matter which team member picks them up after you, they always exactly know what’s happening)
- Marketing and sales tools – From campaign management to lead scoring, CRMs include features to help you nurture your prospects, turn them into paying customers and forecast your future sales
- Automation – You can get your CRM to manage repetitive tasks or perform specific actions based on set triggers
- Analytics – CRMs show you data and reports on your customer interactions, campaigns and sales, making it easier for you to review and optimise your strategy accordingly
Benefits of using CRM systems
- Having all your customer information and communications in one place (so that different team members can access them and always be in the loop)
- Bringing your marketing and sales teams together
- Personalising and elevating your customer experience (like following up, cross-selling and up-selling based on each person’s history, preferences and touchpoints)
- Automating some tasks
- Saving time and boosting productivity
- Removing human error
- Accessing data and reports
- Increasing sales and customer retention
- Scaling your business more easily
Examples of popular CRM systems
- HubSpot, an all-in-one marketing and sales platform
- Insightly, a modern and easy-to-scale CRM
- Keap, a CRM for small businesses
- Zoho, with collaborative features for different teams
- HighLevel, a comprehensive platform to grow your business
Some other tools were built for different purposes but offer CRM capabilities, too. For example:
- ScoreApp, our quiz marketing platform to attract warm leads, gain powerful insights and increase sales
- ActiveCampaign, an email marketing platform with interesting automation and reporting features
- ConvertKit, a popular email marketing tool for creators
- Customer.io, a messaging platform to generate and nurture leads
As well as offering CRM features, ScoreApp connects with all the most popular third-party platforms.
Start managing your leads and customers for FREE with ScoreApp
What are lead generation tools?
Lead generation tools are platforms or software to attract potential customers into your sales funnel so that you can nurture them strategically (ideally, until they buy from you).
They can do this in lots of different ways because there are all kinds of lead generation tools out there, from chatbots to pop-up builders and quiz platforms.
Overall, though, their main focus is collecting your audience’s details, allowing you to contact them directly.
While some lead generation tools can also segment your leads and help you identify warmer ones, that’s not a given.
Key features of lead generation tools
- Collecting contact details – Lead generation tools capture your audience’s email addresses or phone numbers through forms, landing pages, social media interactions, pop-ups and more. That way, you can nurture them directly instead of letting them leave empty-handed and run the risk of losing them forever
- Personalisation – The best lead generation tools help you customise your interactions based on each prospect’s situation (for example, by monitoring their behaviour on your website or collecting data that you can use to personalise your approach)
- Lead scoring and pre-qualification – Some lead generation tools can also help you identify if someone is ready to buy from you and whether or not they’d be a good fit (for example, through lead scoring features, audience segmentation or by asking strategic questions through a lead-generation quiz)
- Automation – Lead generation tools collect contacts for you 24/7, and you can also automate additional tasks based on set triggers (like sending different email sequences to each segment)
- Analytics – They’re not always as in-depth and comprehensive as the reports you get with a CRM, but some of these tools include analytics to measure your lead generation efforts
Benefits of using lead generation tools
- Targeting users who’ve already shown an interest in your products or services
- Capturing your audience’s details (your website visitors and social media followers in particular) so that you can contact them directly
- Identifying the right-fit prospects rather than just collecting more leads
- Personalising your customer interactions to make them more effective
- Growing your audience
- Automating some tasks
- Saving time
- Removing human error
- Making it easier to nurture your audience and turn more of them into customers
Examples of popular lead generation tools
- ScoreApp, to create a valuable quiz lead magnet, promote it through a compelling landing page, segment your audience based on their answers and automate personalised email nurturing sequences for each group
- HelloBar, lead capture software to display floating bars and pop-ups on your website
- Leadpages, a landing page builder to also create a basic website or funnel
- Unbounce, to build simple landing pages
- Drift, an AI-powered chatbot to engage with your website visitors
Create a lead-generating quiz for FREE with ScoreApp
Key considerations on CRMs and lead generation tools
So, what should you keep in mind to figure out if you need a CRM, lead generation tool or both?
- Scope – Lead generation tools focus on the initial stage of attracting your potential customers and capturing their details. CRM systems, on the other hand, have a broader scope: they’re about managing your customer relationships across every stage of their lifecycle
- Integration – If you choose to use both, it’s important that your lead generation tool and CRM can connect smoothly. That way, you’ll still have all your information and touchpoints in one place
- Knowing what to prioritise – If you’re still trying to reach more people and increase your brand awareness, your priority should probably be investing in a lead generation tool. If you’re a more established business with a large customer base, a CRM will help you manage it successfully. At the same time, if you have the right budget and capacity, it’d be wise to invest in both a lead generation tool and a CRM: that way, the former will generate more leads for you, and the latter will allow you to manage them successfully
Combine your CRM system and lead generation tool with ScoreApp
As you now know, CRMs and lead generation tools share some features but have different goals and can easily work together.
Are you ready to take control of your entire lead generation and customer relationships? Then, set up a full quiz funnel with ScoreApp!
You’ll get to:
- Create an effective and attention-grabbing lead magnet for your target audience
- Use a compelling landing page to promote it and capture their details
- Collect data and pre-qualify your participants by asking strategic questions
- Segment them based on their answers
- Connect your quiz to your email marketing platforms, setting up different sequences for each group
- Nurture your prospects strategically
- Keep track of all your interactions by connecting ScoreApp to your CRM
- Invite the right prospects on a call, or sell to them in a personalised way, referencing their quiz results
- Consistently close more sales
So, start generating more leads and managing them strategically: create your ScoreApp quiz funnel today and for FREE.
