In this opinion piece, Michael Jenkins (pictured below), CEO of Shout! Web Strategy, says mixing your CRM Data and social media channels can prove gold for marketers…

We know the lines are blurring across digital principles and marketing; though right now nothing is more powerful than blending CRM data into your social media channels to hit your target consumer bullseye.

CRM data is useful when you understand, in detail, different ways to segment your data. The constant cleansing and segmentation is what makes CRM such a valuable asset. When you can segment your data in different ways to communicate specifics with that target based on their interests and behaviour, is when you hit the jackpot. Your 250K strong database becomes instantly more valuable when you can do this; as opposed to sending a blanket email hoping it will stick.

Social data can be as important as your CRM data. Thanks to analytic dashboards available on both Facebook and Twitter, you can monitor the behaviour of your audiences reaction to certain campaigns to determine what works, and importantly, what doesn’t. The only issue with social data is that it’s not as specific as your own CRM – it’s anonymous and often certain interest groups can become a catch-all.

HOWEVER….

Imagine a world where you can upload your CRM database into Facebook to ensure your advertising is hitting the right spot – well the good news is folks, now you can.

The real power of CRM and social data lies in the ability to match email addresses with social media users to turn customers into brand advocates.

Based on a recent study from Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Facebook Marketing Science, email openers who saw social ads were 22 per cent more likely to make a purchase. Also, the reach of email campaigns increased by 77 per cent when they were coordinated with social ads. Happy consumers generally translates into loyal customers.

This method allows you to personalise content for your audience allowing business to be more relevant to your customer and build more meaningful relationships. It can also be integrated with other digital channels such as email segmentation strategies to create channel alignment and increase cut through of messaging.  At Shout! we use custom audience development as part of our retargeting and paid social strategies for clients with varying database sizes from a few thousand to over 500,000.

Having segmented CRM data and email data helps create a sound custom audience development. This way messaging can be targeted to each segment to help ascertain your ROI on each initiative.