Do you know that you can get CRM software for marketing? If then, it will be an immense pleasure to give you a description of the CRM software for marketing. Marketing CRM software is a technology that enables you to manage your relationships and the rapport with the company and the customers, including potential customers. The CRM in marketing would be profitable to the marketing companies and agencies by educating the customers about various marketing tools, better segmentation, establishing a better relationship with the customers, higher level of customer retention, better anticipation of customer requirements, effective communication, and a higher level of data security. CRM software in marketing also enables you to design better marketing strategies. If you want to know more or take immediate action for your business growth, watch out for the list of top CRM software for digital marketing & advertising agencies now!
What are the Best CRM Software for Marketing Agencies?
» Our score is based on user satisfaction (reviews & ratings), social media buzz, online presence, and other relevant information. If your software is part of this list, use this badge on your website and social media to let your readers know about your success.
List of Top CRM Software for Digital Marketing & Advertising Agencies Reviews
1. Pipedrive – The Best CRM for Marketing Teams, Departments, and agencies
About Pipedrive: Pipedrive is the best CRM software for any sized business. With a clear dashboard, easy-to-use features, and an expansive library of integrations with other apps, it’s the perfect CRM for anyone who wants to be more productive with their business strategies. Pipedrive provides the easiest way to manage your business and customer relationships. With its intuitive interface, advanced filtering tools, and powerful reporting capabilities, this CRM eliminates a lot of the hassles that come with keeping up with current opportunities.
Pipedrive Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“Using Pipedrive’s CRM is one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We’ve seen our annual revenue explode, and the outlook just keeps getting sunnier” – Mitchell Workman
Pipedrive
United States
501 – 1000
2010
$14.90/month/user
Yes
4.5
2400+ Reviews
4.2
1500+ Reviews
2. HubSpot CRM – Best Free CRM Software for Marketing Agencies
About HubSpot CRM: HubSpot CRM is a software application that primarily focuses on managing your business’s online presence and online marketing practices. The HubSpot CRM software is the backbone of every company’s website; it allows for managing and monitoring web traffic, tracking analytics, creating content for social media, and measuring success. Having access to HubSpot CRM can give you more insight into your customer’s behavior and customer relationship, which ultimately can help improve your company’s bottom line.
HubSpot CRM Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“One of the most dangerous things a software company can do is remain static, HubSpot does a great job of listening to its customers and keeping up with the shifting world of technology. It’s a trustworthy platform that will keep pace with whatever the future brings.” – Haley Irwin
HubSpot
United States
1001 – 5000
2012
Not provided by vendor
Yes
4.5
3400+ Reviews
4.4
9500+ Reviews
3. Copper CRM – CRM minus the creative blocks.
About Copper CRM: Copper CRM is a leading provider of intelligent software systems for different industries. Through its cloud-based platform, Copper CRM provides business-grade capabilities to users to win today’s competitive marketplace. Copper CRM offers a wide range of standard customer relationship management (CRM) software features, including lead management, case management, and quote management, as well as marketing automation features, such as multi-channel lead capture and eCommerce capabilities.
Copper CRM Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“I love that Copper is simple, easy to use, and intuitive. Our business is all about relationships and it helps us build better relationships with our clients.” – Crescent Diamond
Copper
United States
51 – 200
2013
$29.00 /month
Yes
4.4
500+ Reviews
4.5
1030+ Reviews
4. Freshsales – Best CRM Software for Advertising & Media Agencies
About Freshsales: Freshsales CRM is a sales CRM designed to be used with Gmail and Google Calendar. It helps you keep in touch with your prospects and manage your meetings from Gmail. Freshsales CRM is integrated perfectly into Gmail, which means you can use all the features of Gmail without having to switch to an additional window or program when checking emails. You can also manage your contact details and create sales campaigns and reminders with the help of Gmail and Google Calendar.
Freshsales Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“As soon as we were given a demo of Freshsales, we knew it would resolve some of our most pressing sales challenges, to begin with. In fact, after a short set-up period and minimal training, we were able to hit the ground running from Day 1. And it hasn’t disappointed till today.” – Jean-Philippe Thiery
Freshworks
United States
1001 – 5000
2011
Not provided by vendor
Yes
4.6
500+ Reviews
4.6
900+ Reviews
5. Zoho CRM – Run your entire marketing agency with single CRM solution
About Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM is a cloud-based platform that helps you organize your business and track your projects. It comes with a variety of features; this CRM has made it possible for anyone, regardless of their experience or level in their field, to manage their business effectively without having to worry about anything else. Zoho CRM offers numerous features to manage sales and business where you can find process management, sales enablement, sales forecasting, marketing automation, customization, team collaboration, etc.
Zoho CRM Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“With Zoho CRM, we experienced a 65% increase in our sales pipeline. We also managed to reduce our lead to real prospect time by 60%, which is huge. I would definitely recommend Zoho CRM to companies that are experiencing complexity with sales and marketing and witnessing rapid growth.” – K.C Watson
Zoho
United States
5001 – 10000
1996
Not provided by vendor
Yes
4.3
9500+ Reviews
4.0
2200+ Reviews
6. Keap – Agency CRM with Sales + Marketing Automation
About Keap: Keap CRM is a professional cloud-based CRM and contact management software that is easy to use and manage. It is simple to use, yet powerful enough to be used in bigger companies and large enterprises. Keap CRM has been primarily designed for small businesses but can also be used by medium or large companies. Its features include task management, scheduler, security logins, time tracking, sales pipeline management, customer care automation with support ticketing, and SMS/phone call recording.
Keap Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“We looked at our business model, we were able to hire our first business coach, and Keap gave us enough breathing room to identify the bottlenecks in our production and sales systems. Ultimately, ALL the success MiSyte.com has enjoyed comes back to my decision to purchase Keap in 2014.” – Jamie Gilleland
Keap
United States
201 – 500
2001
$59.00 /month
Yes
4.1
1100+ Reviews
4.2
1400+ Reviews
7. Creatio – CRM tools for advertising and media agencies
About Creatio: Creatio CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management software for small businesses. This program allows users to manage their business and customer relations using their private domain. It uses an intuitive, easy-to-use interface which makes it easy for new users to learn how to use the platform without difficulty. Being made available on a monthly subscription basis, this software is accessible at any time, whether you’re at work or home. For those who are equally interested in using the system daily, there are also several add-ons that can be purchased that offer paid features such as phone support and more features.
Creatio Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“With Creatio, we consolidated all customer data, tuned lead and opportunity management using business rule capabilities, and streamlined the sales process.” – Jana Sergejenko
Creatio
United States
501 – 1000
2002
$25.00 /month
Yes
4.8
80+ Reviews
4.6
200+ Reviews
8. Insightly CRM – Unify Your Agency With the #1 Agency CRM
About Insightly CRM: Insightly CRM is a software solution for small and large businesses. Insightly CRM has plenty of features to help you manage your workflow and stay in touch with your customers. Insightly CRM is available for U.S. and Canada only. It is available in several languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and more. CRM system is designed for teams that want to manage their clients, leads, and contacts on the go. It’s a very flexible tool that can be adapted to different industries with its modules.
Insightly CRM Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“Bridging the gap between sales and marketing has always been important to us, and Insightly makes it easy to facilitate open communication between departments. We are excited to continue to capitalize on the tools that we’ve never had before. The opportunities within Insightly are endless.” – Chris Reider
Insightly
United States
51 – 200
2010
$29.00 /month
Yes
3.9
500+ Reviews
4.2
700+ Reviews
9. Bitrix24 – free CRM software For Advertising and marketing agencies
About Bitrix24: Bitrix24 CRM is a web-based CRM software marketed as an all-inclusive solution that can be used by small and large enterprises. It can customize its interface to specific business needs. Bitrix24’s users have access to a suite of powerful CRM tools and other publishing and collaboration options for personal and business use. It features social media & email marketing technology that enables users to build trusting relationships and track their interactions.
Bitrix24 Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“Bitrix24 CRM is an excellent tool for improving interaction with your customers, as it includes instruments for creating reports and analyzing sales and marketing campaigns, so that you can gain a clear insight into your company’s results and know whether or not your efforts are paying off.” – Üwen Ergün
Bitrix
United States
51 – 200
1998
$61.00 /month
Yes
4.1
500+ Reviews
4.1
400+ Reviews
10. Function Point – Best CRM for Creative, Advertising & Marketing Agencies
About Function Point: Function Point’s CRM software for agencies lets you keep your agency well stocked with work by connecting your marketing and sales departments. You will have access to an easy-to-use forecasting tool that lets you know your projected revenue ahead of time. Having all your communication in one CRM software makes your sales process seamless for your team, so you can stay in touch with potential clients as they progress.
Function Point Features: Workflow Automation, Contact Management, Interaction Tracking, Opportunity Management, Sales Forecasting, Lead management, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Appointment Scheduling, Reputation Management, File Sharing, Task Management, Document Management, Customer Support, Reporting & Analytics
“Being able to do the budgeting, the task management, project tracking, and the accounting all in one place is huge. Huge, huge, huge. We need to [get] a really clear picture [of] what’s going on. Now, We’ve been able to increase our billable hours. Not only just our hours, but our rate as a result of actually knowing how much energy we’re putting into every step of our projects. It’s a great ecosystem for all our information.” – Andrew Spirk
Function Point Productivity Software
Canada
11 – 50
1997
$52.00 /month
No
4.3
150+ Reviews
3.8
180+ Reviews
Marketing Agencies CRM Software Buyer’s Guide
Whether you’re looking for the best CRM for an advertising agency or social media services, this CRM buyer's guide will help you make the right decision. This guide goes through the essential process of choosing the CRM. This includes
-
- What Does a CRM Do for Marketing Agencies?
- What Features must you look for when choosing the best CRM for a marketing agency?
- How much does a CRM for marketing cost?
Let’s dive in.
» What Does a CRM Do for Marketing Agencies?
Before we jump to what CRM for marketing agencies does and choose the best CRM for advertising agencies, let's understand why agencies need CRM in the first place. We can categorize these reasons into two parts.
Reason #1. Data, More Data, Lots of Data.
Proper data management is the reason behind successful creative and marketing agencies. Because if data is not managed well, the agency will sink sooner or later! Why? Because agencies generate tons of data per client. If not handled well, this precious data can ultimately cause the loss of both client and agency.
Reason #2. Stagnant Revenues and Lost Opportunities
Many creative agencies lose tons of revenue because they keep jumping from one project to another without organizing things. Moreover, tasks like making modifications and pitching clients often take more time, and thus the actual work [the one that brings revenue] takes a back seat, resulting in revenue loss.
And hence, there's a desperate need for a CRM for marketing that automates the lead collection and communication process and, most importantly, organizes all the information in one place. In-built advanced analytics will automatically show areas where more efforts are needed to improve revenue and gain new opportunities.
Now, CRM for marketing helps agencies in the following ways:
#1. Leverage Data for Data-Driven Marketing:
A CRM is a helpful tool to understand how your lead generation efforts are stacking up and, most importantly, where your leads are coming from.
#2. Planning customer journey:
Every marketer must deal with the customer journey at one point. And CRM is the best way to prepare and track your customer journey because it gives you holistic views into how your customers engage with your brand and whether your marketing efforts are paying off.
» What Are the CRM Features for Marketing and Creative Agencies?
Below are the top must-have features when selecting CRM for Marketing and Creative Agencies.
#1. Web to Lead Functionality
This feature automatically collects the lead data from the website. The general workflow is as follows.
-
- The user fills out the lead form on site
- CRM logs in the data,
- Sales representatives can follow up with prospects through this data.
This feature saves time for sales and marketing teams as otherwise, they would have to manually enter the lead data into CRM and remove the duplicate data.
#2. Customization
Many marketing and creative agencies often collect so much client data that, in the end, it's difficult to optimize it well. Thus, a good CRM provides versatile customization options that let them tweak functions so that data is captured and organized correctly.
#3. Client Retention Features
A business can't survive if it keeps running after new customers. Current customers need attention too!
So, your agency needs to retain current clients by providing them with additional services and attention.
Any CRM you choose should give client retention features, including a 360-degree view of the client's history, work, payments, communications, etc.
It will benefit you in the long term as you can understand your client's needs well and can even upsell and cross their other services in your agency. E.g., Cross-selling Instagram paid ads service to YouTube paid ads clients.
#4. Billing Functionality
Agencies often keep CRM and billing software separate. But it's both expensive and time-consuming. Here's why. Firstly, the team has to input all the data into CRM manually.
Secondly, you need to pay the cost of billing software separately. Having a billing option within CRM saves your agency from this hassle. Each billing hour, price, and expense is automatically recorded within the CRM. And you don't even have to pay a cent extra for billing software.
#5. Mobile Access
'Why mobile access is required when all the work happens from a desktop or laptop?'.
Well, one of the perks of working in a marketing agency is that most of the marketing team will be working out of the office. In other words, many of them are working in the field, negotiating client deals, doing presentations and pitching, shooting videos, photography, recording Instagram and FB stories, and other parts of modern-day marketing.
This shouldn't stop you from keeping in touch with other clients and team members. What if a client asks for an urgent response from you, and you are not in the office?
It's going to be unpleasant, right? But having a CRM with mobile access can combat this issue as you instantly reply to them in urgent matters while accessing all the critical data to resolve their problem. This is only possible when you have a mobile version of your CRM.
#6. Client Portal Option
How often does your agency get a client call asking for invoice details or reports? You need a client portal if you need help counting it on your finger.
Getting constant calls from clients can disrupt you and your team's workflow. And thus, any CRM you choose must provide a client self-service portal where clients can log into their accounts and check the invoices and deliverables.
But that's not all; you can take it a step further by allowing your clients to submit updates and approval on the project. This will significantly reduce work disruptions and save time that would otherwise go into taking follow-ups, answering calls, giving updates, etc.
#7. Partner’s Pipeline
As a marketing agency, developing a list of solid contacts is critical. You can leverage these contacts to help you promote your client's business. You will need to constantly make and manage these relationships, as they will be the key to helping your clients gain maximum results.
These contacts include PRs, media partners, influencers, bloggers, photographers, etc. A CRM is one of the best ways to collect and nurture such communications.
#8. Third-Party Integration
It doesn't matter how good a marketing CRM is. The list of things that need to be added is never-ending. Furthermore, multichannel marketing is the future. Hence, you will need more than one communication or marketing channel to survive shortly. And to fill this gap, you will need to take the help of third-party tools and integrations.
You can't just rely on Facebook to find your potential clients. Connect with them through Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, and other channels. So, whatever CRM your agency decides to go forward with, ensure that it has tons of third-party integration so that you can take advantage of essential things.
#9. Enhanced Email Communication
Reminder! Email marketing is not dead.
It's still one of the highest revenue-grossing marketing channels out there. So, you need to jump on the wagon if you still need to use email marketing.
The best CRM for a digital marketing agency has advanced email marketing capabilities that will help you manage your relationship with clients and run marketing campaigns for them. Pay special attention to these features when choosing the
-
- Bulk emailing
- Premade email templates
- Email tracking
- Email marketing automation
#10. Number of Client Records
A CRM is a valuable tool as it helps record a client’s address, phone number, email, and other basic information.
However, the best CRM tool for a marketing agency is the one that lets you scale as your business grows. This facility is available in the majority of cloud marketing CRM.
#11. Data Backup
As a digital agency, there is nothing worse than losing the essential data of your client. Hence, to safeguard your data, choose the CRM that provides regular data backups which can help you in case your original data gets corrupted!
Please note, this list is by no means comprehensive. There are several other factors that you will have to see when choosing the right CRM for marketing. However, this list contains the top things that are a must-have!
» How Much Does a Marketing Agency CRM Cost?
This section will give you a brief overview of how much the best CRM tools for marketing agencies cost and what hidden charges you may incur once you start using them.
Firstly, let’s explore the pricing model. Not all CRM for marketing agencies come in the subscription form. If you would rather pay a one-time fixed fee, several great CRMs available in the market.
Three Types of Pricing Models
Modern CRMs for an ad agency, a marketing agency, or social media marketing have three pricing models:
Flat Fee | Subscription | Free-Forever Plan. |
In this pricing structure, the CRM vendors have a flat fee. For a fixed period, regardless of features and functionalities. It can be a month or a year. | This is a standard model with modern CRMs. The price is generally charged. Every month per user. | Some CRMs also have a forever free plan, providing limited access and a budget for high-priced software. |
It can range anywhere from $5000 per year for small-sized agencies to as high as $40,000 for large enterprises. | It can range anywhere. Between as low as $9 per user per month to $1500. Per user account for enterprise CRM. | Although there are $0 charges, the features and number are often limited. |
» How to Create a Realistic Budget for CRMs?
When looking for the best marketing agency CRMs, you must price your budget accordingly. Apart from monthly or one-time fees, you may also have to pay extra costs to use the software. These are as follows:
-
- Add-ons cost - Many CRM for creative agencies have several add-ons to extend the functionality of the software. The price of an ad can differ based on complexity, features, etc. However, it's still an expense you will need a budget for.
- Set Up fees-Although cloud-based CRM for marketing and creative agencies doesn't call for intensive setup, you may still need to migrate your data from the old system to the new system, which can cost anywhere from $1000 to $5000 depending on the volume.
- Requirements and planning - If you are a small business, you can directly start using CRM out of the box without much planning. However, if you are a large-scale enterprise marketing agency, you will spend time and money documenting processes, migrating data, reviewing existing systems, etc. The planning phase can cost over $10,000 for large agencies with high-volume data.
- Support - You will need to invest in customer support, whether a small-scale or large agency. The excellent news is that cloud-based CRMs often have support teams ready for your call.
They may even help you up your ROI. But the amount of customer support can vary wildly depending on the CRM.
This is much more true in the case of enterprise marketing agencies, as the number of employees is much higher than small and mid-scale agencies, and thus they should be ready to shell out more for premium large-scale customer support.
» Conclusion
CRM is a tool worth investing in if you run an advertising, creative, or marketing agency.
By centralizing information and making data management more accessible, CRMs can bring in more revenue and reduce lost opportunities.
Use the above points to ensure that you choose only the best CRM for your digital marketing agency.