The Best Contact Management Software Options

When you are running a business, you want the best contact management software to streamline the processes that people don’t realize are happening behind the scenes. This article will help explain what a contact management system is and the best contact management software options available for you and your business needs.

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Contact Management Software vs. CRM Software

What is Contact Management Software?

Contact management software is software that stores, organizes, and tracks information about your customers, prospects, and sales leads. It is beneficial to utilize such software for organization, data tracking, etc. especially if you have many contacts to organize. The contact management system helps keep track of information such as a name, phone number, email address, company. Additionally, the contact management software can aid with scheduling meetings and searching data. For more in-depth knowledge, you can click on the following hyperlink to learn more about contact management software as well as customer relationship management software.

What is CRM Software?

How does a contact management system compare to a CRM software? CRM stands for customer relationship management. Essentially, it is like a contact management system but with more added features that makes it an all-in-one tool to help manage customer information, customer satisfaction, make notes, send out emails, and more. Additionally, for small businesses, it is important to explore what is the best small business CRM software. The following section will include just some examples of CRM features.

Common CRM Features

  • Track customer interactions: This allows you to track your interactions with customers, prospects, and leads. This is valuable because your business has access to customer data that you can use to tailor to the customer’s wants and needs. Additionally, you can use the trends to help come up with or improve on strategies.
  • Lead scoring: Essentially, this lets you identify which of your contacts are more likely to buy your products based on how they interact with your marketing campaign. Some examples of activities scored include opening emails, downloading resources, or visiting certain pages on your website. This will help spend resources more efficiently on those customers more likely to convert.
  • Sales force automation: These sales force automation features can improve sales team processes. For instance, the feature can prevent the lead from getting multiple calls from different reps.
  • Marketing automation: This feature can help your business set up effective marketing campaigns such as sending targeted marketing campaigns to each of your contacts for instance.
  • Analytics and reporting: Customer relationship management systems usually have analytics and reporting that will provide key consumer insights and information. Ultimately, you can use these tools will help strategize and increase sales while improving upon areas that need work.

Benefits of Contact Management Software

Find out some of the benefits of a contact management software or CRM system and how they could help you and your business.

Stronger Customer Relationships

A contact management system or CRM system will allow you to collect and save valuable customer data. Contact management software also tracks when a customer opens an email, clicks on your website, downloads content, and more. The company is better able to engage with the customer, tailor to their needs and build customer loyalty.

Increased Productivity

Using a contact management software automates a lot of processes, thus increasing efficiency and productivity. Why spend time and energy on booking appointments when you can use a simple automated feature included in numerous contact management systems? You and your team can then focus on the more important aspects of your business.

Reduced Costs

Many processes can be automated with a good contact management system or CRM software. Therefore, not as many employees are needed so there are less salaries to be paid out. Hence, your company saves money and can better reallocate resources. In addition, some CRM systems come with built-in marketing and sales automation. There is no need for separate systems, and this helps with better integration and reduced costs. Moreover, your business is able to reach more leads, increase revenue, and strengthen customer relationships.

Sales Contact Management Systems

A sales contact management software is integrated into a CRM software, not a standalone contact management software. Additionally, it helps make the sales process easier and more efficient. Also, a sales contact management system can improve sales processes by automating some processes as well as increasing sales and thus revenue.

Valuable Data and Insights

CRM and contact management software provide CRM reporting, metrics, and data analysis to help. With other metrics such as revenue predictions, campaign performance metrics, etc. you can make significant business decisions based on data. Metrics help a business see where they are at and what actions to take from there.
 

The Best Contact Management System Options

Some of the best systems out there are Keap, LACRM, Really Simple Systems, and Copper.

Keap

“Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) is a cloud-based sales and marketing solution that offers customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, and e-commerce functionalities in one suite.”
This contact management software offers more than just a contact management system, but a CRM system with the features mentioned above. There is no need to have various systems. Instead, choose an all-in-one solution that will improve customer relationships, improve marketing, and have e-commerce functionalities as well ultimately increasing sales.
 
Pricing: Keap is the most expensive CRM on this list due to these added features. The pricing for Keap starts at $79 per month for 500 contacts and unlimited emails. The Pro plan is $159 and the Max plan is $199/month.

Less annoying CRM (LACRM)

This is great for small businesses who want a simple CRM system for less costs and less hassles. LACRM is a great contact management software option for those smaller businesses who want something more affordable and less annoying. There are no long-term commitments; you don’t need an IT team to help set it up; and you get features that you and your business will actually use rather than have a complex, annoying system meant for large businesses.
Pricing: There is a 30 day free trial without requiring a credit card! The pricing is simple as well. There are no tiers, usage limits, etc. It simply costs $15 per user per month.
 

Really Simple Systems

This contact management system is also designed with small businesses in mind. As the name implies, it is a simple CRM software. This CRM system is designed for growing teams working Business to business. This CRM software also provides what is needed for sales and marketing, in one simple system.
Pricing: There is a free trial available which is great for those who just want to try it out. There are different plans that come with annual or monthly plans (with the annual ones saving a couple of dollars). The annual plans are $14/month, $30/month, and $46 for the starter, professional, and enterprise plans respectively.

Copper

Copper is great for those familiar with the Google Workspace platform because it is well-integrated with it. It is simple to use and you can take advantage of the CRM system from your Gmail inbox. Copper is best for those who value simplicity, convenience, and who work with the Google Workspace platform. The drawbacks are that it doesn’t offer as many features as competitors and it is locked in the Google Workspace ecosystem.
Pricing: The Basic plan has a monthly or annual plan – $25/month if on the annual plan or $29/month on the monthly plan. The most popular plan is the mid tier Professional annual plan costing $59/month. The Business plan comes with unlimited contacts and full customization of the platform; it is billed annually at $119/month.
 

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Other Considerations for Your Business

A CRM or contact management software is just one aspect of how you can engage with the customer. It is important to have a great e-commerce platform (whether it is closed source or open-source e-commerce) to help set up an online store and sell your products. In addition, it is very shrewd for you to develop the best e-commerce business plan. Moreover, don’t forget about the design and aesthetics for your website, and be sure to avoid these web design mistakes. If you would like help designing and creating an ecommerce website, contact us at SEO Design Chicago to get started!

FAQs

  • What are the top CRM systems?
  • How do you use contact management software?
  • What is a CRM system?
  • Do I need contact management software for my business?
  • What is the difference between CRM and contact management software?

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