Customer relationship management (CRM) systems help businesses organize and analyze customer information data while also allowing for businesses to better manage relationships with their customers. Email marketing is an essential practice for any business to target new leads and boost their growth. Email marketing software, such as MailChimp, provide the tools to ensure your email marketing, websites, social media, and digital advertising are successful and effective. Combining CRM with email marketing software allows businesses to send more relevant and more effective communications. While some email marketing systems offer CRM tools, they are often not enough.

What is MailChimp?

MailChimp is an email marketing platform that allows your business to create and manage electronic communications, such as newsletters and email marketing campaigns, to your leads and existing customers. It allows you to target leads based on locations or regions, analyze email marketing statistics, and fully automate email marketing campaigns based on specific customer triggers.

MailChimp CRM

While MailChimp is an email marketing platform, it does offer some basic CRM tools that can be beneficial and enough for businesses just starting out. However, for established businesses, the CRM capabilities within MailChimp are not enough. Here are the main CRM tools offered within the MailChimp platform.

Centralized customer data

MailChimp creates a centralized hub for all your customer data and allows you to view exactly who your customers are, how they interact with your marketing campaigns, and whether that interaction leads to sales conversion.

Audience segmentation

While having access to all your customer information in one place is essential, it isn’t always what you need when it comes to marketing. How you interact with one demographic will be different than when you interact with another. MailChimp allows you to segment your customer data based on specific characteristics and demographics, allowing you to target different email marketing campaigns to each individual audience segment.

Contact data organization

Depending on your business, you often want to organize your customer data in a specific way. While MailChimp offers this through audience segmentation, they go one step further with tags and groups. Groups is a form field that you create options for and that customers fill out when they subscribe to your marketing lists. Tags are labels you assign to each client based on what you know about them. Customers can have multiple tags and allow you to group your customers in additional segments that allow you to better target your specific marketing campaigns.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation allows you to connect your customer data with specific triggers that will initiate an email message. For instance, when a potential customer leaves an abandoned cart in your e-commerce site, it automatically triggers an email reminder to complete the checkout process. Another option targets your best customers and sends out discount codes to those customers that purchase most often.

7 best CRM integrations for MailChimp

While MailChimp’s CRM can benefit many companies, it does not provide all the tools that many businesses are looking for. However, integrating MailChimp with a complimentary CRM gives you the benefits of both platforms. Here we showcase some of the best CRM integrations for MailChimp.

1) Better Agency

Better Agency offers a web-based insurance CRM that offers contact management, interaction tracking, document storage, referral tracking, sales pipeline management, and so much more. It offers simple integration with MailChimp to further increase your email marketing capabilities.

Pros and cons

  • Easy to setup and use
  • Integrates with many different platforms, including MailChimp
  • Fully automated sales, service, and renewal pipelines
  • Newer company so there may be some initial bugs, however, the company is responsive to feedback and makes necessary adjustments as needed

Price

Prices range from their Starter package at $299/month to their Powerhouse plan for $549/month.

2) HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is a CRM platform that offers all the tools you need for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service combined into one platform. For businesses just starting out, HubSpot offers a free version of their CRM, through the features are limited. This is a great way to test out the product and see if it works for your business.

Pros and cons

  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Free and starter plans available
  • Free MailChimp integration
  • Offers packages with specific business targets (Marketing Hub, Service Hub, etc.)
  • Only syncs one way
  • Project management tools are lacking
  • Free and starter plans offer limited tools
  • Full CRM packages with full tools are expensive

Price

HubSpot offers a free full CRM package, though it has limited features. Full CRM bundle packages, as well as individual Hub packages, start at $45/month for the Starter packages with limited contacts and users. Packages increase in price based on users and contacts. The Enterprise package for the full CRM suite is $5,000/month.

3) Salesforce

Salesforce is a fully customizable CRM that offers solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service. Salesforce integrates with a wide range of platforms but the cheapest tier offers limited integrations capabilities.

Pros and cons

  • Customization for contact fields and data sync frequency with MailChimp
  • 20-year reputation in the CRM market
  • Cloud-based platform so you can work from anywhere
  • Complicated setup process
  • Can become expensive in the higher tiers
  • MailChimp integration not available to the lower plan tier

Price

Salesforce offers a free 14-day trial for their Essential plan and 30-day trials for their higher tiers. Pricing begins at $25 per user per month up to their Unlimited package for $300 per user per month.

4) Capsule

Capsule is an effective CRM that offers a simple and easy-to-use interface, even for beginners. Capsule offers the ability to integrate with a wide range of different applications, including MailChimp.

Pros and cons

  • Two-way sync with MailChimp
  • Streamlined and easy-to-use interface
  • Excellent integration capability
  • Features may be limiting for larger businesses
  • MailChimp integration does not allow for campaign reporting
  • No option for annual billing

Price

Capsule offers a free plan option that is limited to two users and 250 contacts. Pain plans begin at $18 per user per month up to their top program for $54 per user per month.

5) Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM has a great mixture of features and offers multiple plan options, including a free plan with limited features.

Pros and cons

  • Offers wide customization abilities
  • Easy two-way sync between Zoho and MailChimp
  • Receives notifications when new contacts are added
  • MailChimp integration is not available for free plan users
  • Interface can be difficult for new users
  • Customer support can be limited

Price

Zoho CRM free plan allows for 3 users with a limited functionality. Paid plans run between $14-$52/month per user, billed annually. Each package adds additional feature availability and has a free trial.

6) Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM that is easy to use. While it integrates well with MailChimp, other areas and tools, such as automation, are lacking within the platform.

Pros and cons

  • Easy-to-use interface and set-up
  • Visual pipelines
  • Call and email synchronization
  • No free plans available
  • Lacks customer support options
  • No separation between new leads and contacts

Price

Packages with Pipeline begin at $18 per user per month up to their largest plan for $119 per user per month. Prices are slightly cheaper are billed annually.

7) Insightly

Insightly CRM is a functionally intuitive and visually attractive CRM with a wide range of functionality and integration availability.

Pros and cons

  • Two-way sync with MailChimp
  • Full range of functionality
  • Extensive integration options
  • No website chatbot options
  • Limited customer service

Price

All packages offer a free trial, with packages ranging in price from $29 per month, per user to $99 per month per user.

Run an Insurance Agency? Let MailChimp and a quality CRM work together to boost your business.

When you combine MailChimp with a quality CRM platform, the world opens when it comes to automated and targeted marketing capability. These top CRM platforms offer the best integration capabilities with MailChimp to help ensure you have all the tools you need to upgrade your automated marketing options.

For more information about our insurance CRM software and how it can make a difference for your business, schedule a call with Better Agency today.