Marketing is often viewed as a discretionary expense by accountants and in tough times, many businesses are tempted to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, their marketing spend. However, businesses that work on keeping their brands alive during these challenging times are more likely to be perceived as successful and resilient. The successful businesses will be those that focus marketing spend on activities that offer proven ROI. With careful planning and the right technology, these organisations can ensure they are well-placed to take advantage of a more fluid marketplace where customers are in a "different place" than before.

How Sage CRM Can Help

Sage CRM provides tools for marketing teams to plan, execute and audit marketing campaigns.

• The tool enables businesses to segment customers and prospects to ensure that marketing budgets are focused on those most likely to buy. The group management tools enable businesses to deliver targeted campaigns to segments and sectors showing signs of recovery, thereby increasing response rates and ultimately revenue. 
• Sage CRM also allows marketing executives to develop a deeper understanding of customer needs, enabling businesses to create a more tailored set of propositions for customers. 
• Every phase of every marketing campaign can be tracked, providing meaningful analysis and campaign measurement thereby ensuring maximum ROI and zero wastage. Sage CRM also provides effective controls for monitoring marketing budgets and enables the calculation of direct revenue yields per campaign. 
• Additionally, Sage CRM provides marketing staff with a range of reports and fully configurable dashboards, which allow them to monitor marketing performance metrics in real-time.

Next time: Preparing for the upturn: Exceptional Customer Service

You can also listen to some of our customers talking about their day-to-day usage of Sage CRM: