CRM Systems for Writers

What’s on the iPod: Leading Me Now by The Tallest Man on Earth

Today is packed with random work. I have two interviews for my article assignment, and we have repair people arriving sometime this morning. I was given another assignment yesterday, and if I have time I’ll start on that, too.

I talked on Wednesday about putting together your own customer relationship management system (or CRM). A CRM process just helps you keep track of all those people you know or are in contact with, which can help you stay in touch with people who have expressed interest in your writing services.

Whether you need a formal solution (or whether you need a freebie or one you pay for) depends on how well you’re tracking your current client contacts.

I realized I had a problem when my spreadsheets of client contacts began outgrowing my ability to keep up with them. So I did a little research and tried out a few freebies. I’ll list some potential freebies for you a little later. What you really need to know is how these things can help you.

Even if you use your own system, there are a few things you should consider when putting a client marketing/sales process into place. Your system should:

Allow you to list contact details. Every system has to show you who/where, but you’re going to want to make notes. Any good system, self-generated or otherwise, needs a space where you can attach emails (or allow for reference to particular emails), make notes, and track conversations.

Schedule follow-ups. In the few commercial products I’ve tested, they have included calendars and I’ve attempted to schedule “events” or “tasks” (depending on the product). None have worked. The whole reason I wanted a CRM was so that little function would be a one-click job. Instead, I found myself bouncing between my Outlook calendar and the online CRM. That’s where things became too cumbersome for me to continue with the CRM. However, there are products out there that integrate well with Outlook. If you come across one that’s free, let me know.

Explain itself simply. How it operates is crucial to which one you’re going to want to use. I had one CRM program that explained what a lead was, what a contact was, and not what would happen once I turned a contact into a lead. Creating a lead (someone who was interested) made it impossible to get back into the file to make changes. Seems this CRM was made just for lead generation, not for any ongoing customer relationship management (which is stupid since it was billed as a CRM).

Help you maintain regular contact. Some CRM solutions allow you to send emails right from their program. Some let you create and send newsletters, too. Anything that allows you to move all your marketing into one easy-to-use area is a bonus.

Make your job easier. This is where I dumped a few potential products. If I’m adding extra steps to my marketing process, it’s no longer worth it. One CRM promised integration with Outlook. I was so excited until I realized it didn’t work. At all. It added a row of menu options to Outlook, but they remained dead links, so I uninstalled.

Do you need formal software to track your contacts? Only if you’ve found yourself forgetting to follow up, finding emails a year later that you never went back to check on, or unable to make marketing a more active part of your job (software can help if it reminds you or if you find a way to integrate it with things you already use).

Some freebies you can try right now:

Insightly. For writers who have under 2,500 contacts, this is a neat little program. Web-based, Insightly has a nice support system, helpful email suggestions, and a friendly interface. It integrates with email, Dropbox, Evernote, MailChimp and more.

CRM Free. Not one I’ve tried, but an option if your contact list is under 1,000. Fairly basic program, not a lot of bells and whistles.

Zoho. It’s a free trial (which they don’t necessarily mention when you sign up for their “free” solution). It’s okay, but it doesn’t allow me to schedule easily. You can integrate with all sorts of applications with the paid version.

eWay for Outlook. I wanted desperately to love this. However, I couldn’t get it to work with Outlook 2013. I’ll admit I didn’t go out of my way to learn it, either. For me, it has to be intuitive or it’s already a waste of time. This is free for one user.

SalesWah Lite. I’m testing this one now. It does integrate with Outlook. It took me less than ten minutes to read their instructions (which aren’t easy to locate on their site — I searched via Bing and found what I needed instantly). You can import your contacts from Google, Excel, and other places. Then you categorize them (easy if you use the “People” tab at the bottom of Outlook) and then you can assign tasks and create “deals” (which I guess you can make whatever you like). Note: If you’re using Excel, make sure to get addresses, emails and phone numbers — you can’t create a “deal” without these fields. So far, easy and just what I was hoping for. And free.

Outlook Calendar. As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, you can create your own management system without any additional tools needed. Like Saleswah, you can import contacts and work right from whatever contact folder you create, keeping notes and setting up calendar “appointments” for followup.

Writers, how do you track your customer contact? 
Have you lost out on opportunities because you forgot to follow up or didn’t get back in touch?