CRM software and email marketing are a perfect combination, similar to donuts and coffee.
While it is possible to manually input data into your CRM and send marketing emails without the assistance of a CRM, the combination of these two tools is more effective. By combining them, you can create a well-functioning system that allows for:
- Automatically populating your CRM with sales leads captured via email forms, and
- Personalizing your emails with contact data in your CRM.
By breaking it down into steps, your CRM and email marketing efforts both contribute to and improve your sales and marketing campaigns as a unified whole.
To begin with, what exactly is CRM email marketing and what are its potential benefits?
What Is CRM Email Marketing?
CRM email marketing involves utilizing email as a means to market to contacts stored within a CRM. A practical illustration of this would be sending:
- Welcome emails to all contacts who have just entered your sales funnel (and whose data you’ve added to your CRM)
- Automated drip campaigns to nurture your contacts into customers
- Targeted emails to groups (or “segments”) of contacts with similar characteristics
- Email funnels to prospective buyers at various stages of the buying cycle
Why Opt for a CRM With Email Marketing?
You can use the valuable data stored in your CRM to enhance customer relationships and sales by personalizing your emails to contacts.
By utilizing your CRM system, you can collect and store valuable information about your customers who are members of your gym at various locations across the country, such as their names, gym membership tiers, locations, and gender. By doing so, you can then utilize this data to send targeted emails.
- Only customers who live in a certain geographical area (to notify them you’re temporarily closing the branches there for renovations, for example)
- Female customers about upcoming ladies-only gym sessions
- VIP customers about their exclusive gym membership perks
You can increase your conversion rate and prevent contacts from unsubscribing by customizing your marketing messages to suit your audience, resulting in targeted offers.
In order to participate in CRM email marketing, one would have to put resources into a CRM that includes characteristics of email marketing like creating email forms, automations, and segmenting contacts. On the other hand, one could also utilize an email platform that possesses features of CRM.
These two options may seem alike, but they vary in terms of their stronger features. A CRM and email marketing tool primarily focused on CRM will generally offer more extensive CRM features and fewer email features, whereas the opposite is true for an email-first platform.
What Is the Best Email Marketing Service With CRM?
HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, EngageBay, and Brevo are among the top email marketing services with CRM.
By following a systematic approach, you can rephrase the given text while maintaining the same meaning: They offer assistance in efficiently managing your sales pipelines and storing customer data. Additionally, you have the option to categorize your customers to effectively send tailored campaigns, and create automations to streamline your email marketing efforts.
- HubSpot CRM
Although there are email marketing services that include CRM features, HubSpot goes beyond that and functions as a comprehensive CRM with integrated email capabilities. Its popularity is evident, as it holds approximately 31.61% of the market share in the marketing automation industry.
Let’s analyze the reasons why HubSpot receives all this love, by thinking step by step.
First of all, HubSpot’s free CRM includes a range of robust features including email forms and landing pages, a deal pipeline, contact website activity (also known as website tracking), and email marketing automations. Additionally, it offers the capability to store one million contacts and send a maximum of 2,000 emails each month.
Advantages of HubSpot CRM
- HubSpot’s free plan is highly generous, letting you store up to one million contacts in your CRM, send up to 2,000 emails per month, and set up simple marketing automations. You can even use the platform’s non-marketing features, such as conversational bots, at no cost.
- Build end-to-end sales funnels within HubSpot by taking advantage of its built-in email form and landing page builders, marketing automations, and sales pipeline features.
- HubSpot’s CRM is easy to use despite being feature-rich.
One of the disadvantages of HubSpot CRM is…
- The platform’s email forms look rather plain and uninspiring.
- HubSpot doesn’t have great deliverability, finishing second from the bottom in our email deliverability tests for 15 providers.
The pricing for HubSpot CRM can be understood by thinking step by step.
- The CRM Suite Free plan includes forms with limited features and HubSpot branding, 2,000 email sends per calendar month, one automated email action, and one deal pipeline
- The CRM Suite Starter plan removes the HubSpot branding and gives you 10 automated email actions and two deal pipelines. It also increases the monthly email send limit to 5X your marketing contact tier. The CRM Suite Starter plan starts at $50/month for 1,000 marketing contacts and two paid users
- The CRM Suite Professional plan gives you unlimited automated email actions, 15 deal pipelines, and 100 custom reports. It also increases the monthly email send limit to 10X your marketing contact tier. The CRM Suite Professional plan starts at $1,781/month for 2,000 marketing contacts and five paid users, not including a one-time $4,500 Professional Onboarding fee
- The CRM Suite Enterprise plan gives you multi-touch revenue attribution, 100 deal pipelines, predictive lead scoring, and 500 custom reports. It also increases the monthly email send limit to 20X your marketing contact tier. The CRM Suite Enterprise plan starts at $5,000/month for 10,000 marketing contacts and 10 paid users, not including a one-time $12,000 Enterprise Onboarding fee
- ActiveCampaign
If you prioritize email marketing automation, ActiveCampaign might be the right choice for you. This platform offers some of the most robust marketing automation capabilities available in the market.
However, this does not imply that ActiveCampaign’s CRM features are inadequate.
You have the ability to generate deals and allocate them to users, as well as track the advancement of your deals in pipelines. There is no restriction on the quantity of pipelines you can have in ActiveCampaign. Additionally, you can utilize the previously mentioned automation features to handle your deals, like automatically updating a deal’s status when a contact opens your email.
To access both the email marketing and CRM features offered by ActiveCampaign, you will need to purchase a bundle plan. Since ActiveCampaign is already expensive, this bundle plan will be costly. Refer to the pricing section below for detailed information on the costs.
The advantages of ActiveCampaign.
- The platform offers a wide variety of triggers and actions for building sophisticated marketing automations, including adjusting a deal score when a contact clicks an email link.
- ActiveCampaign scored well in our email deliverability tests.
- Once you’ve won a certain number of deals, ActiveCampaign can help you calculate the win probability for open deals. This is helpful for deciding which deals to focus your efforts on.
One downside of ActiveCampaign is that it has its limitations.
- You may find ActiveCampaign’s prices too high to swallow.
- The platform’s CRM reports could be more customizable, like what we’ve seen in other CRMs.
The pricing of ActiveCampaign will be rephrased by thinking step by step, while maintaining the same meaning. No new information will be added, and no information will be removed. ActiveCampaign’s pricing will be rephrased, thinking through each step, while ensuring the same meaning is maintained. No additional information will be added, and no information will be omitted.
- The Marketing + Sales Plus Bundle plan includes contact segmentation, sales automation, and lead scoring. It starts at $116/month for 1,000 contacts and five user seats
- The Marketing + Sales Professional Bundle plan adds unlimited email sends, sales engagement automations, and win probability predictions. It starts at $482/month for 2,500 contacts and 10 user seats
- The Marketing + Sales Enterprise Bundle plan adds custom field objects, custom reports, and single sign-on (SSO) features. A custom quote is needed
- EngageBay
The EngageBay CRM software provides robust email marketing capabilities in an easy-to-use interface, ranging from email broadcasts to sequences and automations. Despite other platforms often being cluttered and challenging to navigate due to their extensive features, finding what I need on EngageBay is typically only a few clicks away. Interestingly, even the color scheme of EngageBay’s interface brings me joy every time I launch the platform!
To access the platform’s email marketing and CRM features, you must have EngageBay’s All-in-One bundle plan. Additionally, the free plan may be of interest to you as it allows you to track deals and send 1,000 emails per month, among other features.
EngageBay’s All-in-One pricing is more cost-effective compared to other bundle options we have tested, specifically mentioning ActiveCampaign.
There are advantages to using EngageBay.
- The EngageBay platform is clean and a joy to use. Kudos to its user interface designers!
- You can save precise segments of contacts using a wide range of filters.
- Each of your contacts is assigned a score and you can have these automatically adjusted using automations. You can also trigger automations when your contacts’ scores reach a certain value.
There are disadvantages to using EngageBay.
- Marketing automations are available only if you upgrade to EngageBay’s second-highest paid plan (All-in-One Growth) or higher.
- EngageBay’s form and landing page templates look rather garish compared to those in various other platforms we’ve tested. I wouldn’t use them without extensively customizing them first.
EngageBay has a pricing plan in place.
- The All-in-One Free plan includes five form embeds, 1,000 emails per month, and predictive lead scores for up to 250 contacts
- The All-in-One Basic plan adds custom deal milestones and calling minutes. It also increases the email send limit to 3,000 emails per month. The All-in-One Basic plan starts at $14.99/user/month for up to 500 contacts
- The All-in-One Growth plan adds marketing automation, time zone-based email delivery, and custom deal tracks. It also increases the email send limit to 25,000 emails per month. The All-in-One Growth plan starts at $49.99/user/month for up to 5,000 contacts
- The All-in-One Pro plan adds goals, custom reports, and role management. It also increases the email send limit to 50,000 emails per month. The All-in-One Pro plan starts at $99.99/user/month for an unlimited number of contacts
- Brevo
Brevo is primarily an email marketing software, but it also has the capability to function as a CRM with the installation of its free Sales CRM app. This integration allows Brevo to function as both an effective email marketing tool and a tool for tracking deals and sales pipelines.
The free plan offered by Brevo is what I particularly enjoy. With this plan, not only do you get access to basic CRM and email marketing features for free, but you can also store an unlimited number of contacts. The only limitation is that you can only send a maximum of 300 emails per day.
If you are looking to manage a large contact list on a limited budget, all these reasons make the platform a great option.
The advantages of Brevo.
- The platform has a decent free plan. Among other features, it lets you segment unlimited contacts, send automated email campaigns, and manage your contacts in a CRM as long as you don’t send more than 300 emails per day.
- Brevo’s email marketing and CRM interfaces are clean and easy to navigate.
- You can also build relatively advanced email automations with multiple entry points and if/else conditions.
Brevo has several disadvantages.
- You won’t be able to work with your email marketing contacts in the Sales CRM app until you’ve registered “companies” in the CRM and associated your email marketing contacts with them. Doing all this can be rather tedious.
- Brevo’s landing page builder is available only on the more expensive Business and Enterprise plans.
The pricing of Brevo should be considered in a systematic manner, considering each step carefully and logically.
- The Sales CRM add-on app is free and includes deal management, customizable signup forms, and task automation for unlimited contacts
- The Marketing Platform Free plan includes marketing automation for up to 2,000 contacts, contact segmentation, and 300 email sends per day
- The Marketing Platform Starter plan removes the daily email send limit and gives the option of removing Brevo branding (for an extra $10/month). It starts at $25/month for sending up to 20,000 emails per month
- The Marketing Platform Business plan adds A/B testing, send time optimization, and advanced email reports. It starts at $65/month for sending up to 20,000 emails per month
- The Marketing Platform Enterprise plan adds custom shared inboxes, multi-user access, and enterprise-grade security. It starts at $1,000/month
- Freshsales Suite
The Freshsales CRM belongs to the Freshworks product line, providing functions like sales pipelines, contact management, an activity timeline, and workflows.
Similar to Zoho CRM, Freshsales also offers a free option. However, Freshsales stands out as its free plan provides all the features included in the platform’s lowest-priced paid plan, without the need to pay for unlocking certain features. The only limitation is that the free plan allows a maximum of three users in your account.
If you want email marketing features, you will need to choose Freshsales Suite, the CRM with email integration that is not available in the regular Freshsales product. Since both Freshsales Suite and Freshsales have the same starting prices, it would be logical to opt for Freshsales Suite.
By thinking step by step, you will gain access to a range of comprehensive marketing automations known as “customer journeys,” as well as merge tag personalization, campaign analytics, and additional features.
Below, you will learn more about the Freshsales Suite, which is also a significant selling feature due to its AI capabilities.
Advantages of the Freshsales Suite
- Freshsales Suite’s Freddy AI assistant can help score contacts, give insights on deals, and forecast sales. Not many CRMs we’ve tested offer similar AI-powered insights.
- The platform has extensive options for segmenting your contacts based on their contact properties, email activity, web page visits, and more.
- A rotten deals feature lets you set up an age after which a deal is considered likely to have been lost (such as 30 days after creation). Sales reps who want to see which deals to spend more attention on before they “rot” may find this feature useful. We didn’t come across many other CRMs with a similar feature.
There are disadvantages to using the Freshsales Suite.
- The email campaign builder is rather inflexible. For example, you can’t add multiple columns of content to a single-column container.
- Freshsales Suite’s campaign revenue attribution feature works only with Shopify stores.
Price information for Freshsales Suite
- The Growth plan includes contact and deal management, AI-powered contact scoring, and email campaigns for up to 1,000 marketing contacts. It is free for three users and $18/user/month for additional users
- The Pro plan adds multiple sales pipelines, AI-powered deal insights, and sales team management. It starts at $47/user/month for up to 1,000 marketing contacts
- The Enterprise plan adds custom modules, AI-based forecasting insights, and a dedicated account manager. It starts at $83/user/month for up to 1,000 marketing contacts
- Insightly
Insightly is a CRM solution that is utilized by over 350,000 small businesses and freelancers across 100 countries. It is specifically designed for small businesses and is both simple and powerful. Using their system, users can effortlessly and swiftly retrieve information about a contact, such as their background, email history, and significant dates.
Insightly also provides smooth integration with Gmail, Google Drive, Outlook 2013, Office 365, and social media accounts, allowing you to easily capture and store conversations with your customers.
Listed below are the main features:
- Lead management
- Mass emailing
- Email templates
- Web to lead capture
The price for each user per month is $29 when billed on an annual basis.
- Nimble
Nimble’s focus is on assisting businesses in finding intelligent and uncomplicated methods to monitor and cultivate connections with existing and potential customers, as suggested by their name.
Similar to other solutions, their system offers all the necessary features to handle information and connections across various touchpoints. Additionally, their system has the capability to automatically discover social media profiles of contacts on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, eliminating the need for manual searching.
Key Features:
- Contact management
- Email templates
- Activity tracking
- Call logging
- Deal pipeline management
The price for each user per month, when billed annually, is $19.
- Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM offers the necessary tools and resources for capturing leads from your website, monitoring sales activity, handling email marketing, and easily retrieving customer information without the need to scroll or search.
Customization through drag and drop allows for effortless modifications, which is especially advantageous for individuals who lack technical expertise or do not have an IT specialist available. Zoho CRM integrates with various Google applications such as Gmail, Google Docs, Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks.
Main Features:
- Prioritize prospects with positive or negative scores
- Build custom pipelines
- Send bulk emails
- Sales forecasting
The pricing is set at $14 per user per month, with billing taking place on an annual basis.
- Vtiger
Vtiger, aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses, is a cloud-based CRM solution that has been developed using an open-source platform.
With Vtiger’s system, you have the ability to effectively handle customer and lead interactions, construct and deliver emails, allocate tasks to various team members, and offer customers a personalized web portal to submit service requests. Integration with MailChimp, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, and Gmail, among others, is possible with Vtiger.
Key Features:
- Multiple pipelines
- Sales insights
- Customizable reports and dashboards
- Lead scoring
- Calendar and task management
The cost for each user on a monthly basis is $30, with annual billing.
What to Consider When Choosing a CRM Email Marketing Software
To narrow down your options when choosing from numerous CRM email marketing tools available, consider the following aspects.
- Ease of use: Navigating your CRM tool should be a breeze — you shouldn’t feel like tearing your hair out whenever you use it. From my tests, I’ve found HubSpot, EngageBay, and Brevo to provide an exceptionally smooth user experience.
- CRM features: Any run-of-the-mill platform can store your contacts’ names and email addresses, but a good CRM will also help track your interactions with each contact and manage deals with ease (for example, with CRM automations). Tools with strong CRM features include HubSpot, EngageBay, Freshsales Suite, Salesmate, and Zoho CRM.
- Email marketing features: Since you’re looking for a CRM for email marketing purposes, your chosen tool naturally needs to include email marketing features such as form and landing page builders, automations, and open and click-through rate reports. Email-focused platforms such as ActiveCampaign, Brevo, and Drip do especially well here.
- Ecommerce features: If you run a store, it’s worth looking for an e-commerce-focused CRM that provides insights on the contacts with the highest order values, and that can run ecommerce automations such as abandoned cart reminders. Drip is the best CRM for email marketing I’ve come across while putting this guide together.
- Reports: Your CRM tool should help you drill down into the effectiveness of your sales funnel, your high-ticket contacts, the most-clicked email campaigns, and more. You should also be able to build custom reports. If you value extensive reporting features, try HubSpot, EngageBay, or Zoho CRM.
- Deliverability: Select CRM tools with strong email deliverability to help your emails reach your contacts’ inboxes. From our regular tests, ActiveCampaign shines in the deliverability department.
- Pricing: How far will your budget go for each CRM tool? Certain tools may offer more features at a lower price point compared to others. And some CRM tools may also be completely free to use (subject to certain limits, of course). Free CRMs to check out include HubSpot, EngageBay, Brevo, Freshsales Suite, and Zoho CRM.
Bonus: How to Make the Most Out of Your CRM With Email Marketing
Before wrapping things up, I have some quick tips for maximizing your CRM with email marketing ROI.
- Personalize, personalize, personalize: Use the customer data you’ve gathered in your CRM to personalize your emails as much as you can. Don’t just address your contacts by name in your emails — that’s too basic. Instead, go one step further and tailor your emails based on your contacts’ location, past interactions with your business, order history, and other characteristics. As far as possible, contacts should feel as if you’ve written your emails with them specifically in mind.
- Test your email marketing automations: Check that your automations work as intended before you roll them out. To do so, enter your automation — such as by subscribing to your email form — and observe what happens in your CRM’s backend. This simple test can save you from a lot of embarrassment if you accidentally send a big-ticket client down the wrong automated path!
- Review your CRM reports regularly: What’s working, and what has room for improvement? Your reports will tell you exactly that so you can refine your funnels for higher conversion rates. For example, if you seem to be losing many deals at the proposal stage, this could be a sign that your proposals need improving.
