Transportation & Logistics – Pipeline

Top Sales KPIs Per Industry (Including Calculations)

Pipeline CRM — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 09:45:37 +0000

Every industry faces unique sales challenges. Relying solely on generic sales KPIs, such as conversion rate and customer lifetime value (CLV), might obscure critical insights that can drive your business forward.

This article dives into 12 industry-specific sales KPIs for construction, logistics and transportation, professional services, and real estate. Plus, we’ll show you how to easily track and generate sales reports using Pipeline CRM software, helping you to streamline sales data collection and analyze its performance.

Sales Metrics for the Construction Industry

This includes tracking the sales performance of construction companies as well as painting, plumbing, and landscape contractors.

1. Cost Variance (CV)

Cost variance (CV) refers to the difference between the projected cost and the actual cost incurred in a construction project. Knowing this sales metric lets you identify potential cost overruns and closely track the overall project cost. Here’s how to calculate cost variance:

Cost Variance = Estimated Cost – Actual Cost

Estimated cost: the budgeted cost based on the project’s initial planning.
Actual cost: the real cost incurred for the project to complete.
A positive cost variance indicates that the project is under budget, while a negative cost variance means it’s over budget.

Related: Learn about 10 key sales metrics every sales representative should track.

2. Account Receivable Turnover and Accounts Payable Turnover

Accounts receivable turnover (ART) measures how often a construction company collects payments from clients, while accounts payable turnover (APT) indicates how efficiently it pays its suppliers. Understanding both ART and APT is crucial for effective cash flow management. By optimizing these metrics, construction businesses can improve financial health, strengthen supplier relationships, and create a more stable financial foundation.

Here’s how to calculate account receivable turnover:

Account Receivable Turnover (ART) = Net Credit Sales / [(Beginning AR Balance + Ending AR Balance) / 2]

Beginning account receivable (AR) balance: the money clients owe at the start of a specific accounting period.
Ending account receivable (AR) balance: the money clients owe at the end of a specific accounting period.
A high account receivable turnover (ART) indicates faster collections and strong cash flow.

For example:

A construction company generates $1,000,000 in credit sales during a year.
The beginning AR balance is $100,000, and the ending AR balance is $150,000.
Account receivable turnover = $1,000,000 / [($100,000 + $150,000) / 2] = $1,000,000 / $125,000 = 8 times. This means the construction company collected its payment from the client 8 times during the year.

Here’s how to calculate account payable turnover:

Account Payable Turnover (APT) = Total Purchases / [(Beginning AP Balance + Ending AP Balance) / 2]

Total purchases: the total money spent on a project.
Beginning account receivable (AR) balance: the money owed to suppliers at the start of a specific accounting period.
Ending account receivable (AR) balance: the money owed to suppliers at the end of a specific accounting period.
A high APT indicates an ability to pay bills quickly, and a low APT indicates potential financial problems.

For example:

A construction company makes $1,000,000 in purchases on credit during a year.
The beginning AP balance is $100,000, and the ending AP balance is $80,000.
Account payable turnover = $1,000,000 / [($100,000 + $80,000) / 2] = $1,000,000 / $90,000 = 11.11 times. This means the construction company paid its suppliers 11.12 times during the year.

3. Working Capital Ratio

Construction businesses often face short-term expenses like material purchases and payroll. To assess their ability to cover these costs, calculating the working capital ratio is crucial. Here’s how to calculate it:

Working Capital Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities

Current assets: including cash, accounts receivable, and other inventory that can be converted into cash (usually within a year).
Current liabilities: including accounts payable, loans, accrued expenses, and other debts (usually within a year).
An ideal working capital ratio is 1.5 or higher. A ratio below 1 indicates potential liquidity problems.
- For example, if the result is 1.57, your construction business has $1.57 in current assets for every $1 of current liabilities.

Related: Confused by sales jargon? Our A-Z glossary of sales terminology provides clear definitions for common sales terms.

Sales KPIs for the Logistics and Transportation Companies

4. Lanes Won

In the logistics and transportation industries, “lanes” refer to the shipment routes between two locations. This means that “lanes won” refers to the routes a company has successfully secured to transport goods for a defined period.

Lanes Won = Total Number of Unique Lanes Secured

To get a more in-depth understanding of the metric, you can break the calculation further based on the following:

Transportation mode: truckload, air, or sea, etc.
Industry segmentation: food and beverage, ecommerce, or manufacturing industry.
Density: the number of shipments per lane to examine the profitability and utilization.

For example, your logistics business secures the following number of lanes in a month:

30 truckload lanes
10 air freight lanes
15 sea freight lanes
Total lanes won = 30 + 10 + 15 = 55 lanes

5. Revenue Per Load

Revenue per load measures the average income generated from each logistics shipment. It helps assess the efficiency of operations and the effectiveness of pricing strategies in relation to overall profitability. Here’s how to calculate revenue per load:

Revenue Per Load (RPL) = Total Revenue / Total Number of Loads

Total revenue: all the generated revenue from shipments within a certain period.
Total number of loads: the total number of shipments completed within a certain period.

It’s difficult to set the benchmark as the ideal revenue per load differs depending on the mode of transportation, distance, weight, location, and other factors.

That said, here’s an example of its calculation:

Total revenue: $1,200,000
Total number of loads: 400 loads
Revenue per load = $1,200,000 / 400 loads = $3,000 per load

6. Sales Activity Index

Measuring the sales activity index allows you to assess the relationship between your logistics sales effort and sales results. In other words, how effective your sales reps are in generating paying customers.

There’s no standardized formula to calculate the sales activity index, as it is based on the specific sales metrics and activities you want to track. However, the common approach is as follows:

Sales Activity Index = Number of Sales / Number of Sales Activities

Number of sales: including the generated revenue, number of signed contracts, or new clients acquired.

Number of sales activities: including sales outreach (emails, calls, and texts) and the number of proposals sent.

It’s important to note that not all leads or sales activities contribute equally to revenue. To accurately measure sales efficiency, consider assigning different weights to different types of sales. For example, securing large contracts or acquiring new clients should be valued more highly than smaller contracts or recurring revenue.

Sales Metrics for Professional Services

This includes tracking the sales performance of agencies or consulting firms (operations, HR, management, strategy, IT, marketing, etc).

7. Sales Pipeline Value and Coverage

Sales pipeline value refers to the total expected revenue from all the active leads and opportunities in the pipeline. On the other hand, sales pipeline coverage is the ratio of the total pipeline value to the sales target or quota. Knowing your income potential helps you predict future revenue and manage resource allocation, such as marketing expenses and task prioritization.

Here’s how to calculate the sales pipeline coverage:

Sales Pipeline Coverage = Total Pipeline Value / Revenue Target

Total pipeline value: the sum of the estimated value of all the active leads in the pipeline.
Revenue target: the desired sales revenue for a specific period.

The ideal pipeline coverage is generally between 3 and 5. However, a high pipeline coverage doesn’t necessarily guarantee sales; the quality of opportunities also matters. This guide will show you how to measure lead quality.

For example:

Total pipeline value: $500,000
Revenue target (quarterly): $200,000
Sales pipeline coverage = $500,000 / $200,000 = 2.5.
This indicates that the agency has 2.5 times the required revenue in its pipeline in this specific quarter.

8. Billable Hours

Billable hours refer to the time spent working on client projects that can be charged or billed within a specific period (usually on a weekly or monthly basis). Here’s how to calculate billable hours:

Total Billable Hours = Total of Hours x Hourly Rate

Keep in mind that not all project-related activities are billable. To understand which actions are billable, here are some examples of billable hours for an advertising agency:

Creative development: project brainstorming, designing, and copywriting.
Account management: client meetings, project reporting, and performance analysis.
Social media and SEO management: content creation, email marketing, SEO optimization.

Here are some examples of non-billable hours:

Training and skill development, e.g., watching online courses.
Attending networking events.
Internal team meetings that don’t involve client work, e.g., dividing the workload.

9. Forecasted Revenue Recognition

Forecasting revenue recognition involves a prediction of when a company will earn income based on sales pipeline and project timelines. This is crucial for agencies to plan finances, allocate resources, and manage cash flow. The timing of revenue recognition is directly linked to how clients are charged, whether it’s by project completion, retainers, subscriptions, or performance.

Here’s an example of how to calculate the forecasted revenue for an advertising agency:

Project: social media campaign
Contract value: $100,000
Duration: 3 months
Revenue recognition method: percentage of completion
- Phase 1 is 30%, phase 2 is 40%, phase 3 is 20%, and phase 4 is 10%.

Forecasted Revenue Recognition:

Month 1: $25,000 (Phase 1 completion)
Month 2: $40,000 (Phase 2 completion)
Month 3: $35,000 (Phases 3 and 4 completion)

Please note that this is a simplified example. When calculating the forecasted revenue recognition, you should consider dynamic factors such as project scope, delays, or early termination, which can impact the revenue recognition results.

Sales Metrics for the Real Estate Industry

This includes tracking the sales performance of real estate agents, property managers, or property developers.

10. Sales Volume

Sales volume refers to the total value of properties sold within a definite period. This sales metric helps to assess the real estate firm’s market position, agent productivity, and overall business health. Here’s how to calculate sales volume in the real estate industry:

Sales Volume = Property 1 Price + Property 2 Price + … + Property N Price

If you own a large real estate company with multiple agents or offices, you can calculate sales volume per agent, per office, or by property type to get more detailed insights.

11. Listing-to-Meeting Ratio

The listing-to-meeting ratio measures how effectively a real estate agent converts initial meetings with potential clients into actual property listings. Here’s how to calculate the listing-to-meeting ratio:

Listing to Meeting Ration = (Number of Listing Secured / Number of Meetings Held) x 100%

Number of listings secured: the number of properties an agent or firm has successfully listed for sale.
Number of meetings held: the number of initial meetings or consultations held with potential sellers.

For example:

An agent held 16 meetings with potential sellers in a month and secured 8 listings.
Listing to meeting ratio = (16 / 8) x 100% = 20%

This means that the agent was able to convert 20% of their meetings with potential sellers into actual listings.

12. Commission Rate Per Sale

The commission rate per sale refers to the percentage of the property’s sale price given to the real estate agent as payment for their services. Here’s how to calculate the commission rate per sale:

Commission Rate = (Total Commission Earned / Sale Price of the Property) x 100%

Real estate commission rates can vary significantly based on location, market conditions, and the specific agreement between the agent and client. While the traditional commission rate often ranges from 5% to 6% of the sale price, there are alternative structures:

Commission split: this is one of the most common arrangements, where the commission is typically divided equally (50/50) between the buyer’s and seller’s agents.
Negotiated rates: agents and clients may agree on a custom commission rate based on the property’s value, market conditions, or the services provided.
Flat fees: instead of a percentage, agents may charge a fixed fee, which can be converted into an equivalent commission rate for comparison purposes.

For example:

The sale price is $500,000, and the total commission earned is $30,000 this quarter.
Commission rate = ($30,000 / $500,000) x 100% = 6%.
This means this real estate agent earned a 6% commission for this quarter.

How Pipeline CRM Reporting Keeps Your Sales KPIs Right On Track

One of the key benefits of using sales CRM software is the ability to easily generate reports that closely monitor your sales growth and team performance. However, most CRM systems are limited in that they can only display a few sales metrics in a single view. If you want to check additional metrics, you often have to replace the previous reports.

With Pipeline CRM’s new and improved reporting capabilities, you can view multiple reports in a single window. You can also adjust the size of each view (e.g., from half to full-width screen) and drag and drop the most important metrics to the top of the list.

To analyze sales performance over time, simply select a predefined time range or create a custom one. All reports in the list view will automatically adjust to the chosen timeframe. Additionally, the displayed data is dynamic, so deals no longer meeting the specified criteria will be excluded from relevant reports. For example, a deal with a status of ‘won’ will no longer appear in the ‘deals on progress’ report.

Furthermore, to analyze the sales report more deeply, simply apply the relevant filters. For instance, you can change the value measurement method from ‘sum’ to ‘average’ and display the data based on ‘project type,’ ‘owner,’ or ‘deal status.’

Other handy sales reporting features of Pipeline CRM include:

Various default report views, such as deals won, deals by stage, and activity report.
Create, save, and share new report views with your team.
Download the reports as PNGs or PDFs and schedule them to be automatically sent to your inbox based on the chosen time (e.g., every Friday morning).

Streamline Your Sales KPIs Reporting Process with Pipeline CRM

By incorporating these industry-specific sales metrics into your tracking strategy, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your business’s performance and identify areas for improvement. This empowers you to optimize your sales strategies and drive sustainable growth.

To simplify sales data collection and analysis, consider adopting Pipeline CRM. Our CRM software lets you easily gather and track all relevant sales metrics, delve into detailed results, and share insights with your sales team.

Salesmate CRM Alternatives for Logistics Companies

Pipeline CRM — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 08:17:24 +0000

If you’re searching for the best CRM for logistics companies, but more specifically, a Salesmate CRM alternative, this comparison blog is for you. As much as Salesmate CRM software offers features that appeal to service-based businesses like logistics companies, it might not be the perfect fit for everyone. In fact, some users on review sites have reported integration issues with third-party applications like email and phone systems, causing disruptions in workflow.

So, to give you all the information you need to make an accurate decision, we’ve analyzed the pros and cons of five CRM for logistics businesses and compared their pricing structures to help you identify the best CRM alternatives to Salesmate.

1. Pipeline CRM

Our first Salesmate CRM alternative is Pipeline CRM. As one of the best CRM for logistics companies, Pipeline CRM offers a winning combination of simplicity, robust features, and affordable pricing—perfect for streamlining your logistics operations.

Pipeline CRM recognizes the challenges logistics companies face, particularly the burden of repetitive tasks. Creating recurring orders, sending invoices, and tracking links can eat into valuable time that could be spent building client relationships and driving sales.

Pipeline’s transportation and logistics CRM tackles this head-on with its smart sales automation features. You can automate repetitive tasks like setting up retainers and recurring deals, allowing a new deal to automatically pop into the pipeline upon the closure of a recurring one. Pipeline CRM can also offer “next step” suggestions based on deal updates, keeping your sales team focused and efficient.

Additionally, the rich customization options let you tailor Pipeline CRM to your specific needs. From customizing deal stage names to personalizing your dashboard with relevant data fields, you can create a CRM experience that perfectly reflects your logistics workflow.

All of these features will help your sales team close more deals faster and with greater results. Take GlobalTranz, for instance. This transportation and logistics company increased its agent partnership by 63% after adopting Pipeline CRM! Read their story here.

Pros

Advanced email marketing solutions with built-in drip email campaigns and AI email assistance.
Sales automation to set specific tasks and sales actions on auto-pilot.
Multiple pipeline management.
Powerful reporting to predict future deals and see patterns of successful deals.
‘Morning coffee report’ for a daily email overview of sales statuses.
Vast integration with popular apps, including Gravity Forms, RingCentral, Asana, and ZoomInfo.

Cons

Works best for small to medium-sized logistics businesses.

Pricing

Pipeline CRM offers three pricing options and a 14-day free trial. The prices below are for annual billing.

Start: $25 per user per month – for 1 sales pipeline and 250 active deals per account.
Develop: $33 per user per month – for 2 sales pipelines and 2500 active deals per account.
Grow: $49 per user per month – for 5 sales pipelines and unlimited active deals per account.

Check out the Pipeline CRM pricing page to find the feature details of each plan.

2. Keap CRM

Keap CRM is another CRM alternative for Salesmate. It focuses on small logistics companies growing their businesses through traditional CRM functions and other sales-related solutions. This includes lead capturing through landing pages, lead nurturing with text, and built-in invoice management and email marketing solutions.

That said, these rich capabilities often make the system less intuitive for some users. This review, for instance, mentions the unresponsive interfaces they kept experiencing and the lack of customer support to fix the issues.

“Glitches, painfully slow access, data not saving, searches not giving accurate results, mobile app issues, voicemail issues, texting problems, support taking forever to resolve problems, if they even address them at all!”

Pros

Lead capturing through forms and landing pages.
Email and text message marketing options.
Native billing software for invoicing and payment processing.

Cons

Prices are relatively higher than similar transportation and logistics CRMs.
Text marketing is an add-on feature (extra costs).
Customer support quality can be improved.
Repeated issues with email deliverability.

Pricing

Keap offers three pricing plans. The prices are for an annual subscription.

Pro: $249 per month – for 2 users and 1500 contacts.
Max: $329 per month – for 3 users and 2500 contacts.
Ultimate: $499 per month – for 3 users and 2500 contacts.

3. Salesforce

Salesforce offers a unique proposition for logistics companies looking for a Salesmate CRM alternative. While it still provides CRM functionality, it also offers special solutions for shippers and consignees. For instance, you can recruit shippers, identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and offer transparency throughout the shipment lifecycle by giving them access to quotes, pricing, fulfillment, and shipment tracking.

These unique features may benefit large-scale transportation and logistics companies but are likely an overkill for small to medium-sized businesses. Additionally, setting the system up can be daunting, and extensive customization options can become a double-edged sword, leading to a complex system that is too difficult to navigate.

This review directly addresses this issue:

“I have used Salesforce for 5 months, and during that period, what I felt is Salesforce needs numerous windows for a short workflow! […] They should make it simple and sorted for users to understand and use it on a daily basis.”

Pros

A 360 degree into sales pipelines.
Centralized database for customer and shipment information (cargo status, vehicle details, payments, offers, and estimations).
Seamless communication between teams with Salesforce’s ‘Chatter’ tool.
Smart lead timing tracker, as well as order and delivery schedule management.

Cons

The system often glitches, blocking users from being productive.
A steep learning curve in navigating and mastering the CRM.
Pricing is not transparent and can come with costly add-ons.
Complex integration with other platforms.

Pricing

Salesforce offers several modules at different prices. The following is for the Sales Cloud solution, billed annually.

Starter Suite: $25 per user per month – basic CRM solutions.
Professional: $80 per user per month – essential sales CRM solutions.
Enterprise: $165 per user per month – intermediate sales CRM solutions.
Unlimited: $25 per user per month – advanced sales CRM solutions.
Einstein 1 Sales: $25 per user per month – AI-backed sales CRM solutions.

4. Close CRM

Although Close CRM doesn’t market itself as a transport and logistics CRM, it’s a CRM worth mentioning as a good contender for Salesmate CRM alternatives.

Like traditional CRMs, Close CRM focuses on three sales areas: communication, automation, and reporting. With Close, you can stay connected with leads through seamless email and calendar synchronization, easily assign tasks between your sales team, and gain actionable insights into sales performance and bottom-line metrics.

That said, the automation seems limited in handling outreach email campaigns and less on sales actions. A review from G2 explains the situation in more detail:

“Yes, you can automate lots of things using Zapier, which seems to be their recommended way. While Zapier works well, it’s not the most cost-effective option. Close is on the higher end of the CRM price spectrum, so I’d expect to see more built-in automation than just the Workflows, which are primarily for outreach drip campaigns.”

Pros

Create multiple sales pipelines.
Engage prospects with emails, calls, and SMS.
Automatic call transcription.
Leaderboards feature to track sales reps’ skills.
Contact filtering for customized data view and segmentation.

Cons

More expensive than similar CRM solutions.
Some users reported email deliverability issues.
Lack of advanced marketing features.
Customer support response time can be improved.

Pricing

Close CRM offers three paid plans with a 14-day free trial offer. The prices are based on annual billing.

Startup: $49 per user per month.
Professional: $99 per user per month.
Enterprise: $139 per user per month.

5. ClickUp

ClickUp might not be your conventional CRM software, but for logistics companies seeking to streamline operations beyond just sales, it offers a compelling CRM alternative to Salesmate.

ClickUp’s strength lies in its robust project and team management features. It lets you organize projects, tasks, communication, and even document sharing. This centralization can significantly improve efficiency and transparency compared to juggling separate tools.

That said, a dedicated transportation and logistics CRM offers more comprehensive sales pipeline management and contact nurturing features. So, if your primary goal is streamlining deal-closing processes, a logistics CRM specializing in those areas might be a better fit.

Pros

Advanced project management to easily assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress.
Features like comments and mentions fostering transparent team communication.
Customizable views to show the most important data.

Cons

Lack of dedicated CRM features, such as contact management, deal tracking, and sales forecasting.
Requires extensive configuration to support CRM use cases.

Pricing

ClickUp offers free and three paid plans. Prices are for monthly fees.

Free: forever free – best for personal use.
Unlimited: $7 – best for small teams.
Business: $12 – best for mid-sized teams.
Enterprise: custom pricing – best for large teams.

Comparison of Salesmate CRM Alternatives for Logistics Companies

Our verdict: Pipeline CRM is the best CRM alternative to Salesmate. Compared to other logistics CRMs, Pipeline offers advanced solutions that help you automate your sales process while also allowing you to tailor the CRM software to match your logistics company’s needs.

Furthermore, through the many integration options available, Pipeline CRM can match other CRMs’ key features. For instance, with QuickBooks integration, you can two-way sync your accounting and CRM data in real time. You can also choose a dialer integration, such as RingCentral and CallRail, to streamline your lead nurturing efforts. And the best thing? Using Pipeline CRM only costs you $25 per month!

Learn more about how Pipeline CRM and QuickBooks CRM integration work, as well as the benefits of using Pipeline’s dialer integration CRM.

What’s The Best Alternative to Salesmate CRM? Pipeline CRM

If you’re shopping for the best alternative to Salesmate CRM, Pipeline CRM should be your first choice. Our simple and fully customizable logistics CRM is easy to implement and it’s cost-effective. It has every logistics CRM feature you need to close more deals and grow your business.

Try Pipeline CRM for free today, and see the impact on your business!

FAQs on Pipeline CRM—The Best Salesmate Alternative

1. What’s the Best CRM for Logistics Companies?

Thanks to its simple but powerful features and rich customization options, Pipeline CRM is one of the best CRMs for logistics companies. Here are some of the key features of Pipeline’s logistics CRM:

Custom deal stages tailored to the unique needs of logistics companies
Advanced automation in creating repeat orders, gathering shipping information, collecting payment details, and more
Track, record, and notify bid progress in real-time
Accurate sales forecasting and sales performance report
Vast integration options with Google apps, QuickBooks, Zapier, Mailchimp, Asana, and more

2. What Are Some CRM Alternatives to Salesmate CRM?

Pipeline CRM is a great alternative to Salesmate CRM. This is because Pipeline CRM offers:

Streamlined sales process: a simple sales pipeline management for maximum efficiency
Enhanced usability: a user-friendly interface and an easy-to-setup platform to guarantee short onboarding time
Smart automation: sleek sales automation features (e.g., for sending follow-ups, creating sales tasks, and generating recurring deals) to streamline workflows
Robust communication: advanced email and call functionalities within the platform
Cost-effective solution: affordable subscription price at just $49 per user per month vs. Salesmate CRM’s $63 per user per month (both for the highest-tier plan)

3. How Much Does Pipeline CRM Cost?

Pipeline CRM’s pricing is as follows: $25 for the Start plan, $33 for the Develop plan, and $49 for the Grow plan. We also offer a 14-day free trial to test our CRM software before committing. There are no hidden costs or surprise add-on fees. See Pipeline CRM pricing details here.

Salesforce Alternatives for Old Economy Sectors

Andrew McDermott — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 04:36:38 +0000

Are you looking for a Salesforce alternative?

When it comes to old economy sectors, most people are looking for the best solution for their specific circumstances, such as manufacturing lead generation or logistics sales automation.

Today, we’ll cover the five CRM alternatives to Salesforce that can get up and running quickly, with minimal transitional pain and none of the headaches that often come with Salesforce.

What are Old Economy Sectors?

Here’s how Investopedia defines old economy sectors.

“Old economy refers to industries that have not changed significantly despite advances in technology. Climate change and new technologies impact the old economy, but most of the processes have been the same for hundreds of years.”

Based on the definition, we can say the following industries are parts of old economy sectors:

Transportation
Shipping and Logistics
Manufacturing
Agriculture
Breweries
Oil and gas
Mining
Automotive
Chemicals

Old economy industries have established processes. Typically, companies in these sectors are looking for a tool that (a.) works with their existing processes and (b.) gets their team up and running quickly. If you have similar expectations, Salesforce may not be a good fit.

What’s Wrong With Salesforce CRM?

A quick scan of issues.salesforce.com lists 38,424 software problems across 40+ categories. Keep in mind that these are just known issues.

Here’s an overview of some of the most common problems found in the list. Salesforce is…

Very expensive: their pricing structure can be complex. There are lots of hidden fees—API calls, data storage, and third-party integrations add up quickly.

“As you start using the Salesforce platform for your business operations, you will quickly find that many of the advanced options you seek are not included in the standard plan. You’ll need to start expanding to other clouds or apps available on the AppExchange. […] It is vital to anticipate and budget for the extra costs associated with each of these tools.” — an independent product reviewer.

Very complex: Salesforce has a steep learning curve. The complexity of their product means their apps are difficult to learn, especially for those who don’t have a technical background.

“It is highly complex, and it doesn’t come with out-of-box customization. For every single feature implementation, u will need a. Consultant. It is only suitable for big call centers provided if they maintain a Salesforce engineering team to create and implement all the features as per the Support department’s requirements.” — a user review on Capterra.

Unresponsive: When it comes to customer service, customers have stated that Salesforce is unresponsive and unavailable. It’s not uncommon for support requests to go unanswered for weeks or months.
Difficult to manage: users have reported that they attempted to update a record only to find that their co-worker was updating the same record. Naturally, this creates conflicts and data inconsistencies.
Difficult to migrate: Salesforce’s platform is proprietary, so migrating to a new CRM can be very difficult, especially once you’ve added all the customizations, add-ons, service packages, and extras.

5 CRM Alternatives to Salesforce

With the frequent hiccups and challenges many businesses have to tackle when using Salesforce, it’s worth considering adopting a better sales CRM solution that offers similar features to Salesforce but without complications. Below, you can find five CRM alternatives to Salesforce.

1. Pipeline CRM: Best CRM for Manufacturing Lead Generation

Pipeline CRM is great sales CRM software if you’re looking to replace Salesforce, as it solves the common problems old economy businesses face.

Let’s take manufacturing companies as an example. They’re struggling to retrain an aging workforce and teach them how to use new technology, let alone a complex sales CRM for manufacturing like Salesforce. Additionally, manufacturers must chase down new opportunities, generate leads, and close deals. They’ll need to do this while keeping razor-thin margins in mind, doing what’s necessary to turn a profit.

Have you had a similar experience? If your situation sounds similar, you’ll need:

A CRM that’s designed for manufacturing lead generation
Action plans and reminders to chase down new opportunities
Assistance to build a virtual bench of reliable employees-in-waiting (walk-offs and no-shows are always an issue)
A CRM system in place that identifies customers who are a fit for your business and are willing to work with your already razor-thin margins
A platform that shows you why you’re winning or losing deals, opportunities, and people.

Pipeline CRM can deliver them all and more.

Salesforce vs. Pipeline CRM

Designed specifically for old economy sectors, Pipeline CRM is a powerful tool that prioritizes sales acceleration. If your goal is to start winning deals and recruiting top talent quickly, Pipeline CRM is the ideal choice.

Unlike the more general-purpose Salesforce, Pipeline CRM is streamlined for simplicity and automation. This means your sales team can be up and running in minimal time, allowing you to focus on closing deals.

See how Pipeline CRM stacks up against Salesforce in this Pipeline CRM vs. Salesforce comparison page.

Pros and Cons

Pipeline CRM is scalable yet very affordable
Heavily oriented toward selling with extensive sales management automation
Integrates with a large list of software (e.g., Microsoft, QuickBooks, Google Apps, Zapier, Paycove, CallRail, etc.)
Best-in-class, industry-leading customer support
Best for small-to-medium organizations

Reviews

4.4/5 star rating on G2 (904 reviews total)
4.4/5 star rating on Capterra (616 reviews total)
9.8/10 score via TrustRadius
4.2/5 star rating via Gartner (41 reviews total)

Pipeline CRM Pricing

Start plan: $29 per user per month
Develop plan: $39 per user per month
Grow plan: $59 per user per month

Related: Managing a logistics business? See some of the best CRM for logistics companies.

2. Syspro CRM: Best for Manufacturers and Distributors

According to their website, Syspro CRM is “built for manufacturers and distributors who rely on loyal relationships up and down the supply chain, efficiency, and quality to be competitive.”

Syspro is a fantastic Salesforce alternative if you’re looking for an end-to-end solution that manages your CRM and other portions of your business (e.g., finance, project management, procurement, etc.). However, if your organization already has a software stack that works for your business and you don’t want to risk changing anything, Syspro may not be a good fit.

Syspro has all of the standard CRM features, but it’s also …

Designed to manage product recalls for both lotted and serialized products
Able to handle various types of warranty contracts
Created for in-house complaint handling, repair, and preventative maintenance sales and support
Great for managing customer support and automated case management

Pros and Cons

Syspro is known for its attentive support and regular software updates
The learning curve can be overwhelming, especially for their navigation. It’s often a challenge for users to get to where they want to go

Reviews

4.1/5 star rating on G2 (224 reviews total)

4.2/5 star rating on Capterra (101 reviews total)

4.2/5 star rating via Gartner (48 reviews total)

6.8/10 score via TrustRadius (29 reviews total)

Syspro CRM Pricing

You’ll need to contact Syspro for a quote.

3. Easi’r: Best for Automotive Manufacturers and Dealers

EASI’R is promoted as a “customer relations platform” for the automotive industry. According to its website, it helps automotive manufacturers and dealers close more deals by focusing on “selling-by-winning behavior.” It states that its platform is a sales enablement platform empowering sales teams to do the right things at the right time.

EASI’R breaks its feature set down into six areas:

Playbook: steps to create a repeatable process manufacturers and dealerships can use to sell more vehicles and services.
Coaching: sales training, techniques, tips, and tricks to help sales reps stay on track, meet their quotas, and close more deals.
Conversations: this enables sales reps to build meaningful relationships. They prioritize sharing value and never approach prospects from a purely self-serving attitude.
Productivity: prioritize the actions, activities, and follow-up sequences sales reps need to close sales.
Insights: spot trends, forecast activity accurately, and identify the most profitable playbooks.
Integrations: use their API to create a custom integration that works how you need it, when you need it.

Pros and Cons

EASI’R is focused on a single industry (automotive)
Their feature set is optimized around generating leads and closing deals
Customizable sales processes to optimize sales performance
Robust performance analytics that specially cater to automotive manufacturers and dealerships
Integrations require custom coding. No native or ready-made third-party integrations are available
No on-premise options
There is no free trial, no free user tier

Reviews

5/5 star rating on App Store (3 reviews total)
–/5-star rating on Capterra
-/10 score via TrustRadius

EASI’R CRM Pricing

You’ll need to contact the EASI’R team for a quote.

4. Oracle Netsuite: Best for Medium To Enterprise-Sized Manufacturing Generalists

Oracle’s NetSuite claims to be the only end-to-end SaaS ERP for manufacturing companies. With NetSuite, manufacturers can manage all facets of their manufacturing business from A to Z, going beyond the end-to-end management that other ERPs provide. NetSuite is designed for companies that do business internationally. Their platform manages core aspects of manufacturing, including order management and fulfillment, inventory management, demand management, and financial management.

Pro Tip: Not sure what the difference between CRM and ERP is? This CRM vs. ERP blog has the answers.

As a Salesforce alternative, NetSuite might be overkill for small-to-medium companies, but it’s perfect for manufacturing companies looking to scale and grow internationally. Additionally, it could be a great fit for your business if you sell in multiple markets or languages.

Pros and Cons

NetSuite moves in lockstep with your business, easily scaling up or down as needed
Heavily oriented towards management. The NetSuite platform operates as a complete solution
The platform is mature and integrated with a variety of tools (e.g., CRM, financials, inventory, ecommerce, fulfillment, etc.). However, integration with third-party applications can be messy, challenging, and difficult
Comprehensive customization that enables you to modify the platform to meet your needs
The cost can be prohibitive for small manufacturers
Limited support with long wait times before receiving assistance

Reviews

4/5 star rating on G2 (3,204 reviews total)
4.2/5 star rating on GetApp (616 reviews total)
4.1/10 score via Capterra (1,542 reviews total)
4/5 star rating via Gartner (41 reviews total)

NetSuite CRM Pricing

NetSuite doesn’t disclose its pricing on its website, but we found the following pricing estimations.

Average cost per user can range from $100–$300 per month
NetSuite implementation costs can range from $25,000–$300,000

5. Keap: Best for Direct Response Oriented Logistics Companies

Keap is an all-in-one sales and marketing automation solution for small and medium-sized manufacturers. Keap is a direct response solution that you can use to handle the heavy lifting of sales and marketing.

Keap mentions that their “features combine CRM, marketing automation, sales automation, payments, and much more in a single, integrated platform, so you can consistently convert more clients and grow your business.”

Here’s a really important detail about Keap: Their platform works best if you’re willing to stick with them over the long term. Getting consistent value takes a lot of upfront onboarding, testing, and education. It’s a lot of work initially, but Keap’s platform produces results once you’re set.

Pros and Cons

Automation, triggers, and autoresponder sequences
Trigger automated follow-ups
Monitoring prospects and customers through the sales and fulfillment lifecycle
Highly customizable
Robust reporting with various reporting options
Relatively on the high-end CRM pricing spectrum
Portions of their platform are still outdated
Buggy or inconsistent performance

Reviews

4.2/5 star rating on G2 (1,527 reviews total)
4.1/5 star rating on GetApp (1,276 reviews total)
4.1/5 star rating via Capterra (1,276 reviews total)
8/10 score via TrustRadius (378)
4.4/5 star rating via Gartner (148 reviews total)

Keap Pricing

Pro: $199 per month (2 users, 1,500 contacts)
Max: $299 per month (3 users, 2,500 contacts)
Ultimate: $359 per month (3 users, 2,500 contacts)

What is the Best Salesforce Alternative? Pipeline CRM Sales CRM Software

Old-economy industries have remained mostly unchanged despite rapid technological advances. Some processes have remained the same for years. This is why Salesforce isn’t always a good fit for old-economy brands; they tend to be too expensive, complex, and difficult to manage.

It’s so important to choose the sales CRM for manufacturing that best aligns with your goals. If your goal is manufacturing lead generation, choose a CRM that’s oriented around driving sales. Looking for an end-to-end solution that handles the ins and outs of global commerce? Choose a CRM that moves in that direction. Salesforce is the 800 lbs gorilla, but as we’ve seen, it’s not always the best for old economy sectors.

Consider Pipeline CRM as the number one alternative to Salesforce. Our sales CRM software has all the sales features your old economy business need, without the complex interface or technological hiccups that Salesforce often shows. Check out the industries we support, and once you’re ready tom try Pipeline CRM, sign up here to get started.

4 Creative Email Marketing Strategies for Logistics Business

Andrew McDermott — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 07:35:30 +0000

How can we increase sales for logistics companies? One way is to create robust email marketing strategies.

In this blog, we’ll delve into four innovative email strategies tailored specifically for logistics and transportation companies. We’ll explore advanced techniques beyond standard practices like personalization and subject lines. Our focus will be on strategies like “email rebound” and “one goal, one link” to maximize impact.

To support these strategies, we’ll also discuss essential tools such as custom CRM for logistics companies and AI-powered email writing assistants.

Before diving into these strategies, let’s establish a solid foundation for logistics email marketing.

Email Marketing Benchmarks for Logistics and Transportation Companies

What is considered a good email marketing benchmark for the logistics and transportation industry?

Based on our research and data from Mailchimp’s study, the email benchmark for the logistics and transportation industry is as follows:

The average open rate is 33.25%
The average click-through rate is 2.56%
The unsubscribe rate is 0.24%
The hard bounce rate is 0.24%
The soft bounce rate is 0.78%

Want to know other email benchmarks for manufacturing, construction, and distribution companies? Download our free ebook to get all the details.

Okay, what does this tell us?

Your logistics and transportation customers are still reading your emails, so email marketing is still a viable marketing channel. This fact leads us to the next most obvious question. What’s the best email marketing strategy for logistics and transportation companies?

The Best Email Marketing Strategy for Logistics Companies

The best logistics email marketing strategy builds consistent relationships with customers over time. One vital role of high-performing email marketing is its content.

Generally, there are three approaches to writing good email marketing content:

Entertainment: Content that’s specifically designed to amuse and delight your audience.

Education: Systematic, step-by-step instruction that teaches customers how to achieve a specific outcome.

Edutainment: A combination of educational content and entertainment.

The edutainment approach can work, but getting these customers to spend money is challenging since their primary interest is entertainment. It’s best to choose the right path from the start—in this case, the education. Here’s why.

Customers who seek knowledge are more likely to become loyal customers. By providing valuable insights, such as:

Case studies
Customer reviews
Free courses, apps, and templates
Quizzes, surveys, and polls
Webinars and workshops
Ebooks
Market updates

You position yourself as a trusted industry expert. These content formats naturally complement each other, creating a cohesive narrative that drives conversions. For instance, market updates can spark interest in case studies, ultimately leading to quote requests and long-term customer relationships.

In the next section, we’ll explore specific email campaign strategies to optimize your educational content.

Strategy 1: Broadcast to AR Sequences

An autoresponder (AR) sequence is an incredibly effective way to segment, qualify, and win customers. You create a list of emails and automatically send them out on a schedule.

If you create compelling email messages, it’s easy to nurture, follow up with, and close new customers. However, if the emails are filled with meaningless content, your prospects will remove themselves from the conversation.

How do you consistently attract customers and boost revenue with AR sequences?

The answer lies in rigorous message testing. By sending out broadcast emails, your sales team can experiment with different content types and messaging to identify what truly resonates with your audience. Broadcast emails offer a low-risk environment to test various elements such as:

Timing and frequency
Subject lines, sender names, wording, and calls-to-action
Visuals
Landing pages
Personalization and offers
Customer segmentation

Once you’ve pinpointed the winning combinations, integrate these high-performing messages into your AR sequences. This strategic approach maximizes your return on investment by ensuring your automated communications deliver consistent results.

Using Email Broadcasts with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

To successfully implement this strategy, you’ll need:

A diverse range of content tailored to different customer segments.
Sales reps actively share content and provide feedback within your CRM.
Detailed performance metrics to identify top-performing content.
A well-structured content tagging system.

And follow this process:

Create and Test Broadcast Emails: Develop a variety of broadcast messages aligned with your content library. Conduct statistically significant tests by sending emails at different times, ensuring equal sample sizes for each test group. Utilize BCC tracking within your CRM, like with Pipeline CRM, to gather comprehensive performance data.
Identify Winning Messages: Analyze test results to determine the most effective content, timing, and messaging.
Integrate into AR Sequences: Incorporate high-performing broadcast messages into your automated response sequences to optimize customer engagement and conversions.

By following these steps and leveraging the necessary resources, you can significantly enhance your email marketing efforts and drive revenue growth.

Need AI help to streamline your email marketing messages?

Check out Pipeline CRM’s built-in AI email writing feature. It empowers you to write and re-write a personalized email with just a few clicks. See the demo below and learn more about its extensive use in this AI email writing blog.

Broadcast Email Templates to Re-Engage Cold Logistics

Hi [First name],

It’s been a while, and I’d love to touch base again.

Just wanted to see if you need our services again. Here are some of our quick wins that might be of interest to you:

Brands like [Brand 1] and [Brand 2] are already seeing improved delivery rates and lower overheads. In fact, one of our clients, [Brand 3], has seen [X%] faster delivery times and significant cost savings by optimizing just one part of their supply chain with us.

If logistics is back on your priority list, let’s reconnect.

You could either book a quick call (hyperlink) or reply to this email.

Regards,

[Signature]

Strategy 2: Email Sales Phases

What’s the fastest way to build trust with prospects? You set expectations and then meet them. Successful email campaigns operate in phases, each with a specific goal or objective. Every email you send should fit into one of these five phases.

Indoctrination: You introduce prospects to your company, set expectations, and make friends.

Engagement: You chat with prospects about their desires, goals, and interests. After you introduce them to a relevant product and service, you ask for the sale.

Ascension: You welcome new customers, and you invite them to purchase a relevant product or service from you again.

Segmentation: In this phase, you determine what customers want to learn from you and what they want to buy next.

Re-engagement: This phase is all about reigning a warm relationship that has gone cold—restoring the relationship.

Sales is the natural byproduct of relationships. These goals keep your team’s focus on building strong relationships. Additionally, your prospects expect you to provide value in every interaction. This means every email you send should have compelling value for customers.

Using Email Phases with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

Work to create one to two messages for each phase.

Indoctrination messages (e.g., welcome, expectations, or cadence messages) should answer the who, what, why, how often, and next steps questions.
Engagement messages are focused on one thing: closing. The purpose of engagement emails is to make an offer. This is essential for logistics companies because customers often treat your industry as a commodity. An irresistible offer changes that—it’s simply too good for customers to pass up. For logistics, this could be as simple as sharing their quotes and letting them know when their quote is about to expire.

Source

Ascension messages are intended for customers who purchased in the engagement phase. For every customer who made a purchase, there are still more customers who would buy more. For example, customers who purchased 3PL services may be interested in warehousing services.
Segmentation messages are designed to get customers (or prospects) to raise their hands and express interest in a specific topic or service. Once that happens, prospects are placed in the engagement series relevant to their interest.
Re-engagement messages help your logistics company to restore the relationship, re-engage, win back, and re-energize old or dying leads.

Logistics Sales Email Templates for Proposal and Decision-Stage Follow-Ups

When you have sent a proposal and are waiting for the client’s decision, following up can be tricky. You don’t want to look too pushy, nor do you want the lead to go cold. So what’s the right balance?

Here is a logistics email template to help you follow up and keep the deal moving without sounding intrusive.

Hi [First name],

I’m checking in to see if you have had a chance to review our proposal from our last discussion for [Project/Service] from [Date]. I understand you are likely busy, so we just wanted to make sure it’s not lost in the mix.

Here’s a quick summary of the proposal we sent you:

If you have any questions or require further clarification, let’s schedule a quick call to discuss any concerns.

Best regards,

[Signature]

Sending individual follow-up emails to each client manually takes a lot of time that you could be using to improve sales strategies.

So what’s the solution? Automate your follow-up emails with Pipeline CRM.

You can segment your email list according to demographics and deal stages, and set up advanced rules and conditions to choose who gets your emails. You can even run A/B tests so your follow-ups are highly relevant and help you close deals a lot faster.

Strategy 3: Boost Conversions with ‘One Goal, One Link’ Technique (1G1L)

Let’s take a look at an example in an unrelated industry. It’s common for email marketing newsletters to look like this:

Source

Macy’s email marketing often falls victim to overcomplication. Overloaded with multiple links (31 to be exact) and unclear objectives, these emails fail to resonate with specific customer segments.

To enhance email effectiveness, adopt a 1G1L strategy: One Goal, One Link. By focusing on a single, clear objective and directing customers to a specific action, you significantly improve the chances of conversion.

The power of clarity cannot be overstated. When customers can quickly grasp your offer, they are more likely to engage and convert. This principle aligns with the core components of a strong value proposition: clarity, appeal, exclusivity, and credibility. A clear message is the foundation upon which these elements can be built.

By simplifying your email content and directing attention to a single call to action, you enhance cognitive fluency and increase the likelihood of customer action.

Using 1G1L with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

A robust CRM is essential for executing a successful 1G1L strategy. Unlike email service providers, CRMs offer a comprehensive view of customer interactions, enabling granular data analysis.

This rich data empowers you to:

Create highly targeted segments: Identify specific customer groups based on behavior and preferences.
Develop laser-focused offers: Tailor content and calls to action for maximum impact.
Measure campaign performance accurately: Pinpoint the effectiveness of each email and optimize future efforts.

By simplifying your email messaging and combining it with robust CRM data, you eliminate the guesswork often associated with complex marketing campaigns. This approach fosters accountability and empowers your team to make data-driven decisions.

High-Converting Quote Request Email Templates for Logistics Businesses

Now, when the lead you worked so hard to nurture finally asks for a quote, your reply has to sustain the warmth and interest you have built over the stages. So, just sending them some vague estimation won’t work. Your job is to make it easy for them to say yes.

Add this template to your email marketing campaigns to guarantee a positive response:

Subject: Your logistics quote is ready

Hi [First Name],

Thank you for reaching out to us and showing interest in our services. We would be delighted to help with your logistics needs.

Based on the details you shared, here is a quick overview of your quote:

Service:
From: [Pickup Location]
To: [Delivery Location]
Estimated Transit Time:
Estimated Cost:

This quote includes real-time tracking, dedicated support, and flexible scheduling.

If you have additional details about your requirement or need a more customized solution, please reply to this email or reach out to us at [abc@company.com]

Best regards,
[Signature]

Strategy 4: Rebound To Build Relationships

Email metrics offer valuable insights, but they provide a limited view of customer engagement. Traditional metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates paint a partial picture. To gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior and optimize marketing efforts, a more holistic approach, like rebounding, is required.

Rebounding is the key to unlocking a wealth of data. By guiding prospects from email to website, social media, and beyond, you create a comprehensive customer journey. This interconnected approach allows you to:

Measure engagement at every touchpoint: Track interactions, preferences, and buying signals across different platforms.
Build stronger customer relationships: Foster deeper connections through personalized and relevant content.
Optimize marketing spend: Allocate resources effectively by identifying high-performing channels and campaigns.

Consider this example: A prospect engages with an email case study, visits the website, shares content on social media, and ultimately becomes a customer. This journey generates a wealth of data that can be analyzed to refine future marketing strategies.

By embracing a rebounding approach, businesses can transform data into actionable insights, driving increased customer acquisition and retention.

Using Rebounding with Pipeline CRM for Logistics

“How to increase sales for logistics companies.”

It’s a common question logistics companies ask Google. Rebounding via CRM retargeting is a straightforward way for logistics companies to increase sales. You take your first-party data—specific lead segments or your email list as a whole—and connect it to your customers on other platforms (e.g., Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.).

With CRM retargeting, the sky’s the limit. You can use it to:

Sort subscribers into segments (groups based on attributes) or cohorts (groups based on behavior) and sell to those groups specifically on third-party platforms.
Precisely target offers—upselling, downselling, or cross-selling to ultra-relevant groups.
Presell exclusive offers or incentives to specific segments or cohorts (e.g., medium-sized ecommerce retailers who need warehousing support) via your marketing channels (e.g., email, social, paid ads, organic search, etc.).
Create content that’s tailor-made for specific segments or cohorts.

Here’s the best part about CRM retargeting. It’s a cookie-less, more precise, and privacy-friendly option that allows logistics and transportation companies to work with prospects who are already on their list.

It’s also important to give each marketing channel and platform its own content. It’s common for people to take the easy way out: They create content once and then share the same content on all their social media profiles. You’re training your subscribers and customers to ignore your content.

If they follow you on Facebook, they won’t follow you on Instagram or LinkedIn because you share the same content everywhere. They don’t want to see the same content in their inbox repeatedly.

This frustration doesn’t mean you can’t discuss the same topic. You absolutely can just change the angle.

Let’s say you decided to share a 3PL whitepaper on LinkedIn. You can also:

Share a PDF presentation on SlideShare
Post images of cargo theft on Instagram
Upload a “How to find a great 3PL” YouTube
Research factoid from your whitepaper on X

The topic is the same, but the content varies depending on the channel and platform. This approach gives subscribers/followers a compelling reason to follow you across all marketing channels.

Check-In Email Templates to Rebuild Logistics Client Relationships

Here is a check-in template to help you out:

Subject Line: A quick update from our team

Hi [First Name],

I wanted to check in and see how things are going at your end. In case you have had any issues with our services that made you reconsider, please let mr know. I would love to resolve any issues.

I would also like to share a few updates:

If you are open to a quick chat, I would love to hear how things are going on your side, too.

Let me know what works best.

[Signature]

Strategy 5: Geo-Targeted Email Campaigns to Personalize Logistics Outreach

If you are reaching out to customers or businesses in different regions, sending the same email to everyone just doesn’t work. Shipping challenges in Chicago won’t be the same as those in Nebraska, and your emails must reflect that to convince the prospect.

That’s why you should optimize your email campaigns with geo-targeting so that customers only get emails relevant to their specific region and its logistics challenges.

Follow these steps to run highly targeted email marketing campaigns:

Segment your customer list by location and send updates on new service lanes, route expansions, or local partnerships
Highlight region-specific case studies to build trust and credibility
Offer time-bound discounts or perks tailored to high-demand delivery zones
Send regional alerts for delivery disruptions or delays
Promote local warehousing or fulfillment solutions to businesses in high-density areas
Share localized insights or reports on shipping trends, fuel costs, or route efficiencies in their area

Using Lead Segmentation and Location-Based Customization with Pipeline CRM

Let’s say you’re sending logistics emails to prospects in Miami. Here is how it could look:

Subject: Faster and Reliable Logistics Solutions Now Available in Miami!

Hi [First name],

Are you shipping in or out of Miami? We know how critical timely deliveries are!

That’s why we are excited to offer exclusive logistics solutions tailored for Miami businesses, including:

Limited-time offer: Sign up and get 10% off your first shipment.

Interested in learning more and getting a custom quote? Reply to this email or give us a call at [abc@company.com]!

Regards,
[Signature]

But the problem is, you won’t do this for one location. That means multiple customer segments with overlapping elements.

How do you make sense of all this? Leverage Pipeline CRM’s lead management, and let us help you with:

Organizing leads by region, demographics, and more
Tracking every interaction with detailed records
Using historical data and profiles for context
Sending emails that feel personal and value-driven, drafted using our AI email assistant

Email Marketing Is the Future of Logistics

Contrary to popular opinion, email marketing for logistics and transportation companies is growing. And if you haven’t optimized your email marketing strategies, it’s time to level it up.

The best email marketing strategy builds consistent relationships with customers over time. Focus on content that leads to revenue. Orient your team around the primary goal—more revenue—and you’ll find identifying the right email marketing strategy is simple.

If you’re looking for a CRM that supports seamless integration with Gmail, Outlook, and email marketing apps like Mailchimp, Pipeline CRM is a great option. Plus, we offer a built-in email drip campaign and AI email writing assistance features, empowering you to do more to increase your logistics email marketing performance and, ultimately, the sales funnel.

Check out Pipeline CRM’s email solutions; and when you’re ready to try it for free, sign up here.

Pipedrive Alternatives for Logistics Companies

Andrew McDermott — Sun, 26 May 2024 11:40:45 +0000

Looking for CRM alternatives for logistics companies?

Pipedrive is a strong contender, but it’s not for everyone. Reviewers mentioned its limited (or missing) feature set, issues with integration, and high cost.

The good news is that some powerful logistics CRM software is on the market, making it a great Pipedrive CRM alternative for logistics companies. We’ll compare five logistics CRMs, looking at their features, pros and cons, reviews, and pricing. Keep reading to find which Pipedrive alternatives are the best for your logistics company.

Why Do You Need Logistics CRM Software?

It’s an uphill battle for logistics companies to generate sales. They struggle with a variety of factors that are much more difficult to overcome. The ongoing struggle against these challenges puts many logistics companies out of business.

Which factors are we talking about?

Razor-thin margins: High operating costs—fuel, labor, and fleet maintenance erode profits—and supply chain disruptions.

Service commoditization: Logistics are often treated as a commodity, like steel or lumber. This creates more downward pressure on already thin margins.

No differentiation: It’s common for logistics companies to position themselves as the cheaper, faster, or easier option. This can work, but it’s typically a disaster for your margins since customers have no real reason to choose you over a competitor other than price, speed, or ease of use.

Long sales cycles: Our industry relies heavily on strong, trusting relationships, which take time to build. Many organizations lack the tools or processes to build, nurture, and maintain these relationships.

While logistics CRMs can’t fix your margins, they can help you with the other three items. Let’s start the list of CRM alternatives for logistics companies with Pipeline CRM vs. Pipedrive.

1. Pipeline CRM: One of the Best Alternatives to Pipedrive

Pipeline CRM is one of the best CRM software for logistics and excellent contender for Pipedrive CRM alternatives. This sales-driven CRM focuses on one thing: closing deals. They are perfect for organizations looking for an affordable and customizable option that can scale up or down with their business.

Besides its simple yet powerful sales management features, another factor that separates Pipeline CRM from its competitors is its world-class customer service. They offer best-in-class email and chat support, and they’re even willing to onboard and train your team. Other providers outsource onboarding, and some logistics CRM software limits their customer service to specific high-tier plans only.

Key Features of Pipeline CRM – a Pipedrive Alternative

Built-in email drip campaign and AI email writing assistant
Smart agendas (automatically build to-dos as you work)
Easy integrations with a large list of software and providers, including QuickBooks, CallRail, and Gravity Forms
Sales forecasting and analytics
Custom sales processes, including custom deal stages and custom fields
Deal Insights (to identify the likelihood of success or failure)

Pipeline CRM Pros

Pipeline CRM is scalable yet very affordable
Heavily oriented toward selling with extensive sales management automation
Best-in-class, industry-leading customer support
Best for small-to-medium organizations

Pipeline CRM Cons

Limited enterprise options
No on-premise options

Pipeline CRM App Support

Support: Email or live chat.
Onboarding services: Personalized training and guidance to ensure a successful CRM implementation
Knowledge base: Get started documents, FAQs, and troubleshooting guide.
Status updates: Consistent service uptime across platforms

Pipeline CRM Reviews

4.4/5 star rating on G2 (928 reviews total)
4.4/5 star rating on Capterra (623 reviews total)
4.2/5 star rating via Gartner (41 reviews total)

Pipeline CRM Pricing

Pipeline CRM offers three paid plans. There’s also a free 14-day trial to test this Pipeline’s logistics CRM.

Start plan: $29 per user per month
Develop plan: $39 per user per month
Grow plan: $59 per user per month

Go to the Pipeline CRM pricing page to learn the features of each plan.

2. CargoWise

The next on our list of Pipedrive CRM alternatives for logistics companies is CargoWise. CargoWise is a cloud-based CRM platform providing end-to-end support for logistics companies. They manage everything from global trade changes (e.g., increased taxes, regulation, and tariffs) to sudden spikes in ecommerce volumes.

If your logistics company handles intermodal transportation or you plan on expanding nationally or internationally, CargoWise CRM may be a good fit. They offer many solutions, such as forwarding, customs, warehouse, and carriers, among others.

CargoWise Features

Centralized database
Opportunity and campaign manager
Real-time performance analytics
Track calls, meetings, and plans made with every customer
Build detailed portfolios on key opportunities

CargoWise Pros

Great for enterprises
It integrates with a large list of software and providers (e.g., Microsoft, Google Apps, Zapier, etc.).
24/7 international support

CargoWise Cons

High cost; pricing options often range from $500 to $10,000+ per month
No on-premise options

CargoWise App Support

24/7 support: help desk, chat, phone, or email

CargoWise Reviews

2.9/5 star rating on Software Advice (32 reviews total)
2.8/5 star rating on Capterra (32 reviews total)
3.2/5 star rating via Gartner

CargoWise Pricing

CargoWise doesn’t disclose its pricing. You need to contact them for a quote.

3. Keap

Previously Infusionsoft, Keap is another Pipedrive CRM alternative for logistics companies. Keap is an all-in-one sales and marketing automation solution for small and medium-sized businesses.

If you’re looking for a well-established CRM generalist, Keap is a great candidate. Keap helps you to create web forms, run fully automated campaigns, track ROI, follow up with customers, and even process payments. However, if you already have payment processing, landing pages, or other tools in place, getting your tools to cooperate with Keap may be a challenge.

Additionally, Keap works best if you’re willing to commit to the long term. While their product is mature, it seems to require extensive onboarding, training, and education.

Keap Features

Sales and marketing automation
Payment processing
Appointment setting
Lead source attribution

Keap Pros

Automated follow-ups
Close monitoring of leads through the sales and fulfillment lifecycle
Highly customizable
Robust reporting

Keap Cons

High cost
Not user-friendly
Portions of their platform are still outdated, causing inconsistent performance

Keap App Support

Support: email
Documentation

Keap Reviews

4.2/5 star rating on G2 (1,527 reviews total)
4.1/5 star rating via Capterra (1,271 reviews total)
8.2/10 score via TrustRadius (378)

Keap Pricing

Pro: $199 per month (2 users, 1,500 contacts)
Max: $299 per month (3 users, 2,500 contacts)
Ultimate: $359 per month (3 users, 2,500 contacts)

4. Magaya

Another CRM alternative for logistics companies is Magaya Supply Chain. Magaya is designed for freight forwarders, NVOCCs, customs brokers, warehouse operators, and logistics services providers. Their platform functions as a single source of truth managing operations, accounting, sales and marketing, tracking, and compliance.

One nice thing about their platform is that it’s usable right out of the box. It is loaded with hundreds of industry-specific document templates and freight-forwarding workflows for domestic and cross-border logistics. It also includes advanced WMS with eCommerce connections to major retailers and couriers. You can use them to automate and optimize your logistics business, with the ability to add more functions as your organization scales up.

If you’re consistently entering, re-entering, and updating customer details, quotes, and contracts across multiple platforms and tools, Magaya may be for you. According to their description, “Magaya automates the tedious and repetitive tasks that slow down shipments, waste time, cost money, and allow errors to slip in.”

Magaya Features

Supply network coordination
Automation of warehouse operations
Manage leads, contacts, and accounts alongside relevant account data (e.g., quotes, interactions, data, etc.)
Data sync between Magaya Supply Chain and Magaya CRM
Create mass marketing campaigns, qualify and rank leads, and integrate with mail providers directly

Magaya Pros

Provides end-to-end tracking across multiple applications
Information is shared across all of Magaya’s services and products, so double entry isn’t an issue
Centralized data management for warehouse, quotes, invoices, and operations

Magaya Cons

Poor integrations
Steep learning curve
Issues with user rights and permissions (sharing data with the wrong people)

Magaya App Support

Support: email and WhatsApp
Help desk

Magaya Reviews

4.5/5 star rating on G2 (108 reviews total)
4.4/5 star rating on Capterra (46 reviews total)
9/10 score via TrustRadius

Magaya Pricing

You need to contact the Magaya team to ask for the tool price.

5. Logitude

The last of our Pipedrive CRM alternatives for logistics CRM is Logitude. While other end-to-end providers bundle their services together, Logitude doesn’t require customers to be freight forwarding users to use their logistics CRM. Their services are affordably priced with solo and small business logistics companies in mind.

Logitude Features

Opportunity management
Contact management
Sales funnel overview
Sales performance reporting
Account permission settings

Logitude Pros

Fast and effective quote creation process
View and analyze customer performance via built-in CRM dashboards and reports
File Outlook messages and attachments directly within the platform

Logitude Cons

API is available at an additional cost
Some systems are complex and difficult to use

Logitude App Support

Support: contact or email

Logitude Reviews

4.5/5 star rating on Capterra (40 reviews total)
4.4/5 star rating on G2 (14 reviews total)
4.5/5 star rating via Software Advice (40 reviews total)

Logitude Pricing

$35 per user per month

What to Consider When Choosing CRM Software for Logistics Companies

What specifically do logistics companies need from their CRM systems? Key features include:

Scheduling: Your logistics CRM should provide custom scheduling options to optimize your collection and scheduling for first and third-party inventory and assets.

Monitoring deal flow: Tracking prospects and customers through your sales and fulfillment pipelines is a must-have. This allows logistics companies to provide employees and customers with real-time, company-wide status updates.

Integration with route optimization: Your logistics CRM must integrate with route planning software. When route optimization is disconnected from your CRM, streamlining deliveries, minimizing fuel costs, and improving efficiency become uphill battles.

Integrating with inventory management: Can your inventory management tools automatically share your inventory levels and order notifications with your logistics CRM software? Having this feature keeps your sales, marketing, customer service, and accounting teams in the loop.

Centralized communication: You’ll need a centralized logistics CRM tool to manage internal (e.g., milestones, deliverables, forecasting) and external (e.g., customer inquiries, reviews, and complaints) communication via a suite of tools. More importantly, you’ll need open internal and external communication channels.

Performance analysis: Unlock hidden insights with historical data! Your logistics CRM reveals shipping patterns & trends, helping you optimize operations, identify bottlenecks, and seize growth opportunities.

Mobility: Empower all teams (sales, marketing, support, fulfillment) with real-time access & mobile-first CRM. One platform, one truth.

Scalability: The ability to scale up (and down), handle sudden spikes in activity, and accommodate a steady growth in demand over time without sacrificing performance or functionality.

Integration capabilities: Integration with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, transportation management systems, and accounting software is ideal as this makes process automation smooth.

Related: What is ERP, and how does it differ from CRM? Find the answers here.

The Best Pipedrive CRM Alternative for Logistics Companies is Pipeline CRM

Pipedrive is a well-known option, but for a more affordable alternative with similar powerful features, consider Pipeline’s robust, customizable logistics CRM.

This powerful solution can help you better manage your sales pipelines, leverage sales automation solutions, and generate accurate sales reports to close more deals and streamline your operations. Like our happy logistics company clients, GlobalTranz achieved a 63% increase in partnerships with revenue-generating agents after using Pipeline CRM.

Try Pipeline CRM today, and experience a similar growth to your logistics company! Sign up for a 14-day free trial.

5 Must-Have CRM Integrations Every Logistics Company Needs

Andrew McDermott — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 14:47:24 +0000

A logistics company’s sales workflow can only run productively when supported by the right tools and integrations. These range from sales pipeline management tools to invoice generation software and more. While you can adopt each tool individually, integrating them into your logistics CRM solution is best.

This blog highlights five vital CRM integrations that every CRM software for logistics companies should have. We will use Pipeline’s custom CRM solution as a real-life example.

Why CRM Integrations Are Essential for Logistics Companies

So, why does integration matter for growth-driven logistics companies?

A recent report by McKinsey found that the average employee wastes almost half their workweek wrangling, searching for, or identifying information. If you’re like most companies, you’re paying your employees for this time.

Switching between applications usually also leads to declined productivity (e.g., too much time spent on preparing data), slow response time, and poor team collaboration.

With that in mind, let’s look at the most important CRM software integrations for logistics companies using Pipeline CRM as an example. To see all Pipeline CRM integration options, visit our Pipeline CRM Integration page.

1. Paycove for Streamlined Freight Quotes and Proposals

Quotes and proposals are the lifeblood of your logistics business. The more pitches you send to qualified prospects, the easier it will be for your team to close more deals.

However, quoting in logistics often involves time-consuming manual calculations and back-and-forth messages. With Paycove integrated into your CRM, you can auto-generate branded proposals and send freight quotes directly from your sales pipeline.

How Paycove and Pipeline CRM Integration Automates Shipping Quotes

Integrating accounting tools like Paycove with your logistics CRM amplifies your team’s ability to close deals and generate revenue quickly. They shorten sales cycles, increase revenue, and win deals.

By combining Pipeline CRM and Paycove, your sales team will be able to move deals through the funnel quickly:

Flexible payment options: Clients can pay using their preferred method, including Credit/Debit, ACH, Wires, Apple/Google Pay, Buy Now Pay Later, and more.
Streamlined integrations: Paycove integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Stripe, Quickbooks, TaxJar, Xero, and Zapier. You can also leverage its API for custom workflows.
All-in-one document suite: Create and manage proposals, quotes, contracts, packing slips, product sheets, sales agreements, and more directly within the Pipeline CRM system.
Automated personalization: Pre-populate documents with relevant deal fields for faster turnaround and reduced errors.
Simplified accounting: Synchronize quotes with Quickbooks, Xero, and Sage, or use Zapier to connect your preferred accounting app for effortless data flow.

Ready to add the PayCove app? Follow the integration instructions to connect Pipeline CRM with Paycove here.

Don’t like Paycove? Try these options instead: Formstack or Zapier.

2. Help Scout to Resolve Delivery Issues Faster

Support reps in logistics frequently deal with missed deliveries, delays, and order status inquiries. Help Scout is a customer support tool that offers shared inboxes, a help center, and live chat services. Its user-friendly interface enables your team to manage customer support communications.

Consider this scenario: a customer experiences a negative interaction with a support team member. This can lead to subtle silence or overt anger and hostility when a sales representative later reaches out.

By integrating Help Scout with your CRM, your support team gains immediate access to crucial shipment details and a complete customer history directly within their support workflow. This seamless access significantly reduces resolution times for delivery-related issues and, more importantly, fosters greater customer trust and satisfaction.

How Help Scout and Pipeline CRM Integration Increases Customer Satisfaction

Connecting Help Scout and Pipeline CRM enables you to:

Streamline support: Manage all customer interactions – emails, tickets, and conversations – in a single, centralized platform.
Gain insights: Track interactions and leverage analytics to understand customer experiences and deliver targeted support.
Boost collaboration: Create dedicated mailboxes for different departments or brands, enabling seamless teamwork across your organization.
Stay informed: Receive automatic notifications whenever deals or support conversations change, keeping stakeholders in the loop.

Ready to add the Help Scout app? Follow the integration instructions to connect Pipeline CRM with Help Scout here.

Don’t like Help Scout? Try these options instead: Userlike or Pabbly Connect.

3. CallRail to Track Lead and Dispatch Calls

In logistics, inbound calls from leads and outbound dispatch coordination can quickly become siloes across teams. By integrating CallRail with your CRM, every call is automatically logged and attributed. This gives the sales and operations teams full visibility into where leads come from and how deals progress.

Additionally, leverage CallRail’s advanced analytics to go beyond simple tracking. They reveal the exact ads, pages, and keywords driving your inbound calls. Use this knowledge to optimize your campaigns for maximum return on investment. Plus, you can attach detailed notes of the call to each deal, creating a comprehensive record of the entire customer journey.

How CallRail and Pipeline CRM Integration Build Stronger Logistics Relationships

With the CallRail integration for Pipeline CRM, you can identify top-performing sales and marketing channels.

Stop missing valuable call insights: Record and analyze every conversation directly within Pipeline CRM with the CallRail integration.
Optimize marketing campaigns: Uncover the exact ads, pages, and keywords driving your inbound calls with CallRail’s advanced analytics. Maximize your return on investment!
Capture every lead: Never miss a prospect or client again! CallRail captures all phone conversations for complete lead tracking.
Seamless customer journey: Attach detailed notes to your Pipeline accounts for each captured call, creating a comprehensive record of the entire customer interaction.

Ready to add the CallRail app? Follow the integration instructions to connect Pipeline CRM with CallRail here.

Don’t like Help Scout? Try these options instead: Aircall, Kixie, DialPad Ai, JustCall, or RingCentral.

4. Asana for Automated Logistics Tasks Management

From coordinating shipments to onboarding new clients, the salespeople from a logistics company juggle dozens of moving parts. Connecting your CRM with Asana ensures tasks are auto-created, deadlines are tracked, and handoffs between sales, fulfillment, and support stay seamless and error-free.

How Asana and Pipeline CRM Integration Keeps Your Logistics Teams On Track

The Asana and Pipeline CRM integration automatically creates tasks or projects in Asana based on the moving deal stage in the CRM system. This means that activity in the Pipeline CRM triggers automatic updates in Asana.

This auto-pilot workflow allows each salesperson to gain real-time visibility on their tasks, allowing them to keep up with the deal stages, deadlines, and other assigned tasks. As a result, your sales team will work more efficiently, increasing the sales velocity.

With the Asana integration, you can automate important tasks.

Seamless workflow: Effortlessly synchronize tasks and projects between Pipeline CRM and Asana. This real-time connection empowers your team to collaborate, update, and work together seamlessly, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Automated actions: Minimize user error with powerful “if-then” functionality. For example, move a deal to the “Won” stage in Pipeline and automatically trigger a new task in Asana, streamlining the sales handoff process to your post-sale team.
Effortless task management: Eliminate manual work with automatic task assignments based on synced data. The right people are assigned the right tasks at the right time, ensuring your team can focus on what matters most – closing deals and delivering results.
Streamlined sales process: Simplify the sales handoff by leveraging Asana’s robust project management features for your post-sale team. Tasks and projects seamlessly flow between platforms, creating a clear and efficient workflow.

Ready to add the Asana app? Follow the integration instructions to connect Pipeline CRM with Asana here.

Don’t like Help Scout? Try this option instead: Trello Integration with Pipeline CRM

5. Google Workspace for Centralized Communication

Logistics deals often unfold across multiple emails, quotes, and coordination threads. Syncing Gmail and Google Calendar with your CRM keeps every message and meeting in one place—so your team has a full picture of each client interaction without switching tabs.

That said, email is an overlooked channel for many logistics companies. It’s common for people and email accounts to operate as silos. You have your emails, and I have mine. That works until you need access to key email correspondence to close your deal.

How Google Workspace and Pipeline CRM Integration Offers a Solid Logistics Sales Workflow

Let’s give you a scenario: say one of the account managers on your team is working to close a deal worth $780k. The prospect is ready to make a decision, but they need information on your Service License Agreement (SLA). There’s a very good chance they’ll be ready to sign if your team moves on it today.

Unfortunately, your account manager is out for the week. If you’re using Pipeline CRM custom CRM software, the sales rep’s email correspondence is connected to Pipeline CRM. This means sales managers can monitor, catch, and respond to this prospect, ensuring your team closes this deal.

In contrast, if you’re using spreadsheets, you’ll need to find the right spreadsheet and verify that your version is the latest and greatest.

Pipeline CRM integrates natively with Google Workspace. These integrations enable you to:

Sync emails automatically: See all your communication with prospects in one place, eliminating the need to search across different platforms.
Effortless contact and deal creation: Create new contacts and deals directly from your email without ever leaving Outlook or Workspace.
Log everything in one go: Log emails, calls, meetings, and other activities directly within your email, keeping a complete record of your interactions with each contact.
Stay on top of tasks: Schedule follow-up tasks and activities (calls, meetings, etc.) right from your email, ensuring you never miss a beat.
Access Pipeline CRM on the go: View and manage your Pipeline CRM data directly within Outlook or Workspace for ultimate convenience.

Ready to add these apps? Follow the integration instructions to connect Pipeline CRM with Google Workspace here and Microsoft Outlook here.

How Pipeline CRM Improved a Logistics Company’s Productivity

One of our happy customers shares how Pipeline’s logistic CRM adoption changes how their team works. Here’s what Crystal McLoughlin, Corporate Sales Manager at PACE, describes (Pipeline) CRM.

“PACE was stuck in the dark ages, using spreadsheets to manage the business. When I came back on, the very first thing I did was find a company like [Pipeline CRM] to manage the sales cycle. Switching from spreadsheets to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Pipeline CRM opened up a world of visibility and communication within the company.”

What exactly does that mean?

“To put it into perspective, PACE is a multiregional company. This means several people may be working on a deal from multiple locations. Because of this, they need consistency, and that’s what they got from Pipeline CRM.

They now have a centralized location where all of their contacts are kept.

McLoughlin says if one of her account managers is working with a customer and they are out that day, she is able to access their information from the CRM. Since all email correspondences are connected to the CRM, she can see everything that is going on.”

Learn the details on how PACE went from $6 to $100 million with Pipeline CRM.

Choose a Custom Logistics CRM with Rich Integration Options

Third-party applications are great when they work together and can be expensive when working in siloes. If you’re like most logistics companies, you already have an app stack that you’ve invested time, energy, and resources into. Therefore, your CRM and apps have to work together seamlessly to get the most out of your CRM ROI.

So, when choosing CRM software for your logistics company, look for a platform that seamlessly integrates with your existing tools. Pipeline CRM prioritizes user efficiency by offering a growing list of integrations with popular third-party apps. This empowers you to streamline your sales tasks and other workflows, maximizing productivity.

Our claim isn’t without a base. See how this transportation company increased its productivity by 100% with Pipeline CRM. When you’re ready to start your journey with Pipeline CRM, try our robust logistics CRM features for 14 days for free.

10 Ways to Generate More Quality Leads for Your Logistics Pipeline

Pipeline CRM — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 11:31:20 +0000

Establishing a continuous flow of quality leads is a common challenge faced by small- and large-scale logistics companies. In fact, most sales teams rely on long-term accounts and word-of-mouth to maintain revenue, which is not a sustainable approach.

Other notable reasons why logistics companies struggle with lead generation include:

Inefficient internal sales processes
Lack of strategic agility
Poorly curated value proposition
Lack of technological adoption

Methods to Help Boost Lead Generation for Logistics Companies:

1. Create a Formal Sales Process

The first step in elevating your lead generation process is to build a definite sales process. This way, your entire team will be focused in a unified direction and have a well-defined framework to follow. Break down your sales pipeline into basic parts:

Lead generation channels: decide on the channels you will be using to generate leads. This could be a mix of email, content, social media marketing, cold calling, industry trade events, etc.
Lead evaluation: not every lead is worth pursuing. You need a proper scoring system in place before your sales team takes them up. The best way here is to opt for reliable logistics CRM software with lead management features.
Evaluation of client needs: constantly assess customer data to stay on top of changing customer needs. Train your reps to understand a lead’s challenge and offer solutions accordingly.
Proposal: make a formal presentation describing the services you offer, showcase your USPs, and take questions. It should build a strong base for deal negotiation.
Deal closing: this is where you prepare contracts with the agreed-upon terms, close the deal, and offer your client a smooth onboarding.

2. Identify and Target Key Accounts

To ensure quality lead generation, you need to identify companies who will genuinely be interested in your services. This way, your sales team won’t waste time running after cold leads with a low chance of conversion. To do this, you must first create an ideal buyer persona/s. Assess customer data and market trends to lay down the attributes of your ideal customer. Then, compare your leads to the outlined traits in your personas.

Make a list of companies that fit the image closely, identify their decision makers, and acquire their contact information. It’ll serve as the foundation of your outreach efforts.

3. Focus on Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a self-sustaining resource for generating a steady flow of quality leads into your sales funnel. As it brings prospects already interested in your product, the chances of conversions are much higher than outbound leads.

Your website is your best source to pull inbound leads into your pipeline. It has to be user-friendly and SEO-optimized to maintain consistent traffic. Ensure your website content has relevant keywords and target your audience’s specific challenges.

Add clear CTAs on relevant landing pages to encourage visitors to inquire about your services. You must also ensure your website has a responsive design.

Showcase client testimonials and promote them on your social media pages. Improve your content marketing with valuable and informative blogs, white papers, and e-books. It builds your authority in the logistics industry and boosts inbound lead generation.

4. Automate Your Outreach

You can’t spend hours creating emails for individual leads manually and expect a decent response rate. It’s time-consuming and leaves a lot of room for error.

Worst part? Among all the chaos, your recipient may not even receive the communication on time. To scale your lead generation, you need efficient and agile campaigning methods — which you can enable with automation. Reports show that with sales and marketing automation:

Lead conversion rate increases by 107%
Average deal size increases by 40%
Companies reach 17% better sales forecasting accuracy

With reliable logistics CRM software, you can automate your sales workflows and engage your audience across multiple channels with personalized outreach programs.

You can create engaging emails in seconds with the AI email assistant and automate your email marketing, freeing up your team’s time to focus on strategies and improvements.

5. Use AI-Powered Lead Generation Platforms

Businesses are becoming increasingly tech-reliant in the logistics industry. If you are not one of them, you may just fail to source and manage leads properly. Opt for logistics pipeline software with features to find and target the right prospects in seconds. These platforms will collect intent data and let you create an ideal customer persona, identify sales triggers, build prospect lists, and prioritize leads.

Make sure your chosen platform integrates with your logistics CRM software.

It should also be scalable and easy to use.

6. Participate in Trade Shows and Industry Events

Build strategic partnerships with other businesses in the logistics ecosystem to expand your reach. Research shows 68% effectiveness in B2B demand generation. So, the best way to network with industry peers is to attend trade shows and corporate events.

Here, you can meet potential clients, increase brand awareness, and even drive leads. Even if you can’t convert leads during the event, you can acquire qualified contacts for the top of the sales funnel and nurture them with follow-up communication.

7. Cold Call High-Quality Leads

Use your key accounts list and run cold calls. Create a concise, engaging cold calling script that focuses on the value you can provide. Make sure you add your USPs to the script. Talk about the common pain points. Then, establish your services as the solution. For example, if you offer end-to-end logistics services, you can talk about how frustrating and expensive it is for businesses to handle multiple vendors. Then, tell them how you can offer every logistics service they need at affordable prices.

The right CRM for logistics will help you keep all deal details in a centralized dashboard while your preferred dialer for further convenience. You can access their contact while running cold calls without jumping in and out of applications.

8. Refine Sales Prospecting

Nurturing logistics leads are complex. As there is no tangible product for you to showcase, you may need to nurture the prospect across multiple touchpoints.

Categorizing leads based on the touchpoints they are currently in helps you take the best route to nurture them. Logistics CRM software like Pipeline offers an advanced lead management feature where get lists like Leads No One Has Contacted in 7 Days, Deals Expected to Close This Week, or Deals Closing With No Next Task Set. Based on these criteria, you can refine and personalize your sales prospecting for each lead.

9. Create Case Studies

Want to convince your audience that your logistics services can drive the promised results? Create case studies to support your pitch. They act as social proof and offer detailed insight into how you solved problems for your existing clients.

Case studies also build niche expertise and boost credibility.

Start by explaining the customer’s goal. Describe the logistics roadblocks and challenges they were facing. Detail how you helped them overcome the problem. Don’t forget to add tangible results you helped your client achieve and quotes about their experience with your supply chain services.

10. Analyze and Improve

No matter how thorough your sales strategy is, it won’t create sustainable lead generation sources without constant improvements. By analyzing your sales pipeline, relevant KPIs, and your sales team’s performance, you can pinpoint gaps in your setup.

Choose a logistics pipeline software that offers accurate analytics. Pipeline offers a reporting feature that shows real-time updates on your lead’s progress and your team’s performance across time. You can even create custom data points and generate comparison charts to see which sources bring you the best leads.

Takeaway

For a logistics company, providing top-tier service to existing clients is a primary focus. However, ongoing lead generation deserves attention if you want to scale your operation.

Still, overwhelmed? Here’s a TL;DR version of actionable steps logistics companies can use to boost lead generation;

Create a mix of inbound and outbound lead acquisition strategy
Build strategic partnerships with industry
Optimize your website
Create case studies and collect testimonials as social proof

Finally, opt for reliable and custom CRM software with advanced lead management, automation, and reporting features. Pipeline offers a logistics CRM with all necessary logistics sales tools to generate and convert leads.

Elevate your logistics company from a local go-to service provider to a growing enterprise. Start with a 14-day free trial!

Use Cases Unpacked: How 3 Transport and Logistics Companies Use Pipeline CRM to Grow

Pipeline CRM — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 10:00:50 +0000

For transport and logistics businesses, efficiency is key. Any small mistake can jeopardize your profits; this is where a custom CRM solution makes a difference.

As one of the best CRM for transport and logistics companies, Pipeline CRM has helped many businesses transform their sales processes and surpass their goals. Here, we will highlight 3 of our transportation and logistics customers and how Pipeline CRM helps them grow their sales performance, teams, and fleets.

1. VRS Trucking Expanded Their Customer Base by 10x

For California-based VRS Trucking, Pipeline CRM put the speed in logistics. We made it possible for them to process 99% of lease applications within 5 minutes.

To help them achieve this goal, this veteran-owned company was looking for a sales-focused transport and logistics CRM tool. Their requirement was clear—they needed a CRM that would facilitate business growth and handle customer and sales data from their sister companies. Here’s what VRS Trucking wished to improve:

Streamlined sales processes
Ability to keep every team member on the same page for every lead
Advanced data management to organize customer information and sales details

With Pipeline CRM, VRS Trucking transformed its customer relationship management approach. They efficiently organized customer data and handled critical repair and maintenance information, preventing duplication of work across their teams.

Additionally, here are some other Pipeline CRM features that helped them grow from a 10-people team to 30 people:

User-friendly interface: Enables anyone to use Pipeline CRM from the get-go.
Deals section: Allows the team to search sales by the VIN numbers quickly and provides easy access to deal-related information.
Smart Agenda feature: Prioritizes and simplifies daily tasks.
Smart email feature: Facilitates real-time communication within the team, ensuring everyone remains on the same page.

With Pipeline CRM, VRS Trucking can seamlessly track leads, sales information, and customer data, leading to a 10x increase in customers within just 1 year!

Now, they welcome newly joined drivers weekly, helping them deliver loads efficiently across states—all thanks to the streamlined operations of Pipeline CRM.

For VRS Trucking, Pipeline CRM is their “single source of truth.”

Read VRS Trucking’s customer success story here.

2. GlobalTranz Boosted Agency Partnerships by 63%

GlobalTranz, a technology-driven 3PL solutions provider, recognized the pivotal role of reliable agent partners. Yet, their existing system, Microsoft Access, proved inadequate in overseeing this crucial sales objective, costing them many promising opportunities.

As a database management tool, Microsoft Access isn’t made for managing sales processes. They needed a tool to organize sales leads and sales projects systematically. This prompted them to hunt for the best CRM for their unique use case.

Here are some other sales roadblocks GlobalTranz wishes to improve:

A tool with advanced sales tracking
A custom contact management to support sales and the agency partner program
Powerful sales tools that can be used by several people simultaneously

Pipeline CRM emerged as the perfect fit, offering robust contact and sales leads management features that can be customized to fit their general sales process and the sales recruitment program. Additionally, thanks to the user-friendly interface and streamlined features, implementing Pipeline CRM was a seamless transition.

Every team member adopted it swiftly without hiccups.

Today, GlobalTranz has a vast network of over 34,000 carriers and has served over 25,000 shipping customers. The number of recruited agents has also shown consistent growth year after year. In fact, the agent partnership program led to a whopping 63% growth.

Moreover, Pipeline CRM’s contact management features supported them in achieving substantial 6-figure revenue gains from targeted email marketing campaigns.

This success story highlights the transformative impact of a well-suited transport and logistics CRM system. GlobalTranz’s successful recruiting program has become a benchmark in the industry with Pipeline CRM as its partner.

Other Pipeline CRM features they love:

Personalized data fields and stages: enable the team to use the CRM to support numerous sales areas.
Notes and activities: the ability to add tailored notes and individual lead tracking.
Notifications for sourcing specialists: quickly react to potential agents.
Effective event management and follow-up capabilities: encourages the team to pursue leads proactively.
Inexpensive price and low learning curve: a better investment than Salesforce.

Read GlobalTranz’s customer success story here.

3. Trailer Bridge: Streamlined Sales and Expanded Operations

Trailer Bridge, a major logistics player with a fleet spanning across the Americas, recognized the need for a sales CRM solution to boost their business growth. Jeff Vaughn, VP of Sales, turned to Pipeline CRM to streamline their sales processes.

Pipeline CRM immediately became their preferred tool for their transportation and logistics needs. Thanks to the quick learning curve, the sales team could easily use Pipeline CRM features like sources and tags and began segmenting data by sales stages. They also used the custom fields feature to create transactional pricing, price proposals, rate negotiations, and wins and losses. Pipeline CRM simplified their complex sales workflows.

Furthermore, after switching from Salesforce to Pipeline CRM, the sales reps now have a 360-degree view of the leads, enabling them to track the status and tasks to win the deal.

And that wasn’t all. Here are other benefits Trailer Bridge has gained since using Pipeline CRM:

Sales culture transformation: repetitive sales calls were eliminated and replaced with effective communication and learning.
Customizable features: to effortlessly accommodate their varied sales cycles.

As a result, Trailer Bridge achieved a 100% boost in operational efficiency, increased customer activity, and opened eight new branches, all supported by Pipeline CRM.

Clearly, a custom CRM like Pipeline CRM emerged as their most vital tool for managing around 13,000 customers. It boosted their growth, streamlined operations, and fostered a thriving sales culture.

They call it “living in Pipeline CRM.”

Read Trailer Bridge’s customer success story here.

Pipeline’s Transport and Logistics CRM Reviews

The three customer success stories above have shown how powerful Pipeline CRM can support your transport and logistics business. To give you a better understanding of our sales-focused CRM solution, check out the summary below.

Features

Customization
- Tailors deal stages to align with your business’s requirements.
Automation
- Offers comprehensive automation for enhanced sales management.
- Automates sales workflows, such as creating repeat orders and sales tasks.
Email management
- Effectively oversees and analyzes drip email marketing campaigns.
- Built-in AI-powered email assistant.
Analysis and reporting
- Maps bid progression and uses historical data to analyze lost bid causes.
Integration
- Seamlessly integrates with well-known platforms, including Google apps, Outlook, Zapier, Mailchimp, and other commonly used logistics sales tools.
Excellent implementation and customer service
- Quick and straightforward setup, fully operational within 48 hours.
- User-friendly for novices and experienced users.

Pricing

Start plan: $25 per user per month
Develop a plan: $33 per user per month
Grow plan: $49 per user per month

Reviews

Pipeline CRM is considered one of the best CRMs for transport and logistics based on the following reviews:

4.4/5 star rating on G2 (923 reviews)
4.4/5 star rating on Capterra (619 reviews)
10/10 score on TrustRadius (16 reviews and ratings)
4.2 star rating on Gartner (40 reviews)

Future-Proof Your Business with a CRM for Transportation and Logistics

Pipeline CRM has helped clients gain actionable insights, streamline workflows, and enhance customer relationships, leading to increased sales performance. Join them and other 18,000+ businesses in amplifying your sales effort with Pipeline CRM.

Start your 14-day free trial now!

Best Logistics CRM Software for Logistics and Transport Businesses

Pipeline CRM — Sat, 20 May 2023 10:09:54 +0000

Are you searching for the best logistics CRM software for logistics and transportation companies? This article guides you to the ideal logistics and transportation CRM for your business needs.

Running a logistics and transport company is more than maintaining a warehouse and shipping boxes. You must work on multiple orders simultaneously, onboard new customers, and maintain close relationships with your existing clientele.

Adopting efficient CRM software that seamlessly fits your requirements and supports your vision can help you manage your logistics and transportation daily tasks stress-free.

But in a sea of tools, how do you choose the best CRM for logistics and transport?

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best logistics sales tools to amp up your profits in no time.

Why Logistics and Transportation Companies Need A CRM

Logistics and transportation companies are prone to challenges like inconsistent leads, inaccurate sales forecasting, lack of differentiation, etc. To counter these roadblocks, absolute transparency between the stakeholders, sales team, and supply chain is of the essence.

Maintaining efficiency as it is is a nightmare, let alone when you plan to scale. So, to get ahead, you need tools to build a sales funnel while figuring out routes, dispatching orders, and tracking transport. Here is how sales CRM for logistics and transportation companies can benefit your business:

Facilitates cross-team communication across all departments.
It improves task delegations and enables you to view project status in real-time.
Simplifies onboarding while maintaining consistency with long-term clients.
Offers integrations to boost ROI – mostly with tools you already know and trust.
Automates tedious tasks like repetitive orders, payment confirmations, tracking links, etc., and helps you focus on customer service. Everything is in one place.
Centralizes data, fostering better management of shipping schedules.
Segments priority shipments and notifies the team of unforeseen delays.

Now let’s look at top logistics and transportation CRM comparisons:

1. Pipeline CRM: Best CRM for Sales-Focused Logistics Companies

Pipeline provides a customer-centric sales solution, unlike other logistics and transportation CRM alternatives.

As one of the best CRM for logistics and transportation, this platform keeps your teams on the same page, manages client details, and tracks deal progress. Besides managing freight, it discovers patterns, qualifies leads, and ensures top-notch customer service.

Features:

Custom deal stages to fit the unique needs of the logistics industry.
Open source APIS for seamless integrations.
Automates repeat orders, payment details, cargo tracking, etc.
Manages and examines drip email campaigns.
Maps and records the bid’s progress.
Offers accurate sales forecasting.

Pros:

Easy to set up, capable of fully functioning within 48 hours.
Intuitive for beginners and experts alike.
Extensive automation for better sales management.
Integrates with popular platforms, with Google apps, Outlook, Zapier, Mailchimp, and other popular logistics sales tools.
Capable of managing communication between both small and large teams.
Monitors historical data and examines the cause of lost bids.
Best-in-class customer support.

Reviews:

4.4/5 star rating on G2 (913 reviews).
4.4/5 star rating on Capterra (617 reviews).
9.9/10 score on TrustRadius (15 reviews and ratings).
4.1 star rating on Gartner (41 reviews).

Pricing:

Start plan: $25 per user per month.
Develop plan: $33 per user per month.
Grow plan: $49 per user per month.

2. BlueYonder: Best Logistics CRM for Customer-Driven Supply Chain

Next up on our list for the best logistics and transportation CRM software is BlueYonder, a CRM platform ready to give your customers a superior logistics experience. This nifty software offers click-to-deliver/collect services, unifies inventories, and manages orders, ensuring timely and accurate delivery.

With end-to-end visibility, BlueYonder empowers you to make better business decisions, take actions at scale, and offer exceptional customer service.

Features:

Offers transportation management, warehouse management, and order management.
Detects underutilized loads and resources.
Identifies risks and opportunities by monitoring historical data.
Digitally connects small and large organizations across your entire supply chain.
Offers effective modeling.
Quantifies transportation savings and prioritizes your implementation rollout.

Pros:

Easy to use and offers high flexibility.
Custom CRM software suitable for the unique business needs of this market.
The low entry barrier for advanced configuration.
Extensive integrations make it easy to fit the software into existing systems.
Effective modeling helps manage your carbon footprint.

Cons:

Bug issues.
Limited support for labor planning and cost management.

Reviews:

4.1 star rating on G2 (17 reviews).
4.6 star rating on Capterra (10 reviews).
9.0/10 score on TrustRadius (14 reviews and ratings).
4.1 star rating on Gartner (155 ratings).

Pricing:

Pricing of BlueYonder is available on request.

3. Tailwind TMS: Best Transportation CRM for Small and Mid-Sized Trucking Companies

Want to grow your budding trucking company into a full-fledged business? Tailwind TMS is one of the best over-the-road transportation management systems you can find.

Designed to service motor carriers, freight brokers, and companies that do both, this CRM for logistics automates data entry, centralizes your paperwork, and prepares and sends invoices instantly to the customers. From managing customer databases to routing and scheduling, this popular software takes care of the everyday challenges of a trucking company with proper insights and efficiency.

Features:

Accounts receivable collections and payable management.
GPS confirmed shipment, event, and equipment maintenance tracking.
Extensive integrations.
Self-service portals for both carriers and customers.
Text messaging and task and alert notification system.
Locations and route management.

Pros:

GPS-conformed shipment helps in timely delivery.
Efficient API makes it easily adaptable to existing systems.
Self-service portals enhance user experience.
Proper route management avoids risks and finds the best possible routes for your shipments.

Cons:

Poor transaction history.
Not fit for heavy operations.

Reviews:

5.0 star rating on G2 (1 review).
4.3 star rating on Capterra (93 reviews).

Pricing:

TMS Pro: $99 per user per month.
TMS Enterprise: $149 per user per month.
TMS Unlimited: $199 per user per month.

4. LogiNext Mile: Transportation CRM for Routing and Scheduling

If you struggle with scheduling multiple orders and figuring out the best route for your cargo, LogiNext Mile is the best sales pipeline CRM.

This logistic software optimizes and automates operations like shipment planning, scheduling, pickup, and routing, bringing end-to-end efficiency to your delivery operations.

Features:

Easy to use interface.
Automates routing and scheduling.
In-built logistics analytics dashboard.
Examines resource capacity for proper optimization.
Sends timely alerts and notifications.

Pros:

Offers deep historical analysis and identifies areas of improvement.
Predicts delivery ETA even before the order is placed.
Centralized data allows you to compare trends visually.

Cons:

RTO and middle mile features are underwhelming.
UX needs improvements.

Reviews:

4.6 star ratings on G2 (21 reviews).
4.3 star ratings on Capterra (75 reviews).
4.1 star ratings on Gartner (32 ratings).

Pricing:

Custom quotes are available on request.

5. Sage CRM: Best CRM for an Integrated Ecosystem

From sales to warehouse management, Sage CRM offers one of the best stacks of logistics sales tools in the industry. This custom CRM software offers sales, marketing, and customer service modules for you to choose from. You can yield benefits from the holistic features to enhance every operation in your supply chain.

Features:

Time and expense tracking.
Customized dashboard.
Identifies marketing opportunities.
Analyzes specific customer information and creates targeted and personalized email campaigns.
Calculates lead to opportunity ratio.
360-degree view of the customer lifecycle.

Pros:

Accurate calculation of lead to opportunity ratio simplifies the sales process.
Creates relevant cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Facilitates effective team collaborations.
Navigation is comparatively challenging.

Cons:

The user interface is outdated.
Very limited third-party integrations.

Reviews:

3.7 star ratings on G2 (113 reviews).
3.5 star ratings on Capterra (65 reviews).
8.4/10 score on TrustRadius (74 reviews and ratings).
4.3 star ratings on Gartner (130 ratings).

Pricing:

Sage CRM (Cloud): $45 per user per month.
Sage CRM (On Premise): available on request.

Increase Sales Performance with Logistics and Transportation CRM

Modern businesses maintain profits only when they prioritize customer service — and the logistics and transport industry is no exception.

To keep your efforts aligned across departments and teams, you need a CRM that tracks transportation, supplements your sales cycle, and organizes all your contacts in the supply chain.

That’s where Pipeline CRM can help you. It offers:

Centralized dashboards for better visibility.
Conversation history tracking to detect issues.
Automation for better productivity.

The platform also offers CRM features for remote sales teams and fosters seamless collaboration, no matter where your staff is.

To win over new clients, manage orders, and double your revenue, start your 14-day free trial today!

Sales Email Marketing Benchmarks for Old Economy Sectors

Andrew McDermott — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 07:56:55 +0000

Email remains a powerful marketing tool in the old economy sector. In this article, we will share top tips on how to elevate your email marketing with industry-specific benchmarks.

Before we dive in, here are some important email marketing metrics to keep in mind.

Email Marketing Metrics To Track

Open Rate

Open rates present the percentage of recipients who have opened your marketing email.

No matter how innovative your campaign is, it’s futile if your contacts don’t open them. So, open rate is one of the primary email marketing metrics you should concentrate on.

While open rates are not a direct indication of your email’s effectiveness, they do share insights into how well your subject line performs. Benchmarking this will help you understand areas of improvement and enhance the success of your campaign/s.

You can apply the following formula to calculate your email open rate:

Open rate = (number of opened emails/number of received emails) x 100

The formula considers received emails rather than the total emails sent. This keeps the result accurate by removing bounced emails from the data.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rates measure the percentage of recipients who have clicked on the links in your email. It calculates the ratio between sent emails and visits to your website through the attached links. Even if the recipient opens your email, clicking on the hyperlinks and CTAs can convert leads into sales pipeline and dictate the success of your campaign. By calculating your email CTR, you can examine these performance areas:

Engagement through email content
Overall interest or subscriber fatigue
Link placement
CTA quality

Statistically, your CTR is bound to be significantly lower than your email open rate. You can use the following formula to calculate this metric:

Email click-through rate = (number of recipients who clicked a link/number of received emails) x 100

You can track your email marketing link clicks in 2 ways:

Unique link clicks: you can track CTR once for each user. The result will tell you what percent of recipients clicked through an email.
All link clicks: for this method, you can count any click through an email, even when the same user clicks through links multiple times.

Click-to-Open Rate

This KPI measures the percentage of email openers who also clicked on your hyperlinks and CTAs. CTOR results in stronger data points as it takes both open rates and CTR into consideration and measures opens, actions, and conversions. The results are exhaustive and provide clearer insights into your CTA’s effectiveness, design, and quality of the copy.

Use this formula to calculate your email marketing CTOR:

Click-to-open rate = (number of recipients who clicked a link/number of recipients who opened the email) x 100

Unsubscribe Rate

Gaining email subscribers is not enough. For successful email marketing campaigns, you must take active measures to retain them. For that, benchmarking the unsubscribe rate will help you identify the reasons for disengagement and eliminate them to enhance effectiveness.

A high rate of email subscribers can indicate inaccurate email frequency, issues in content quality, the relevance of attached offers, or issues with lead segmentation.

You can use the following formula to calculate your email unsubscribe rate:

Unsubscribe rate = (number of recipients who unsubscribed/number of recipients) x 100

Bounce Rate

Your bounce rate represents the percentage of email addresses where you could not deliver your campaign. Email providers and spam detectors track bounce rates for every marketing campaign and use that data to decide whether the account will accept your marketing emails.

Calculating bounce rates and benchmarking them helps you understand actions you should take to lower the numbers.

The formula used to calculate this metric is:

Email bounce rate = (number of bounced addresses/number of emails sent) x 100

Email Conversion Rate

This is the most important metric when determining the success of a campaign. This is because every measure you take amounts to if you could nudge prospects to take the desired action. The goal and type of conversion varies with every campaign, so, it is trickier to benchmark conversion rates against previous campaigns. You need to track relevant campaigns and compare the numbers accordingly.

Here is the email conversion rate formula you can use:

Email conversion rate = (number of recipients who took your desired action/number of emails sent) x 100

Key Benchmarks For 3 Different Industries

Like modern industries, old economy sectors are also opting for B2B sales CRM software. But before doing that, you must understand the relevant KPIs and standard benchmarks, whether you are a construction company or a manufacturing firm.

Manufacturing

According to reports, the manufacturing industry has the following email benchmarks in 2023:

Open rate: 41.07%
Click rate: 3.92%
CTR: 9.55%
Unsubscribe rate: 0.33%
Bounce rate: 0.6%

To design effective emails for your manufacturing company, segment your email list accurately and personalize every email. As you are pitching to B2B companies, make sure the email content reflects a standard level of expertise.

For best results, consider choosing a customizable CRM platform to automate email marketing for your manufacturing business.

Construction

According to MailerLite, here are the 2023 email marketing benchmarks for the construction industry:

Open rate: 33.85%
Click rate:
CTR: 14.54%
Unsubscribe rate: 0.35%
Bounce rate: 1.15%

To improve open rates and conversion, use branded email addresses and ensure your subject line is catchy. You can use a specialized CRM for construction to automate and streamline your email marketing efforts. To give you an idea of how to go about it, here is an example email for construction companies:

This email by Welkom is vibrant and on brand. It provides conclusive details and forges a bond with the subscribers.

Logistics and transport

This report states the logistics industry experiences an average open rate of about 19.32%, whereas the average unsubscribe rate stands at 0.13%.

Logistics and transportation company FedEx runs some stellar email marketing campaigns. The above example showcases persuasive content and highlights a strong CTA for relevant offers.

Best Practices For Email Marketing

Personalization and segmentation

No matter your industry, personalize your email marketing approach.

An email catering to the exact needs of a customer has more chances of conversion than a usual generic template. For that, you must accurately segment your email list into different categories. Separate your subscribers into different buyer personas.

Consider the following aspects while segmenting your email list:

New subscribers
Age and gender
Location
Preferences
Interests

Properly segmented email lists will help you accurately target your leads and appeal to them more effectively.

Frequency and timing of emails

Sending too many marketing emails frequently can cause subscriber fatigue. To avoid that, strike a proper balance in your email marketing frequency that serves your purpose without overwhelming the recipient. There is no formula for the correct frequency of email marketing. It depends on your industry and target market. Examine the benchmark and evaluate your competitors to understand how many emails are too many. You can also conduct A/B tests to see what works best.

Optimizing subject lines and content

Your subject line pursues the recipient to open the email, and the content nudges them to act on it.

So, write catchy subject lines that deliver the central point of the email. Create content that addresses pain points and adds value.

Add visual elements

Don’t shy away from adding visual elements like emojis, photos, or bold CTA buttons to draw interest like Den.

Conclusion

Properly understanding relevant metrics and regular benchmarking can elevate your email marketing to a whole new level. Segment your email list properly, personalize the content, and ensure proper CTAs in the email.

Want to streamline the whole process? Pipeline is a customizable CRM that works wonders for email marketing. It’s easy to set up, offers the industry-best features, and helps you boost your ROI with integrations. Start your free 14-day trial today!