In a nutshell…
- System Integration
Squirrel implemented Zoho CRM and integrated it with MailChimp. This created a central database for storing stakeholder information and recording communications. It also enabled the agency to manage relationships with stakeholders, target their marketing and improve their reporting.
Who we helped
This state government tourism marketing agency enters into commercial marketing partnerships with domestic and international carriers, travel retailers and brand partners to promote tourism and stimulate holiday sales.
The brief
The agency had no CRM in place. They were using various spreadsheets, across different departments, to store data relating to their stakeholders. They were also manually recording the number of product mentions they were making in their social media channels in order to demonstrate ROI to their partners.
The agency wished to implement a system that would allow them to:
- Record and access all stakeholder contact information centrally.
- Record which stakeholders had been involved in a specific program.
- Record and maintain a full history of their interactions with stakeholders.
- Report on which stakeholders were actively engaged with the agency at any one time.
- Report on the value of contracts with their partners.
- Report on which stakeholders had registered to attend a specific event.
The agency were using MailChimp to send out bulk emails to their stakeholders. They needed their new CRM system to integrate with MailChimp and allow them to:
- Sync stakeholder details between systems.
- Segment stakeholders in the CRM according to various criteria and send targeted emails from MailChimp.
- Identify in the CRM if a stakeholder has opted out of receiving emails.
The solution
- Mailchimp
- Zoho CRM
After meeting with the agency to gain a full understanding of their requirements, Squirrel implemented Zoho CRM and imported the agency’s cleansed data into the system. In addition to the standard modules, Squirrel created a module in the CRM for recording interactions with stakeholders. This would enable them to maintain a full history of communications. It would also provide valuable data for reporting and a useful means of segmenting stakeholders.
Squirrel then integrated the CRM with MailChimp, allowing data to be synced between the two systems. When a new contact record is created in the CRM, an existence check is performed on the email address in MailChimp. If the address does not exist in MailChimp, a new subscriber is automatically created in that system. Conversely, if a new subscriber is added to MailChimp, an existence check is carried out in Zoho CRM and a new contact record is automatically created in the CRM if the email address is not found.
The integration also allows the agency to create lists of stakeholders in the CRM according to criteria such as geography, program, industry type, services and function and send appropriate emails to those lists from MailChimp.
The benefits
- One central repository for all stakeholder contact information.
- Ability for multiple users of the system to record interactions with the same stakeholder in a secure and confidential way.
- Ability to view a complete history of communication between the agency and a particular stakeholder.
- Visibility as to which stakeholders are currently active.
- Visibility as to which user within the organisation is engaged with a stakeholder at any time.
- Ability to archive information, maintaining both historical reporting and a clean live dataset.
- Ability to filter and track product mentions over a period.
- Ability to categorise stakeholders using segmentation.
- Ability to push new contacts from Zoho CRM to MailChimp and new subscribers from Mailchimp to the CRM.
- Ability to view in the CRM who has received campaigns and who has opened them.
The support that we received when we were building the system was great – our consultant was accessible and helpful and had a deep understanding of the system.
Corporate Communications Officer
Ask Squirrel
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Squirrel Business Solutions implements and integrates CRM and other cloud-based systems, and provides training and support, for small and medium-sized businesses all over Australia, including Melbourne, Bendigo, regional Victoria, Tasmania, Sydney and Brisbane. This empowers them to automate their processes and improve their efficiency.