How To Start A CRM Startup

You've stumbled upon the idea to build a CRM business and now you're ready to take the next steps.

There's a lot to think about when building a business, so we put together a guide on how to get started, launch, grow and run your CRM business.

We also provide you with real-life case studies and examples of founders running successful CRM business (and how much💰 they're making today).

💡 Introduction To Starting A Crm Business

What Is A CRM?

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is a platform that gathers a companies data/information in one centralized place.

The purpose of a CRM is to help businesses grow, maintain efficiency, and stay organized across all channels.

Other benefits businesses have when implementing a CRM:

• Better analytics (sales data, financial data, marketing data, churn stats etc)
• Improved customer service
• Increase in sales
• Transparency, collaboration, and visibility into all members utilizing the CRM
• Helps automate systems and workflows to improve efficiency!

Is the Crm Business for you?

As long as you're able to build a CRM software unique and different from others in the space, this business can be highly profitable.

Let's look at the pros and cons of starting your own CRM business:

Pros:

• Scalable: With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features and services within your CRM business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of businesses.
• High customer retention rates: Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your software which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your CRM software becomes an integral piece of their every day lives.
• Flexibility: One of the biggest advantages of starting a CRM business is that you can either offer part-time or full-time services. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own. Or, if you prefer to manage the books and instead delegate work to someone else, you can build and manage your own team to do so.
• Ability to start your business from home: It's not necessary to have an office space to get your business started! You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!
• Little overhead + startup costs required: To get started, there is hardly any overhead. We will go over this in more detail in the startup section below.

Cons:

• Longer sales process: A CRM software can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and consistently incentivize prospects to turn to paid users.
• Crowded space: There is a lot of competition when it comes to the CRM business, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and demand in your area.
• Security: With any Saas business, data loss and security issues may arise throughout your process of building your product. It's critical that you understand exactly what you're responsible for and how to avoid potential issues down the road.
• Motivation: If you plan to have a sales team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Creating a successful CRM business means that you will have the ability to sell, provide stellar customer service, communicate with vendors and motivate your team (even if it's down the road)!

Players

Big Players

• Zendesk (227 Alexa Ranking)
• Close (8.01K Alexa Ranking)
• FinancesOnline (8.83K Alexa Ranking)
• Insightly (13.1K Alexa Ranking)
• Pipeline Deals (23.9K Alexa Ranking)

Small Players

• Efficy - Revenue $2.1M/month
• Promys - Revenue $375K/month
• noCRM.io - Revenue $220K/month
• GreenRope - Revenue $160K/month
• Studio Ninja - Revenue $150K/month
• Minor Workshop - Revenue $120K/month
• Qwaiting - Revenue $66K/month
• Followup CRM - Revenue $60K/month
• Workbooks CRM - Revenue $50K/month
• EspoCRM - Revenue $30K/month
• OneHash, Inc. - Revenue $12K/month
• TeleCRM - Revenue $5K/month

Big Players

• SalesForce Revenue $17.1B
• Hubspot Revenue 674.9M
• Zoho Revenue $500M/year
• ZenDesk Revenue $816M

How to name your CRM business

It's important to find a catchy name for your CRM business so that you can stand out in your space.

Here are some general tips to consider when naming your CRM business

• Avoid hard to spell names: you want something easy to remember and easy to spell for your customers
• Conduct a search to see if others in the space have the same name
• Try not to pick a name that limits growth opportunities for your business (ie. if you decide to expand into other product lines)
• As soon as you have an idea (or ideas) of a few names that you love, register the domain name(s) as soon as possible!

Why is naming your CRM business so important?

The name of your business will forever play a role in:

• Your customers first impression
• Your businesses identity
• The power behind the type of customer your brand attracts
• If you're memorable or not

It's important to verify that the domain name is available for your CRM business.

You can search domain availability here:

Although .com names are the most common and easiest to remember, there are other options if your .com domain name is not available. Depending on your audience, it may not matter as much as you think.

It's also important to thoroughly check if social media handles are available.

As soon as you resonate with a name (or names), secure the domain and SM handles as soon as possible to ensure they don't get taken.

Read our full guide on how to name your business ➡️ here

Learn more about starting a CRM business:

Where to start?

-> Crm business plan
-> How to finance a CRM business?
-> How much does it cost to start a CRM business?
-> Pros and cons of a CRM business

Need inspiration?

-> Other CRM business success stories
-> Examples of established CRM business
-> Marketing ideas for a CRM business
-> Crm business slogans
-> Crm business names

Other resources

-> Profitability of a CRM business
-> Crm business tips

🎬 How To Start A Crm Business

Identify Target Customer

A very critical piece in building CRM business is to identify your ideal target customer.

• Develop a niche and create a consistent brand that reflects your target customer.
• The colors, logo, content, and overall website should resonate with your target customer and should draw them in by helping them solve their specific "need".

One great place to identify your target customer in the CRM space is by identifying the size business you're looking to go after.

By understanding the size + type of business you're hoping to reach, you may get closer to understanding the exact needs + price point of your customer and what features you can include in your CRM to solve their need.

For example, Lars Helgeson, founder of GreenRope discusses their initial target customer and how that evolved based on their experiences:

Our initial target was very small businesses and startups, and our price point reflected that.

Our starter plan was just $25/month. That was good for them, but we found that the size of the company at that time simply wasn’t ready for all the features we had built into GreenRope.

After about a year of trying to make it work, our churn rates were too high and the cost per acquisition wasn’t paying off, so we increased prices and started targeting larger businesses.

This has become much more fruitful for us, as businesses with over 5 employees typically have someone on staff with experience with CRM and/or marketing, and someone who has the responsibility and drive to make a CRM work.

Our churn rates have gradually decreased since then, and our clients have steadily become larger businesses (although we still have many very small businesses as clients).

Features To Consider Including For Your CRM

Every CRM software includes a unique set of features and services depending on its target customer.

Here are the different features and functionality that CRMs include (either some or all):

• Contact Management
• Email and Workflow Automation/Productivity
• Sales Team and Customer Prospect Management
• Lead Management
• Reports
• Sales Analytics and Forecasting.

Let's look at a few CRM companies and the signature feature they're known for:

Pigeon for Gmail

• Known for improving email productivity inside Gmail
• Cost-effective with 3 different pricing tiers (Freemium model, $19/mo, $79/mo)
• Geared towards small businesses

Hubspot

• Offers a full software platform with a large suite of services
• Known for accelerating marketing and sales through various different features
• Targets both small and large businesses
• Higher price point with 4 different pricing tiers (Freemium model, $40/mo, $800/mo, $3,200/mo)

Building an MVP (Minimal Viable Product)

When building a CRM business, it's critical that you first validate your product/service rather than rushing to build it right away.

This could save you months, if not years of building the wrong product/service.

If you're hoping to decrease any sort of risk that comes with launching your CRM business, designing a prototype can be a great way to de-risk your situation.

The point of your CRM software prototype is that it doesn't have to be perfect.

In the beginning stages, it doesn't matter how rough V1 of your prototype is, it's more important to just get started and you can always refine from there based on feedback from your network and most importantly your customers.

How To Build A MVP

Here are several different ways of building a prototype/MVP:

• Start by building a landing page to see if customers actually need your product and if they are willing to pay for it
• Build a very basic version of your idea and ask for immediate feedback from potential customers
• Present a problem and solution via Facebook/Instagram Ads and see what the response is like

How To Find The Right Developer For Your Crm Business

If you (or others on your team) don't have the necessary coding/design skills to build the product on your own, finding the right developer for your CRM business is a critical piece to bringing your idea to life.

Prior to hiring someone, you'll want to:

• Have a very clear understanding of what your product (or MVP) will look like
• Understand what the details of the user experience will look like (pages, how users sign up, backend administrative details, billing, reports etc). It may help to draw out the prototype and UX experience on a design platform such as Sketch
• Understand what features you want to implement now and even those in the future
• Understand the costs and time associated with hiring a developer and set a budget (more on that below)

Here are some ways you can find a developer:

• Upwork
• TopTal
• Uplink
• Adeva
• Use your network or attend a conference!

Write a Business Plan

Writing a business plan from the start is critical for the success of your CRM business.

Why?

Because this allows you to roadmap exactly what you do, what your overall structure will look like, and where you want to be in the future.

For many entrepreneurs, writing out the business plan helps validate their idea and decide whether or not they should move forward with starting the business.

You may want to consider expanding upon these sections in your business plan:

• Executive Summary: Brief outline of your product, the market, and growth opportunities
• Overviews and Objectives: Overview of your business, target customers, and what you need to run your business
• Products and Services: Specifics on the products and services your business will provide
• Market Opportunities: Analysis of customer demographics, buyer habits and if your product is in demand
• Marketing: Outline of your marketing plan and how you plan to differentiate yourself from other customers
• Competitive analysis: Analysis of your competition and the strengths and weaknesses therein
• Operations: Hierarchal structure of the company and what it will take to run the business on the day-to-day
• Leadership Team: Detailing roles and responsibilities of each manager based on their specific skill-set
• Financial Analysis Understanding of all expenses, operating budgets, and projections for the future.

Learn more about how to write a business plan here

Setting Up Your Crm Business (Formation and Legal)

When it comes to setting up your business, you may find yourself in a place where you have to make some financial and legal decisions.

The first thing you'll want to decide on is whether you want to be an LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp.

These three options are found to be the most common when starting a small business, and all serve to protect your personal assets and also provide you with certain tax benefits.

• LLC: All income and expenses from the business are reported on the LLC personal income tax return.
• S corp: Owners pay themselves salaries + receive dividends from profits.
• C Corp: C Corps are separately taxable entities that file a corporate tax return (Form 1120). No income tax is paid at the corporate level and any tax due is paid at the owners individual expense.

Depending on where you're conducting business, you'll also want to consider securing the proper permits, licenses and liability insurance.

Learn more about securing the right permits and licenses ➜

Need to start an LLC? Create an LLC in minutes with ZenBusiness.

Determine Which Business Bank Account You Need

There are hundreds of banks out there, and it can be overwhelming to find one that's right for your business.

Here are some factors you may want to consider:

• Location - Is your bank close enough that you can easily make deposits or get cash?
• Low Fees - Make sure to understand any and all fees associated with setting up and maintaining your bank account. Ask for a list - banks usually try to keep this hidden and in the fine print.
• Online Banking Services - Make sure you can easily navigate through your online portal and you have easy access to everything you need.
• Line of Credit - What do your options look like (even if you don't need this now, you may need this down the road).
• Every bank has something that differentiates them from the rest, so make sure whatever that is applied to your needs and values.

Check out this list of the 13 Best Banks for Small Business in 2020 and what makes them so unique.

Revenue Expectations

We've interviewed several different founders in the CRM business and asked them how much $ they're making today.

GreenRope

• $1.92M/year in revenue
• Sells complete crm & marketing automation
• Solo founder
• 15 employees

Followup CRM

• $720K/year in revenue
• Sells crm for construction companies
• 2 founders
• 0 employees

Efficy

• $25.2M/year in revenue
• Sells crm solutions
• 2 founders
• 200 employees

noCRM.io

• $2.64M/year in revenue
• Sells lead management software
• 2 founders
• 19 employees

Workbooks CRM

• $600K/year in revenue
• Sells crm and marketing automation
• 4 founders
• 55 employees

Minor Workshop

• $1.44M/year in revenue
• Sells asana and pipedrive consultant
• Solo founder
• 1 employee

How Much Does It Cost To Start A Crm Business

If you are planning to start a CRM business, the costs are relatively low. This, of course, depends on if you decide to start the business with lean expenses or bringing in a large team and spending more money.

We’ve outlined two common scenarios for “pre-opening” costs of starting a CRM business and outline the costs you should expect for each:

• The estimated minimum starting cost = $12
• The estimated maximum starting cost = $33,558

Startup Expenses: Average expenses incurred when starting a CRM business.	Min Startup Costs: You plan to execute on your own. You’re able to work from home with minimal costs.	Max Startup Costs: You have started with 1+ other team members.
Office Space Expenses
Rent: This refers to the office space you use for your business and give money to the landlord. To minimize costs, you may want to consider starting your business from home or renting an office in a coworking space.	$0	$5,750
Utility Costs For Office Space: Utility costs are the expense for all the services you use in your office, including electricity, gas, fuels, telephone, water, sewerage, etc.	$0	$1,150
WiFi & Internet: Whether you work from home or in an office space, WiFi is essential. Although the cost is minimal in most cases, it should be appropriately budgeted for each month!	$0	$100
Total Office Space Expenses	$0 (min)	$7,000 (max)
App Creation Costs
App Development: App development is the process of creating software intended to run on a mobile device.In addition to coding, there are other elements to consider:- design- back end development- security- architecture- testingMany businesses hire an expert that has the technical knowledge to design and develop an app.Depending on the scope of your project, the cost can vary. Some business owners learn to code on their own to minimize these costs, and others, hire a developer to work for them part-time or full-time.	$1,000	$20,000
Apple Developer Program: To submit your app to the app store, you will need to enroll in the apple developer program. This costs $99/year.	$99	$99
Total App Creation Costs	$1,099 (min)	$20,099 (max)
Software Expenses
Design Programs & Software: These programs might include the Adobe family of design tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and others. This is typically a monthly subscription ranging from $10-$50/mo.	$0	$50
Email marketing tool: If you plan to grow your email list and email marketing efforts, you may want to consider investing in an email marketing platform (ie. Klaviyo, MailChimp). We put together a detailed guide on all of the email marketing tools out there + the pricing models for each one here.	$0	$100
IT Support: IT support installs and configures hardware and software and solves any technical issues that may arise.IT support can be used internally or for your customers experiencing issues with your product/service.There are a variety of tools and software you can use to help with any technical issues you or your customers are experiencing. This is a great option for businesses that do not have the means to hire a team of professionals.	$150	$2,000
Accounting & Invoicing Software: It's important to have an accounting system and process in place to manage financials, reporting, planning and tax preparation. Here are the 30 best accounting tools for small businesses.	$0	$50
CRM Software: CRM (customer relationship management) software system is used to track and analyze your company’s interactions with clients and prospects. Although this is not a necessary tool to have for your business, implementing this, in the beginning, may set your business up for success and save you valuable time.	$12	$300
Project Management Software: You may want to consider using a project management and collaboration tool to organize your day-to-day. This can also be very beneficial if you have a larger team and want to keep track of everyones tasks and productivity. For a full list of project management tools, check out this full list here.	$0	$25
Internal Communication Tool: If you plan to have multiple members on your team, you may want to consider an instant message tool such as Slack or Telegram. The cost is usually billed per month (approx $5/user/month) or there are freemium versions available on many platforms.	$0	$20
Social Media Management Tools: If you plan to do social media marketing for your CRM business, you should consider investing in a social media automation or publishing tool. This will save you time and allow you to track performance and engagement for your posts. Here is a list of 28 best social media tools for your small business.	$0	$50
File Hosting Service: It's important to make sure the information for your CRM business is stored and protected should something happen to your computer or hard drive. The cost for this is affordable and depends on how much data you need to store. To learn more about the different options and pricing on the market, check out this article.	$0	$299
Total Software Expenses	$162 (min)	$2,894 (max)
Advertising & Marketing Costs
Business Cards: A CRM business involves quite a bit of customer interaction, whether that is attending tradeshows, sales calls or simply having face to face interaction with prospective clients. Business cards are a great way to stay front of mind with your clients.	$0	$50
Customer Research & Surveys: Many CRM business's conduct industry and consumer research prior to starting their business. Often times, you need to pay for this data or hire a market research firm to help you in this process.	$0	$300
Affiliate Marketing Commission & Fees: If you want to increase revenue for your CRM business, affiliate marketing is a great way to promote your product to a new audience. When determining affiliate commission rates you will offer, you will want to take into account the price and margin for your product to ensure affiliate marketing is worth it for your business. According to Monitor Backlinks, the average affiliate commission rate should be somewhere between 5% to 30%. To learn more about how to set commission rates, check out this article..	$0	$250
Influencer Marketing: Partnering with like-minded influencers is one of the most effective ways to grow your social media presence. Many small businesses simply gift a free item in exchange for an influencer post, or pay the influencer directly.	$0	$750
Press: If your business and story is unique enough, press and media attention may come to you, but odds are, you may need to do your own outreach and budget for this. We put together a guide here that discusses different press opportunities (both free and paid).	$0	$500
Google Ads: With Google Ads you have the ability to control how much you spend by simply setting a monthly budget cap. Additionally, with these ads you only pay for results, such as clicks to your website or phone calls! It's okay to start with a small budget at first and make changes accordingly if you see valuable returns.	$0	$300
Facebook & Instagram Ads: With Facebook and Instagram ads, you set your budget and pay for the actions you want (whether that be impressions, conversions, etc).You can learn more about pricing based on your impressions here.	$0	$350
Total Advertising & Marketing Costs	$0 (min)	$2,500 (max)
Website Costs
Domain Name: Your domain name is the URL and name of your website - this is how internet users find you and your website.Domain names are extremely important and should match your company name and brand. This makes it easier for customers to remember you and return to your website.	$12	$200
Business Email Hosting Service: An email hosting runs a dedicated email server. Once you have your domain name, you can set up email accounts for each user on your team. The most common email hosts are G Suite and Microsoft 365 Suite. The number of email accounts you set up will determine the monthly cost breakdown.	$1	$15
Total Website Costs	$13 (min)	$215 (max)
Training & Education Expenses
Professional Training: If you plan to have employees for your CRM business, training can be time consuming and take you away from growing your business. You may want to consider hiring a professional trainer to onboard your team and put together a training manual with all processes and procedures.	$0	$850
Total Training & Education Expenses	$0 (min)	$850 (max)
Total Starting Costs	$12 (min)	$33,558 (max)

Raising Money

Since the startup costs to start CRM business range between $12 - $33,558, there are ways you can raise money to cover these costs.

Here are a few ways you can secure additional funding:

• Launch your product on Kickstarter
• Raise capital by asking friends and family
• Apply for a loan
• Find an investor!

🚀 How To Launch Your Crm Business

Build A Website

Building a website is imperative when launching your business, and with the right tools in place, this can be a simple task to check off the list (without having to hire someone).

1. Pick a domain name that's easy to remember and easy to type
2. Choose a Web Hosting Plan (ie. Shopify, Squarespace)
3. Make sure you choose the right theme and design
4. Implement the proper page structure (ie. about page, contact page, pricing etc)

To learn more about how to build a stellar website with little stress, we give you all the details on this step-by-step guide.

Launch Strategies For Your Crm Business

There are various different ways you can launch your CRM business successfully.

Here are a few different strategies to get customers excited about your CRM business.

• Build hype with a landing page: you can effectively do this through waiting lists, discounts, countdown timer etc
• Create a teaser video: even just a 30 second video is a great way to exposure for your CRM business, and possibly even go viral
• Reach out to influencers: The right influencer for your product has the ability to reach your audience with just one post, and because of their loyal following, this could lead to a big return for you.
• Get Press: Whether you plan a PR stunt or get exposure through a popular news outlet, this is a great way to attract initial customers
• Launch on popular sites: A great way to get buzz about your CRM business is to submit your launch to popular startup sites.

Here are a few popular sites to launch on:

• Reddit
• ProductHunt
• Quora
• Hacker News

Learn more about how to launch your business successfully ➜ here

How To Price Your Crm Software

One of the most challenging aspects to starting a CRM business is determining how much to charge for your CRM software.

When businesses under-price their product, this can be extremely detrimental to their bottom line and reputation.

Often times, businesses under-price their products to drive demand and volume, but that last thing you want is for customers to view your product/service as "cheap." Additionally, this can have a big impact on the type of customer you attract, which can be difficult to recover from.

On the other hand, when businesses over-price, this tends to be just as damaging to the business.

When customers buy, it's likely that they will explore the internet and look at other competitors to ensure they're getting the best value + deal. This is why it's so important that you research your competition and understand where you land in the marketplace.

Here are some factors to consider when pricing your product:

Understand your customer

It's important that out of the gates, you identify the type of customer you want to attract and how much they're willing to pay for your service. One great way to do this is by surveying your customers. Here are some important items you'll want to takeaway:

• Customer demographic: Age, gender, location, etc.
• Buying habits of your customer: What they buy + when they buy
• Level of price sensitivity with your customer

All of these segments will help you identify the type of customer you're attracting and how to price your product accordingly.

Understand your costs

When pricing your CRM software, it's critical that you first identify all of your costs and consequently mark up your CRM software so you can factor in a profit.

The actual cost of your CRM software may include things like:

• The actual cost to make the product (ie. raw materials, supplies, manufacturer).
• Shipping + overhead fees
• Rent
• Operating costs to run your business

You may want to consider creating a spreadsheet with every single expense involved in operating/owning your business. This will give you an idea as to what you need to generate in order to at the very least, break-even and will help you price your products to factor in a profit.

Create revenue goals

When determining the price of your CRM software, you'll want to create goals for revenue + how much profit you want your CRM business to make.

This process is simpler than you may think:

1. Think about your breakeven cost (by completing the above step).
2. Create a revenue goal based on your break-even cost
3. Evaluate the # of items you plan to sell in a given period (make sure this is a realistic number)
4. Divide your revenue goal by the number of items you plan to sell

This figure will help determine your estimated price per product in order to meet your revenue goals.

Evaluate your competition

The last piece in determining how to price your CRM software is by simply looking at your competition.

The best way to do this is by finding like-minded businesses that offer product(s) with similar perceived value. Then, you can compare prices of the different businesses and determine where your CRM software fits best in the marketplace.

All of these factors play an equal part in pricing your CRM software, so it's important you evaluate each one individually to come up with an accurate price that will help optimize your business from the start.

Different Pricing Models

Tiered Pricing Model

You may want to consider having different pricing tiers to meet the needs of your customers.

With this model, there are typically 2 or more packages for a specific price that offer a fixed amount of features.

Each package should reflect the needs of the buyer persona - for example, a customer looking for a beginner package may have a very different use case than a customer looking for an enterprise package.

By offering different packages, you're able to target different audiences which will lead to increased conversions and revenue. Additionally, your chances of "upselling" existing customers are much higher as you have establisished trust with your customer and they're left wanting more once their use case evolves.

Per-User Model

Many CRM businesses charge a fixed rate per user on the account (either monthly or yearly). This can be especially lucrative if you're targeting larger businesses where the usage will be much higher.

This model is not always preferred as it can be challenging to forecast revenue accurately when the user count within businesses is fluctating constantly.

Flat Rate Model

If you decide to adopt a flat rate model, this would mean that you offer only one price for every customer. All customers are treated equally and have access to the same amount of features.

This model is not as common as tiered pricing because it only meets the needs of one buyer persona and can limit growth and you're ability to have multiple revenue streams.

Per Feature Model

This model charges customers based on the # of features they need. Customers add features "a-la-carte" which will determine the overall price of the product.

This can be a lucrative model, however, the number of different use-cases customers need can become overwhelming (making the sales process longer) and it can be challenging to find a price structure that works well.

The business model you choose depends entirely on your needs and goals as a company. To find what works well for you, you may want to consider testing several models and conducting market research to see what competition in the space is doing.

Hubspot Pricing Model Example

Hubspot offers a tiered pricing model and does a great job at reaching several different buyer personas.

Each package is unique and designed to meet the needs of specific audiences.

You'll also notice that each package is quite different from the next, which allows businesses to easily determine exactly what their use case is and simplifies the entire sales process.

Hubspot Pricing Model

Hubspot offers a tiered pricing model and does a great job at reaching several different buyer personas.

Each package is unique and designed to meet the needs of specific audiences.

You'll also notice that each package is quite different from the next, which allows businesses to easily determine exactly what their use case is and simplifies the entire sales process.

🌱 How To Grow Your Crm Business

The Freemium Model

Offering free trials to your platform is a great way to gain exposure for your business and potentially get new customers!

Finding the right CRM business is a big deal for most people, so it can be important for customers to try a free version with limited features prior to making a big investment.

Once your customer reaches the limits of their free account, they're much more likely to invest in the premium version so they can gain access to all of the features your product offers.

There are a few different ways you can limit certain aspects of your product:

• Usage quotas: Storage limits or limiting the number of times they can utilize a feature
• Limited features: Only allowing your free user to utilize certain features vs all features - this is also a great way to upsell during the user's experience
• Limited support: Customer support can be time-consuming, by limiting the level of support to free users this is a great incentive for them to upgrade (and will save you a lot of time and money)!

Build A Blog

One of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and grow your business is through consistently blogging.

We've outlined some useful tips for you to consider when creating content:

Consistency and Quantity

Quality is important, but it should be the standard for any content you publish.

What’s more important is consistency and quantity.

Consistency is as simple as committing to publishing and sharing a certain number of posts per week. For me, that’s three per week right now.

This kind of commitment is key, because one day, a random post will blow up, and you will have never expected it.

Oversaturation

The easiest mind trap is to think "I’m posting too much", and “I need to give my readers/audience/this platform a break”.

This is nonsense.

There is no such thing as oversaturation. Well, there is, but it is just someone else’s opinion.

For every person that tells you you are posting too much, there is another person that wants even more of your content.

You should ignore people’s opinions on how much you post.

Patience & Persistence

Keep posting, keep trying, and keep putting out good content on the regular. Your time will come, and when it does, it will change everything.

The only thing you have control over is your content.

You can’t control how people will react to it. You can’t control pageviews, likes, or shares.

So the only metric you should focus on is how much content you can put out in a week, month, etc.

Where to share your blog content

Mailing List

I know it sounds obvious, but the best places to share your content is on your mailing list. It is guaranteed traffic and it is a great way to get rapid feedback from your most loyal readers.

Send newsletters often. I have done once a week since starting, and I’m moving to twice a week soon.

Work on increasing your mailing list as well. Look into ways to increase your conversion rate to your mailing list. I added a flyout popup thing to my site and now I’m collecting ~30 emails per day.

An email newsletter is one of the most powerful assets you can have and it is worth its weight in gold.

Reddit

Reddit is one of my favorite places to promote content.

It is a very scary place because you will often get banned or heckled, but it can really pay off.

Create social media accounts for your blog, the main ones I use:

Twitter Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Set up Buffer and share all of your blog posts to all of your accounts. All of these little shares really do add up.

Automate this as much as possible. I automated all of my social media for Starter Story.

Facebook Groups

When I started out, I put together a spreadsheet of relevant Facebook groups for my niche, and I would post to these groups whenever I had a big story I wanted to share.

Improve Your Email Marketing

Different types of emails

Here are the most common types of email campaigns you can send to your customers and their benefits:

• Welcome emails - the perfect way to provide information from the start with a clear CTA. Make sure to tell your customer everything they need to know about your product or service.
• Newsletters - a great way to give customers updates or send out your latest content
• Product launch emails - the quickest (and easiest) way to increase sales is by selling to current customers. Make sure they're the first on the list to know about your new product
• Promotional emails - promote discounts, deals coupons etc. Try and make this feel exclusive and for a limited time only
• Abandoned cart emails - give your customers a reason to complete their purchase!

Here's a great resource for finding curated email designs, for all types of email campaigns!

Improve your SEO

SEO is not just about driving traffic to your site, it's about driving the RIGHT traffic to your site, and ultimately, converting leads into customers.

One of the most important aspects of SEO is understanding what your customers are searching for, otherwise known as "keyword research."

Here are some tools that can help you choose the right keywords for your CRM business.

• Google Ads Keyword Planner invaluable for discovering search trends.
• Google Search Console is very helpful once your website is up as it shows you what words/phrases are generating traffic.
• Ahrefs and SEMRush are paid tools that allow you to look at results of your competitor's website.

Publish Great Content

Finding keywords is an important piece of the puzzle, but Google also ranks your site based on the actual content you produce, as this is what your customers are reading and engaging with.

There are various different "forms" of content that you may want to consider diversifying on your sites, such as blog posts, articles, studies, and videos.

So let's discuss what google considers "good content:"

• Length - This will vary depending on the page, however, generally having a sufficient amount of content helps search engines recognize that your site is a good source for a specific topic
• Engagement - The longer people stay on your website to read your content, the higher Google will rank your website. It's important to have informative and "thick" content that keeps people reading
• Avoid Duplicating Content - Google will recognize this and may consider your content to have low value
• Ensure pages load quickly - This will also help with engagement and time spent on your website
• Shareability - Create content that people want to share, and is easy for them to share, especially to their social media accounts (ie. "click to tweet" is a great example of this).

Another element of creating good content is creating consistent content.

If (and hopefully you are) publishing content frequently, it's important to stick to a schedule - this helps build brand trust and easy user experience with your customers.

Planning out your content with a content calendar is key to staying consistent.

Here are a few great content calendar tools that can help you:

• Trello
• Airtable
• If you prefer to keep it simple, your average spreadsheet is just as useful!

Backlinks

Backlinks are an important piece to SEO, as they allow for other websites to link to your content.

Search engines recognize that other sites are essentially "verifying" your content and essentially rank you higher because of this.

Of course, some links are more valuable than others and can affect your site in different ways.

For example, if a highly valuable and credible site like the New York Times links to a page on your website, this could be remarkable from an SEO perspective.

Aside from organically getting mentioned from other sites, there are other ways that you can increase and earn backlinks:

• Create infographics with relevant data that people want to share
• Promote your content on different sites/look into "guest blogging"
• Contact influencers/journalists/bloggers and ask them to mention you!
• Write testimonials for other sites in exchange for a backlink
• Leverage existing business relationships

Learn more about the fundamentals of SEO ➜ here and check out Neil Patel's 3 Powerful SEO Tips below

Social Media Advertising

Social Media Advertising is one of the leading ways to get the word out when it comes to CRM business.

There are various different Social Media platforms available to you. Some may be more critical for your marketing efforts than others, however, it's important to have an understanding of what's out there and available to you.

Let's talk about a few of the main platforms and what makes them unique:

• Facebook Advertising - more than 2 billion monthly users. Facebook is the best for lead generation + capturing email addresses for e-commerce businesses.
• Instagram Advertising - approximately 500 million monthly users and has a higher audience engagement rate than any other platform. Instagram ads are best for linking to a product page or landing page and reaches the 18-29 age group most effectively.
• Twitter Advertising- Small businesses typically use twitter ads to drive brand awareness, but the platform is meant more for organic engagement (and is not as heavily used for paid advertising)
• Pinterest Advertising - 175 million monthly users and most effectively reaches the female audience. Pinterest is great for promoting products without "promoted". The promoted pins have a way of blending right in.
• LinkedIn Advertising - 227 million monthly users and is geared towards the B2B market and generates the highest quality leads. Great platform for recruiters, high-end products and services that will help businesses

It's important to first define your goal/objective so that you don't waste time and money into the wrong platform:

Here are some different questions to ask yourself as it relates to your goals:

• Do I want to simply drive brand awareness?
• Do I want to drive users to my website to gather information?
• Do I want to increase sales and get my customer to take action?

From there, choose the platform that targets your audience best and start experimenting!

Learn more about social media advertising ➜ here.

🏃🏼‍♀️ How To Run Your Crm Business

How To Retain Customers For Your Crm Business

Retaining customers is one of the most effective ways to grow your CRM business.

Oftentimes, it's easy to find yourself focusing on generating new customers, vs retaining your current ones.

Look at it this way - you are 60-70% more likely to sell a new product to an existing customer than you are a new customer.

That's not to say that finding new customers and revenue streams is not important, however, the easiest (and most inexpensive) source of new revenue is right there in front of you.

Here are some ways you can retain customers for your CRM business:

• Responding to comments on social media
• Send discounts (or freebies) to loyal customers
• Provide valuable content, for free
• Write a hand written thank you note
• Provide awesome customer service and build relationships with customers

To find out more tips and tricks on retaining customers, check out this article ➜ here

Lars Helgeson, founder of Green Rope dives into his 24/7 customer support offering:

The last retention strategy that has worked really well for us is our 24/7 support access.

Users can connect with our team via live chat, ticketing, phone, etc. to get the support they need when they need it. This is one of our most valuable assets for keeping our users happy!

My vision is for us to continue to provide great software, with outstanding customer service, at a reasonable price. We have built a sustainable business this way and intend to continue to do so.

How To Crush The Sales Process For Your Crm Business

You may find yourself in a spot where you're ready to hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process.

Regardless if you have one or thirty salespeople, it's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.

Mike Korba, co-founder of User.Com walks us through the entire sales process and which teams are responsible for what:

Diversify Your Product Line

Adding new products to your business is a great way to expand into new markets and grow your business.

It's important to note that adding new products and diversifying may not be in the cards for you right this moment, and that's okay. You can always consider it down the road.

Here are some reasons you may want to considering adding/diversifying your product

• Meeting the needs of your customers
• Establish yourself as a top provider in your industry and stay ahead of the game with competition
• Resistance to downturns/trends fading
• Create new revenue streams

Tools to get started:

As a CRM business, there are some tools and platforms you may want to consider when getting started:

• Productivity tools such as Slack, Asana, Trello, Notion, Calendly or Toggl
• Analytics tools such as ProfitWell
• Design tools such as Sketch
• Crm tools such as Ontraport
• Other tools such as Zapier, Zoom, User.com, Python, AdEspresso or Gitlab

Resources

We put together the best resources on the internet to help you start your CRM business.

Tools

• Social media tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Hootsuite, Buffer, Vimeo or Sendible
• Advertising tools such as Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Google AdSense, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads or Google ads
• Reviews tools such as TrustSpot, Feefo, Trustpilot, Capterra, G2 Crowd or Product Hunt
• Design tools such as Canva, Adobe Suite, Sketch, Gimp, Figma or Invision
• Analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, ProfitWell or Fathom Analytics
• Productivity tools such as Google Suite, Dropbox, Slack, Asana, Trello, Notion, Calendly, Toggl, Jira, LibreOffice or ClickUp
• Payments tools such as Paypal, Stripe, 2Checkout or Razorpay
• Blog tools such as WordPress
• Accounting tools such as Xero
• Freelance tools such as Fiverr
• Email tools such as ConvertKit, Planoly, G Suite, Whatsapp, JSON-LD, Telegram, Postmark, Saleshandy, Linkedin sales navigator or Mailjet
• Affiliate tools such as ShareASale, Commission Junction, Impact Radius, PartnerStack or Tapfiliate.com
• Customer service tools such as Intercom or Xeno
• Crm tools such as PipeDrive, Ontraport or EspoCRM
• Stock images tools such as Unsplash, Pixabay or Pexels
• Seo tools such as Ahrefs, Screaming Frog or Yoast
• Shipping tools such as FedEx
• Platform tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva or Figma
• Inventory tools such as MailParser
• Sms tools such as Twilio
• Sales tools such as nocrm.io
• Podcast tools such as BuzzSprout
• Data loss prevention software tools such as Google Cloud Platform
• Web hosting tools such as Cloudways

Books

• The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM

• How to Start a Business - Jason Nazar

• Crm For Dummies: Helgeson, Lars: 9781119368977: Amazon.Com

• Crm For Dummies: Helgeson, Lars: 9781119368977: Amazon.Com

• Crm For Dummies: Helgeson, Lars: 9781119368977: Amazon.Com

Web Resources

• Customer Relationship Management
• How to Create a CRM Strategy for Your Small Business

Videos

• 5 Best CRM for Small Business - Customer Relationship Management Software
• How do small businesses use CRM?

Case Studies

• How I Started A $60K/Month CRM For Construction Companies
• How I Started A $1M/Year Productivity Consulting Business
• I Harnessed My Photography Experience & Built A $1.8M/Year Photography CRM
• On Starting A $160K/Month CRM & Automations Company After A US Air Force Career
• How We Launched A $2M/Month CRM Software
• Launching A $790K/Year Queue Management System [From Singapore]
• I Built A CRM To Solve My Own Problem & Now It Makes $60K/Year [India]
• How We Started A $50K/Month Cloud-Based CRM Software
• How We Developed A $30K/Month Open Source CRM
• How We Pivoted From A Corporate Social Networking To A $2.4M/Year CRM SaaS Business

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story

Join Starter Story

See exactly how online businesses get to millions in revenue

• 4,818 founder case studies
• Access to our founder directory
• Live events, courses and recordings
• 8,628 business ideas
• $1M in software savings

Join Starter Story