Hi, I am setting up an online fashion and cosmetics business and interested to get people thoughts on CRM's they use for marketing purposes – which one's work best and are cost effective, thank you ?

Hello Elsie,

Congratulations on your business start up. For a no fuss low cost start up CRM go for Mailchimp. There is a free version and a paid version.So many features and they are always upgrading and improving the App. Mailchimp also integrates with most WordPress websites but check specifically about your online store and its integration functionality before committing.

Best of luck.

Hi Elsie, I have tried so many different CRM’s and some really good advice I have got will hopefully save you some of the headaches.

1. The best CRM is the one you use 😁
2. Some of the big ones (Salesforce etc) are like driving a Ferrari to the shops to buy milk

I recommend ActiveCampaign as an awesome low cost CRM system for marketing.

This allows you (like a lot of them) to build automated processes/flows and link them to other systems using API and tools like Zapier.

I would not have been able to grow the business without these (think birthday texts, automated “hand written” cards etc).

For about $200 per year it is really hard to beat.

I use multiple CRM’s now for different purposes (regular emails now come from ConvertKit as I think they look better).

Good luck with the biz.

Hi Elsie

Good advice from the previous two answers. I can only mention what I use and why.

I use Zoho. The free version is fine to begin with then its quite cheap to go up to a couple more users. I also use the Zoho SalesIQ add on which allows me to get real time website visitor details and live chat with them. I don't use the marketing part of the CRM however as ZOHO and Mailchimp integrate which means anyone I add to my CRM goes into my Mailchimp list and can be marketed to from there. Mailchimp is also free to begin with.

The other nice thing about Zoho is there is an iphone app that scans business cards as I get them and uploads them into my crm automatically.

Hope it helps.

Jonathan