What is CRM Integration? Key Concepts and Strategies (2024)

CRM software can be a powerful marketing, sales, and service solution on its own, but it’s often bundled with other tools in a company’s technology stack. The most effective way to leverage a CRM platform is to use it as the hub for all customer information, campaign insights, and sales reporting.

CRM integrations connect all your business tools and applications with your CRM software to increase efficiency and improve overall customer satisfaction.

What is CRM integration?

CRM integration is the connection between standard CRM software and other business applications. It is a core feature of any CRM tool that controls data sharing and automation functionality, eliminating the need for users to jump between tools.

CRM software can integrate with both native and third-party applications. Native tools or built-in integrations are software that is proprietary or bundled with the same CRM vendor. For example, Zoho CRM users can sync information from their Zoho Analytics account via built-in integrations.

Third-party apps are tools offered by completely different vendors that companies already subscribe to or plan to eventually use. CRM vendors can integrate with these different tools, but I recommend first confirming that the CRM software you want to invest in supports integrations with the best-of-breed tools you already have.

Companies use connectors like Zapier or build their own APIs to integrate software. APIs are simply endpoints in each tool that control how applications interact with each other. If your IT team is equipped, they can build APIs to completely customize how your company integrates tools. This is most beneficial if you have niche business needs or even internal software that you want to integrate with your CRM software.

5 Types of Useful CRM Integrations

Email and Calendar

The first integration I suggest setting up is syncing your CRM software with your company email and calendar. A significant portion of your sales process is done via email and meeting scheduling, so when your CRM is integrated with these tools, reps can quickly send personalized or even automated emails and schedule meetings with customers without leaving the CRM interface.

• Google workspace: Get access to a full suite of tools including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat, and Jamboard.
• Microsoft 365 service Leverage the full range of Microsoft productivity tools, including Teams, Word, SharePoint, OneDrive, and more.

Lead generation

Continuously funneling new leads and prospects into the CRM helps reps identify and engage with new business opportunities at the right time. Investing in a lead generation company or B2B database can do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to finding pre-qualified leads. That way, companies can always generate leads in the background, and reps are ready to start nurturing them.

• EnlargeInfo: Get valuable leads ready to connect and real-time insight into their company data.
• Visa: Verify email addresses, phone numbers, and job titles in seconds with this Chrome extension.

Social media

As another avenue for lead generation, social media integration allows your CRM to directly import and manage new leads and marketing campaigns. Connecting your company’s social media accounts to your CRM software allows reps to respond to inquiries, build brand awareness, and spot highly qualified leads who engage with your content.

• LinkedIn: Generate leads with LinkedIn Sales Navigator and engage them with content.
• Facebook: Implement, monitor and manage ongoing social media marketing campaigns from within CRM.

Communication tools

Most of the sales process is done through direct communication with potential customers. Integrating the most popular communication tools with CRM software makes it easier for sales reps to connect and respond to customers through multiple channels. Instant messaging or video calls allow team members to communicate both internally and externally to streamline operations. Integrating CRM with these tools also makes it easier to maintain chat histories.

• Microsoft Teams: Chat with team members, schedule meetings, and sync calendars.
• Loose: Send internal messages with saved document, call and chat history.
• Zoom meetings: Organize and record sales calls, internal meetings, and webinars.

Invoicing and payment processing

Some CRM vendors offer built-in invoicing, quote management, and payment processing capabilities. However, since most don’t have these natively or only have them as an expensive add-on, it may be a better idea to integrate your company’s existing invoicing software.

• QuickBooks: Manage your invoices and expenses with industry-leading accounting software.
• QuoteMachine: Create, review and send interactive quotes and invoices directly to customers from within CRM.

4 benefits of CRM integration

Provide a unified view of customer data

When CRM software is integrated with multiple other applications in your sales or marketing technology stack, sales reps and entire teams can access a more unified view of all customer data. This is great for sales reps who want to engage with customers via phone, email, or social media, from a single click to viewing customer trend reports to develop strategies.

Process automation

Workflow automation makes many repetitive sales tasks easier and more time-efficient. All the best CRM providers offer automation for this very reason. This automation can extend beyond the CRM software, providing additional ease. When automation can be integrated with other tools in your tech stack, it can add complexity to the sales process, which in turn improves the customer experience. For example, with email integration, prospects can receive personalized and targeted automated email campaigns built in the CRM.

Increased data accuracy

When all of your sales and marketing tools are in sync, data can be updated in real time. This could include customer contact information or detailed revenue tracking. Having accurate data means users can confidently sell without having to waste time double-checking information.

More opportunities for cooperation

CRM integration can lead to better collaboration both internally and externally. For users who want more ways to connect with customers or prospects, there are live chat tools or landing page builders. For teams looking to eliminate siloed workflows, there are integrations with communication apps and progress tracking tools.

Top 3 CRMs for Integration

Software	HubSpot	Zoho CRM	Tubular drive
Total number of integrations	1500+	900+	350+
Reporting capabilities	Yes	Yes	Yes
Marketing tools	Advanced	Advanced	Mediocre
Free trial	14 days	15 days	14 days
Starting price	Free introductory price	Free introductory price	$14 per user per month

HubSpot

HubSpot is a popular platform for customers with powerful AI tools, marketing tools, and competitive scalability. In addition to a solid free CRM, HubSpot offers a marketing center, service center, and operations center as part of its suite of tools, all of which integrate internally. HubSpot can integrate with over 1,500 apps and even recommend apps for companies just starting out.

To learn more, read this HubSpot review.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a marketing CRM solution that offers a great mix of basic and advanced features at a great price. Some of the feature integrations for Zoho CRM include Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Sack, Shopify, Mailchimp, and Facebook.

For more information, read this independent Zoho CRM review.

Tubular drive

Pipedrive is a simple sales CRM with pipeline and project management tools. Within the Pipedrive marketplace, companies can search, filter, and even acquire other technology tools. Pipedrive’s AI assistant can even find relevant third-party tools to recommend integrations for their marketplace.

Want to know more? Check out this Pipedrive review.