5 Best CRM for Designers
So you want answers, and you want em’ fast. Here they are:
Quick links for the Best CRM Software
1) Best Overall 🏆
Monday.com
Customize your workflows to track all aspects of the sales cycle, from lead gen to post-sale support.
2) Good Plugins🥈
Hubspot
Hubspot is the undisputed king of full-stack marketing software. With solid CRM features.
3) Most Features 🥉
PipeDrive
A sales-focused CRM that uses AI to automate repetitive tasks and manage leads and sales.
So, you are in the market for a CRM that suits designers.
Ideal, because in this article we have our compilation list for our top picks, and we compare the features and pricing for you.
If you just want the best choice, we’ve added that right at the top of the article as this was what is most requested by our customers. So, that’ll be the “can’t go wrong” option.
Otherwise, feel free to explore all the options we’ve reviewed on the market to find something that might fit you a little better.
Enjoy the list!
What CRM would you recommend?
In short, It’s Monday.com CRM
It’s very well rounded, well priced, feature-rich with a large community of support and a very top-notch set of tutorials for every use case. You can’t go wrong with Monday.com. It’s the software we use with our clients at our ad agency.
“🚀Try Monday.com CRM For Free, It’s my favorite webinar software to use and recommend.” -Scott Max
Monday.com is a user-friendly CRM platform that provides advanced solutions with its robust marketing tools. It allows larger companies with complex workflows to perform efficiently and produce nifty results. Monday.com has you covered for your: Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing needs.
For more details, read our Monday.com Review.
The Best CRM specifically for Designers
As a designer, you have to maintain your profile on relevant platforms to generate more opportunities, schedule tasks efficiently and use several tools to fulfil client requests. A CRM that supports integration with creative tools and allows you to improve operational efficiency will be the perfect fit for this category. Have a look at the products below to choose the best CRM for Designers:
1. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the best known CRM tools in the world, and one of the undisputed references in the field of inbound marketing. Hubspot’s CRM functionality allows you to manage all marketing and sales activities as you see fit. For example, it allows us to group by campaigns that generate detailed reports of metrics on the real return on investment in the entire conversion funnel experienced.
In addition, it is a complete CRM tool that is completely free of charge. 56,500 customers in more than 100 countries trust HubSpot for their growth.
Hubspot Features
Hubspot is a user-friendly CRM platform that provides advanced solutions with its robust marketing tools. It allows larger companies with complex workflows to perform efficiently and produce nifty results. Hubspot has five modules: Service, Sales, CMS, Operations, and Marketing, so you can include them in the package as per your business requirements.
Here are some impressive features available on Hubspot:
- SEO Tools: Hubspot is one of the few CRM services that provide SEO-related analysis for your website’s content. Once you integrate your business website with Hubspot, it automatically scans it and recommends better optimization. Alternatively, you can paste your website’s URL and get an SEO report.
- Content creation tools: You can create new blog posts for your website and edit the existing ones by simply integrating the website with CRM. Hubspot records all comments and edits made to the original content, so you are always in touch with the changes. Moreover, you can use the editor to start a new blog and add relevant images.
- CPQ Functionality: Every business needs to create quotations for products or services to assist sales reps in negotiations. Hubspot allows you to do it inside the CRM with its “Quotes Tool”. You can add unit price, discount offers, conditions, regulations terms, or any other information that will benefit the buyer and sales process.
- Campaigns Tools: Hubspot has several relevant automation tools that enable smooth interaction with clients and organize workflow. You can make posts on social media, send customized emails and run paid search campaigns to get leads on potential customers. It is one of a kind collection with all the necessary marketing tools and a great addition for larger businesses.
- Contact Attribution Reporting: Hubspot can help your management team understand the latest trend related to customers’ sales processes and identify the sources that influenced their decision. You can customize the attribution parameters to get different insights into your business and recognize the market-making activities.
- Data Quality Automation: It allows you to automate properties like; time, date and add new automation to manage the incoming leads swiftly. Hubspot will follow all the pre-entered instructions and give a reminder every it finds a promising opportunity.
Hubspot Pricing
Hubspot offers you the option to create a customized subscription plan by adding the required services. Alternatively, you can choose from the existing bundles and get a general subscription. The “Starter” plan costs $45/month and offers fundamental marketing and sales features. The “Professional” plan starts at $1600/month with advanced marketing tools and customer service software. The “Enterprise” plan offers all available features of Hubspot and is priced: at $4000/ month, with the price set to go up to $5000/month From December 1, 2021.
2. Creatio
Creatio is defined as a tool that allows the management of each client, in a particular way, at each stage of the life cycle. From the initial origin or lead, through the moment the sale is generated and up to the after-sales service. It has a simple, friendly and responsive interface that, at a glance, allows the particular situation of each client to be conceptualised. In addition, it allows the processes between marketing, sales and customer service to be connected.
Creatio Features
Creatio is designed; for businesses looking to expedite their sales and marketing services. It enables a seamless transition to the CRM and requires no coding while also providing a marketplace where users can avail templates and relevant applications. You can orchestrate customer journeys with Creatio and maximize the ROI by marketing your product to the right audience.
Here are some central features offered by Creatio:
- Marketing Plans: It is the hub of all your marketing strategies throughout the years, where you can access each activity, schedule meetings, and sort data. You can create new entries or update the older ones to meet your current requirements. You can also set access permission and distribute the workload among the organization effectively.
- Website event tracking: Creatio lets you track specific user actions on your website; to help you know the customer preferences and structure your marketing tactics accordingly. You can add commands to remind the customer about the cart items and nurture them towards a potential purchase. You have to enter the unique tracking code into your website’s source code and set the guidelines to get started.
- Case appraisal: Here, you can access all customer-related queries, assign cases to employees, and import new data from your system. You can access each inquiry to see the relevant details and progress, add new attachments or escalate the incident to a higher authority. It allows you to satisfy the customer by providing a quick resolution.
- Service Changes assessment: Creatio gives you access to all the recent changes made in the interface and the system. You can see who assigned the work to whom and add notes to inform the responsible entity about the nature of the task. Moreover, you can also sort these changes according to the execution time and priority level.
- Knowledge base: It is the perfect place for your employees to find educational material regarding the company’s working process, plus add new relevant content for other users. As an administrator, you can set access rights and tag the articles to make them easily discoverable.
- Sales homepage: Here, you get an in-depth analysis of the sales process and recent negotiation activities. You can see how many leads have been; converted or lost and formulate a plan to close more opportunities. Moreover, you can access the sales pipeline through the homepage and group the leads according to the phases.
Creatio Pricing
Creatio allows you to customize the plan, so you only pay for the services you require. There are three tools available in Creatio: Marketing, Sales, and Service. To get a quote, Fill in the relevant details. You also have to add a “Support package” to get technical assistance from the Creatio team. You can opt for a “Basic”, “Business”, or “Premium” plan, which cost 5%, 12%, and 20% of the subscription package, respectively.
3. Netsuite
NetSuite Customer Relationship Management software is a cloud-based CRM that offers a 360-degree view of your customers in real time. NetSuite CRM provides a continuous flow of information across the entire customer lifecycle, from leadership to opportunity, sales order, fulfillment, renewal, up-sell, cross-sell or support.
NetSuite Features
NetSuite has developed over the recent years and was one of the first cloud-based ERP+CRM systems. It is a multi-tenant SaaS solution that helps small and medium-sized organizations grow faster with customizable workflows. NetSuite provides unmatchable visibility and control over your entire business with its cloud-based applications that improve organizational productivity.
Here are some fascinating features that make NetSuite unique:
- Enterprise Resource Planning: NetSuite provides businesses with complete control over data and resource planning. From handling financial operations to processing order-related information, you can automate all manual workflows with NetSuite’s ERP. You can increase the productivity of an organization with ERP as it provides a clear vision of each business procedure.
- Global Business Management: NetSuite’s Global business management provides unrivaled visibility into operations in real-time. It allows multi-National businesses to manage complexities due to currency differences, tax policies, and legal conformity. Such organizations need to consolidate in regional areas while adhering to the company’s essence, and GBM makes that happen.
- Sales Force Automation: NetSuite allows users to automate administrative actions and sales operations, reducing the employees’ workload. You can identify potential issues, create financial projections and track employees’ performance to get a better outlook on your business activities.
- OpenAir: NetSuite’s OpenAir optimizes resources and employee allotment according to the skills required for a particular task. OpenAir creates various scenarios for every lead to maximize revenue and improve the chances of securing an opportunity. You can automate customer engagement and let OpenAir choose the right employee for each interaction based on past work and favorable conditions.
- SuiteCommerce: NetSuite helps e-commerce businesses automatically update online orders to the back-end to manage them centrally and reduce the processing time while increasing accuracy. SuiteCommerce allows B2B and B2C websites in unifying the front-end and back-end to remove manual operations and get higher client engagement.
- Timesheet Management: NetSuite assists Project managers to review time-based tasks and recording the working hours of employees. You can view relevant information like “Start Date”, “Work Done”, and “Estimated completion time” to get an overview of performance. Moreover, you can reassign tasks through Timesheet Management to finish projects urgently.
- Project Analysis: NetSuite offers analytical tools that provide concurrent updates for every service rendered by your organization. You can track each lead individually to get a better statistical understanding of the client’s requirements. Moreover, you can share reports with colleagues through NetSuite to ensure everyone is on board with project advancement.
NetSuite Pricing
NetSuite does not offer a general subscription plan, and users have to fill in a form mentioning their requirements, business size, and budget. Once done, you’ll be contacted: by the customer executive regarding the best customizable tools for your organizational needs.
4. Monday
The Monday software is extremely simple, with pre-defined templates for all kinds of situations, allowing you to start with the one that suits you best. It also gives you the ability to use the columns to display all the information you need at any given time. Monitoring the time for each task, keeping track of who is in charge of what, marking locations, adding text, numbers, links, and much more.
Monday Features
Monday integrates client emails, collects leads with forms, and refines marketing campaigns through scrupulous analysis that greatly enhances your relationship with clients and creates more business opportunities. It’s an easy-to-use platform that simplifies organizational tasks for sales and marketing teams.
Here are some features that make Monday a unique CRM:
- Software development: Monday provides templates to help your technical team quickly organize tasks, find bugs and improve iterations. You can add indicators to let the team know what you are working on and analyze the resource allocation. Every project has a specific ID that can be used; to track it among other tasks. Clients will automatically be alerted once the error is solved to reduce downtime and keep customers updated.
- HR structuring: Monday lets users manage recruiting process and track employee progression through its HR tools such as Applicant Tracker, Employee Engagement, Attendance Tracker, Recruitment Tracker, and Vacation Tracker. You can boost the team spirit of your employees by creating specific goals and giving constructive feedback on their work.
- Inventory Management: Businesses can record product and asset details while setting automation to get regular updates about sales and inquiries. You can create new templates to match the company’s requirements and integrate Monday with other applications to make the tasks easier. Moreover, Monday generates a unique QR code for each product so your clients can coherently buy the inventory.
- Marketing and Creative attributes: Monday can bridge the gap between creative thinking and marketing strategies by merging them into a single platform. You can create visualizations on campaign effects, share ideas and create personalized operations to make information accessible for employees.
- Sales operations: Monday offers CRM customization to make the leads attainable and manage all opportunity stages at a single interface. You can see the combined effect of marketing and sales campaigns to make adjustments accordingly. Moreover, businesses can centralize the available data for ease of use and synchronization of operations.
- IT workspace: You can add educational content for new recruitments to learn skills faster and ensure quality work. Monday lets you set access permissions for tasks and strictly follows security protocols to prevent cyber attacks on your CRM database. You can integrate IT tools and put technical work in order on Monday.
Monday Pricing
Monday CRM offers 4 pricing options depending upon your business size and requirements.
“Individual” plan is free of cost and lets users record work-related activities.
“Basic” plan is priced at $10/month for a single user and offers 5GB storage along with customer support.
“Standard” plan is worth $12/month for a single user and offers additional collaboration tools.
“Pro” subscription costs $20/month for an individual and offers chart view along with time tracking.
“Enterprise” plan is made specifically for large businesses and includes quality security features. You can contact support to get a quote on the “Enterprise” package.
5. amoCRM
The specialization, and the detail that makes it peculiar, of amoCRM is the messaging. Thanks to its technology it adds a complete set of messaging applications to its arsenal, allowing it to respond quickly to potential customers and generate more sales. You can identify the progress of each potential customer, get a preview of the task status and get an overview of the overall sales status. It also has a mobile app.
amoCRM Features
amoCRM stores contact information regarding potential customers and leads, allowing businesses to increase their clientele base. It offers a plethora of options to simplify the tasks related to sales and marketing; while also providing analytical tools to keep track of every lead.
Here’s a list of features that you can use inside amoCRM:
- Pipeline: It allows you to arrange leads based on how advanced the negotiations are. Whenever you create a new lead, it gets added to the “Initial Contact” section and can be moved; to further stages later on. Also, you can use the Digital pipeline to add lead sources like messaging applications, Email addresses, and Web forms, which will automatically move any inquires on the added source to the “Incoming Leads” section.
- Salesbot: It gives an automated response to all inquiries and is customizable so you can pre-enter the instructions. Salesbot is a great tool to engage with potential customers during off-hours and is accessible in every section of the Pipeline.
- Analytics: It provides a detailed assessment of all sales leads with an option to filter out the results you don’t want to see. You can check the Win-Loss record of every sales rep and generate client reports with the advanced filter options. Moreover, you can see what happens to negotiations at various stages and get a detailed analysis, which forecasts your future sales.
- Digital Pipeline: It saves you the trouble of cold-calling by automatically nurturing the client towards making a purchase and keeps you in touch with the latest advancements. You can add automated actions such as email responses or social media advertisements to every stage and set a reminder to call the client if the negotiations move swiftly.
- WebForms: You can create web forms on amoCRM without any programming knowledge and customize every detail; as per your company’s requirements. This webform will integrate amoCRM with your website and move every submission to the “Incoming leads” section.
- Business Card Scanner: It’s a great tool to automatically add client information to the leads: from business cards. All you need to do is click an image of the card, and the system will automatically add it to the “Leads” section after recognizing it.
- Collaboration: Some of your business partners or employees may not use amoCRM, so for such instances, you can communicate through Lead cards by sending mail. The receiver will get a link that redirects to the lead card and gives access to the amoCRM.
amoCRM Pricing
amoCRM has 3 pricing options available depending on your requirements: Base Plan, Advanced Plan and Enterprise Plan. The Base plan offers intrinsic features and is priced: at $15 per month; The Advanced subscription is worth $25 per month and offers added benefits like widget creation, whereas The Enterprise Plan allows you to use amoCRM to its maximum capabilities: and is worth $45 per month. All these prices are applicable only for a subscription period of 6 months or longer.
Key Benefits of CRM for Designers
In the fast-paced world of design, where creativity must blend seamlessly with efficient project management, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system tailored for designers can provide a multitude of benefits that enhance both the creative process and business operations. Here are some of the key advantages that a well-implemented CRM can offer to design professionals:
1. Streamlined Client Management
A CRM system centralizes all client information, making it easier to manage relationships. Designers can access contact details, past communications, project histories, and preferences in one platform. This organized approach helps maintain strong relationships with clients, ensuring that their needs are met effectively and promptly.
2. Enhanced Project Tracking
With features like project timelines, task assignments, and milestone tracking, CRMs help designers monitor the progress of various projects efficiently. This visibility allows design teams to stay on schedule, allocate resources appropriately, and meet deadlines without compromising quality.
3. Improved Communication
CRMs facilitate better communication among team members and with clients. By centralizing communication logs, designers can keep track of conversations, feedback, and updates in one place. This ensures that everyone is on the same page, reducing misunderstandings and miscommunications that can lead to project delays.
4. Automated Follow-Ups and Reminders
The ability to automate follow-ups and set reminders for important tasks or deadlines is a significant time-saver. Designers can focus more on their creative work while the CRM handles routine reminders and communication, ensuring that no lead goes cold and no important task is overlooked.
5. Efficient Lead Management
Tracking leads and converting them into clients is crucial for any design business. A CRM helps streamline the lead management process by organizing potential client information, tracking interactions, and automating outreach efforts. This focused approach can significantly increase the chances of securing new projects.
Why use a CRM at all?
CRM is essential for every business aiming to expedite sales procedures and optimize marketing campaigns. If you’re still using spreadsheets to record customer data, you are not giving your employees the best possible assistance to accomplish their objectives. Spreadsheets involve the risk of errors or redundancies that can slow your business growth.
With a CRM, your marketing teams can analyze current campaigns; to view which demographics are responding; positively. It allows them to gain valuable insights and run targeted ads to boost engagement. CRM is essential to align your sales and marketing objectives and simply business management.
Why should designers use a CRM?
CRM provides an all-in-one business management platform to help streamline your designing operations, look professional with clients and generate invoices quickly. It can help you stay organized while working with clients and understand their requirements.
Whether you’re just getting your designing business off the ground, or you already have a clientele base. CRM can be customized to suit your requirements and put your brand front and centre, making sure everything you send will feel like a cohesive extension of your business from beginning to end.
When a new lead comes in, CRM will help you manage all stages, including; inquiry, booking and project completion.
Moreover, CRM allows you to create automation, so you can immediately follow up with questionnaires or brochures to gather relevant client details.
CRM comes preloaded with editable templates for all file types to help get you started. You can send contracts or invoices from a CRM efficiently. Your client will simply get the invoicing details in their mailbox along with a link to access the file.
CRM enables your designing business; to reach new levels and increase the clientele base through marketing campaigns. It can improve your revenue generation; by a considerable amount and help you stay on top of every opportunity.
CRM for Designers, A Summary
Designers should be able to focus on delivering personalized content to clients rather than worrying about business management. CRM allows you to automate the analytical and repetitive procedures to enhance; your productivity by reducing the workload.
Hubspot offers a content creation and designing platform within its CRM to help designers deliver quality services. It is our suggested pick for a CRM that suits Designers. Visit the website to get started.