Seamlessly Connecting Your CRM with Your Website: Approaches and Benefits

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a tool that helps businesses streamline their processes and automate sales. Setting up and integrating a CRM system with your website is essential for growing and scaling any e-commerce business.

Using a CRM system can help you organize your sales department more effectively and improve customer service. Here’s why integrating a CRM with your website is so beneficial:

One smart way to automate your business processes is by integrating your CRM, ERP, and website. To dive deeper into how ERP and CRM can be integrated, you might want to look into a guide on this topic.

You have a few options for connecting your CRM to your website: you can use the built-in tools provided by the CRM service, use third-party applications, or hire programmers. Let’s break down the specifics, pros, and cons of these different methods.

If you want to do it yourself without any third-party tools, the built-in features of the CRM come in handy. You can use free synchronization methods like installing via a prepared script or connecting via email.

A popular approach is adding a pre-made widget or contact form. To do this, create a new form in your CRM’s synchronization settings, name it, enter your website URL, and choose the form’s features from the options provided.

Once you save the form, the CRM will give you a program code. Copy this code and paste it into your website’s source code between the and tags. If you don’t place the code correctly, the data won’t be sent to your CRM.

This method is straightforward and allows for creating multiple forms on your website. The downside is that it offers limited visual customization and configuration options for the linked custom fields.

Modern CRM and ERP systems often come with built-in CMS modules, which allow you to build corporate websites or online stores using services like Odoo Website Builder or Dynamics 365 Commerce. While this fully integrates your online service with your CRM and ERP, it offers fewer website customization options compared to platforms like WordPress.

Alternatively, you can use third-party software to integrate your CRM with your website. You can purchase a ready-made app from either the CRM’s internal store or an external integrator’s site. The cost will vary depending on the app’s functionality and the CRM system’s popularity. For instance, Acumatica users might choose apps from BigCommerce or Magento modules by FiduciaSoft.

The advantage of using third-party software is the extensive synchronization options it provides for uploading data to your CRM. However, installing these apps can be a challenge, especially if you’re using a less common CMS or a custom-built website.

Another option is using an API, which is a programming interface that lets servers exchange queries and responses. This can help you synchronize your CRM with other IT products and handle complex tasks, like sending hidden data from your website.

For example, an API can help distribute customer requests into specialized CRMs based on contact data formats or transfer values from UTM parameters. This enables you to manage your sales funnel, conduct end-to-end analytics, and analyze traffic sources effectively.

To successfully integrate your website with a CRM system using this method, you’ll need a team of skilled specialists and a hosting service that supports PHP processing.