No: you don't need a CRM to do email marketing. An email marketing platform already stores your contacts, your custom fields, your segments and your unsubscribes. A CRM becomes useful when a sales team follows each customer one by one, and in that case the best option is to connect it to the sending tool.
What each tool does
| Email marketing software | CRM | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Send campaigns and automated emails to many contacts | Track the sales relationship with each customer |
| Data | Contacts, fields, opens, clicks, unsubscribes | Contacts, companies, deals, calls, quotes |
| Users | Marketing and communications | Sales and customer service |
| Strength | Design, deliverability, campaign statistics | History and one-to-one follow-up |
When the email marketing platform is enough
If your goal is to send newsletters, promotions and automated emails, the platform covers the essentials. In Mailpro you can manage your contact lists, add custom fields and build segments based on data or behavior.
A CRM with built-in email often falls short on design and deliverability; email marketing software, on sales follow-up. That is why many companies use both, connected. How CRM and email marketing work together.
When it makes sense to connect a CRM
- Your sales team needs to see which emails each customer has opened.
- Contacts come in through several channels (website, store, events) and you want one record per customer.
- You want to send emails based on the sales stage each contact is in.
Mailpro connects with CRMs such as Salesforce and, through the API, with other tools, so your list stays in sync without manual imports. For the full definition, see what a CRM is.
Mailpro and your contacts
Beyond the CRM — your contacts and your campaigns in one place
Lists, segments, custom fields and automations in Mailpro, with data hosted in Switzerland and GDPR-compliant.