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What is the most valuable asset in your writing business? For independent writers, our clients are typically our greatest asset. It’s trickier than it looks to develop and keep up solid connections with those who hire you. You could want assistance handling several clients as your firm expands. CRM (customer relationship management) solutions are useful in this situation.
To correctly maintain the relationship with your clients, CRM software is crucial. You may collect and arrange all of your data, including emails, phone numbers, URLs, and purchase histories, in one location using a CRM. Continue reading to find out how the finest CRM for freelance writers might help your company succeed.
A CRM is what?
Customer relationship management is referred to as CRM. Processes may be automated with these platforms, which also make corporate activities like data analysis, teamwork, and planning easier. You may increase sales and solidify your customer connections by having all the lead information in one location.
Your operations may be optimized by a dependable CRM, freeing up more time for challenging tasks that provide better outcomes. You can manage procedures, monitor KPIs, and examine your sales funnel with the aid of these tools. Additionally, you may make use of basic features like work assignments and discussions.
Utilizing a CRM has several advantages since it may assist you with the following processes:
- Choosing your sales targets
- acquiring new customers
- examining the preferences and actions of your clientele
- Keeping track of email and phone numbers
- assessing your weekly, monthly, or annual performance
- Creating a buyer persona (Or, the ideal customer for your company)
- Keeping track of all connections on a single platform
- Follow-up communications using effective email marketing techniques
- Setting up alerts and reminders for call-backs, messaging, or gathering quotations
- keeping track of consumer feedback at this level of service and after-sales
The Top CRMs for Freelancers
CRMs are an excellent resource for tiny writing businesses, just as they may be helpful for a seasoned freelance writer with a large clientele. Check out a some of the top CRMs for independent authors:
1. OnePageCRM
OnePageCRM is the ideal solution for fostering customer connections and managing different projects. You may add tasks and follow-up reminders next to each contact in OnePageCRM in addition to storing all of your customer information there.
Your database is converted into a color-coded list with due dates by OnePageCRM. You won’t ever forget to contact a prospective customer or provide a draft before the deadline if you do it this way. This straightforward CRM offers a lot of automation options and requires little administrative work.
OnePageCRM will be incredibly beneficial for freelance writers. You can keep track of all the projects connected to a particular customer on their own Contact Page thanks to the client-centric design. You can combine your CRM with Google Drive and Evernote, attach documents, record meeting notes, create custom fields, and issue invoices. Additionally, OnePageCRM syncs with Outlook and Gmail so you can maintain all client-related communications in one location.
OnePageCRM is also among the least expensive options available for independent authors. There are no further paid add-ons and just two pricing tiers. The cost is merely $9.95 per month, and there is a 21-day trial period.
2. HubSpot
With 100,000 clients across 120 countries, HubSpot is a well-known CRM tool and unquestionably a marketing juggernaut. It is renowned for providing several options for companies of various sizes. These potent marketing resources for independent authors are widely accessible and cost-free.
This tool aids with task organization, tracking, lead generation, and task monitoring through an intuitive dashboard. Customer interactions, whether through email, social media, or phone conversations, are automatically tracked by HubSpot CRM. Additionally, it provides in-the-moment alerts regarding the actions of your leads.
Popular applications like Salesforce, Shopify, and Google Suite can be integrated with Hubspot. Additionally, HubSpot provides its clients with access to learning materials. By reading blog articles, ebooks, and guidelines, getting certified, and taking free courses, beginning marketers may discover the most recent best practices.
Numerous helpful features, such as unlimited contacts, notes, task scheduling, Gmail integration, a mobile CRM app, chatbots, and more, are included with Hubspot’s free subscription. These effective tools may be used to handle interactions with a large number of clients for your writing business. Purchase the Starter Plan for $45/month or $540/year to fully experience HubSpot.
3. CRM on Monday
A wonderful CRM option for small organizations is Monday CRM, which is clear-cut and easy to use. There is no need for training to utilize it once you begin going.
You can control your sales funnel, provide personalized reports, automate email marketing, and monitor your progress using Monday CRM. Additionally, you may combine it with your current programs and platforms, like Gmail, Outlook, and Zapier.
As a freelance writer, you may customize Monday CRM to meet your unique demands. To keep track of the kind of writing project, the client’s industry, or the project deadline, for instance, you may establish custom fields.
There are five options available from Monday CRM: Individual, which is free and supports up to two users; Basic, which costs $10 per seat per month; Standard, which costs $14 per seat per month; Pro, which costs $24 per seat per month; and Enterprise, which can be customized to meet your needs. A 14-day free trial is also available so you may evaluate the features before determining which plan is best for you.
4. Zoho
Due to its extensive platform, Zoho is an excellent CRM for independent authors. To build interactions with your clients, you may use Zoho to access tools like phone calls, emails, online live chat, and management of your social media channels. Additionally, it’s simple to keep track of website visits.
Utilize Zoho Books for bookkeeping duties or Zoho Projects for project planning to make your CRM work for you. If you’re unfamiliar with CRMs, Zoho Academy can teach you about best practices in marketing through lectures and downloadable resources.
Users have the option of upgrading by paying $12 per month or using the free edition. Start your 15-day free trial today to choose which plan is right for you.
5. Bonsai
A CRM system called Bonsai is particularly useful for contract and independent authors. It provides you with a comprehensive picture of all of your clients and projects in one location, allowing you to manage your deadlines and billing.
Using Bonsai, you can make personalized contracts, control payments and invoices, monitor your time, and provide reports. Additionally, it features a helpful knowledge library that can answer any queries about utilizing the CRM system.
Although Bosnia CRM is designed for various kinds of organizations, it offers certain excellent features that make it perfect for freelance writers, such as:
- a tool for managing contracts that lets you draft unique contracts and deliver them to clients for signing
- A simple approach to tracking payments and invoices is using a payment gateway.
- Using a timer, you may monitor how much time you spend on each job.
Bonsai provides three options. Starter is ideal for lone writers because it costs just $24 a month. Opt for the Professional plan, which costs $39 a month, if you require more features and integrations. Or you may choose the $79 per month Business plan. Before choosing which of these CRM options is right for you, you may try Bonsai for 14 days for free if you’re unsure of what you’ll require.
6. Freshsales
A CRM called Freshsales by Freshworks is dedicated to enhancing your interaction with customers and expanding your reach. Features like email automation, lead management, lead scoring, and lead classification are improved with artificial intelligence. With this program, automating your job and improving customer management is similar to having a virtual assistant.
The efficacy of this software has been increased by the numerous integrations. It interacts with the most popular business tools, including Facebook, Shopify, Magento, Trello, HubSpot, Asana, Google Calendar, and Contacts.
FreshWorks has several restrictions but is free for up to 10 users. For $29 per user each month (paid yearly), you can purchase the Growth Plan if your company expands fast. Enjoy the 21-day trial period to make sure you are utilizing all of the features.
7. Pipeline
Pipeline is a sales management application that aids authors in streamlining their administrative procedures. The CRM system is completely flexible, and the setup procedure is straightforward. Your email integrations, objectives, tasks, and projects can all be simply managed.
You have access to first-rate US-based customer assistance with Pipeline. You get access to unlimited calls, chat, and email help anytime you need it if you don’t grasp any of the services.
Over 100 system and app connectors are available for Pipeline. Additionally, you may arrange the panels on your dashboard any way you like, as well as make your own catalogs of items that are connected to Pipeline.
For independent authors and little writing firms, this CRM is ideal. You may test out each of its plans for a full 14 days without having to use a credit card. The Pipeline basic plan is $25 per user each month (paid yearly), so have a look at it.
8. Salesforce
Another excellent CRM for independent contractors is Salesforce, which offers services for both big organizations and startups. Salesforce offers useful tips to get you started in the field of CRMs, similar to HubSpot.
Because it was created to address the most frequent issues faced by business owners, the Salesforce platform is relatively simple to use. Finance, healthcare, communications, media, retail, and non-profit organizations may all benefit greatly from it.
Salesforce’s system is cloud-based, so you may access it from any PC or smartphone (Android or iOS). Salesforce offers some of the greatest customer service in the industry to complement its powerful capabilities. They provide rapid initial setup, simple customization, lead creation, contact management tools, and reporting.
Salesforce is available for purchase for $25/month per user (paid yearly) and comes with a 14-day free trial.
9. Insightly
To tailor your offers and complete more business, Insightly enables you to organize all of the information about your clients. The platform’s features are built on the premise that customers seek tighter ties in the modern world. You may establish a connection with your customers by giving them precisely what they want thanks to Insightly’s products.
This platform contains the fundamental CRM features and presents them in a user-friendly and clear manner. It offers a variety of features and connections with well-known writing tools including Mailchimp, QuickBooks, Gmail, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and Zapier. It is user-friendly and practical.
You are able to create two users using the free plan. But if you want more robust features, the Plus Plan is available for $29/month (paid yearly). Use the 14-day trial to see which plan best matches your requirements.
10. SalesRabbit
A cloud-based CRM called SalesRabbit was created to assist teams in managing sales and generating leads at a reasonable cost. You may access a variety of materials using it for your marketing education. Your understanding of practical sales strategies that can aid in the expansion of your firm can be increased through its webinars and other videos.
This platform includes the tools you need to oversee your writing staff, enhance their productivity, and speed up the sales process. SalesRabbit may be installed on mobile devices running iOS and Android as well as Windows and iOS operating systems. Numerous additional CRMs, including Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zoho, are compatible with SalesRabbit. In this manner, you may correctly and rapidly transfer your data to this tool.
The monthly cost of each user under the Team Plan is $22 (paid yearly). You may arrange a demo to learn more about their offerings before you buy. SalesRabbit is the CRM you need if you’re a freelance writer and require one with plenty of features.
11. CRM That’s Less Annoying
A strong CRM with a focus on small enterprises is called Less Annoying. It offers everything required to maintain and grow client connections. After a free 30-day trial, it only costs $15 per user each month. Whatever you do or what you require, your monthly fee remains the same. This eliminates the need to evaluate a challenging price structure.
Because of its adaptability, Less Annoying is the perfect CRM for independent authors. Due to the flexibility of changing the user base at any time without altering your strategy, it will help you increase traffic to your website and expand your small writing business. With Less Annoying, for instance, you won’t need to adjust your plans if you need to add two more authors to boost your sales if your team of two writers is managing 10 clients.
12. Agile CRM
Agile CRM is a comprehensive CRM system that incorporates features like marketing, customer support, and sales automation. It enables you to advertise your company through text messages, landing sites, web forms, and web popups. After that, you may check its CRM stats to see how far you’ve come.
You can communicate with potential customers more easily thanks to the voicemail automation and one-click call system included in this CRM. Through an online calendar, you may also automate the scheduling of meetings and manage several integrations. All of these features will assist you in maintaining customer relationships and cultivating additional leads for your writing services.
Agile CRM offers a free plan with restrictions, but for only $8.99 a month, you can use all of its features. You may benefit from features like email campaigns, online engagement statistics, form builders, landing page builders, marketing automation, social media monitoring, and mobile marketing with the company’s entry-level subscription.
Use the Right CRM to Engage Your Clients
For authors and writing companies, these robust CRM platforms provide a wealth of practical advantages. They may assist you in gaining knowledge to help you reach more prospective customers and make better management decisions. In fact, by analyzing your clients’ data in a CRM, you may learn more about their habits and concentrate on satisfying their demands.
By automating processes, a CRM may boost productivity in your writing firm and save you time. Pick two or three of your preferred CRMs from our list. Then, put them to the test to see which one suits you the best.