Using Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) is incredibly important for running a successful marketing agency. However, With so many options available, choosing the best CRM for marketing agencies can be difficult. In this guide, we are outlining the top CRMs for managing a marketing agency.
Best CRM for Marketing Agencies
Hubspot
Hubspot is our top pick for the best CRM for marketing agencies. Hubspot has a huge suite of capabilities that make managing your marketing agency’s clients, sales, marketing, and more super easy. Hubspot offers both free and paid subscriptions which makes it a great option for a small marketing agency that is looking to try a CRM before they commit to one.
One of our favorite things about Hubspot is the number of resources they have created to help marketing agency owners learn how to use their products. Hubspot’s blog is full of great content that is specific to helping marketers use their CRM (and convert them to use Hubspot as their agency CRM).
Hubspot CRM Pros
- Easy onboarding process
- Transparent pricing that scales as your digital marketing agency grows
- Flexibility between sales and marketing capabilities
- Integrations with apps like Quickbooks, Trello, PandaDoc, and more.
- Very helpful support staff.
Hubspot CRM Cons
- Hubspot is more expensive than most CRMs for marketing agencies
- Hubspot doesn’t scale as well as other marketing agency CRMs on our list like Salesforce.
Hubspot CRM Pricing
Hubspot has both a free and paid service. What we really like about Hubspot is the flexibility. Agency CRM users can choose to have Hubspot mange their sales, marketing, and service or just one or two of these functions. Pricing ranges from under $100 per month to over $1000 depending on the size of your CRM.
Salesforce
Salesforce is the world’s most advanced CRM. The massive public company’s CRM is used by some of the largest digital marketing agencies in the world. Salesforce can be a little confusing at first but, if you can tolerate the onboarding process, it is a massively powerful tool that can scale to enterprise-level sized companies.
Salesforce CRM Pros
- Offers the most integrations of all CRMs for marketing agencies
- Able to handle massive workloads and can scale to enterprise-level
Salesforce CRM Cons
- Obscure pricing
- Long and difficult onboarding process
Salesforce CRM Pricing
Salesforce has a relatively complex pricing structure. Because Salesforce offers so many different solutions it is best to contact the Salesforce team to discuss the pricing for your individual needs. Pricing starts around $25 per month and can go into multiple thousands of dollars per month depending on your needs.
Trello
While Trello isn’t advertised as a CRM so much as it is a project management solution but we still find it a great tool for digital marketing agencies looking to manage their clients and projects.
Trello can be used for small teams that need to collaborate in real-time on agency client projects and campaigns.
Trello CRM Pros
- Very inexpesive
- Can be custom built to your specific needs
- Incredibly ability to automate tasks
Trello CRM Cons
- Not built to serve as a CRM
- Doesn’t track emails and client engagement
- Better suited for project management and small teams
- Doesn’t scale well
Trello CRM pricing
Trello has free and paid plans. Trello paid plans start at $15 per month making Trello a very cheap CRM for marketing agencies.
Summary: CRMs for Marketing and Advertising Agencies
With so many options in CRMs for marketing agencies, there is a lot to choose from. For small agencies that are looking for a quick and easy solution that can grow with them, we suggest Hubspot. For larger and faster-growing agencies, Salesforce may be the better fit.
Our Top Picks (By Agency Size)
Best CRM for small marketing agencies: Hubspot
Best CRM for large marketing agencies: Salesforce