
There’s a huge demand for high-quality marketing services, and CRM for marketing agencies is at the forefront of meeting this demand.
Consider the numbers: Worldwide revenue from content marketing has reached a staggering $72 billion, and the global public relations market is valued at nearly $100 billion. The digital marketing industry is expected to reach a valuation of $786 billion by 2026, thanks to our collective love for phones and computers.
This remarkable growth brings significant challenges, especially for marketing agencies striving to stay organized amidst the expanding landscape. How efficiently can your agency:
While crafting the next groundbreaking ad campaign, reminiscent of Mad Men's creative brilliance, you may find your sales pipeline lacking and your primary data management tools, like spreadsheets, becoming increasingly inefficient.
This is where the power of a Customer Resource Management (CRM) system becomes evident. A well-designed, customizable CRM solution centralizes all sales and marketing efforts, offering an easy-to-navigate dashboard for seamless operations.
So, what exactly does a CRM for marketing agencies entail, and how does it function? More importantly, how can you determine the most suitable CRM solution for your agency? We at Close are here to unveil these insights, helping you navigate the CRM landscape with ease and expertise.
A CRM is a central location to store client data and prospect contact information, run the sales pipeline, and offer each team member full access to all client conversation history. It should:
CRM software has one goal: create a seamless marketing, sales, and customer service experience that takes your customers from cradle to grave. Or, more accurately (and less depressingly) from brand-new lead to deeply loyal customer.
Ideally, your CRM should serve as an automation tool that solves multiple challenges at once, including:
A CRM addresses each of these pain points because it’s an all-in-one application that tracks marketing and sales activities and customer service endeavors in the same place.
Or at least, it should be. And if you get an effective agency CRM, it will be.
Wondering which CRM is best suited for contractor professionals? Our article on the best contractor CRMs has the answers.
Digital marketing is no longer in its infancy, which means almost everyone is doing it—with varying degrees of success. Those who are using it successfully see tremendous growth and, more frequently than not, are upping their buy-in.
According to Precedence Research, the global digital ad spending market, valued at $0.50 trillion in 2022, is projected to exceed $1.26 trillion by 2032, marking a significant growth rate of 9.70 percent from 2023 to 2032.
If you want to stretch those ad dollars, you need to be organized. Your CRM can do just that, with benefits like:
Simply put, you need a good CRM if you want to succeed in today’s crowded and busy business world. So where should you turn?
Do a quick Google search, and you’ll quickly find that there are tons of companies presenting themselves as the “best” option for marketing CRM. However, they can’t all be the best, right?
... ¿Verdad?
Right. This is why we’re here with a list of the top eight CRM software options, all pitted against each other. We’ll talk about features, base pricing, and more so you can make the best possible choice for yourself and your team. Let’s dive in.

The sales process is constantly changing. Statistics and case studies make one thing clear: If marketing teams don’t change with the times, they get left behind.
A good task management CRM is worth its weight in gold, helping you collate every marketing activity in one place for the ultimate business process. That’s where a cutting-edge marketing/sales CRM such as Close comes in, giving you powerful tools to address your email and SMS automation campaign needs.
If there’s one thing Close does to stay a cut above the rest, it’s the thorough emphasis on the full customer journey. Rather than focusing on one stage of the life cycle—just lead generation, say, or only customer support—it gives you a birds-eye view of the entire process. That means you can both get and keep customers, day in and day out.
Want to try it for yourself? Close offers a 14-day free trial, so you can test out our features risk-free. What have you got to lose, other than disorganization and low conversion rates? Nothing, we submit, so go ahead and click that link now.
This is how outbound calling looks on the Close mobile app:

$9 per month, billed annually (includes one user)

Another popular system in the marketing landscape, HubSpot, offers a range of CRM tools to help you maximize your workflows while minimizing effort.
It combines multiple dashboards under a single system heading so you can keep track of all your activities in one place. If your main goal is content marketing, this might fulfill your CRM for marketing agency needs.
Starts at $15 per user per month
Ready to embrace AI for exponential content marketing growth? Learn how here.
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Pipedrive is a streamlined CRM that gives you the necessary tools to maintain a basic sales and marketing cycle.
Although it’s not always easy to maximize every sales activity, it does provide the bare-bones foundation for email, calling, and other forms of outreach.
If you pay for the advanced features, you can also get form signing and document management access. This is often a nice feature for people in the legal or financial space, though it might prove more expensive than you’d like.
Starts at $14 per user per month

Salesforce has proven a popular model for many companies, from small to large. Its marketing automation features are robust, and you can customize it almost infinitely.
However, users report that the system is often sluggish, and its designers don’t update it effectively or often enough. Also, while the customization is comprehensive, it can require a significant learning curve.
Starts at $25 per user per month

Copper offers most of the standard tools of any other CRM. One of its top-selling points is that it integrates so easily with Google’s many features.
If you are a company that already relies heavily on Gmail, G Suite or Google Workspace, you might find Copper a good option for you.
While Copper has potential, especially for Google users, some users report its limited functionality hampered their marketing efforts. Be aware of this when signing up, and if you aren’t already heavily reliant on Google, maybe look elsewhere.
Starts at $9 per user per month (billed annually)

Billing itself as a way to “supercharge your teamwork,” Monday creates a desktop environment where it’s easy to visualize projects and tasks. If your team is large, you’ll find this software beneficial for breaking down and streamlining otherwise daunting tasks.
However, it’s important to know that while Monday can work for sales and marketing, its main power is in workflow management for teams. If you want a CRM that focuses specifically on generating leads or managing campaigns, you should probably look for one specifically designed for that purpose.
The "Basic CRM" package of Monday costs $12 per seat per month. The total monthly cost for this package is $36, billed annually (as you need to buy a minimum of three seats). This pricing suggests the package is designed for a small team, around three members, given the total monthly cost.

One of the more modern, user-friendly CRMs, Insightly combines marketing, sales, service, and project tools in one place. This allows you to follow the customer through their entire life cycle, from when they become a lead to the post-purchase period, where they need ongoing customer service.
Although Insightly may prove a great starter CRM for small businesses, be aware that some users have reported a lack of needed functionality and limited support.
Starts at $29 per user per month

Funnel's main selling point is that it's a CRM for people just starting out. It doesn't require customization and is helpful right out of the box, so you shouldn't plan on a big learning curve.
However, the flip side of this is always limited functionality. Any time you don’t “have” to customize a CRM, that usually means you can’t customize it that easily. Again, just be aware.
Funnel CRM offers several pricing packages for its services. The "Foundation" package starts at $1.80 per unit per month, the "Automation" package is priced at $3.05 per unit per month, the "Specialization" package costs $4.15 per unit per month, and the most comprehensive "Full Funnel" package is available at $6.65 per unit per month.
As we wrap up this discussion, the main takeaway point is that you do indeed need a dedicated marketing CRM.
    Pro tip:
In addition to saying goodbye to spreadsheets forever—you should also ensure your CRM is specifically geared toward marketing. If it doesn’t include email templates, automated sequences, social media, or other ad management services, you will have a harder time organizing all your marketing activities in one place.
Our recommendation? Give Close’s 14-day free trial a go and see how you feel.
It was designed to meet the specific needs of marketing companies in real time, allowing you to track leads, perform expert contact management, and follow up at every stage of the process, all without missing a beat.