John Ginsberg is product and marketing director at Ensight

Electronic customer relationship marketing (eCRM) allows marketers to target customers with more precision than they could have even dreamt of in the past, and should form part of any marketing department’s strategy, because it addresses one of the largest challenges CRM has faced in the past – which is accessing high-quality customer data.

The key difference between CRM and eCRM lies in the fact that the latter captures data automatically, as a customer interacts with a brand using one of its digital interfaces. Traditional CRM, by contrast, relies on the manual capture of customer data at a call centre or a branch.

eCRM generates a wealth of data that can be leveraged for marketing, whereas traditional CRM is more sales-focused. CRM often leaves marketers wanting for the information they need to intelligently segment and target customers for their campaigns.

One of the biggest advantages of eCRM data is that it provides a real-time view of frequency and monetary value of customers’ interactions, as well as their behaviour. This is valuable information that can be used to segment, profi le and target customers in an automated yet highly personalised manner.

Marketers can present their audiences with messages that are relevant to their needs and interests, and which are more likely to influence them to convert. This is especially true in a multi-channel world, where consumers might interact with an organisation across multiple channels, such as mobile, e-mail, various Web properties and social media services before they convert.

It provides a clear map of their journey from prospects to customers. eCRM can help marketers understand the patterns of customer acquisition across multiple channels, so they can use the blend of channels and strategies that yield the best results for various customer segments.

With this information, marketers can improve response and acquisition rates across various channels while managing their budgets in the optimal fashion.

CRM and eCRM complement each other when they are tied together. By integrating their CRM and eCRM systems, marketers can get a full 360-degree view of the customer that spans all of their touch-points.