Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 is a major platform update that expands the capabilities of sales, marketing, and customer service teams.
In the new version, Zoho offers, among other things, Marketing Automation, Webinars, PageSense, Backstage, Cliq, and brand assets that help manage marketing materials. The update also includes Brand Studio, a shared marketing calendar, landing pages, WhatsApp campaigns, dashboards, User 360, CommandCenter, and support for Zia, the AI assistant.
Below, we present the most important new features in Zoho CRM Plus 3.0.
Brand Studio for managing marketing activities
One of the most significant changes in Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 is the addition of Brand Studio. It's a central space for planning and managing marketing projects and related activities.
From Brand Studio, you can create and plan email campaigns, social media posts, events, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, and other marketing activities. Zoho also allows you to manage activity schedules, task lists, resources, budgets, expenses, discussions, and key metrics all in one place. This enables marketing teams to better plan campaigns, assign tasks to the right people, and monitor work status before launching activities.
AI support for creating marketing projects
In Zoho CRM Plus 3.0, Zia integrates with OpenAI to support the creation of marketing projects. The assistant can suggest campaign actions based on information such as campaign goal, duration, marketing channels, and target audience. Users can also add a more detailed description of the goal to receive suggestions better tailored to the company's processes. Suggestions can then be edited or regenerated.
Shared marketing calendar
Brand Studio also includes a shared marketing calendar, allowing you to view planned activities in quarterly, weekly, or monthly views. Projects and activities are color-coded, making it easy to quickly distinguish campaigns. For each activity, you can check its type, owner, and status. The calendar can also be customized to the team's needs and shared with others, ensuring everyone works from the same plan.
Team collaboration via Zoho Cliq
Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 expands team collaboration capabilities through integration with Zoho Cliq. Cliq allows you to conduct chat conversations, create groups and channels, and start or schedule meetings. You can also invite people outside your Zoho CRM Plus account to communicate, such as clients or external stakeholders. Over 1000 extensions are also available, allowing Cliq to connect with Zoho applications and third-party tools.
Landing Page in Zoho CRM Plus
The new version of Zoho CRM Plus also introduces LandingPage, a tool for creating landing pages. Users can utilize a drag-and-drop builder to prepare landing pages for various marketing goals, such as product sales, webinar registration, or newsletter sign-ups. Zoho also enables page optimization, personalization for recipients, and tracking of key performance indicators.
WhatsApp Campaigns
Marketing Automation in Zoho CRM Plus allows you to connect your WhatsApp Business account and run WhatsApp campaigns directly to contacts. Users can configure sender and recipient details, prepare a personalized message template, send it immediately, or schedule it for a specific date and time. Zoho also provides campaign analytics and the ability to automate actions using Journeys, which helps to better personalize communication with recipients.
Event and trade show management in Backstage
Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 also expands event organization capabilities with Backstage. Backstage allows you to manage exhibitor registrations, create booth layouts, send automated messages to speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors, and handle other event elements. The tool also supports lead generation, including scanning and tracking attendees at booths and further engaging them in the sales process.
Shared dashboard for key data
Zoho CRM Plus consists of many modules, such as CRM, Desk, Social, Analytics, SalesIQ, Projects, and PageSense. Each of them can contain separate reports and dashboards. In version 3.0, Zoho introduces a common dashboard that allows you to gather the most important data in one place. Users can add dashboards from various modules or create new views from scratch. This makes it easier to monitor key indicators without switching between multiple sections of the system.
Zia for data and report analysis
Zia, the AI assistant in Zoho CRM Plus, helps analyze reports and dashboards. Instead of manually sifting through large amounts of data, users can benefit from summaries, insights, and visual interpretations prepared by Zia. The assistant analyzes available reports and helps to better understand what the data reveals. This support is particularly useful when evaluating campaign effectiveness, website activity, social media results, or return on investment.
User 360: A team performance overview
User 360 in Zoho CRM Plus helps managers and administrators analyze team performance without having to navigate through multiple applications and reports. In a single view, you can check key indicators related to sales, customer service, and marketing, such as open or overdue tickets, response times, and other productivity data. This makes it easier to evaluate team work and make decisions based on data collected in one place.
CommandCenter for the customer journey
CommandCenter helps manage the customer journey, which today involves many touchpoints, such as a website, social media, demo, webinar, event, or contact with customer service.
Transition to Zoho CRM Plus 3.0
Zoho announces that existing accounts will transition to Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 in phases. Users will receive an email with details regarding the account update. After upgrading to the new version, the marketing applications included in the package will be immediately available.
Summary
Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 introduces many changes that can facilitate the daily work of sales, marketing, and customer service teams. The most important new features concern campaign planning, team collaboration, event management, data analysis, communication automation, and team performance monitoring. For companies using Zoho CRM Plus, the update means more opportunities to manage customer-centric activities within a single environment.
If you want to make the most of the new capabilities of Zoho CRM Plus 3.0, we can help you through the entire process. We will advise you on which features will be most useful for your company, help organize your sales, marketing, and service processes, and support the implementation of appropriate solutions within Zoho. Contact us if you want to see how Zoho CRM Plus 3.0 can streamline your team's work.
