The 8 best CRMs for digital marketing agencies

Learn how to pick the best CRMs based on their features and which tools are helping digital marketing agencies streamline their operations.

The explosion of customer relationship management (CRM) tools within the past few years has provided plenty of options to choose from, but understanding what they all do can eat up a lot of research hours. Some tools focus primarily on onboarding and closing leads, while others provide a suite of marketing, sales, and customer service features.

Here, I’ve evaluated the highlights and common use cases for the 8 best CRMs for digital marketing agencies. Start improving your customer relationships so you can focus on scaling your operations.

Jump to:

• What to look for in the best CRM for your digital marketing agency
• Comparing the best CRMs for digital marketing agencies
• HoneyBook
• Pipedrive
• Keap
• Monday.com
• HubSpot
• ActiveCampaign
• Pipeline
• Zoho
• How much should you pay for the best CRM for digital marketing agencies?
• Why it’s time to upgrade your CRM

What to look for in the best CRM for your digital marketing agency

Many CRM platforms focus on specific areas of the client journey. You’ll rarely find a platform that addresses every single customer touchpoint.

Here are some key areas to consider as you search for the best CRM for your digital marketing agency.

Learning and integration support

Good CRM platforms understand the challenges teams face when adopting new tools. They provide additional support during onboarding to help you and your team make a smooth transition. You may even get a dedicated support agent who’s committed to helping you succeed on the platform.

Beyond training, good CRM platforms have extensive online guides and tutorials that show you how to use the tool. They may even offer live assistance to answer any questions or help with any technical issues you face. Ideally, your team will become knowledgeable and capable without spending a lot of time learning how to use the CRM.

Optimizing lead management

The core component of any CRM is the ability to track, organize, and manage leads. The software makes it easy to generate new leads and track their progress through your sales funnel. Automated tools can move your leads through the pipeline and assign team members to tasks at each stage.

Here are a few features leading CRMs offer for lead management:

• Lead scoring
• Segmentation
• Automated follow-up emails

With these tools, you can tailor your marketing and sales efforts to different types of leads. Personalized materials perform better since the offerings are specific to your audience’s preferences. 

Direct and automated client communication

Good CRM tools include a suite of features that help you communicate more effectively with your leads and clients. Tools like live chat, chatbots, email automation, and SMS integrations allow you to reach out to your clients at key points with personalized messages.

You can communicate directly with your leads and clients, but advanced tools also let you create pre-written messages that respond to common questions and problems. Your audience receives responses in real time, improving your customer service and creating more brand loyalty.

Scaling email marketing efforts

A full CRM platform will assist your email marketing efforts with features for building, sending, and optimizing multiple campaigns. You can segment different audiences and then automate email campaigns that are triggered based on their actions.

Let’s say a customer signs up for a lead magnet. You can send a confirmation email, add them to an automated email sequence that follows up on the lead magnet’s content, and trigger personalized emails based on their actions.

Project management

Every job you complete for a client is another project you have to manage. Premium CRM tools let you build workflows that mimic kanban boards so you can easily see the progress of each project.

Here’s a list of project management tasks you can complete with a good CRM:

• Assign tasks
• Set deadlines
• Automate project movement

With a good CRM, each project can be accurately tracked to minimize errors or setbacks. Your team can then focus on doing good work instead of spending time managing each project.

Automation

Automation is transforming how marketing agencies are running their everyday business operations. You can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, including manual data entry and reaching out to leads.

You can also use automation to trigger specific actions based on a client’s behavior and interactions with your team. For example, if a client opens an email or clicks a link, you can set up automated follow-up actions like scheduling a call or sending targeted content.

Integrations

Your agency is likely working with several digital marketing tools that help make your operations more efficient. Adding a CRM could disrupt your system unless it integrates seamlessly with your current tools. 

CRMs with seamless integration capabilities let you connect to tools like:

• Email marketing software
• Social media scheduling platforms
• Project management software
• Online schedulers

With integrations in place, you can import data from different sources into your CRM. You can then organize the platform to prioritize the most crucial tasks for your agency’s success.

Comparing the best CRMs for digital marketing agencies

With many CRM platforms to choose from, you’ll need to comb through each platform’s features and see how they align with your company’s needs.

Save hours of time researching each tool with our complete breakdown highlighting the pros and cons of each tool, along with its pricing.

HoneyBook

HoneyBook is one of the best CRMs for digital marketing agencies. The tool simplifies onboarding and maintaining contact with clients.

While many other CRM tools just track and organize leads, HoneyBook has complete features for invoicing, proposals, scheduling appointments, and accepting payments. With HoneyBook’s suite of tools, you can onboard clients faster to close more deals.

The platform integrates with popular tools like Gmail, QuickBooks, Zoom, and Google Calendar to streamline your workflow. HoneyBook is more than just client-organizing software; it helps you close deals faster and scale your operations.

Support for team members

HoneyBook provides robust support for team members, enabling seamless collaboration and streamlined workflows. It allows your whole team to access client communications, documents, and tasks to improve your operations.

Lead management

You can build custom contact forms for your leads to easily fill out and convert them into clients. Plus, add more to your forms to enable instant booking as well as automations that trigger as soon as someone fills your form out.

Client communication

HoneyBook allows you to automate emails, save email templates, and manage all your client communication from one place. Overall, it makes it easy to communicate quickly with clients and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Email marketing

HoneyBook automations can be customized to send out emails based on specific client actions, or even activity, such as if they haven’t paid yet or signed a contract. However, HoneyBook doesn’t offer traditional email marketing options like segmentation and list management.

Project management

HoneyBook’s project management tools allow you to track a project’s status in your pipeline, send updates to clients, and manage your deadlines with automatic task reminders.

Automation

HoneyBook automations are customizable so you can receive a task reminder, send an email, send a file, or move your clients’ project status after a variety of triggers. Choose to automate based on when someone inquires, when they complete a file, when they’ve scheduled a session with you, and more.

Integrations

HoneyBook offers direct integrations with Calendly, Zoom, Meta Ads, Pic-Time, and more. For other integrations with project management software or email marketing software, you can also use Zapier to set up custom actions and triggers.

Customer support and ease of use

HoneyBook offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and a comprehensive knowledge base.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Streamlines closing leads with invoicing and proposal features	Doesn’t have email marketing features	Starter: $9.50 per month for the first 3 months
Tracks projects and automates workflows		Essentials: $19.50 per month for the first 3 months
Integrates with popular marketing tools		Premium: $39.50 per month for the first 3 months

Pipedrive

Focused primarily on sales and email features, Pipedrive includes a full CRM that’s capable of moving leads throughout the sales cycle. All of your sales data and contact history are stored in the cloud for you or anyone on your team to access.

The kanban-style pipeline management dashboard makes it easy to see which stage your leads are at and how they’ve been interacting with your team. You can even create customized fields and modify your pipeline in any way you need to.

To manage your leads with Pipedrive, you’ll need to purchase the LeadBooster add-on, which has 4 tools for driving more leads. However, you’ll also have project management features to help you track each project’s progress.

Support for team members

Pipedrive enhances your team’s collaboration by offering shared pipelines so everyone has access to the same contact information to work from.

Lead management

Use Pipedrive’s lead scoring to help you identify the hottest leads and add them to your pipeline for guided follow-ups.

Client communication

Pipedrive sets itself apart by offering contact maps and contact timelines for a chronological view of your interactions with all of your clients.

Email marketing

Pipedrive’s email marketing capabilities allow you to seamlessly integrate your email campaigns with your sales pipeline.

Project management

Project management may be more challenging with Pipedrive, as the platform lacks comprehensive features for managing the intricacies of status and deadline tracking.

Automation

Pipedrive’s automation features are mainly focused on the sales process to help you close leads and organize your pipeline.

Integrations

Pipedrive integrates with more than 400 apps, streamlining your workflow by connecting with the essential tools your agency already uses.

Customer support and ease of use

Pipedrive offers a live chat with different customer support plans, catering to various businesses’ needs.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Highly customizable sales pipelines	No invoicing or payment capabilities	Essential: $24 per user per month
Robust automation capabilities	Lead generation requires add-ons	Advanced: $39 per user per month
Extensive library of 400-plus integrations		Professional: $64 per user per month
		Power: $79 per user per month
		Enterprise: $129 per user per month

Keap

The Keap CRM organizes all of your client data in one location so you and your team can easily access it anytime. The dashboard not only shows general information like email address, phone number, and title, but you also get a complete transaction history and any interaction the client has had with your company.

You can assign tasks to any team member to keep projects moving forward and automatically tag and label clients based on their behaviors. Keap isn’t just a CRM; it has tools that can improve several areas of your client relationships.

The text and email features let you communicate directly with your clients without leaving the platform. Like HoneyBook, Keap has tools for scheduling, invoicing, and payments so you can close deals quickly.

Support for team members

Keap facilitates efficiency by allowing for shared calendars, real-time updates on client interactions, and the ability to delegate tasks directly within the platform.

Lead management

Keap has advanced segmentation and tagging features that let you precisely target and follow up with leads based on their interests and behaviors.

Client communication

With Keap’s text and email marketing tools, your business can automate its communication processes and keep up with clients without having to spend extra effort.

Email marketing

Keap’s robust email marketing features allow you to send personalized one-to-one emails, broadcast messages to different segments or your entire list, and utilize powerful automation to streamline your communications.

Project management

Keap lacks extensive project management capabilities, focusing more on client relationship management and communication tools.

Automation

Keap’s automation capabilities extend across operational, sales, and marketing processes. You’ll streamline your efforts in several areas of business.

Integrations

Keap improves your workflow by integrating with more than 5,000 apps using Zapier.

Customer support and ease of use

Keap has phone support, chat, and a detailed knowledge base to help users effectively use all of its features.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Comprehensive client management, from communication to transactions	High pricing plans	Pro: $199 per month per 1,500 contacts
Built-in scheduling, invoicing, and payment processing tools		Max: $299 per month per 2,500 contacts
Automated workflows for client engagement and task assignment		Ultimate: $299 per month per 2,500 contacts

Monday.com

Like several other platforms on this list, Monday.com includes a CRM and several other features to help with all areas of client management.

The CRM includes pipeline workflows, contact management, lead management, lead capture, client projects, marketing activities, and client onboarding. All workflows are customizable, and there’s even a campaigns dashboard that shows your progress and financial results at a glance.

Support for team members

Monday.com gives you customizable dashboards that allow every team member to stay up to date and efficiently work toward shared goals.

Lead management

Monday.com’s CRM features include tools for scoring and qualifying leads so you can prioritize and focus your efforts on the most promising opportunities.

Client communication

Monday.com has limited client communication tools, but you can text and email clients directly.

Email marketing

There are no built-in tools for crafting and managing email marketing campaigns with Monday.com. You’ll need to rely on third-party integrations to streamline your workflows and automate your campaigns.

Project management

Monday.com has a suite of tools that are designed to help businesses manage their entire project portfolio. You can streamline your business’s operations, track your tasks and resources, and align them with your overarching strategy for sustained growth.

Automation

Using Monday.com’s automation features, you can set up custom workflows to help team members stay on task. Monday.com alleviates the burden of your team’s manual tasks and lets you spend more time strategizing your growth.

Integrations

The tool integrates with 200-plus solutions, so you can continue to run your operations as you normally do without having to spend time adjusting your processes.

Customer support and ease of use

Monday.com offers 24/7 support through live chat and email. There’s also a call-request option, so you can get help when unexpected issues come up.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Includes added functionality for project management and development	Doesn’t include invoicing or scheduling features	Free: $0
Customizable pipelines and workflows for detailed tracking of sales and marketing activities		Basic: $15 per user per month
User-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality for easy setup and management		Standard: $20 per user per month
		Pro: $33 per user per month

HubSpot

HubSpot is one of the few platforms that can fully support your business with a full set of CRM tools. The CRM comes standard with real-time sales dashboards, meeting schedulers, an email template builder, and live chat software. Additionally, you can integrate other HubSpot tools, such as its marketing automation and customer service platforms, for a comprehensive business solution.

The CRM is free, too, unless you want additional features or higher limits.

Support for team members

The huge number of tools under the HubSpot umbrella are designed to improve your team’s coordination and drive success.

Lead management

Fully automate your lead scoring to prioritize your outreach efforts.

Client communication

HubSpot has live chat software and an email template builder to keep you in constant contact with your clients.

Email marketing

HubSpot can transform your email marketing efforts with A/B testing, automatic exclusion of unengaged contacts, and in-depth analytics reports.

Project management

Using HubSpot’s project management features, you can manage your tasks and use pre-built templates to start new projects.

Automation

You can use automation to score your leads based on interactions with your business, among other tasks.

Integrations

HubSpot has more than 500 integrations, covering different types of tools including email marketing platforms, social media tools, and finance software.

Customer support and ease of use

Use live chat, email, or phone to contact HubSpot 24/7. It also has a large knowledge base with common issues and problems.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
All-in-one platform for marketing, sales, and customer service	Premium features can be costly	Free CRM: $0 (with basic features)
Free entry-level plan with essential CRM features	Learning curve to unlock the full potential of the platform	Sales Hub Professional: $90 per month per seat
Powerful automation and analytics capabilities

ActiveCampaign

Known in the marketing world primarily for its email tools, ActiveCampaign also has CRM features to help any business that relies on email marketing to manage new clients. The platform has integrated AI to create powerful workflows by automating repetitive tasks.

Your team can be notified when deals are created or have moved through your pipeline. You can also automatically assign new tasks to team members based on the client’s stage.

You can also assign scores to your leads to help your team determine which ones are most likely to close. If you’re having trouble figuring it out on your own, ActiveCampaign will show you the win probability for each lead.

Support for team members

ActiveCampaign allows you to assign different access levels and roles to team members.

Lead management

By leveraging lead scoring and segmentation, you can change your marketing efforts and sales pitches to be personalized for each potential customer.

Client communication

With ActiveCampaign, you can send personalized text messages using SMS to nurture leads and inform clients about new offers and updates.

Email marketing

ActiveCampaign includes a visual email drag-and-drop designer and A/B testing capabilities. You simplify the creation of compelling emails while optimizing their performance.

Project management

You can streamline your projects using task management, deadlines, and team collaboration. Everyone on the team can comment on and share files for easy communication.

Automation

ActiveCampaign’s advanced automation features enable you to streamline your marketing and sales processes by setting up workflows that trigger specific actions based on customer interactions.

Integrations

Use ActiveCampaign’s built-in integration marketplace to discover and connect your existing software tools.

Customer support and ease of use

ActiveCampaign supports its users with typically essential channels like live chat, email support, and an extensive knowledge base for self-help.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Advanced lead scoring system that helps you prioritize and manage leads	Not built specifically for customer relationship management	Plus: $23 per month
AI-driven insights that provide win probabilities for leads	No invoicing or proposal features	Professional: $59 per month
		Enterprise: $119 per month

Pipeline

Pipeline’s CRM features are fully dedicated to helping you close leads and manage your clients’ accounts. All of your deals show up in one place, and you can use filters to quickly search for information.

Each deal comes with its own profile that tracks the progress of tasks, and all team members can communicate using the built-in tools.

Beyond the CRM features, you can build email campaigns, forecast sales, track commissions, and use Pipeline’s unlimited file storage. This tool is ideal for companies that want CRM features but need help streamlining workflows for all departments.

Support for team members

In-app messaging and file sharing let everyone on your team collaborate and update one another in real time.

Lead management

Pipeline drives your lead management process by incorporating lead scoring, lead tracking, and activity logging. You can get an in-depth look into the interactions and touchpoints of every lead.

Client communication

Pipeline offers email templates, which let you craft and launch email campaigns to communicate directly with your audience.

Email marketing

You’ll get full email campaign tools that let you market directly to your audience using your email list.

Project management

Pipeline has limited project management capabilities. The tool focuses primarily on basic task tracking.

Automation

Pipeline has automation features, but they’re limited to sales and email processes.

Integrations

Pipeline seamlessly integrates with a wide range of tools, including email, phone, calendar, task management, and more.

Customer support and ease of use

Pipeline created a large knowledge base, a dedicated help section for immediate assistance, and a developer section for custom integrations and advanced configurations.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Unified platform for CRM, email campaigns, sales forecasting, and file storage	Lacks advanced analytics and reporting features	Start: $29 per user per month
Customizable deal profiles to track projects		Develop: $39 per user per month
Integrated communication inside deal profiles		Grow: $59 per user per month

Zoho

Zoho CRM is a smaller set of tools under the bigger umbrella of the Zoho brand. Encompassing everything from sales and marketing to legal and security, Zoho has the software to help you scale your operations without hiring more employees.

The Zoho CRM makes it easy to establish an omnichannel presence, segment your audience, and deliver a personalized experience. AI is strewn throughout the platform, too, so it’s likely that you can automate most of the legwork.

Using the tool’s Deep Analytics, you can gain insights into website visitors, create custom reports, and build forecasts. Zoho CRM also integrates seamlessly with more than 40 other Zoho applications, providing a comprehensive ecosystem for you to manage all parts of your business.

Support for team members

Zoho makes learning how to use the platform a breeze. Everything from tutorials and a knowledge base to webinars, podcasts, and blogs is available.

Lead management

Use lead scoring to qualify leads by analyzing their behavior and engagement with your brand.

Client communication

Zoho CRM gives you an omnichannel approach, allowing you to reach out to clients through every channel and stage of their journey.

Email marketing

Zoho CRM allows you to connect your favorite email tools to use its analytics to easily build better campaigns.

Project management

Zoho has an extensive set of project management features. You get access to assignment rules, escalation rules, approval processes, scoring rules, and a comprehensive review process, for example.

Automation

You can automate tasks related to leads, deals, contacts, and accounts. There are many more automation possibilities in Zoho compared to some of the other tools.

Integrations

The amount of integrations with other Zoho applications is enough to create an entire marketing ecosystem, but the platform also integrates with third-party tools.

Customer support and ease of use

You have access to a large number of resources, like blogs, podcasts, webinars, and more. The tool may be difficult to use, however, because of its robust features.

Pros	Cons	Pricing
Advanced AI assistant that provides actionable insights	May require a steeper learning curve due to the depth of customization options	Standard: $20 per user per month
Highly customizable to suit any business process	Number of features can be overwhelming for small teams	Professional: $35 per user per month
Extensive ecosystem with integration across 40-plus Zoho applications		Enterprise: $50 per user per month
		Ultimate: $65 per user per month

How much should you pay for the best CRM for digital marketing agencies?

Digital marketing agencies can expect to pay anywhere from $20 to $90 per user per month for a CRM system that meets their basic needs. For agencies looking for more advanced features, such as automation, AI insights, or comprehensive analytics, the prices can climb higher.

Pay special attention to how the company structures its pricing plans. Some companies require you to pay per user, while other tools charge a flat fee per month regardless of how many users you have. First, get an idea of how many people will be using your tool and see if you can get a slight discount for paying annually instead of monthly.

Why it’s time to upgrade your CRM

A powerful CRM system can automate most of the work of keeping your customer data organized and easily accessible. The tools on this list have the features and integrations required to manage your digital marketing agency’s needs. 

The best CRM tools, like HoneyBook, include essential features and advanced tools that help with marketing, sales, and finances. Streamline your operations and let HoneyBook manage the day-to-day while you focus on growing your business.