What Marketers NEED to Know About CRM in 2025

CRM in 2025 is not the CRM of previous years (and previous nightmares).

Whether you’re a marketing manager who feels stuck using CRM as a campaign tool, a founder who feels like CRM is a drain on time and resources without results, or a sales leader struggling to use CRM for smarter pipeline support, the odds are that CRM just isn’t CRM-ing.

It’s a system, a platform, a sales dashboard, a tool you log into when marketing is chasing you for updates, right? 

Wrong!

CRM in 2025 is no longer a system, it’s a business-critical function.

If you’re still treating it like software, you’re holding your growth back.

Here’s why.

You’re working under CRM misconceptions that are holding you back

• A tool for storing contacts
• A marketing channel, like eCRM or CRM marketing
• A sales pipeline for tracking leads
• An IT project owned by Ops or tech teams

What is CRM, then?

• Is a cross-functional system and process
• Is centred around the customer
• Aligns teams and tech
• Is driven by data, owned by marketing, and embedded across the business

The old ‘CRM function vs tool’ shouldn’t even be a debate — marketing-led CRM  as a function focusing on business growth is critical if your business wants to thrive in 2025 (and beyond).

When CRM becomes a function, here’s what changes:

• Processes evolve around the customer
• Data becomes customer-first, not system-first
• Teams align across departments (goodbye, silos!)
• Growth becomes predictable and scalable
• Marketing leads with intelligence and impact, not just campaigns

In short, you can catch your breath because you won’t be chasing, you’ll be leading.

Remember: buying a CRM ≠ having a CRM strategy

CRM in 2025 isn’t about viewing CRM as a software (as we’re sure you’re sick of us saying repeatedly), it’s about having a solid CRM data strategy and having CRM integrate with your marketing efforts and team.

A system alone won’t drive results.

Any business can spend thousands on a CRM tool, but the likelihood is they’ll end up with what is, in essence, an expensive digital address book.

No strategy. No alignment. No connection to outcomes.

Your CRM strategy might as well be a packet of crisps flying away in the wind!

Here’s the thing: without an intentional, tailored CRM strategy, you’ll always be throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

If you don’t embed CRM as a business function, you’ll end up with:

• Untrustworthy or siloed data
• A misused or overused approach to email
• Conflicting, confusing messaging for customers
• Teams blaming the tech when the real issue is a lack of strategy

Buying a CRM doesn’t mean you’re doing CRM. 

The role of marketing in CRM (Hint: you’re in charge)

In the evolved CRM model, marketing is at the centre (woohoo right?)

The reason why CRM is integrated with marketing so closely is that marketing owns the data, which is the integral cog in the CRM machine.

Plus, marketing also controls the messaging, understands the journey and timing, and connects across departments.

In short, marketing leads the alignment of CRM and is the glue holding the CRM function together, whilst also driving and providing strategy for the entire process.

The most powerful CRM channel you have: Email (but it’s at risk)

Email is still your most powerful CRM channel, but it’s often plagued by a multitude of issues that cause it to be ineffective.

Does any of this sound familiar? 

• It’s used without any real strategy or context
• It’s oversent in B2C, and under-personalised in B2B (spam vs generic, door-to-door salesman-type of content… it’s hard to choose which is worse)
• Sales, service, and marketing send in silos
• Campaigns follow a calendar, not the customer journey
• Bad data creates irrelevant content and wrong timing (when the key has always been the right message at the right time)
• Deliverability is declining, and no one’s watching it

Lack of alignment between your CRM strategy and your email will only damage relationships instead of building them, so it’s better to fix it sooner rather than later. 

The fix: What CRM-driven marketing looks like in 2025

Okay, we’ve covered the bad and the kind of ugly, but what about what CRM-driven marketing looks like in 2025?

What happens when you get CRM right

Our B2C case study:

We’ve already mentioned our ‘right message, right time’ mantra, but for B2C businesses, it’s such an essential and profitable element to (dare we say it) get right!

This is the case for a B2C business we worked with, which got its CRM nailed down to the tune of £1.5M extra revenue in 6 months, alongside a CRM-led email strategy aligned to the customer journey.

The unified comms across marketing, sales, and service was as efficient as it was streamlined, without a silo in sight!

Our B2B case study:

Did somebody say 30% increase in high-quality leads? We did! 

Plus, a not-too-shabby doubled email engagement rate, CRM function embedded across sales and marketing, and business growth of 130% in 12 months.

More importantly, marketing became the strategic growth driver in the business rather than a support team!

Key takeaways for marketers in 2025

• Marketing owns the CRM strategy (because you own the data, the messaging, and the outcomes)
• Email is your strongest CRM tool, but you need to use it strategically
• Data is only powerful when used in context