Best CRM for investor relations

As an investor relations professional, managing communications, tracking interactions, and maintaining strong relationships with investors is crucial to your success. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system tailored for investor relations can help you stay organized by centralizing investor data, automating follow-ups, and providing insights into engagement—all from one platform. With the right CRM, you can enhance communication, improve transparency, and strengthen your investor relationships.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the best CRM options for investor relations teams like yours, focusing on tools that will help you manage investor interactions efficiently and drive trust and growth.

Why you need a CRM

Implementing the right CRM system can change how you manage investor relations, helping you streamlining processes and enhancing communication. Here's how.

Challenges without a CRM

Managing investor relations without the right CRM can lead to numerous challenges.

• Disorganization: Keeping track of investor information can become chaotic and fragmented.
• Missed opportunities: Without a centralized system, important follow-ups and opportunities can easily be overlooked.
• Inefficient processes: Manual tracking and communication can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
• Lack of insight: Without analytics, it's difficult to gauge investor engagement and interest.
• Inconsistent communication: Managing communications manually can lead to irregular and unprofessional interactions.

Benefits of a CRM

Fortunately, a good CRM can help address these challenges and provide extra benefits like these.

• Centralized information: All investor data is stored in one place, making it easily accessible.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automate routine tasks and streamline workflows to save time.
• Improved customer relationships: Maintain personalized and timely communication with investors.
• Better decision-making: Gain valuable insights through analytics and reporting features.
• Increased sales: Leverage data to identify and capitalize on new investment opportunities.
• Consistent communication: Ensure regular and professional interactions with automated reminders and templates.

How to evaluate and choose a CRM

With a lot of CRMs in the market to choose from, it can be hard to figure out which CRM fits your business goals best. To help you with your decision making process, we've put together the following tips you can use as a check list.

1. Define your requirements

Before you dive into the research bit, it's important to identify what key features you need that align with your business goals. Essential functionalities might include investor tracking, communication management, document storage, and analytics. Make a list of must-have features that will streamline your investor relations processes and enhance engagement. Start with the following list of key features that we've rounded up for you, and edit it according to your specific needs.

Key features of a CRM for investor relations

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds Leads, Investors, Investment opportunities email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks Leads, Investors, Investment opportunities through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences.
• LinkedIn connection: Seamlessly imports Leads, Investors, Investment opportunities from LinkedIn and tracks conversations within the CRM.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment is vital when choosing a CRM. Consider the pricing models of different CRM platforms and evaluate whether their features justify the cost. Look for solutions that offer scalable pricing options, allowing you to upgrade as your investor base grows, ensuring a cost-effective investment.

3. Selection process

Researching and selecting the right CRM vendor involves several steps. Start by seeking recommendations from peers or industry experts. Read online reviews and case studies to understand how different CRMs perform in real-world scenarios. Shortlist vendors that specialize in investor relations and offer robust customer support and training resources.

4. Get a demo

To make an informed decision, make sure you try and compare different CRM platforms tailored for investor relations. A demo allows you to explore the features and functionalities tailored for investor relations. You'll get a feel for the user interface and understand how the CRM can streamline your investor communication and management processes. To see how Folk can help you manage your investor relations more effectively, get a demo here.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

At this stage, it's time to get excited about your brand new CRM. To help you get familiar with it as soon as possible, we suggest you tick off these three things in the first few weeks of implementing your CRM.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM can be seamless if you start by importing your existing data. Export your current investor records as a CSV file from your current CRM. This ensures that all your investor information is intact and ready for use in the new system. And, you won't have to worry about manually adding contact information.

2. Create a first pipeline

Once your data is imported, the next step is to set up your first pipeline. This pipeline should reflect the stages of your investor relations process, such as Initial Contact, Meeting Scheduled, Due Diligence, Investment Received, and Follow-Up. Customizing your pipeline to match your investor engagement strategy will help you track interactions and progress effectively.

3. Onboard your team

Effective use of a CRM for investor relations involves your entire team. Ensure that everyone understands how to use the new system by providing training sessions and resources. This will help your team to manage investor interactions consistently and efficiently, leading to better relationship management and successful fundraising outcomes.

The 5 best CRMs for investor relations

1. folk

folk is a modern CRM platform for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations to enhance deal management and prospecting.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach without manual data entry or additional costs for email services.
• LinkedIn integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn and Sales Navigator to track contacts within folk, and leverage your network. You can also use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Full email sync compatible with Gmail and Outlook, with email sequences that automate your follow up. Plus access to templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users with quick onboarding and a minimal learning curve.
• All-in-one: folk streamlines your workflow by allowing you to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find their emails, reach out through customizable email sequences, and track interactions in a pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving time and money.
• Full customizability: Make folk work for your needs through its custom fields, pipelines, dashboards, automation and workflows. folk can support multiple business functions including sales, marketing, recruitment and more.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Cons

• Reporting: Currently lacks reporting features, but there are plans for future implementation.
  

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, essential for nurturing potential investors and keeping them engaged.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting, helping you manage investment opportunities and track progress.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to identify high-potential investors and focus your efforts effectively.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems, ensuring seamless investor relations management.
• Customizable dashboard and reports: Allows you to create customized dashboards and reports to track metrics and gain insights into your investor relations efforts.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: HubSpot is known for its intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for managing investor relations without a steep learning curve.
• Comprehensive free plan: Offers a robust free version that includes essential CRM features, ideal for startups managing investor relations on a budget.
• Seamless integration with marketing tools: HubSpot integrates smoothly with its marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for managing investor communications and relationships.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing and lead nurturing, helping you maintain consistent communication with investors.
• Customizable dashboard and reports: Allows you to create customized dashboards and reports to track metrics and gain insights into your investor relations efforts.

Cons

• High cost at higher tiers: HubSpot’s pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for small businesses as they scale.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan and lower tiers have limited customization options, which can restrict flexibility for growing businesses.
• Complexity in advanced features: Some advanced features, such as custom reporting and workflows, have a steep learning curve and may require additional training.
• Email marketing limits: Email marketing functionality in the free plan is restricted by limits on the number of emails you can send, which can be a drawback for businesses with larger lists.
• Limited reporting capabilities in lower tiers: Detailed reporting and analytics features are often locked behind higher-priced plans, limiting insights for businesses on lower tiers.
  

3. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage investor data, interactions, and investment opportunities, helping teams act quickly on potential deals.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as investor follow-ups and email sequences, allowing teams to focus on building relationships and closing investments.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM, ensuring no investor interaction is missed.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track investor engagement, forecast funding rounds, and gain actionable insights.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect sensitive investor information.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: The CRM is known for its intuitive and visually appealing interface, making it easy for users to navigate and manage investor pipelines.
• Sales pipeline focus: Specifically designed for managing investment pipelines, offering a visual approach that helps teams track investment opportunities and activities effectively.
• Customization: Allows for a high degree of customization, enabling users to tailor the platform to their specific investment processes with custom fields and workflows.
• Automation features: Includes automation tools that help streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails and moving deals through the pipeline, saving time and boosting productivity.
• Reporting and analytics: Offers robust reporting and analytics tools that provide valuable insights into investor engagement and help identify areas for improvement.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks some of the more advanced CRM features, such as extensive marketing automation and AI capabilities, which are available in other platforms.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: The reporting and analytics features in the basic plans are somewhat limited, requiring upgrades to access more in-depth insights.
• Restricted customization options: While customizable, it does not offer as many advanced customization options as some other CRMs, which can be a drawback for businesses with complex needs.
• No built-in email marketing: Does not include built-in email marketing features, requiring users to integrate with third-party email tools for such functionality.
• Limited customer support hours: Customer support is not available 24/7, which can be inconvenient for businesses operating in different time zones or needing immediate assistance.
  

Price and plans

Pipedrive's annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is a robust CRM platform for large enterprises, offering tools for sales, marketing, service, and analytics, with extensive scalability.

Key features

• Comprehensive ecosystem: A unified platform offering CRM, marketing automation, customer service, and custom app development, suitable for managing investor relations efficiently.
• Customization and scalability: Salesforce is highly customizable and scalable, allowing organizations to tailor the platform to their specific investor relations workflows and manage growth effectively.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein offers AI-driven analytics and automation, providing insights that help optimize investor engagement strategies.
• Extensive integration capabilities: With Salesforce's AppExchange, companies can integrate the platform with various third-party applications, ensuring seamless operation across different business systems.
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance: Salesforce provides robust security measures and compliance features, critical for organizations handling sensitive investor data.

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set: Salesforce offers an extensive range of features covering sales, service, marketing, and more, making it a powerful tool for managing all aspects of investor relations.
• Highly customizable: Salesforce is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs with custom fields, objects, and workflows.
• Extensive integration capabilities: Salesforce integrates with a vast array of third-party applications, as well as its own ecosystem of tools, enabling seamless data flow across platforms.
• Advanced analytics and reporting: Salesforce provides powerful analytics and reporting tools, allowing businesses to gain deep insights into their data and make informed decisions.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein, the platform’s AI engine, offers predictive analytics, automation, and personalized recommendations to enhance productivity and investor engagement.

Cons

• High cost: Salesforce can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized businesses, with high licensing fees and additional costs for add-ons and customization.
• Steep learning curve: Due to its extensive feature set and complexity, Salesforce often requires significant time and training for users to become proficient.
• Complex setup and customization: Initial setup and customization can be challenging and often require expert help or certified consultants, which adds to the overall cost.
• Overwhelming for small teams: Salesforce’s robust features may be overkill for smaller teams or businesses, leading to underutilization of the platform’s capabilities.
• Integration complexity: While Salesforce offers extensive integration capabilities, integrating it with third-party applications can be complex and require technical expertise.

Price and plans

On an annual subscription, Salesforce's Service Cloud plan is as follows.

• Starter suite: Starts from $25 per user, per month.
• Pro suite: Starts from $100 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: Starts from $165 per user, per month.

5. Zoho

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. It has journey orchestration, sales process management, and workflow automation features. There's also something for marketing teams, including event management and customer segmentation.

Key features

• Lead and contact management: Efficiently manage and track interactions with leads, investors, and investment opportunities to streamline communication.
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Create tailored dashboards and reports to analyze investor engagement and track investment performance.
• Multi-channel communication: Integrate email, phone, social media, and live chat to maintain seamless communication with investors.
• Workflow automation: Automate routine investor relations tasks to enhance productivity and ensure timely follow-ups.
• AI-powered sales assistant (Zia): Utilize predictive analytics and intelligent suggestions to optimize investor engagement strategies.

Pros

• Affordability: Zoho CRM offers competitive pricing, making it accessible for startups and growing businesses focusing on investor relations.
• Customization: Extensive customization options allow tailoring the CRM to specific investor relations needs, including custom fields and workflows.
• Integration with Zoho suite: Seamless integration with other Zoho products provides a comprehensive solution for managing investor relations and other business functions.
• Multi-channel communication: Supports email, phone, social media, and live chat, enabling efficient management of all investor interactions from a single platform.
• AI-powered features: Zia, the AI assistant, offers intelligent insights and task automation, enhancing efficiency in managing investor relations.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: The extensive customization options can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant time investment to master the platform.
• Complex setup: Initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for businesses without technical expertise or dedicated IT resources.
• Performance issues: Occasional reports of slow performance, especially with large datasets or complex operations, can hinder productivity.
• Limited third-party integrations: While Zoho integrates well with its own suite of products, integration with third-party applications can be limited or require additional effort.
• Customer support quality: Customer support can be inconsistent, with some users reporting slow response times or unhelpful assistance.
  

Price and plans

Zoho's free plan is limited to three users. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Professional: $35 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $50 per user, per month.

Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for investor relations is crucial for streamlining your processes, enhancing communication, and ultimately driving successful investment outcomes. Each CRM discussed—folk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho—offers unique features and benefits tailored to different needs and budgets. Whether you prioritize ease of use, advanced automation, or comprehensive integration, there is a solution that can meet your specific requirements. To experience firsthand how a modern CRM can revolutionize your investor relations, try folk for free here.

Need a helping hand? Use our free tool to find your perfect CRM match.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What do investor relations professionals use as a CRM?

Founders looking to enhance investor relations often use CRMs like folk, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho. These platforms help streamline processes, manage communication, and maintain organized records of investor interactions, ensuring a professional and efficient approach to investor relations.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, depending on the complexity of your process, a CRM can significantly improve your investor relations by organizing data, automating tasks, and providing valuable insights, thus enhancing communication and efficiency.

How much does a CRM cost?

CRM costs can vary widely, typically ranging from $20 to $150 per user per month. The price depends on the features and scalability required by your business. For example, folk offers plans starting at $20 per user per month, while more comprehensive platforms like Salesforce can cost upwards of $150 per user per month.

Does folk’s CRM respond to investor relations needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is well-suited for investor relations. It offers features such as customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and seamless integrations, which streamline deal management and prospecting. The platform’s intuitive interface and automation capabilities make it easy to maintain organized and efficient communication with investors, ensuring a professional approach to managing investor relations.