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complete guide to salesforce

A Marketer’s Complete Guide to Salesforce in 2025

Fun fact: 92% of businesses claim that a customer relationship management (CRM) software helps them achieve their revenue goals.

One of the most feature-packed CRM platforms today is Salesforce. This software enables companies to build relationships with prospects and foster loyalty with current customers.

With a great number of features comes a steep learning curve. That’s why we created a complete guide to Salesforce so you can better understand this platform and maximize your subscription:

If you urgently need Salesforce help, feel free to contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359!

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM software. It enables businesses to organize and manage their customer list and information in one place.

By having a centralized hub of their customers’ activities and other information, companies can better understand their customers and their needs. As a result, the marketing, sales, and customer service teams can better communicate with customers, and personalize messages and offers.

Think of Salesforce as a contacts list on steroids — not only does it have your customers’ contact information, but it also has all the relevant information and interactions about your customers and prospects so you can strengthen your relationship with them.

Who needs Salesforce?

Businesses of various sizes can benefit from using a CRM like Salesforce.

Small- and medium-sized businesses can use Salesforce, especially if they intend to scale. However, solopreneurs and small businesses with limited budgets and conservative outlook can also opt to use a CRM like Nutshell, which has all the necessary features of such platforms at a more affordable price.

Enterprises requiring powerful platforms and hundreds and thousands of clients will especially benefit from Salesforce, which can help them manage all their leads and customers in a single platform.

How does Salesforce work?

In essence, Salesforce is a CRM.

It securely brings together a company’s customer and prospect information on one platform. As a result, the marketing, sales, and service teams have all the latest information about a prospect or customer to nurture a better relationship with them.

Suppose you own an automobile dealership. Team members from different departments know how the last interaction with a prospect went, so everyone on the team is aware of the cars the customer is interested in and their demographics.

All departments are also aware of the vehicles customers have used and when they last had their service appointment. As a result, the marketing team knows what to upsell or cross-sell to the prospect. The service team also understands the customers’ concerns regarding vehicle maintenance because of their service history.

Salesforce has various features, two of which are Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud. Let’s discuss them below.

What is Salesforce Data Cloud?

Salesforce Data Cloud is a customer data platform (CDP) that enables team members to access information and take action on them to nurture their prospects or customers.

It offers a unified view of a business’s first-party data about its customers and prospects, so all departments have a 360-degree view of their audience. Customer data can include web engagement data, purchase history, and other info the organization has gathered.

Because Data Cloud securely stores all these data, it enables teams to provide personalized experiences for their audience and automate workflows based on a contact’s action and other information.

What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a digital marketing automation and analytics app. Businesses can automate their marketing efforts on various channels using this app:

  • Email
  • Social media
  • SMS
  • Mobile app
  • Website

Every customer is unique and has a preferred channel for communicating with a brand. Having a single, unified system can help ensure messages don’t fall through the cracks, and businesses can reach out to customers through the preferred method.

Marketing Cloud offers a convenient way to manage all customer interactions on one platform. Businesses can also use it to automate sending personalized messages to their audience.

How much is a Salesforce subscription?

Salesforce offers various pricing tiers for different company sizes. Pricing plans start at $25 per user per month.

Its Pro Suite starts at $100 per user per month. You can also contact Salesforce for a quote if you need more than the Pro Suite.

Is Salesforce worth it?

A Salesforce subscription is a sizable investment, especially if you’re getting multiple seats for your team members.

If you’re a large enterprise that manages thousands of customer data, the investment is worth it. SMBs that want to scale can also make the most of their CRM investment in Salesforce.

Regardless of your business size, consider hiring a Salesforce marketing consultant to help you maximize your CRM and nurture your customers.

4 affordable Salesforce alternatives

If Salesforce sounds like an excellent tool that you can use but is way beyond your budget, check out these Salesforce alternatives that offer similar features for a lower cost:

Salesforce Alternatives Pricing Best For
1. Nutshell Starts at $13/user per month SMBs looking for a user-friendly CRM
2. Pipedrive Starts at $15/user per month Businesses looking for a CRM to manage their sales pipeline
3. ActiveCampaign Starts at $15/user per month Large enterprises and medium-sized businesses that have at least 1,000 contacts
4. Freshsales Starts at $9/user per month SMBs that only need the basic CRM features

1. Nutshell

Price: Starts at $13/user per month

Nutshell is an affordable, user-friendly CRM platform for SMBs. It can automate several tasks, including adding prospect data and lead scoring.

Like Salesforce, it can also automatically send personalized emails to nurture your relationships with prospects and customers. Do you have multiple customer personas? Nutshell can help you segment your contacts list!

2. Pipedrive

Price: Starts at $15/user per month

Pipedrive is another Salesforce alternative that SMBs can consider when looking for a CRM. It can manage their sales pipeline and automate some of their sales processes.

You can create your custom sales pipeline to match your current process or choose from Pipedrive’s available templates. You can also use this CRM to segment and sort your leads so you can track their journey and nurture them into conversion.

3. ActiveCampaign

Price: Starts at $15/user per month

ActiveCampaign is another Salesforce alternative that helps businesses automate contact management and lead scoring. As a result, companies can streamline their sales process and grow their revenue.

4. Freshsales

Price: Starts at $9/user per month

Another affordable alternative to Salesforce is Freshsales. The basic features of Freshsales will help SMBs streamline their marketing and sales processes.

This CRM lets you track your customer journey and map your sales process. It also has email templates that can help you start writing personalized emails for your different customer personas.

Maximize your Salesforce subscription with WebFX

To provide a seamless customer experience that will set you apart from your competitors, you need a CRM like Salesforce. This platform helps you manage your contacts list, better understand their needs, and provide a personalized experience that will engage them with your business.

Using CRMs can be daunting, though, as these platforms have loads of features that can take a while to get used to. A Salesforce consultant like WebFX can maximize your subscription and improve your return on investment (ROI) from this tool.

Want to get started? Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist!

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