Lead generation is a critical aspect of any business’s growth strategy. In the modern business landscape, customer relationship management (CRM) software plays a pivotal role in managing leads effectively. Odoo 17, the latest iteration of the popular CRM platform, offers a wide array of features to enhance lead generation strategies. Odoo 17 CRM provides customizable lead capture forms that can be embedded on websites, social media, and landing pages. These forms are highly configurable, allowing businesses to gather specific information from prospects. By streamlining the lead capture process, businesses can ensure that no potential lead is lost. Odoo 17 offers comprehensive tools for generating leads through websites, live chat, and email.
This blog explores how businesses can leverage Odoo 17 CRM to improve their lead-generation efforts.
Automation is a key feature of Odoo 17 CRM. Businesses can create lead nurturing workflows that automatically send follow-up emails, schedule appointments, or assign tasks to team members based on predefined triggers. This ensures that leads are consistently engaged and moved through the sales funnel. Ensure seamless integration between your website, live chat, and email marketing tools within Odoo 17. This integration allows for a unified view of lead interactions and data.
Let’s explore how you can effectively use the comprehensive tools offered by Odoo 17 for generating leads through websites, live chat, and email one by one.
Website Lead Generation
Generating leads through an Odoo website involves simple steps. Odoo is a powerful open-source business management software suite that includes a website builder and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) features. You can generate a lead from the website whenever a customer visits your website and fills in the contact form. On websites, we can see a contact form for customers to ask their queries. The data mentioned in the contact form will be saved as a lead in the CRM module. Odoo 17 CRM allows you to create and customize lead capture forms easily. Embed these forms on your website’s landing pages or contact pages to gather visitor information.
Here’s a general guide on how to generate leads through an Odoo website.
1. Install and Set Up Odoo:
Ensure you have Odoo installed and configured on your server.
2. Create a User-Friendly Website:
Use Odoo’s website builder to create an attractive and user-friendly website.
3. Add Lead Capture Forms:
Design and place lead capture forms strategically on your website. These forms should collect essential lead information, such as name, email, phone number, and company details. Usually, we use a contact form to collect leads from websites.
Use the Edit icon available in this window to add more fields to the contact form. Whenever a customer submits a contact form, a new lead will be created automatically in the back-end.
4. Manage Leads Using the CRM Module:
The assigned salesperson can manage leads from the contact form on the website using the CRM module in Odoo.
Email Lead Generation:
Email marketing is a powerful lead generation tool, and Odoo 17 seamlessly integrates with email marketing platforms. This integration enables businesses to automate email campaigns, nurturing leads over time and converting them into customers. Utilize Odoo 17 CRM’s email marketing capabilities to run targeted email campaigns. Segment your email list based on leads’ behavior and preferences. You can create automated email workflows to nurture leads over time and send personalized content, offers, and follow-ups to keep leads engaged.
1. Set Up Email Integration:
The foundation of lead generation in Odoo begins with setting up email integration. This involves configuring the software to seamlessly connect with your email service provider, whether it’s Gmail, Outlook, or another platform. By integrating your email, Odoo becomes a centralized hub for managing email communications related to leads.
To set servers and gateways for incoming and outgoing mail, you can go to the General Settings of Odoo 17.
Under the Discuss tab, you can find the Use Custom Email Servers option, which can be activated to send and receive emails using your own email server. Once you activate this option, you will get access to configure Incoming and Outgoing Email servers.
2. Set Action to Generate Lead:
While configuring the Incoming Email Server, you will be asked to set the action to perform on incoming mails. You can set it as Lead/Opportunity.
After saving the details, Odoo will automatically generate leads from incoming emails, which can be managed from the CRM module.
3. Lead Assignment:
To ensure prompt follow-up and personalized communication, Odoo enables businesses to establish lead assignment rules. These rules dictate how incoming leads are distributed among sales representatives or teams.
The sales team can generate leads from incoming emails by defining the email alias. When you receive an email from the mentioned category, a new lead/opportunity will be created from that sales channel.
4. Lead Conversion:
Converting an email contact into a lead is a critical step. Odoo offers the ability to manually convert emails into leads or automate this process based on predefined criteria. This step involves collecting and storing relevant information, such as the prospect’s name, contact details, and expressed interest or inquiry.
Live Chat for Lead Generation:
Odoo 17 offers live chat functionality that can be integrated into your website. Real-time communication can engage visitors and turn them into leads. Set up proactive chat messages that trigger based on visitor behavior or time spent on specific pages. This can help initiate conversations and gather lead information. Live chat provides a direct and immediate channel for engaging with potential leads and converting them into loyal customers. We will discuss the strategies and best practices for effectively generating leads from live chat in Odoo.
1. Integration and Setup:
To start generating leads from live chat, the first step is to ensure that the live chat feature is properly integrated into your Odoo CRM. This typically involves setting up the live chat widget on your website or e-commerce platform and connecting it to your Odoo instance. You can install the LiveChat module from Odoo AppStore and create a new website live chat channel.
Then, you can publish the channel on your website.
As you can see in the screenshot above, a chat icon will be available on the website, which can be used to directly communicate with the website visitors.
2. Proactive Engagement:
One of the key advantages of live chat is its proactive nature. To generate leads, initiate conversations with website visitors based on their behavior. For instance, you can trigger a chat when a visitor spends a certain amount of time on a particular product page or shows interest in a specific service.
Using this feature, you can effortlessly generate new leads that can be converted into new opportunities later. This live chat option will assist the sales team in initiating a conversation with the website visitor.
3. Lead Capture Forms:
Integrate lead capture forms within the chat interface. When a chat is initiated, you can prompt the visitor to provide their contact information or answer a few questions relevant to your business. This information can be directly stored in your Odoo CRM as a lead.
4. Use the Discuss Module to Manage LiveChat:
In Odoo, Live Chat is connected with the Discuss module. You can manage the conversation as DMs in the Discuss module.
Here, you can see the live chats in the Discuss module. Using the / icon will open some operational tools as shown in the image. You can find the Lead option in the list, which will help you to generate leads from the live chat.
You can mention the name of the new lead after selecting the Lead option. As you can see, Odoo will generate a new lead from this chat.
You can see the newly generated leads in the Pipeline window of the CRM module as shown in the screenshot above.
5. Timely Follow-Up:
Generating a lead in a live chat is just the beginning. Ensure timely follow-up after the chat. Odoo CRM can help automate this process, sending personalized follow-up emails or reminders to your sales team.
Generating leads from live chat in Odoo requires a strategic approach. By integrating live chat effectively into your CRM, being proactive, personalizing interactions, and using automation where possible, you can turn website visitors into valuable leads. Remember that the key to successful lead generation is not just in capturing leads but also in nurturing and converting them into loyal customers.
By effectively leveraging Odoo 17’s capabilities for website, live chat, and email lead generation, businesses can attract, engage, and convert prospects into valuable leads, ultimately driving business growth and success. In the digital age, effective lead generation is crucial for business success, and Odoo 17 CRM provides a robust toolkit to achieve this. From streamlined lead capture to sophisticated lead scoring and nurturing, businesses can use its features to enhance their lead generation strategies. By integrating Odoo 17 CRM into their operations, businesses can gain a competitive edge and foster lasting customer relationships.
To read more about turning your leads into opportunities in Odoo 17 CRM, refer to our blog How to Turn Your Leads into Opportunity in Odoo 17 CRM