Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys - Part 1

Marketer’s Space - Automating CRM Actions with Journeys - Part 1

​
Marketing and sales go hand in hand, yet teams often struggle with inefficiencies in lead management. Leads may go cold due to delayed follow-ups, and valuable prospects might get lost in the shuffle. This is where integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho Marketing Automation (ZMA) comes into play. By utilizing CRM actions in Journeys, businesses can automate lead nurturing, push only engaged leads to sales, and ensure seamless collaboration between the marketing and sales teams. This integration helps marketers target the right prospects at the right time while allowing sales teams to act on high-intent leads without delays.

In this post, we’ll explore how leads that originate in Zoho CRM are nurtured through ZMA before being handed off back to sales.

Syncing Leads from Zoho CRM, Engaging Them, and Automating Sales Follow-Ups

Many businesses capture leads first in Zoho CRM—through website forms, inbound inquiries, or sales outreach. However, not all leads are immediately ready for sales engagement. That’s where marketing steps in, using Zoho Marketing Automation to nurture these leads until they show clear interest. Here’s how you can set up a CRM-integrated Journey to automate this process from start to finish.

Sync Leads from Zoho CRM to Zoho Marketing Automation

To ensure a smooth transition of records between Zoho CRM and ZMA, you first need to sync your CRM leads into Marketing Automation. This allows marketers to send targeted campaigns to the right audience. Ensure all relevant fields (such as Name, Email, Lead Source, and Lead Stage) are mapped properly. Once synced, these leads will now be available in ZMA for segmentation and targeted campaigns.
Setup syncSync Leads from Zoho CRM to Zoho Marketing Automation

Send a Marketing Campaign to Engage CRM Leads

With the leads synced, you can now target them with an email campaign. Let’s say you’re promoting a product demo or a free consultation. You send an email with a call-to-action (CTA) button, inviting leads to learn more.

Create a Journey to Target Interested Leads

Navigate to the Journeys section in Zoho Marketing Automation and create a new Journey. This Journey will track engagement and ensure that interested leads are identified, categorized, and updated in both ZMA and Zoho CRM.
  • Add the Email Action Trigger . Click on “Specific Email” and choose the email campaign.
  • Then select the email action “Specific link clicked” and choose the CTA that you included in the campaign.
  • Specify the exact URL you want to track (e.g., a demo request page, a pricing page, or a consultation booking link).
Email ActionCreate a Journey to target interested leads

Adding this trigger ensures that your Journey only targets leads who have shown clear intent by clicking on your email’s CTA. This helps you:
  • Identify engaged leads who are actively interested in your offering.
  • Filter out unresponsive leads, allowing marketing and sales teams to focus their efforts on high-potential prospects.
  • Automate lead qualification without manual tracking.
Once a lead clicks on the CTA, they enter the Journey, signaling that they are engaged and should be prioritized for further marketing and sales efforts.

Update the Lead Stage in Zoho Marketing Automation

Now that the lead has clicked on the CTA and entered the Journey, the next step is to update their lead stage to reflect this new level of engagement.
  • Add the Update Lead Stage action component right after the Email Action Trigger.
  • Configure it to move these contacts to the “Marketing Engaged” stage in ZMA.
Update lead stageUpdate the Lead Stage in Zoho Marketing Automation

By moving them to the Marketing Engaged stage, you’re ensuring that these leads are recognized as actively interested, making it easier to track their Journey through your funnel.

Push the Updated Lead Data to Zoho CRM

At this stage, the lead stage has been updated in Zoho Marketing Automation, but we also need to reflect these changes in Zoho CRM. Since both platforms need to have the latest details, we now push the updated lead information back to Zoho CRM.
  • Add the Push Data to CRM action component after the Update Lead Stage action.
  • Configure it to push the lead’s latest details into the Leads module in Zoho CRM.
  • Ensure that all relevant fields are mapped correctly.
CRM push dataPush the Updated Lead Data to Zoho CRM

Keeping Zoho CRM up to date is critical for sales teams, as it ensures they are always working with the latest information.
At this point, your Journey has:
  • Tracked engaged leads through the Email Action Trigger.
  • Updated the lead stage in ZMA to “Marketing Engaged.”
  • Pushed the updated lead data back to Zoho CRM.
With these foundational steps in place, you are now ready to take the next action—automating deal creation and assigning follow-up tasks to the sales team.

Create a Deal for the Interested Lead

At this stage, the lead has shown interest, so we should automatically create a deal in Zoho CRM.
  • Add the Create Deal CRM Action Component and configure the deal name, due date, stage, amount, and deal assignment.
  • You can also map fields at this stage.
CRM Create dealCreate a deal for the interested lead

Create a Task for Follow-Up

The final step is to ensure a salesperson takes action on the newly created deal.
  • Add the Create Task CRM Action Component.
  • Configure the CRM module, subject and description, due date, priority, status, and assign the task to the deal owner in CRM.
CRM Create taskCreate a task for follow-up

After this, you can connect the components to ensure a seamless flow.


This setup ensures that leads are not just nurtured, but also seamlessly handed off to sales when they show interest. The sales team receives up-to-date CRM records, active deals, and clear follow-up tasks, increasing their chances of closing the deal faster.

Why This Matters for Businesses

By using Zoho CRM and ZMA together, marketing and sales teams need not waste time on cold outreach, and can focus on high-intent leads.
For businesses, this means:
  • Higher revenue by focusing only on engaged leads.
  • Stronger collaboration between marketing and sales.
  • Better customer experience with timely follow-ups.
This is just one of the many ways you can use Zoho CRM actions in ZMA Journeys to refine your lead management process and ensure that only high-intent prospects reach your sales team. In the next post, we’ll explore another powerful use case—how to handle leads that originate in ZMA and transition them seamlessly into Zoho CRM for sales follow-up. Stay tuned for part two, and until then, happy marketing!

Regards,
Pearlin Nitika
User education | Zoho Marketing Automation

      • Recent Topics

      • Group mail for external email addresses

        Hello, I was just wondering if the Group mail feature works with external email addresses - e.g. gmail.com or a completely different domain? it seems only internal addresses (hosted with Zoho) receive the mail. Thanks, Oliver

      • Is Zoho Shifts included in the Zoho One plan?

        In case the answer is no: there's any plan to make it available via One? Thank you

      • Marketing Automation Requirements Questions

        I would like to set up a multi-email drip campaign- please see the structure below and confirm if I can achieve this set up in Zoho marketing automation. Where applicable, highlight gaps and workarounds. Thanks Drip email campaign- Can I create one drip

      • The email address you have entered belongs to a different deployment/region.

        Hi, I am trying to create the user - mprust@crombiecomputers.co.uk but keep getting the message below -  The email address you have entered belongs to a different deployment/region. Please contact support@zohoaccounts.com for assistance. Look forward

      • Use Zoho Flow Credits for CRM ‘Actions by Zoho Flow’

        Hello Team, We would like to submit a feature request regarding credit usage for “Actions by Zoho Flow” in Zoho CRM. Use Case: We are Zoho One users and actively use Zoho Flow, where our organization has 52,000 Flow tasks per month. In Zoho CRM, we use

      • Unusual activity detected from this IP. Please try again after some time.

        Hello Zoho admin and IT team We are a registered website in Eloctronic services and we been trying to add our users to the zoho system but this issue faced us ,, hope you unlocked us please.

      • Alert if a field is ticked.

        Hi There, We have two modules named Opportunities (Deals) and End Users (CustomModule1), as per the image below. Within Opportunities, we have a lookup field that looks up from the End Users Module. We are looking to get an alert either via email or another

      • Zoho CRM Analytics - Allow To Reorder Dashboards

        I would like to suggest that you add the ability to reorder dashboards in the Analytics Module. I can see that this has been requested some time ago, the latest 9 years ago. I am not sure if this is a big or small endeavor, but such a small fix can go

      • Sending a Template to Sign

        hi, trying to send a template to be signed using this as a test: $accessToken = "1000.xxx" $templateId = "1234" $uri = "https://sign.zoho.eu/api/v1/templates/$templateId/createdocument" $payload = @{ templates = @( @{ template_id = $templateId request_name

      • Kaizen #194 : Trigger Client Script via Custom buttons

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting and useful Kaizen post. We know that Client Scripts can be triggered with Canvas buttons and we discussed this with a use case in Kaizen#180. Today, let us discuss how to trigger Client Script when a

      • Adding Choices in a Sub-Form Dropdown

        Hi, Has anybody tried Adding Choices to a Dropdown in a Zoho Creator Sub-Form programmatically? My Deluge code adds rows to a subform with 2 fields A and B. A - text field. B - dropdown. My Deluge script adds the row and displays A successfully. For the

      • Zoho CRM Email Templates 100% Width No Background How?

        Hi, On the Zoho CRM Email Templates in setup > customization > templates > new templates > I choose blank template, but still it puts in a gray background and a max width for the email. I just want to make an email that looks like an email I would send from gmail that has no background or max width. How do you do this? 

      • Checking client unsubscribe details

        Hi team, Can you please let me know where we can check if a client has unsubscribed, along with the date and time it was done? If this information is not available at our end, please help confirm the unsubscribe date for the below email ID from the backend:

      • Optimum CRM setup for new B2B business

        Can some advise the most common way to setup Zoho CRM to handle sales for a B2B company? Specifically in how to handle inbound/outbound emails. I have spent hours researching online and can't seem to find an accepted approach, or even a tutorial. I have

      • Integration with...

        Dear Zoho Commerce team, Please could you consider the integration within Zoho Commerce / Inventory and Qapla'? (https://www.qapla.it/en/) This app is better than Aftership in many ways: - Aftership integration require PRO plan and price start from more

      • Scan and Fill CRM Lookup Field

        Not sure if there is a reason why this isn't possible or if I'm just missing it. But I would like to be able to use the scan and fill feature on the mobile app to prefill the CRM lookup field and fetch the rest of the data in the form.

      • Customer Management: #2 Organize Customers to Enhance Efficiency

        When Ankit started his digital services firm, things felt simple. A client would call, ask for a website or a one-time consultation, Ankit would send an invoice, get paid, and move on. "Just one client, one invoice. Easy.", he thought. Fast forward a

      • Zoho Mail and Zoho Flow integration to automatically create ToDo tasks from outbound emails

        How do i setup Zoho Mail and Zoho Flow integration to automatically create ToDo tasks from outbound emails

      • Attachments between Zoho and Clickup, using Flow.

        Olá suporte Flow, tudo bem ? Estamos usando o flow para integrar Zoho Desk com o clickup. Não localizamos a opção de integrar anexos entre do zoho Desk para o clickup. Gostaríamos de saber se migrando para o plano pago, teremos suporte para fazer a integração

      • Adding an Account on Zoho Mail Trigger in Zoho Flow

        I'm trying to create a flow using the zoho mail trigger "Email Receive". My problem is that when I select this trigger, it only shows one account from the account dropdown. I'm planning to assign it on a different email. How can I add other email ad

      • Linnworks

        Unless I am missing something, the Linnworks integration is very basic and limited. I have reached out to support but the first response was completely useless and trying to get a reply in a timely manner is very difficult. Surely I should be able to

      • Test data won't load

        I am using a Flow to receive orders from WooCommerce and add them to a Zoho Creator app. I recently received an order which failed, and when attempting to test the order I found that it just shows a loading animation and shows up in the history as "queued."

      • AddHour resets the time to 00:00:00 before adding the hour.

        Based on the documentation here: https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/functions/datetime/addhour.html Here's my custom function: string ConvertDateFormat(string inputDate) { // Extract only the date-time part (before the timezone) dateTimePart = inputDate.subString(0,19);

      • WhatsApp Link is not integrating

        Hello, I am using zoho flow. when new row added in google sheet it sends email to respected person. In email body I have a text "Share via WhatsApp". behind this text I putted a link. But when the recipient receives email and wants to share my given info

      • Zoho flow - Webhook

        If I choose an app as a trigger in Zoho Flow, is it still possible to add a webhook later in the same flow?

      • Zoho Flow + Bigin + Shopify

        We are testing Zoho Flow for the first time and want to create a flow based in first purchases. When a client makes his first order, we're going to add the "primeiracompra" (first order) tag to his account in Shopify (it's not efficient, but that's the

      • Adding multiple Attendee email addresses when adding a Zoho Calendar event in Zoho Flow

        I am trying to integrate Notion and Zoho Calendar via Zoho Flow. However, the Attendee email address supported by Zoho Calendar - Create event only supports one email address, so I am having difficulty implementing automation to automatically register

      • Is it The Flow? Or is it me?

        I want to do some basic level stuff, take two fields from a webhook, create a zsheet from a template using one field with date appended, create a folder using both fields as the name, and put the zsheet into that folder. I was going to elaborate - but

      • Having problem with data transferring from Google sheet to ZMA

        When connecting Google sheet with Zoho marketing automation it is having the email as a mandatory field. Can I change it as non-mandatory field or is there any other way to trasnfer data from google sheet to ZMA. I have leads which we get from whatsapp,

      • Dropbox to Workdrive synchronisation

        I want to get all the files and folders from Dropbox to Workdrive and each time a new file or folder is added in dropbox i want it to be available in Workdrive and wise versa. Sync Updates to Files Trigger: "File updated" (Dropbox). Action: "Upload file"

      • Microsoft Planner Task to Service Desk Plus Request - error n4001

        Hi there. I'm trying to create a flow that will create a new request in ServiceDesk Plus when a new task is created in Microsoft Planner. I have succesfully connected both Planner and ServiceDesk Plus, and have configured the 'create request' section

      • Trailing Space in "Date and time scheduled "

        I am trying to use the Zoho Projects - Create event action in a flow. It is failing with the output error as: "Action did not execute successfully due to an unknown error. Contact support for more details." The input is: { "Duration - Minutes": 30, "Project":

      • Project name by deal name; project creation via flow

        Hello, I want to create a project in zoho projects using flow by a trigger at the crm. My trigger is the update of a deal (stage). The project name should be the account name/ deal name. But I dont find the solution to it. Can you please give me the answer

      • Slack / Zoho Flow; Repl

        I am trying to add a comment in a zoho ticket when someone reply's to a message in a thread. The Message posted to public channel trigger doesn't seem to pick up thread messages. I also cannot use the thread_ts field as it doesn't seem to pull that in.

      • Get Holiday ready with Zoho Mail's Templates

        As the holiday season approaches, it’s time to step away from work and unwind. You may not be able to respond to every email or send individual messages to wish everyone holidays greetings—but It is still important to stay connected. How do you send thoughtful

      • Customize folder permissions in a Team Folder in a Team Folder via zoho Flow

        HI All, on the nth level folder of a team folder I would like to Customize folder permissions when it's created in the flow of Creating folders. That last level I only want to grant access to a specific group, goup ID 201XXXXXXXX. Can you help with a

      • Associating a Candidate to a Job Listing

        Hello, I am trying to use Zoho Forms embedded on my website for candidates to apply for a job opening. I want the form then to tie directly with zoho recruit and have the candidate be automatically inputed into Recruit as well as associated with the specific

      • Automate reminder emails for events

        Hi team, I am trying to automate send event reminders via zoho campaign to my attendees 1 day prior to my scheduled events. I used zoho flow, autoresponder in zoho campaign, as well as I used workflow and automation - but none of these methods are working.

      • Update related module entry Zoho Flow not working with custom module ?

        Hi everyone. I am facing an issue here on Zoho Flow. Basically what I am doing is checking when a module entry is being filled in with an Event ID. Event is a custom module that I created. If the field is being filled in I fetch the contact with its ID

      • How to disable time log on / time log off

        Hi We use zoho people just to manage our HR Collaborators. We don't need that each persona check in and out the time tracker. How to disable from the screen that ?

      • Next Page