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

    • "code":3001 ["Failed to update data."]

      I would like to seek your expertise - I might be wrong on my approach also.. I highly appreciate your advice. 1 problem remains is when a new row was added on the existing one [from another form that trigger upon Successful form submission ], it gets

    • Zoho Team Inbox - roadmap

      Hi, would be good to understand the Teaminbox roadmap, in particular: 1. API / Zoho Deluge connections. We have a process where the each email needs to be either tagged or assigned daily. It would be great if we could automate a 5pm alert for any exemptions

    • Zia Agents looks promising, but I still cannot deploy my first agent or connect WhatsApp after weeks of support tickets

      Hi Everyone, I am posting here because I am stuck and need practical help from someone who has successfully deployed a Zia Agent with WhatsApp. Zia Agents looks like a very promising product. I have watched the platform expand quickly, and I have noticed

    • Application-Level Save copy of sent emails

      It would be really helpful to be able to turn on/off the Save copy of sent emails at a per application level, so some applications can save in the sent folder and others don't.

    • how to get transcripts with speaker and time marks?

      Hello, I downloaded the transcript of a recent meeting and noticed that the TXT file does not bring the speaker name and the time mark. Is there any way to make it happen using ootb resources from Zoho Meeting? best

    • [IDEA] Bring Layout - Conditional Rules and Client Scripts to Zoho Books

      The problem We run Zoho Books with two e-invoicing integrations: myData (Greek tax authority, AADE) and PEPPOL (EU e-invoicing). Between the two, our Invoice form carries a large number of custom fields — document type codes, VAT exemption categories,

    • Don't send customer email when creating a ticket

      Hi Is there an easy way to stop the system sending an email to the customer when we manually create ticket.

    • Zoho CRM Layout Rules: Nine New Actions, Profile-Based Execution, and Interactive Preview

      Hello everyone, Availability: This feature is now available for customers in the JP and SA DCs. It is planned to be released for other customers in soon. We’re excited to announce powerful new enhancements to Layout Rules in Zoho CRM - a feature built

    • Zia Agents: quando a Inteligência Artificial do Zoho para de sugerir e passa a agir

      Decidi criar um artigo com um panorama prático sobre o que são os agentes do Zia Agents, como funcionam de verdade dentro do ecossistema Zoho e o que aprendi implementando um agente de qualificação de leads em produção. De onde veio a idéia do artigo?

    • Zoho Desk Android app update: Manage Custom Module records, View Record Counts for Sub Modules.

      Hello everyone! We have introduced an option to add, edit and delete Custom Module records within the Zoho Desk Android app. Now, you can also view the record counts for sub modules (Time Entry, Attachments, Activities) in the ticket details screen. Please

    • Automating CRM backup storage?

      Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,

    • How to preserve Lead Creation Date, UTM parameters, and custom fields during Lead Conversion?

      We are optimizing our MQL journey. When converting leads to contacts/deals, we need to ensure that the original system Lead Creation Date and UTM tracking parameters (Source, Medium, Campaign) are not lost or archived, as our teams require them for accurate

    • Problem with currency field in Zoho CRM

      Hi Guys Zoho Books has a feature in currency fields that automatically converts decimal numbers with commas ( , ) to period format ( . ) when pasting them. For example: R$ 2,50 --> R$ 2.50 Is this behavior available in Zoho CRM? I couldn't find any configuration

    • Sub-projects

      Hi,  Can we create a sub-project.   Client1 1. project1     1.1 sub-project1    1.2 sub-project2 2. project2    2.1 sub-project1    2.2  sub-project2

    • Using Items from Books as product/plan Add-Ons

      Hey, It'll be great to use Items from Books as product/plan Add-Ons. Ed

    • Inspection Table

      Hello Latha, We created a job sheet that includes the new table (Inspection Table) which was introduced recently. However, agents are not able to see the rows in the inspection table. Could you please investigate this issue and get back to us? Please

    • Custom Button Creation from Layout Editor in Zoho CRM

      Hello All, Buttons in Zoho CRM act as triggers that perform a specific action when clicked. Zoho CRM includes a set of system buttons that help you carry out common actions with a single click. Beyond these, your organization can create custom buttons

    • Automatic login options for customer portal

      The customer portal is nice for zoho subscriptions, but there are no options to automatically login to it, so if a user is logged into their account inside of my product, I can't create a link that will let them login to their dashboard. Could we have

    • Square Payments for Subscriptions

      I'd love to be able to use Square Payments for Subscriptions with my customers. I already use it for Zoho Books Please have this considered. It would really help my business

    • Add a MATRIX field to the forms creation

      Same as Zoho forms, we need a Matrix field in Zoho Creator forms, is very usefull

    • Discount Per Line Item

      We are a phone company. Sometimes, when we sign up customers, our sales team would like to provide recurring discounts on certain addons. Presently, we have no way of doing this so when we provide discounts, we are forced to simply reduce the price of

    • Introducing template migration: Move your Docusign templates to Zoho Sign in minutes

      Moving to a new e-signature tool usually comes with a catch: recreating every template from scratch. For teams that rely on dozens of carefully built templates—each with the right recipient roles, fields, and placements—that manual rework is often the

    • Error Code 2945 , PATTERN_NOT_MATCHED

      Hi, I am trying out Zoho Creator API.  However, I always get the following <response>     <code>2945</code>     <message>PATTERN_NOT_MATCHED</message> </response> However, error code list error as Invalid Ticket. I do not know what is wrong. 

    • Create a list of products and automatically associate them with new deals

      Hello, I have a store with WooCommerce, and I want to import orders into my pipeline. But I haven't found a way to import the order with the associated products. So, do I have to create the deals and then manually add the products to them? That's double

    • List of Mail Merge Templates via Deluge

      Hello, Is it possible to get a list of the mail merge templates I've created in CRM within a custom function? I want to retrieve them and put them in a dropdown list but all I get is a scopes error! Can anyone see where I'm going wrong? Is this even possible?

    • Zoho Advanced Analytics with Team Module support – Now includes teams, notes, and fields in reports & insights

      Greetings all, Advanced Analytics is now accessible via Zoho CRM's team modules, which means you can add team modules—plus their notes and fields—for inclusion in reports, insights, and other analytical functions. Alongside the standard and custom modules

    • WhatsApp conversations are no longer linked to existing threads after reconnecting the channel

      Hi everyone, We have an existing WhatsApp channel in Zoho Desk. We temporarily disabled it, renamed it, and then re-enabled it while reassigning our bot. Since then, all previous WhatsApp conversations are still visible in the history, but we can no longer

    • Zoho Assist Feature Update: July 2026

      Elevate to Admin Mode for iOS devices Technicians can now elevate an active session to Admin Mode directly from the iOS app. This feature lets the technician switch the remote computer from a standard user account to an admin account by entering credentials

    • Bulk deleting Zoho CRM records using Deluge, COQL and CRM API

      Hello everyone, During CRM implementations, data cleanup is a common task, especially after testing, migrations, imports, or integration development. I created a reusable Deluge function that performs bulk deletion using the Zoho CRM API. The approach:

    • Can't connect CalDAV

      ### Issue Summary Can't connect to my calendars using CalDAV and the URL `https://calendar.zoho.eu` ### Steps to Reproduce 1. Tried to connect on multiple devices, on multiple OS's (Android DAVx, Thunderbird, Gnome Calendar, Apple Caneldar). 2. When I

    • CRM x WorkDrive: We're rolling out the WorkDrive-powered file storage experience for existing users

      Release plan: Gradual rollout to customers without file storage add-ons, in this order: 1. Standalone CRM 2. CRM Plus and Zoho One DCs: All | Editions: All Available now for: - Standalone CRM accounts in Free and Standard editions without file storage

    • Guide customers to the right booking page with routing forms

      Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We're excited to introduce Routing Forms in Zoho Bookings. Routing forms let you collect information from customers before they schedule an appointment and automatically direct them to the most appropriate booking

    • Cannot receive emails

      Sent one days ago still no feedbacks, cannot call customer services number

    • Email Password Reset - Vishal & shaik Vali Babu

      Hi Team, The below-mentioned employees are unable to log in to their Gmail due to a password error. Kindly look into this on priority vishal.r@jumbotail.com shaik.babu@jumbotail.com

    • Live Chat

      Is live chat inthe website in zoho desk?

    • DKIM 2048 too long

      I'm trying to add a DKIM TXT record for my domain in Zoho Mail but my DNS provider (Shopify) has a character limit on TXT record values. The 2048-bit DKIM key is too long to enter. Can anyone advise how to generate a shorter 1024-bit key instead, or another

    • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

      Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

    • Technical personnel are required to assist in synchronizing license quotas and solving the problem of being unable to add users.

      We are a cross-border jewelry e-commerce company and currently use Zoho Mail Lite corporate email service. I have paid to purchase 1 Mail Lite annual user license (order number 133627785, payment time 2026-06-29). It has been more than 12 hours since

    • non ricevo ne invio mail

      non riesco ad inviare né ricevere posta. URGENTISSIMO

    • 重要詢問:電子報回信沒有收到

      我使用zoho作為寄電子報的mail， 但是我發現從電子報回信，完全都沒有收到!!!(包含垃圾郵件) kit那邊設定確定都沒有問題，請問這邊是哪裡設定有問題導致沒收到呢? (我確認過mail是一樣的)

    • Next Page