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