CRM is a powerful driver of customer engagement, but maximising its impact requires more than just strong execution. To truly optimise performance, brands need a structured approach — one that goes beyond channel-level metrics to connect CRM performance with broader business objectives. This means building a solid foundation for measurement, embedding a culture of continuous optimisation, and ensuring teams have the right CRM tools and insights to drive meaningful improvements.

By focusing on three key areas — Performance Intelligence, Performance Optimisation, and Performance Mindset — brands can unlock new levels of efficiency and effectiveness in their CRM strategy.  

And the impact is real. According to Litmus, brands that frequently run testing on their emails generate an ROI of 42:1, compared to just 23:1 for those who never A/B test. That’s a significant uplift just by working smarter, not harder.

Here’s how to shift from execution mode to a data-driven CRM powerhouse:

1. Establishing a Strong Foundation with Performance Intelligence

Before brands can optimise, they need to build the right foundation. Performance intelligence ensures CRM campaigns are aligned with business objectives and that measurement goes beyond traditional metrics. This means having a clear structure for defining success, ensuring accurate data tracking, and consolidating insights into a single view. Without this foundation, brands risk making decisions based on incomplete or misleading data. Key elements of this foundation include:

• Aligned KPI framework: Defining a structured KPI framework that maps CRM metrics to business outcomes is key. This ensures campaigns are not just performing in isolation but contributing to broader business goals.

• Tracking and data accuracy: Reliable tracking of CRM campaign engagement, on-site actions, and conversions creates a solid dataset for analysis and optimisation

• Unified intelligence dashboard: Create a real-time performance dashboard that consolidates data from various touchpoints showcasing the entire customer journey, providing clear insights into what’s working, what’s not, and where to optimise next.

2. Implementing a Performance Optimisation Strategy

Once a strong measurement foundation is in place, it’s time to test, refine, and scale. Optimisation isn’t a one-time effort; it’s an ongoing process that combines structured experimentation with data-driven decision-making. Too often, brands fall into the trap of relying on gut feel, past experiences, or senior stakeholder preferences when making CRM decisions. But spoiler alert - just because something has worked before doesn’t mean it’s the best approach today! Without structured testing, brands risk rolling out changes that may not actually drive improvements - or worse, could negatively impact performance. A successful optimisation approach should include:

• Robust data-driven testing framework: A systematic approach to testing ensures decisions are based on data, not assumptions. This includes defining hypotheses, setting clear success metrics as well as statistical rigour to drive meaningful improvements. And while email is often the starting point, real impact comes from extending experimentation across the entire customer journey—from different CRM channels (push, in-app, SMS) to landing pages and post-click experiences.

• Benchmarking and auditing: Evaluating CRM activity against industry standards and internal benchmarks helps identify opportunities for optimisation and ensures continuous improvement.

• Strategic prioritisation: A prioritised roadmap of testing ensures efforts are ranked by potential impact, effort required, and alignment with business objectives.

• Knowledge sharing: Documenting and sharing test results keeps insights from getting siloed and ensures teams make data-driven decisions.

• Holistic optimisation dashboard: A high-level dashboard tracking the entire experimentation program, showing how optimisations collectively impact key KPIs, can uncover overall successes and new areas for strategic focus.

• Explore new optimisation frontiers with AI: Go beyond traditional A/B testing, with AI tools like Merkle’s AI-Neuro – our innovative platform whose primary function lies in predicting creative performance. By measuring subconscious neurological responses like attention, emotion, and cognitive load before campaigns go live, brands can predict creative performance and fine-tune content for maximum impact. It’s not just about which variant wins; it’s about understanding how your audience truly feels about your content, and using that to guide smarter, faster decisions across CRM touchpoints. Explore how AI-Neuro works.

3. Embedding a Performance Mindset

The real game-changer? A transformation in mindset. It’s not just about running tests; it’s about shifting how teams approach CRM. When performance thinking becomes second nature, every campaign and strategy is built for impact. To embed this mindset:

• Get buy-in across the business: Ensuring key stakeholders understand the value of a data-driven approach helps align efforts and drive strategic decision-making.

• Embrace experimentation and learning from failure: Testing means sometimes getting it wrong, but that’s where the real insights come from. Being open to failure fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. And that’s where you’ll see real gains: iterating, learning, and refining over time to drive meaningful impact.

• Upskill teams and embed best practices: Giving teams the knowledge and tools they need empowers them to interpret data effectively and apply insights to campaigns, ensuring CRM strategies, content creation, and execution all align for maximum impact.

Where Does Your Brand Stand?

Are you still operating in execution mode, or are you ready to move towards a data-driven CRM optimisation strategy? By shifting to a data-led approach, brands can unlock hidden revenue potential, improve customer engagement, and evolve CRM from a tactical channel into a strategic growth driver. The question is, how ready is your business to embrace this transformation?

If you’re ready to take the next step, get in touch to explore how we can help you transition from execution to optimisation and beyond.