How to customize a CRM to become a more organized and efficient freelance writer

As a freelance writer, you want to spend the majority of your time writing, not worrying about organization and the finer details of your business. A CRM can help you stay organized, keep track of leads and clients, and streamline your workflow so that you can focus on what you do best. To get off to the best possible start with your new CRM, you’ll want to customize it to suit your needs.

There are many CRM features that there’s no need to customize, but to make the most of your CRM, some features will require a bit more set up. To speed up your CRM set up process, read on for customization ideas that will help you get the best value out of your CRM as a freelance writer.

Three critical features that you’ll want to customize in your CRM are groups, pipelines, and custom fields. Take a look below for some inspiration for how you can customize these three features as a freelance writer and make your CRM work for you.

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Imports and exports
Note: If you’re considering CRMs and you want to give our product — Less Annoying CRM — a try, we’ll be happy to apply all these customizations to your account during your free trial so you don’t need to worry about a thing. Just get in touch with our support if you’d like to give it a try.

Groups

Segment and organize your list of contacts and companies in the CRM.

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Pipelines

Pipelines

Track any workflow or process that you repeat over and over again.

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Fields

Custom fields

Collect all the information you need that is critical for your work.

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Custom fields

As a freelance writer, it will be especially important to collect information on the details of each writing project you are working on so that you can easily juggle multiple assignments.

  • ⏳Deadline (date field to track the deadline of all your current articles)
  • 🗓️Publication Date (date field that lists the publication date for each piece you write)
  • 💸Payment Terms (text area with details about how you’ll be paid for your article or blog post)
  • 💻Word Count (number field that lists the number of words you’re aiming for with your article)
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Custom fields let you take your CRM to the next level. Collect more than just the basic information about the contacts and companies you work with; instead, collect everything that is critical for your work.

Pipelines

Pipelines are composed of statuses—each status is step in the process you are tracking. Pipelines consist of both active and closed status. An active status is something that requires follow up or additional work. A closed status tracks the end points of a process.

As a freelance writer, you can use a pipeline to track your entire process. From pitching to seeing your name in print—store all of that information in your pipeline. Take a look at an example pipeline for freelance writers below.

Active statuses

Pitch
Accepted
Research
Writing
Editing
Submitted

Closed statuses

Published
Not Interested
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Pipelines are one of the most useful CRM features; they let you track any workflow or process that you repeat over and over again. It's a great way to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Groups

As a freelance writer, groups will help you easily keep track of the publications you pitch to, editors you work with frequently, and any other clients you complete writing projects for. Take a look at a couple example groups that are perfect for writers below.

  • 📰Publications
  • ✍🏻Editors
  • 💰Clients
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Groups are a handy feature that you can use to segment and organize your list of contacts and companies in the CRM. Think of groups as tags that you can attach to anyone to assign a label to them.

Once you’ve created custom fields, pipelines, and groups in your new CRM, you are ready to get started! Dive right in and start making the most of your new CRM.

Less Annoying CRM is a contact management tool designed for small businesses, run by a small business.

At $15/user/month with a 30-day free trial, LACRM has all the features that you need to manage your customers, new prospects, and everyone in between.

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