How can an AI marketing agent use Zoho CRM for marketing?
An AI marketing agent can use Zoho CRM in two directions. It can put the prospects it finds into Zoho CRM as leads your reps can work, and it can read Zoho CRM to learn which of those conversations turned into revenue.
Zoho CRM is the customer relationship management app from Zoho, the software company based in Chennai, India. It organizes your sales data into modules. New prospects sit in Leads. Once a lead qualifies, it becomes a contact linked to an account for their company, usually with a deal that moves through your pipeline stages. Calls, meetings, tasks, notes, emails, and attachments hang off each of those records, and most teams add custom fields and custom modules of their own.
Kite is one example of an agent that does this work through your connected Zoho CRM account. It works across all of those modules, including the custom ones your team built.
Marketing jobs Kite can do with Zoho CRM
The jobs below follow a prospect from the day Kite finds it to the day the deal closes. Then they turn back to what your pipeline can teach your marketing.
Add qualified prospects to your Leads module
Kite turns a prospect list into Zoho CRM leads your reps can work the same day. Say you ask for 40 regional logistics companies that opened a new warehouse this year. Kite finds the companies and the head of operations at each one. It confirms each person still holds the role, then scores every prospect from one to five against your ideal customer profile.
Before it writes anything, Kite reads the fields on your Leads module. That way it fills in the custom fields and picklist values your team already uses instead of inventing new ones. Each lead it adds carries:
- the person's name, title, company, and work email, plus a phone number when the research source has one
- a Lead Source that names the campaign, so you can report on it later
- the rep who owns the lead, chosen from the users in your Zoho CRM account
- Kite's fit score, written to the field your team uses for it
- a note explaining why the company fits and what recently happened there, such as the new warehouse
When a person is already in Zoho CRM, Kite updates that record and adds its note there. Your rep opens the lead and sees who to contact and why now, without leaving Zoho CRM.
Convert qualified leads into contacts, accounts, and deals
Kite converts a lead the moment your team says it's real. Suppose your founder tells Kite, "Call with Maya at Harbor Freightways went well. They want a pilot for $24,000." Kite converts Maya's lead into a contact and creates Harbor Freightways as an account. It also opens a deal with a name, a stage, an amount of $24,000, and an expected closing date.
From there, Kite keeps the deal current as the conversation moves. When Harbor Freightways signs, Kite moves the deal to Closed Won. When a different prospect goes with a competitor, Kite moves that deal to Closed Lost and adds a note with the reason. It also updates the Lead Status on leads that went nowhere, so your Leads view shows the people still worth calling.
Keep accounts and contacts accurate
Kite updates the account and contact records your reports depend on. When its research finds that a company doubled its headcount or moved its headquarters, Kite writes the new details to the account. When a contact changes jobs, Kite updates their title and company.
This matters for marketing as much as for sales. A segment built on industry or company size only works if those fields are right. Kite can also remove an account, contact, or deal your team no longer wants in Zoho CRM when you ask it to.
Prepare meetings, follow-up emails, and files for your reps
Kite sets up the next step so your rep only has to show up. When someone mentions in the conversation that Harbor Freightways booked a demo for Thursday at 2pm, Kite creates the meeting in Zoho CRM and links it to the deal. If the time moves, Kite updates the meeting.
For follow-up email, Kite writes the message as a draft on the lead or contact record, from a sending address set up in your Zoho CRM account. Say you share a webinar attendee list. Kite checks each attendee against your ideal customer profile, then drafts a follow-up for every strong match that mentions the question they asked during the session. Your rep opens the record, reads the draft, and sends it from Zoho CRM.
Kite also adds notes and files to records. It can attach the one-page account brief it wrote, or the proposal your team sent, to the deal's attachments, so anyone who opens the deal has it.
Read your pipeline to see what's working
Kite reads your deals, leads, contacts, and the activity around them to see which marketing turns into revenue. It can search deals by stage, amount, owner, closing date, or any other field. For each record, it reads the notes, the calls and meetings logged against it, and the emails sent and received.
That reading turns into work. Every Monday, Kite can flag deals in Negotiation/Review with a closing date this month and no call or email in three weeks, and tell you which rep owns each one. It can compare won deals with lost ones to find the industries, company sizes, and lead sources that close. And it searches your reps' notes, so when "needs single sign-on" keeps coming up, Kite can answer it in an FAQ on your website or in a section of your next email campaign.
Work in your custom modules and fields
Kite works with the parts of Zoho CRM your team built for itself. It lists your modules, including custom ones, and reads each module's fields before it creates or changes a record. If you track trade-show conversations in a custom module called Booth Visits, Kite can read those records and add new ones after the show. It can also link records to each other, such as connecting a booth visit to the lead it produced.
What Kite reads and changes in Zoho CRM
Kite reads nearly every part of your Zoho CRM account and writes the records that move prospects forward. The lists below separate the two.
Information Kite can read
- LeadsLeads listed or searched by any field, email, phone, or keyword, so Kite can find a person before it adds them and pull the leads that need attention.
- Contacts and accountsPeople and companies with their owner, address, account link, and custom fields, which Kite uses to check fit and build audiences.
- DealsDeals searched by stage, amount, closing date, owner, or any other field, which shows Kite where the pipeline stands.
- Calls, meetings, and tasksThe activity your team has logged and scheduled, which tells Kite which deals are getting attention and which have gone quiet.
- NotesNotes on any record, searchable by keyword, which is where Kite finds the objections and questions that keep coming up.
- Email history and draftsThe emails sent and received on a record, the unsent drafts on it, and the sending addresses your team has set up.
- AttachmentsThe files attached to a record, which Kite can open and read.
- Modules, fields, and usersYour standard and custom modules, the fields on each one, and the people on your account, so Kite writes to the right place and assigns the right owner.
Information Kite can create or change
- LeadsKite creates leads with your fields filled in, updates up to 100 at a time, and converts a lead into a contact, an account, and a deal.
- Contacts and accountsKite creates contacts, updates contact and account details, and removes records your team asks it to remove.
- DealsKite creates deals with a name, stage, amount, and closing date, updates them as they move, and removes them when asked.
- Meetings and callsKite creates and updates meetings, and updates the details on logged calls.
- NotesKite adds notes to any record and edits the notes it wrote.
- Email draftsKite writes and revises email drafts on a record for your rep to send.
- AttachmentsKite uploads files to a record.
- TagsKite creates tags in a module so your team can group records, such as everyone from one campaign.
- Records in any moduleKite creates and updates records in any standard or custom module, and links related records to each other.
How Kite connects to Zoho CRM
Connect your Zoho CRM account through OAuth. Kite then works with the records and permissions available to that connected account. Zoho CRM isn't one of Kite's built-in tools, so you'll need your own Zoho CRM account. The research behind each lead comes from Kite's built-in sources, so you don't need a separate data provider. In Kite's list of apps, Zoho CRM appears under two names, Zoho and Zoho CRM. Both connect your Zoho CRM account through OAuth. The one named Zoho covers everything on this page, while the one named Zoho CRM covers records, lead conversion, and attachments.
Records Kite creates belong to the connected user unless Kite assigns them to another rep. If you ask for Zoho CRM work before connecting, Kite replies with a link to connect your account.
You can work with Kite in your browser or in Slack, and you can start with the result you want. Ask Kite to "find 25 companies like our three biggest customers and add them to Zoho CRM for Sam to call this week." Kite already knows your positioning, customers, and competitors from its research on your business. It proposes the audience and the list, then adds the leads with Sam as the owner.
How-to guides using Zoho CRM
- How to add a qualified prospect list to Zoho CRM Coming soon Kite builds a list of companies and people that fit your ideal customer profile, scores each one, and adds the best matches to your Leads module with the reason they fit and the rep who owns them.
Where Zoho CRM fits in Kite's marketing work
Zoho CRM is where a finished lead list goes to work. Kite finds and qualifies the people and companies, then writes them into your Leads module with an owner, a Lead Source, and the reason each one fits.
Zoho CRM is where an inbound lead is recorded once Kite has looked into it. For each new form submission or inbound email, Kite researches the person and their company, judges how well they fit, and adds them to Zoho CRM with a note on why. Then it drafts a reply with a clear next step.
Zoho CRM supplies the open deals, their stages and closing dates, and the calls and emails logged against them. Kite uses that to tell your team which deals deserve attention this week, then books the meetings and drafts the follow-ups to act on it.
Zoho CRM holds the people who went quiet. Kite finds leads and contacts with no recent email or meeting, looks for a new reason to reach out, such as a funding round or a new hire at their company, and writes the outreach.
Limits and product-specific details
- This page covers Zoho CRM. Zoho Bigin, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Desk, and Zoho's other apps are separate products with their own connections.
- Kite sees what the connected user can see. Your Zoho CRM roles and profiles decide which records and fields Kite can read and change, so connect an account with access to the modules you want Kite to work in.
Common questions
How is Kite different from Zia, the AI inside Zoho CRM?
Zia works on the records already inside Zoho CRM, with features such as predictions and suggestions on your existing data. Kite works from outside the CRM as well as inside it. It researches your market, decides which companies are worth pursuing, and brings them into Zoho CRM ready for a rep. It also takes what your won deals and reps' notes reveal and turns it into website copy, FAQs, and campaigns.
Can Kite send email campaigns to my Zoho CRM contacts?
Yes. Kite builds the audience from your leads and contacts, using their status, owner, deal stage, or any field your team keeps. It writes each email from its research on the person's company. Once you approve, it sends from your team's Kite address or a connected email product, then adds a note to each person's record so your reps can see what went out. You don't need Zoho Campaigns for this, though Kite can work with it as a separate connection.