CRM Skills That Matter: What Juniors Must Know & Seniors Must Master in 2025

In today’s economic climate, businesses are having to work harder to acquire new customers and most importantly, retain them.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has evolved from a “nice to have” to an absolute necessity. As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, businesses are shifting their focus to retention, loyalty and customer lifetime value. CRM has become more important than ever in building a successful marketing strategy.

CRM: The non negotiable growth lever

The traditional marketing funnel is being rewritten. While acquiring new customers will always be important, the economics of growth have changed. Paid media channels are more crowded and expensive. Third party data is less reliable. In this climate, retaining your existing customers is not only more cost effective but is also essential for sustained growth.

CRM helps companies build meaningful long term relationships through personalisation, lifecycle marketing and data driven communication. It’s how businesses turn one time buyers into repeat customers and loyal advocates. Whether through email marketing, push notifications, loyalty programs or win back campaigns, CRM strategies allow brands to stay relevant and top of mind.

Why is CRM a smart career move?

For marketers or those looking to get into the field, CRM is one of the fastest growing and most rewarding specialisations, blending creativity with data and strategy with execution. It is also an essential function across all industries and the demand for CRM specialists is only going to grow.

If you’re new to marketing, CRM can be a strong entry point. If you’re already working in digital, CRM skills can help you stand out and future proof your career.

The 5 key skills for beginners

Starting out in CRM? Focus on developing these core capabilities:

1 | Email marketing

• Learn the fundamentals: campaign setup, best practices and performance reporting.
• Understand segmentation and personalisation tactics.
• Get comfortable with basic automation flows and HTML.
• Gain hands-on experience with ESPs like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or Salesforce.

2 | Multi channel

• Explore how CRM fits into broader marketing and sales funnels.
• Learn about additional channels you may encounter such as SMS, Direct Mail and app push.

3 | Analytics, testing & optimisation

• Know your metrics: open rate, click through rate, unsubscribe rate and conversion.
• Get familiar with platforms like Google Analytics and build basic Excel skills.
• Run consistent A/B tests and optimise based on results.

4 | Customer behaviour

• Understand key customer lifecycle stages.
• Learn how to segment and target based on behaviours and engagement levels.

5 | Communication

• Develop strong written and verbal skills for both external messaging and internal collaboration.

The 5 key skills for advancing in CRM

Already in marketing and looking to specialise in CRM? Deepen your expertise with these advanced skills:

1 | Data & customer insights

• Advance your Excel skills to work more efficiently with large datasets. Consider doing a training course, learning how to master data will save you a lot of time.
• Learn new ways to segment and analyse your database for actionable insights across the full customer journey.

2 | Advanced email marketing 

• Plan and execute campaigns aligned with each stage of the customer lifecycle.
• Build complex segmentation, automations, and dynamic content strategies.

3 | Technology & integration 

• Understand how your marketing stack integrates.
• Learn to diagnose data issues and identify opportunities to streamline your setup.

4 | Retention strategy & loyalty programmes

• Study how leading brands and competitors structure their loyalty models.
• Learn how to calculate and influence Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
• Build a retention strategy that spans the full marketing mix.

5 | Additional tools

• Get experience working with a Customer Data Platform (CDP) and learn how they enhance marketing efforts.

Conclusion

CRM is no longer a back office function. It’s the strategic backbone where marketing, product, data and customer success converge. As businesses tighten budgets and focus on efficiency, professionals who can build, manage, and optimise CRM strategies will be in high demand.

If you’re thinking about where to grow next in your career, CRM isn’t just a skill, it’s a specialised strategic mindset that will only become more critical in the years ahead.