Did you know that in 2018, 78% of homes were purchased with a mortgage here in the U.S.? In other words, the mortgage industry is booming. Smart brokers and teams know that to stay competitive you’ve got to keep up with the latest trends and technology. Follow these 20 proven insider tips on how to grow and improve your mortgage business in this thriving marketplace.

1 – Save hours on administrative work every day.

Mortgage loan officers are responsible for a variety of paperwork, tasks, and client interactions at any given moment. These procedures are often both complex and dynamic. A paper and pencil system no longer makes sense.

Not only does it make sense to adopt a modern, upgraded business management system – it’s what your mortgage clients have come to expect. Use software like Shape Mortgage to automate your daily to-do list and spend more time helping your clients.

2 – Increase the productivity of your entire workforce.

Managing a team of loan officers means dealing with the many messages, replies, and comments they have daily. It can often be challenging to get everyone on the same page and all too often, important client details or new leads slip through the cracks.

A centralized online hub for your business needs provides a single location where your employees can share updates, import files, and document their progress. Shape’s cloud-based tool offers maximum accessibility and user permissions to help you manage sensitive data.

3 – Strengthen relationships with prospects and clients.

Relationship building used to require a lot of time and energy. Thanks to marketing automation software included in Shape, creating or improving relationships can be automated, authentic, and successful. Shape offers features that help you streamline relationship building via email, social media, and text messaging.

4 – Automate follow ups.

Fact: Following up with prospects helps you win more business. About 80% of sales require five follow up touch points. For busy mortgage professionals, following up with every lead that many times isn’t sustainable.

At least not without the right software. A proper mortgage software system can send perfectly timed follow-ups at any stage of the sales lifecycle. Customizable templates and automated email delivery triggers make those five follow ups a snap.

5 – Build email drip marketing campaigns.

Open rates for drip email marketing campaigns are 80% higher than single emails! Drip messages also have a click through rate that’s three times higher than their one-off counterparts. Building these campaigns doesn’t have to challenging or even time consuming. Shape actually can be configured with pre-built templates, or you can design your own campaigns, to nurture effectively based on status, lifecycle, and more.

6 – Provide timely status updates.

Sometimes the process of acquiring a mortgage takes longer than you would like. Keep prospects reassured with status updates you can set and forget. They’ll be alerted to any new signatures required, paperwork requests, or follow up meetings as they come up. With Shape’s client portal, you can even build a robust welcome center where they can upload those documents, read more about your business, get status updates, and more.

Putting prospects’ minds at ease is one major way you can stand out from the competition through excellent customer service.

7 – Calculate amortization payments with ease.

Accurate and real-time payment data is critical for your business. After all, it’s what’s used to make some of your most important decisions. Plus, your customers have come to expect quick results so having a handy system for crunching these numbers is a necessity. Shape comes loaded with the calculators your mortgage business needs to always give the most accurate data available.

8 – Improve your intake process.

The hope most people have when they first adopt mortgage software like Shape is that the program will cut down the time they spend on everyday tasks. The intake process can be time consuming when done manually. But it’s one of your most powerful customer service tools. Automate the process with e-Signature capabilities, reminders, and status updates sent for you.

Mortgage businesses who automate parts of their onboarding see turnaround times shrink from weeks to hours.

9 – Organize company wide communication with one central hub.

Taking notes on paper that can get lost or thrown out is not a great way to maintain compliance or run a mortgage business. With Shape, mortgage professionals can keep each other up to date with real-time data, comments, and information. If someone on your team needs to quickly reference a client projects they can quickly log into Shape to view notes from their colleagues.

Shape also allows you to assign leads and tasks on the fly to team members, so no to-do ever slips through the cracks again.

10 – Score your leads by quality.

What if you could have a system that seamlessly reviewed every new prospect, assess their needs, and generate a score based on their interest and urgency? Add it to the list of all the other amazing features Shape has to offer.

Shape Mortgage Software will automatically score your leads based on data from your company as well as any specific parameters you can set and manage at any time. Once your leads are scored you can concentrate your efforts on reaching out to those with the highest ROIs first or even automatically assign them to marketing campaigns.  

11 – Eliminate duplicate leads for better customer communication.

Let’s say you have multiple files for the same lead. One has their nickname and phone number. Another has their full name and business email. And yet another one has their name, LinkedIn profile, and notes on your last meeting. Annoying is a nice way to put this problem.

If you or your employees look up this lead, there’s no way of knowing which version they’ll choose. Which means that notes added to one file might not make it over to the other. So your lead might be getting repeat sales calls from different reps. This kind of sloppy customer service can be remedied with features like Shape’s automatic duplicate merger.

Even if a team member accidentally creates a new file for someone already in the system, Shape can scan, detect, and merge them so all your information remains in one place. This will save you tons of time and headaches over the lifetime of your account.

12 – Sync your loan process with your other favorite apps.

Exporting to Fannie Mae 3.2 File or bi-directionally syncing with your LOS makes the whole process quick and easy. It also eliminates the need for extra administrative work. Shape Mortgage Software does this, as you may have already guessed, automatically after you’ve synced your accounts.

13 – Keep an eye on your website analytics.

Experts recommend that you track and review your website analytics if you want to grow your mortgage business. See which CTA button colors and placement get the most clicks. Or find new ways to improve the overall user experience. Shape helps you create custom forms and automatically collect data from your website visitors.

14 – Record and store phone conversations for future reference.

Whether you need to review information for compliance or reference it as a great case example for the future, recording and storing phone conversations is a valuable tool for your mortgage business. Utilizing Shape’s best-in-class integrated dialer with call scripting and recording is one of the best ways to improve your mortgage business. And, as long as you have their permission, your clients will appreciate your attention to detail.

15 – Prioritize client communication via SMS messaging.

Mortgage lenders can use texting in lots of great ways. And according to Ellie Mae, borrowers seem to prefer it more and more. Keep up with these shifting consumer preferences by adding Shape’s SMS messaging capabilities to your mortgage business tool box. Send one-off messages to your prospects and clients or build SMS into your next big marketing campaign with ease.

16 – Automatically organize lead overflow.

Yet another magic trick Shape can perform for you! If you often get backlogged when new leads come in you can use Shape’s intelligent overflow management interface to gather and prioritize it all. They’ll be sorted based on status or timeframe so you can concentrate on high priority items.

17 – Use a CRM.

If you’re not already using a CRM, it will transform your business. Especially if you run a one with multiple employees which most mortgage companies do. CRMs like the kind Shape Mortgage Software offers give you full transparency and visibility into your entire database of clients, prospects, and referrals. Keep more accurate records of your clients, search prospects, store documents in one central place, and so much more.

18 – Sync your email with your calendar.

It’s a small task but when you’re planning multiple meetings every week that involve different groups of people, manually adding it all to your calendar gets time consuming. Syncing your email to your calendar saves you the trouble of having to weed through old email chains to find someone’s information. It also makes it easy to add, confirm, and remind meeting participants without having to exit your business management platform.

Shape’s meeting scheduler will also keep your team in sync and your clients from missing any important calls.

19 – Use advance reporting to review the health of your business.

While Shape Mortgage Software does help you with the important day to day details, it also keeps you focused on the big picture. Advanced analytics and reporting helps you take a deep dive into what’s working for your business and what’s not. You can keep track of things like cash flow, lead sources, and open cases in real time.

Wondering what the ROI of your last big marketing campaign was? Shape can even run reporting for sales and marketing, which will allow you to properly invest your time (and money!) into business decisions that actually move the needle.

20 – Integrate your business management software with your tools you use every day.

Adopting a system like Shape doesn’t mean you have to give up your other favorite business tools you rely on. In fact, you can seamlessly integrate apps like Zillow, MailChimp, and many others in just a few simple steps. It all seamlessly comes together to form a collaborative ecosystem of mortgage business tools so you can achieve maximum efficiency and productivity.

 Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/20-ways-shape-software-will-grow-your-mortgage-business

It’s no secret that there are dozens of tools out there to make law firms more efficient and improve the client process. From intake to scheduling to practice and case management, you may find your firm racking up an incredible amount of monthly fees with all the software required to get the job done.

Luckily, the legal software experts over at Lawyerist agree that “It’s a good match for nearly any sized law firm including solo practitioners” to run their entire practice on.

Read the full review of Shape Software on Lawyerist

Managing the ins and outs of every prospect and client can be a delicate juggle for any sized firm, even the most experienced. With some cases requiring multiple check ins, documents, and updates, it can be a full time job just keeping your clients in the loop. The Lawyerist team suggests firms adopt Shape’s “project management tools [to] help you centralize prospective clients and manage existing accounts and contacts,” and that with our “ a native Android and iOS mobile app … you can complete tasks and manage your business from anywhere.”

Switching to new software can be difficult. Your firm may have been running for years on a combination of legacy tools that do just enough of what you need. But is just enough going to help you and your partners reach your financial goals? Is it going to make life a lot easier for your support staff? Why not try a tool that was designed with your practice’s needs in mind? 

When it comes to implementation and onboarding, the Lawyerist team agreed that Shape was simple to adopt for almost any firm.

“The user experience and set up of triggers and drip campaigns is very intuitive. Even setting up workflows seems very plug-and-play. Your firm can get its on-boarding, relationship management, client service workflows and other processes very specific to your firm’s needs.”

Shape Legal is more than just case and client management – every plan comes packed with award-winning features to help simplify even the most frustrating parts of running a business, like billing. 

“Shape CRM is the only known CRM for law firms with built-in online invoicing. Task and time tracking can be managed on the platform which translates to billing and invoicing relatively seamlessly, while keeping everything in one place.”

Isn’t it time you made the switch to an all-in-one system designed to make running a law firm easier? Get your free demo with our legal consultants today!

Read Lawyerist’s full review of Shape Software here > 

 Article Source:-  https://setshape.com/blog/shape-legal-named-top-crm-by-the-lawyerist

Whether you’re venturing off from partners or fresh out of law school, every new law firm needs the same two tools to compete in today’s market: the right software and the right processes. 

For every bar complaint made by clients about lack of communication from their attorney, there is a firm creating a seamless and high-touch experience without doing any heavy lifting. 

Which one would you rather be?

Why Process Matters 

Ever misplaced a client’s information in a pile of paperwork on your desk? Forgot to follow up after you sent out an intake form? These are everyday mistakes we all make as busy attorneys. The problem is that without proper data and workflow management (AKA “process”), we leave ourselves exposed to hiccups that can cause major disruptions to our business (AKA cash flow). 

Process is much more than how you think a new DUI client or probate case: it’s documenting and implementing it in a way that becomes easily repeatable for anyone. Great process documentation means fewer errors, happier clients, and a lot of time saved. 

Do you have processes documented for any of the following?

• New client inquiries
• Getting documents sent, signed, and received
• Assigning tasks to your support staff
• Billing and payments
• Managing a client’s case work and data
• Marketing, client updates, and seeking referrals
• And the list goes on…

Why the Right Software Matters

As lawyers, we are no strangers to the galaxy of specialized software catering to us, promising to make our lives easier, better, shinier. The reality is, not every tool is needed for your law firm. Racking up a ton of monthly subscription fees isn’t exactly the best way to launch a new law firm. 

Instead of stringing together a bunch of disparate tools, we recommend that new and growing law firms adopt a powerful and complete CRM solution for a variety of reasons: 

• Stay organized – create     workflows for all the processes we mentioned above to keep you consistent     and your clients happy
• Save money – you don’t need a tool for e-signature,     documents, billing, intake, marketing, and more – a good CRM combines all     those in one package
• Grow profit – 65% of law     firms who use a CRM meet or exceed their sales and revenue forecasting – starting     out with a CRM as your firm’s backbone gives you this advantage

5 Key Features of a CRM That Will Help Your New Law Firm 

1. Online Documents

Build and send custom intake forms, generate fee agreements or contracts with e-signature, send invoices, and accept online payments. All documents seamlessly sync to your client’s matters, so you always have a paper trail. 

2. Matter & Case Management

Assign tasks to your support staff, automate case status updates via SMS/email, log client communications, and keep all your client details in one secure place.

3. Client Portal

Provide a secure portal where clients can log in, upload documents, check on their case status, review your policies and procedures, and take care of essential admin (all from their phone or desktop).

4. Email & SMS Automation

Streamline your email communication with in-depth email & SMS drip campaigns, nurture leads to higher conversion rates, and keep your clients in the loop. 

5. Appointment Scheduling & Reminders

Schedule appointments in a click and send automated appointment reminders, so your leads and clients never miss a meeting with you again. Make the most of every billable hour!

Interested to learn more about how you can implement these (and many more) features of a CRM for just $79 a month?

Schedule a free consultation with one of our law firm software consultants today!

Article Source:-  https://setshape.com/blog/5-ways-new-law-firms-can-benefit-from-a-crm

Practice management and case management are two essential parts of every law firm’s workflow. However, many law firms choose to go without a dedicated tool for the former and leave a glaring gap in their workflow.

Without the proper practice management tool in place, your firm doesn’t have the essential tools it needs to process take on new clients. The right tool is end-to-end and includes online intake for potential new clients, ability to respond to new client inquiries, getting necessary documents and agreements signed, scheduling appointments, and helping you stay on top of project management.

Shape has built one of the most powerful and end-to-end law firm practice management solutions on the market, and the legal marketing experts at Inbound Law Marketing agree:

“Shape Legal is a powerful all-in-one software that combines client and case management with sales and marketing automation to streamline, organize, and grow your law firm.”

Inbound’s roundup gathered the top 14 practice management tools, and they had this to say about Shape:

“Pros: [Shape has] end-to-end client and case management. Includes online documents, client portal, mobile app, invoicing, marketing and sales automation, SMS, dozens of 3rd party integrations, workflow automation, assign tasks to support staff, reporting, e-signature, custom configurations available.”

Read the full rundown and Shape review here >>>

The team over at Inbound Law Marketing have been working with a wide variety of law firms for years and know the ins and outs of how to build a growing practice through marketing. In addition to helping law firms with SEO, building websites, and optimizing web performance, they also consult on a number of tools that law firms needs to thrive. Read more about them here. 

 Article Source:-  https://setshape.com/blog/shape-legal-named-one-of-the-best-practice-management-tools

A CRM can increase your enrollment and graduation rates. But which one is the right one for you? This guide will help you find the best CRM for your higher-ed org.

Last year there were 2.3 million fewer students enrolled in higher education institutions compared to 2011. Despite the fact that this number keeps going down, the price tag for tuition has increased by almost eightfold since 1989. Couple that with crippling student loan debt and it’s no wonder students are thinking twice before enrolling.

As a higher-ed practitioner, you already know you should take greater accountability for student outcomes and adapt to the new normal in higher education. However, this is easier said than done.

Despite the stark decrease in enrollment rates, application processes are still incredibly long. Higher-ed businesses can’t afford to let prospects slip through the cracks due to red tape procedures, or risk student attrition just because one faculty department has no idea what the other one is doing.

If you want to stay in business, you must stay in close contact with students, prospects, and applicants, and harness your organization to make the right decisions for your college or university.

A smart CRM can help. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at what a higher-education CRM is and how to choose the one that will help you increase student enrollment and retention while providing an excellent experience for every name in your database.

Table Of Contents

• What Is A CRM? And How Can You Use One to Grow Your Higher-Ed Organization
• Why A CRM Is No Longer A Luxury In Higher Ed
• How Much Does A CRM For Higher Education Cost?
• Best Higher Education CRM: Which One Should You Choose?
• Higher Education CRM: The Complete Feature Checklist

What Is A CRM System? And How Can You Use One to Grow Your Higher-Ed Organization

CRM stands for ‘customer relationship management’.

In the higher-education industry, a CRM is a platform that allows you to integrate all your educational processes in one place, giving you a full view of every constituent linked to your organization.

A well-designed CRM system also elevates your marketing and generates more opportunities to attract new students, without putting pressure on your existing resources.Here are a few examples of how a CRM is used in higher education:

• Recruiters can act on inquiries within seconds and stay in touch with applicants via automated follow-ups and email campaigns, increasing your inquiry to applicant rates.
• Enrollment leaders can track the best-performing marketing campaigns to double down productive channels and improve marketing ROI.
• Integrate with your student information system (SIS) to drive student engagement and take proactive measures to reduce attrition and improve graduation rates.
• Visualize the full communication history with every student to build effective educational processes using the right data and reporting tools.

These are just some of the ways a CRM can help your higher-ed organization build better relationships with students, help them achieve their goals, and increase the overall performance of your institution.

Why A CRM Is No Longer a Luxury In Higher Ed

There once was a time when universities could get away with attracting students using more analog systems and traditional sales techniques, but those days are long gone. According to the Social Admissions Report, more than 60% of students followed a college on social media before considering enrollment. So, what does that mean for you?

Universities and colleges must do a better job of tracking and converting online prospects.

Hyper-personalized Netflix and Amazon experiences are fast becoming the norm with the new generation of students. If you want to cement your best-in-class status as a university, you’ll need to learn more about your students in order to provide them with the best experience possible.

As if that weren’t enough, technology is developing at breakneck speed and new industries and opportunities are being created on the fly. Universities who want to be at the front of the pack will need data-driven insights to identify and capitalize on new, revenue-generating trends.

The good news is, a CRM can do all that and more. 

If you want the healthy bottom line that comes from building lasting relationships with students, you need a system that lets you put them at the forefront (without putting additional strain on your team).

Simply put, using a CRM in higher education is no longer a luxury, it’s a must. And the good news is, not all CRMs come with the luxury price tag you’re accustomed to seeing.

How Much Does CRM For Higher Education Cost?

We understand that it sometimes comes down to the dollars and cents, especially when it comes to software since the cost of a higher-ed CRM can vary depending on the pricing model:

• Per-user: The typical cost ranges from $30 per month, per user for an entry-level system up to several hundreds of dollars for more advanced solutions. This is the most optimal model for higher-education organizations, although it requires a thorough inspection of how many people will be using the system and what features you get for the price.
• Per-storage: Some CRM solutions charge per resource used, but this pricing model is not very not common in higher education.
• Fixed fee: With this pricing model, institutions are usually charged a hefty sum every month, although there are no limits to the number of staff workers that can use the system.

Now that you know what a CRM system does and how much it can cost your organization, let’s take a closer look at how to choose the best CRM for your needs.

Best Higher-Education CRM: Which One Should You Choose?

Although there are many CRM solutions available for higher education, they generally fall into three main types that are vastly different from each other

Built-in CRM 

Many higher-education organizations use tools such as an SIS, learning management systems (LMS), and others.

These solutions are primarily focused on bringing data insights into the learning process, with less of a focus on attracting, engaging, and enrolling new applicants. However, some systems will include limited functionality that does some of what a CRM does, such as the ability to contact students or create certain types of activity reports.

A built-in CRM may be a good starting point to get the feel of what a CRM can do for your organization, but it’s vastly reduced in its enrollment and revenue-generating capabilities. For example, built-in CRM systems can’t be integrated with other services and rarely support automated workflows for contacting prospects and applicants.

All-in-one CRM Systems

All-one-one CRMs can be used for higher education purposes, but often are built with enterprise companies in mind.When applying an all-in-one system to a higher-ed institution, there are two main issues:

• Limited functionality – Universities will have to pay extra for integration with the systems they already use. If you need to use another tool that does not integrate with your all-in-one CRM, you may even be forced to switch CRMs completely which is a time and resource-intensive process.
• Lack of higher-education workflows – Additional work might be needed to make these blanket systems work for your higher-ed org. Because these systems are geared towards enterprise companies, additional customer support can cost you extra.

Choosing an all-in-one CRM system for your organization is justified when you have access for free or for a lower price, and if you have spare IT resources to help you customize the system to your needs.

Standalone Higher-Education CRM

Standalone CRM systems are typically a better option for higher-education organizations because they can be customized to the specific needs of an educational institution and can integrate freely with other tools, like your SIS, LMS, invoicing software, etc.

When integrated with your other software, a standalone CRM acts as a digital command center for your entire enrollment operation, letting your sales and enrollment teams, admin, and faculty easily access, manage, scale, and automate complex workflows from one place.

In most scenarios, going with a standalone CRM built specifically for higher education is the best course of action, as long as the pricing model makes sense, and customer support is strong.

7 Crucial Benefits Of Using A CRM In Higher Education

Universities and state-run colleges are complex organizations that rely on dozens of people and systems in order to maintain recruitment and admissions. In most cases, adopting a fully-functional CRM is the perfect solution for increasing visibility and improving coordination across the board of your institution.

However, if you’re looking for additional justification, here are four key benefits of using a CRM in higher education.

Benefit #1: More student applications

The right CRM enables focused, automated lead generation and nurturing processes, allowing colleges and universities to form deeper relationships with prospects before they even apply. University recruiters can spend weeks, or even months, gathering information about applicants from disparate sources, but with a CRM they have all the data they need right in front of them and can make decisions within minutes.

Benefit #2: Better enrollment marketing

Recruiting departments without a reliable system in place can quickly become overwhelmed with the amount of applicants and inquiries they have to track. So, how do they handle it?

More often than not, they ignore 90% of their list and focus only on those students who are determined to enroll. But what about the hundreds of other potential students who just need more information?

Look for a CRM that includes remarketing features. With the right remarketing tool, you can automatically target prospects who have already interacted with your website, email campaigns, and social media and nurture those prospects until they’re ready to act.

You’ll also be able to arm your team with data-driven insights about which of your marketing activities are actually moving the needle on your enrollment goals.

Benefit #3: Always know exactly who to call and when

It’s physically impossible to contact everyone in your database. Without the right insights, your enrollment staff is forced to leave it to guesswork or pure chance to decide who they are going to call next.

And your conversion rates will suffer as a result.

Every CRM will give you a list to call, but only the best-in-class sales platforms will provide your agents with a complete breakdown of the best prospects to call and the exact order they should follow. At Shape, we use a deep prioritization algorithm tested across a database of over 20,000 potential applicants for schools like Woz U and SCI.

Enrolling a new student shouldn’t feel like winning the lottery. It should be the result of consistent, predictable, data-driven efforts—and that’s exactly what the right CRM will give you.

Benefit #4: Arm your staff to lead better conversations

The right higher ed CRM will make it a breeze to access all the details and the full interaction history with every applicant and student. Your staff doesn’t need to call students multiple times to get additional information or update their status in your SIS. Everything is synchronized and updated across all departments in real-time.

This drastically reduces the number of duplicate operations that different faculties or offices perform and saves campuses a ton of time wasted navigating disconnected systems.

Finally, the right CRM will include proven templates based on industry best practices across all platforms—email, SMS, or phone call. Now even your inexperienced staff members can be on par with industry pros who have decades of experience under their belts.

Benefit #5: Increased graduation rates

A CRM gives campuses the ability to track student progress with laser focus.

With all the latest student data in one place, teachers and staff have the full picture of how every student is performing. Now they can motivate students by recognizing their success in certain disciplines and lend a helping hand in areas where students are struggling.

The right CRM will also allow educators to set up bespoke follow-ups, email campaigns, and notifications that can be triggered by various SIS data. For example, a drop in GPA or change in course load could trigger an automatic email check in to offer students additional support or information.

Benefit #6: Stay compliant (without even trying)

Templates and drip campaigns are great, but the right CRM will give you a modeled business strategy for optimal enrollment results.

And that includes compliance.

Unfortunately, many CRMs simply don’t care if you land in legal hot water. They’ll happily blast an unlimited number of emails using your SMTP server. But with tens of thousands of emails leaving your SMTP server every day or week, it’s only a matter of time before the ISPs start routing all of your emails to spam.

You shouldn’t have to put your entire domain at risk just to boost your enrollment rates.

Same goes for phone and text. With robocall fines now reaching a whopping $10,000, no amount of unlimited calling can make up for non-compliance on your marketing automation system. That’s without even touching the fact that people are hardwired to ignore any email, text or phone call that shows up as ‘spam’ on their devices.

Bottom line? It’s just not worth it.

If you’re considering using a CRM that offers unlimited email, always ask how the tool addresses compliance with the latest FTC rules and regulations. At Shape, we have set parameters in place to help keep you safe and compliant whether you’re using text, email or dialer.

Benefit #7: Futureproof your org

The education landscape is changing fast and higher-ed organizations must learn to think on their feet if they want to keep up.

A great CRM helps universities become data-driven, not opinion-driven. Armed with relevant marketing, recruitment, and performance data, stakeholders can help educators and administrators visualize what’s working and what isn’t.

Education at large, and higher education especially, are due for a major technological shakeup in the next few decades. Your CRM is a crucial tool for staying ahead of the curve.

13 Questions To Lead You To The Right CRM For Your College Or University

Now that you know the core benefits of a higher-ed CRM, the only question is: which one should you choose?

Here are some questions that will help you to choose the right CRM for your institution:

1. How important is it for you to build and sustain relationships with your students and alums?
2. How well does the CRM integrate with the other platforms you use (e.g. SIS, Campus Cloud, Tableau, and others)?
3. Can you monitor and review the entire student lifecycle in one place?
4. How flexible and customizable is the platform? How easily can you adjust it to your existing processes?
5. Does the CRM facilitate a collaborative environment where all your departments and teachers can work towards the same goal?
6. Does it support custom reporting so that you can spot the departmental bottlenecks in your prospecting, conversion, and productivity workflows?
7. Can you automatically import data from external applications and services, like prospect databases, marketing campaigns, and enrollment data?
8. How secure is student and teacher data? What security protocols are in place?
9. How easy is the CRM system to use? Can your staff start using the platform without spending days or weeks on additional training?
10. Does it provide extensive customer support in case you experience technical issues or need additional help to set the system up and/or extend its functionality?
11. Can you streamline and automate prospecting and lead nurturing processes to enroll more students?
12. How flexible and transparent is the pricing policy?
13. Does the CRM offer a free trial version so you can see for yourself if it fits?

Higher-Education CRM: The Complete Feature Checklist

Despite having common regulations and standards, every higher-ed institution has developed its own unique set of best practices and methods over the years of working with students and staff. Your organization has its own culture, values and processes—and these things must factor into your choice of CRM.

Use this list of CRM features to see whether your shortlisted CRM solutions include all the necessary features you need to attract new students and ensure they have a great learning experience from first contact until graduation.

Attracting new students

• Email & SMS integration and automation
• Inquiry tracking
• Inquiry management
• Prospect routing & interactive voice response
• Contact management
• Referral tracking
• Inbound & outbound calling
• Status tracking
• Call recording & call scripts
• Integrated dialer

Optimizing staff performance

• Prospect filtration
• Duplication management
• Customizable reporting and analytics
• Support chat & intra-company chat
• Automated tasks & actions
• Role-based permissions
• Customizable user permissions
• Invoicing

Improving student experience

• Calendar and email syncing
• Automated drip campaigns
• Automated student status updates
• Mobile support
• Integrations with external platforms and SIS
• eSignatures
• API support
• Student portal

Why Choose Shape?

Shape is a standalone CRM that simplifies and streamlines the entire student admissions lifecycle and integrates with your SIS to give you a comprehensive view of your higher-ed org, in one user-friendly platform.

We tested our edu platform extensively with some of the nation’s leading higher education organizations before bringing it to market.

With Shape, not only do you get all the features and capabilities of any best-in-class CRM—you also get plug-and-play enrollment strategies based on what’s currently working for the best and brightest players in the industry.

And with industry-proven prioritization logic, templates, drip campaigns, remarketing, and built-in compliance, your enrollment staff always know who to call and what to say. Whether you’re an online university, trade school or Ivy League, now you can finally get proactive about taking your institution to the next level.

At Shape, we know it’s critical to have just the right features for your higher-ed org. That’s why we offer a free trial with access to everything our CRM has to offer, including our extensive support team.

We’ll help you set up customized workflows inside your CRM, but more importantly, we’ll be the first to notice if you need any support to help you get the most out of our system—for free, with no hassle, hidden fees or annual contracts.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/crm-for-higher-education-the-complete-buyers-guide

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is one of the most effective ways to maintain good relationships with customers. Size(small or large) of your business hardly plays a role in deciding if you should or you should not employ CRM for your business since CRM has impeccable benefits for all businesses irrespective of their size. As businessmen by using CRM software you are in a better position to reap the benefits of the CRM along with the efforts put in by your sales and marketing team. CRM Software play an important role to manage the database of your customers and you can easily access information about your customers whenever and wherever you want.  In simple words, by using CRM Software you can easily manage your clients and easily build a strong relationship with them. Nowadays CRM has become more popular due to the cut throat competition and the various features available in various CRM’s. If you want to get a competitive advantage over your competitors using a CRM software then you need to choose it carefully. Here are 7 tips that will help you to choose the Best CRM software for your business.

Know your business goals

Before choosing any kind of CRM software for your business first you need to know your goals. If we are talking about a crm software then at present there are different types of CRM software’s available in market. Choose one software for the business can be very tough. That is why, if you want to get the benefits of using a CRM software then you need to know your business goals inside out. You need to be clear whether you want to increase productivity or profitability? You want access your client information? How you are going to use that information once you have it? Different kinds of businesses have different goals. Thus, before choosing any crm software you need to know your business goals. It will help you to choose the best crm software for your business.

Find best CRM software Provider Company

Finding the best CRM Software Company is not an easy task.  As mentioned above, at present there are many companies available in the market that provide CRM software. If you want to deal with the best CRM software Provider Company you need to undertake some research such as check the company’s past history, check their services, prices, and reviews. You can also communicate with their past customers. They will help you to take the right decision.

Ease of use

It is very important when you are looking for a CRM software for your business. Always choose a CRM software that you and your team can easily understand. It is more important to choose a CRM software that is easy to use and can be used to deliver the deliverable even by the least trained person in your company. If you are choosing a complex CRM software then it very tough for you to use it and apart from that you are not able to explain to your team how you can work with CRM software.  That is why; choose a CRM software that is suitable to work for you and your team.

Flexibility

Don’t choose a CRM software that is only fulfilling your present requirements.  Nowadays we can see that things are quickly changing. Therefore, when you are thinking of buying a CRM software for your business then think about the upcoming needs and keep them in consideration. Keep the scalability of the CRM in mind before actually finalizing it. In simple words, choose a CRM software that will not only fulfill your present requirements but will meet your future requirements. It is not only helpful to grow your business but will also save your money.

Choose a CRM software that helps to generate leads

As a businessman you want to get profits. To get profits we are doing so many things such as we are reaching our customers via advertisements.  If we talk about CRM software then it will be helpful for you to build strong relationships with your customers. Definitely if a customer trusts you then he/she will always connect with you. Therefore, when you are looking for a CRM software then you need to see the especial features that will help you to get the positive responses for your customers and increase your sales.

Help you to communicate quickly with customers

As mentioned above, the main focus of businessmen is to increase sales and get profits. Therefore one thing that is most important that is need to be considered is if you want to increase your product sales or promote your business then you need to communicate with your customers at a proper time. Thus, choosing a CRM software that works quickly and makes your conversation soothing with your customers is worth buying.

Automation

CRM software automation is good for your business it will be helpful to achieve your goals. Automation is one of the important things, when you think of buying a CRM software for your business. It not only saves your precious time but also reduces your burden.

Cannabis producers and processors take note: as we move towards the future of cannabis retail, we’ve got to remember our past and what has worked for other industries before us. Traditional business methods might make or break your ability to stay competitive for the long haul.

Shape offers you even more specific features that are tailored to the unique challenges of the cannabis industry. Using advanced technology, CRMs especially, could be the key to priming your company for continued growth.

Shape Cannabis CRM

Using advanced technology, CRMs especially, could be the key to priming your company for continued growth. The good news is there are some CRMs already available that have a proven track record. The even better news? A few of these same companies, like Shape, have expanded to offer you even more specific features that are tailored to the unique challenges of the cannabis industry.

While most of these suggestions may seem familiar to you, we assure you that they’ll help keep you organized, productive, and ahead of the competition for years to come. Using these will maximize the effectiveness of your CRM and your business as a whole.

1. Plan quarterly branding meetings. Stay on top of how your clients interact with your business using marketing tools and analytics.
2. Hire specialized staff to bridge entrepreneurial gaps. Positions like Account Management will be a vital step towards legitimizing your market presence.
3. Add data reports to your decision making process. Use CRM software to automatically capture, assess, and analyze real information that you can use to better understand your current positions.
4. Formalize your sample process. By creating an easy to follow flow chart of events, tracking the effectiveness of valuable marketing tools will become a breeze for employees and management alike.
5. Establish clear lines of communication with retail locations. One easy way to set yourself apart from the competition is by having extremely organized lines of communication. CRMs can help you and retailers store, view, and reference info without missing a beat.
6. Keep track of deliveries for when retailers ask for updates. Stuff happens. Know when it does so you can keep a smile on the faces of your vendors.
7. Oversee all communications. CRMs have the ability to function as one launchpad for every single project, location, distributor, and all other aspects of your business. By streamlining communication to a single platform you can keep an eye on things like customer service and satisfaction.
8. Automatically gather and collect data for future analytics reports. Making decisions for your business based on best guesses is an express lane to failure. Use a CRM to capture things like form data, merge duplicates, and run real-time reports.
9. Remain compliant with state regulations. Maintaining your license depends on it. Be sure to a business management solution that offers end-to-end visibility on your product.
10. Use established marketing tactics like email newsletters to stay in touch with your network of clients. These can even be personalized, templated, and distributed right from your CRM.
11. Get into the content marketing game. Beyond sales and news, use your marketing outlets to provide additional value to your customers. Storing these client details in your CRM keeps this info right at your fingertips.
12. Manage production workflows. Manage expectations and get everyone on the same page. CRMs offer a few different tools for making sure tasks get done by the right people at the right time.

Creating the perfect marriage of old school solutions tailored to fit your new school business is a difficult task. Luckily there are plenty of options available, like Shape, that do just that.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/cannabis-crm

Shape Software is aware of the need for many businesses to rapidly evolve to working remotely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we all adjust to working from home, we know that many of you will be using Shape Software to make and receive phone calls from remote locations.

One of the many benefits of Shape SAAS solution is that it’s cloud-based, meaning you can access Shape online from any computer with an Internet connection. Use Shape’s webphone for browser-based calling or forward calls to a mobile phone or landline! Here’s an overview of using Shape’s calling services if you’re looking to transition to calling through Shape during this time.

Shape Phone Overview

Add calling, messaging, and phone numbers to roll out new ways to communicate with your clients and for your customers to contact you. Enable Shape’s phone settings to make calls, receive calls, record calls, and send and receive text messages in your Shape Software system.

Masking Phone Numbers: Using Caller ID Settings

An existing non-Shape phone number, like the number to a wireless phone or a landline in your home or office, can be validated by an admin in the Manage Call Settings page. Once the caller ID number is verified, you can mask your assigned Shape phone number in the system with your phone number of choice when making outbound calls. You can always use a phone number registered with the system as well.

Local Presence Preferences & Settings

Local presence enables callers to automatically dial records using local area codes. Local presence dialers can lift call connection rates by up to 400%, because prospects tend to be far more likely to answer unknown calls from local numbers, rather than toll-free or long distance phone numbers.

Choosing your Phone Preference: Web Calling or Personal Device

Choose the method in which you would like to make and receive calls from your system. Select web phone for calling directly in your browser window. Please note that you must be logged in to Shape to use the web phone. Want to use an alternate phone? Use call forwarding to enter in a direct dial phone number to use outside of a browser. For text messaging, select your preferred text message number. Note that text messages numbers must be a Shape phone number.

Using the Web Phone

Call directly from your CRM through your web browser. No phones, other hardware, or apps necessary for inbound or outbound calls. Headset recommended.

Keep in mind the following when working remotely using the web phone: When working remotely, it’s important to remember that the web phone operates through the web browser and requires a consistent and strong internet connection, or else you may experience poor call quality or latency. If you are using the WiFi in your home and others are also using the same connection streaming videos, playing games, or doing a lot of downloading or uploading, it may impact your bandwidth and the quality of your phone calls. Still, the web phone should be a solid choice.

Using Call Forwarding

If you prefer to route calls to a cell or landline, choose the call forwarding preference in Shape. Set up call forwarding in seconds to divert calls to your personal or business number and never miss a business call again.

Keep in mind the following when working remotely using a cell phone: When you are using a cell phone, there may be some locations where the signal is weaker than others. You should try to position yourself to get as strong a signal as possible. Depending on signal strength and other variables, such as your provider, there is always a chance that call quality for cell phones will be inconsistent. Some carriers can also experience latency. 

There are a number of options at your disposal to support remote workers. Your ongoing success and continuity during this volatile time is our number one priority.  Please visit our resource center for under the “Resources” dropdown on our website for additional details.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/using-shapes-phone-remotely

From starting the loan origination to completing the loan request, the process for a loan can be messy, especially without proper organization. Loan officers know this well, which is why ICE Mortgage Technology created Encompass, a Loan Origination System (LOS) capable of integrating with CRM software such as Shape’s Mortgage CRM, to help organize the process of applying for a loan.

What is a Loan Origination System (LOS)?

A Loan Origination System (LOS) is a software used by loan officers to manage the steps of a mortgage loan transaction, starting with the origination of the loan. Once the origination is completed, a typical LOS will also handle the pricing, fulfillment, eligibility, and document management of the loan. In general, a LOS will work in a step-by-step basis, guiding both the lender and borrower through the complete loan process.

What Is CRM Software?

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software refers to a cloud-based management system that connects all aspects of your business in one easy-to-use interface. Any member of your business can access real-time client data, allowing for seamless interaction between various sections of your company. CRM software can be downloaded from anywhere, so employees working from home can use the software and still access client data from the cloud. If you still have questions about CRM software, you can check out Shape CRM{link to informational page about Shape CRM} an in-depth look at what CRM software can do.

What is Encompass?

Encompass is a Loan Origination System (LOS) made by ICE Mortgage Technology, designed to assist loan officers through the loan application process. Through the use of artificial intelligence and next-generation data security, Encompass gives both lenders and borrowers a sense of security, while also streamlining the lending process to maximize efficiency. Encompass also provides GSE integration, which includes Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor and Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty initiatives.

Why use Encompass LOS for your lending business? 

According to the MBA, loan origination costs the lender an average of $8,000 per loan. This means that until the loan is finalized, the lending process is losing you money, and depending on the size of your clientele this amount may not be small. Encompass was designed with this in mind, speeding up the lending process to ensure faster ROI. To test this, MarketWise Advisors recently performed an independent study on Encompass LOS [https://www.icemortgagetechnology.com/roi/], which concluded that, on average, lenders using Encompass:

• Saw an annual ROI of 687%
• Saved $813 per loan
• Spent 23.5 less hours per loan
• Saw a payback period of 1.92 months

Overall, most of these benefits were attributed to the increased productivity Encompass provided its users. In the words of Jordan Brown, CEO of MarketWise Advisors, LLC, “this study provides clear evidence that Encompass’ compliance capabilities, process automation, third-party service integrations and interoperability of a single system have a marked impact on the cost of origination.” 

Ellie Mae president and CEO Jonathan Corr also had praise for Encompass, claiming that “by using technology to automate the complex mortgage process, study participants realized an annual return of 697 percent, that’s nearly seven dollars for every dollar invested. In many cases, that’s the difference between profit and loss for lenders.”

Encompass is URLA ready

With the recent changes to the Universal Residential Loan Application (URLA), some people might hesitate to spend money on Encompass. This stems from the fear that if Encompass struggles to adapt to the changes in the loan industry, the many benefits it brings your lending business will be irrelevant. 

Although this is a valid concern, you can rest assured with Encompass, as the support team at ICE Mortgage Technology strives to stay ahead of the curve—including the new URLA. Encompass is fully compatible with the new URLA, and ICE Mortgage Technology intends to constantly update its system and adapt to any upcoming changes in the loan industry.

Benefits of Encompass LOS + CRM Software

Speaking of compatible, Encompass allows for complete integration with third-party CRM software, including Shape CRM. Although a LOS can still improve loan management without CRM software, using the two together gives your lenders even more control over the loan process.

Encompass + Shape Software Mortgage CRM is Bidirectional

Arguably the biggest benefit of using these two services together is the bi-directionality of the pair. Although some work better than others, Encompass was designed to seamlessly integrate with any CRM software, allowing all information to be easily transferred between the two. For how this benefits you, consider the act of data entry. Anytime your business interacts with a lead, client, or business partner, a certain amount of data needs to be entered or updated within your system. Contact information, loan applications, loan status, business data, or anything else relevant to these people will need to be properly documented. Without integrating a CRM software with Encompass, all of this data must be recorded separately in both Encompass and your company’s management system. Not only will this take time out of your day, but it could also lead to:

• Duplicate data
• Missing data
• Errors in the data

Any of these mistakes could cost you both time and money, and CRM integration with Encompass is an easy way to fix this.

The bi-directionality of CRM software and Encompass can also benefit both your marketing and sales.

For any business, being proficient at lead generation and management is the first step in closing deals. This should be obvious, but if you don’t supply your sales team with quality leads, it can be challenging for them to sell your product or service. With CRM integration in Encompass, your marketing team will instantly receive a notification whenever someone submits a loan application, which will include the contact information of that person for outreach purposes. Applying for a loan is one of the best leads you can hope for in the lending business, so capitalizing on these leads is imperative. CRM integration can also automatically text or email the loan applier at specific points during the application process, further increasing the likelihood of a conversion. 

For a short example of how Encompass with CRM integration can be used, consider the journey a potential customer may take after applying for a loan.

First, the customer submits their loan application, alerting your marketing team of a high-quality new lead. With Encompass + CRM, your marketing team can easily track the progress of this lead through the origination process, supporting it as they see fit.  This could mean sending out automated texts and emails at certain points in the process, or even automatically responding to inbound calls to maintain a good relationship with the lead. Sending messages expresses to the lead that you care about them personally, which is often more successful than generic outreach. CRM software makes this process effortless. 

Once the lead passes through the marketing funnel and becomes fully qualified, it’s handed off to your sales team, where they attempt to close the deal. With CRM integration, not only will all of the information available on the lead be maintained, but the transfer happens instantaneously. This means that your sales team can immediately begin targeting this qualified lead—a surefire way to increase sales. 

If your sales team is able to capitalize on the lead and close the deal, the CRM software will then assist you in onboarding your new client. Depending on your needs and the specific software that you are using, this can be done through custom forms, proposals, or contracts. For payment, most CRM software support invoices, while also giving automated payment reminders.

For lenders, CRM software often goes hand-in-hand with a Loan Origination System. They both improve your company’s overall business, however CRM software focuses on the framework of your company (communication, client management, marketing), while a LOS focuses on the actual service your company provides (loan process). All-in-all, CRM and LOS software compliment each other well, and work best when paired.

Using Shape CRM with Encompass LOS

Encompass was designed to work with all types of CRM software, however some integrate better than others, such as Shape CRM. Unlike other CRM software, Shape CRM was developed with Loan Origination in mind, so it seamlessly integrates with LOS software, Encompass included. Because of this, your lenders can gain even more control of the loan origination process, saving your company both time and money.

The Benefits

Compared to other CRM software, Shape CRM integrates much smoother with Encompass. For example, a new Encompass loan file can be created within a Shape contact record instantly, either through a press of a button or an automated trigger from a status change. Creating a loan file this way saves more user information, while also allowing your marketing team to initiate follow-up drip campaigns immediately. 

Shape CRM also allows for milestone tracking in Encompass. In short, Shape CRM can synchronize with the loan status of anyone applying through Encompass, giving your team updates whenever a certain milestone is hit. Shape CRM comes with several preset milestones, including but not limited to:

• Started
• Processing
• Submittal 
• Approval
• Docs Requested
• Docs Signing
• Funding
• Post Closing
• Completed

Shape CRM is highly customizable, so if there is a milestone you would like to be tracked that is not provided by default, Shape CRM will work with you to have that created.

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/the-importance-of-crm-integration-with-encompass-los

In a competitive market like the mortgage industry, staying ahead of your competitors is vital for your success. Using CRM software such as Shape’s Mortgage CRM will definitely help, but it shouldn’t be the only tool at your disposal. As more and more companies realize how much money can be made through mortgages, gathering high quality leads has become an increasingly difficult task. In general, 61% of marketers consider lead generation their number one issue in marketing, according to a recent study.

For this reason, hiring a mortgage specific lead generation agency is a popular trend in the industry, and something highly recommended.

Lead Generation Statistics 

Before we explore the benefits of outsourcing lead generation for your mortgage company, lets first look at some reasons why lead generation itself is crucial for any business.

Only 18% of marketers believe outbound marketing methods produce quality leads 

Outbound marketing has been on the decline for years, and marketers are increasingly shying away from that type of practice. Lead generation avoids this, focusing on nurturing leads and developing them into qualified leads for your sales team.

On average, cold calling only produces 1% of paying customers 

Although cold calling doesn’t require a huge amount of effort, it seems like a waste of time if it only accounts for 1% of your customers. If your company still relies on any type of cold outreach to generate sales, it’s probably time to focus your efforts elsewhere.

Almost 80% of marketers noticed an increase in both leads and conversions when using automated marketing software 

Currently, lead generation uses automated marketing software to both identify leads and actively nurture them through the marketing funnel. In addition, most automated marketing software is designed to integrate with customer management software such as Shape Mortgage CRM, which can enhance your marketing even more. 

There are other uses for automated marketing software, but the most common use happens with lead generation marketing.

Nurtured leads spend 47% more per purchase/contract compared to non-nurtured leads 

The lead generation process works by nurturing leads through your marketing cycle, constantly exposing them to your brand or product. By doing this, these nurtured leads spend more money than non-nurtured leads by 47% (on average). For B2B, this often means choosing the more expensive plan or staying as a client for longer. For B2C, this could mean buying a more expensive item or buying more items as a whole. 

Why You Need Lead Gen for Your Mortgage Business

In a general sense, it should be clear that quality lead generation is essential in any industry. Being able to constantly supply your sales team with qualified leads is a guaranteed way to help any business, regardless of what their product or service is. 

But in the mortgage industry, lead generation is seen as an absolute necessity for two reasons:   

Mortgage Leads Possess Extremely Specific Qualifications

Unlike other B2C industries, convincing a randomly selected person to use your service will almost never work in the mortgage industry. The decision to buy a house isn’t something that happens in the heat of the moment, so if a person doesn’t want to buy a house there’s not much you can do to change their mind. 

But let’s say they do want to buy a house. You then need to figure out if this person will actually qualify to purchase a house, which isn’t easy. For starters, here are a few possible issues a potential borrower must address before qualifying for a conventional loan:

• Down payment
• Credit score
• Mortgage insurance
• Income
• Employment/self-employment 
• Debt-to-income ratio
• Cash reserves
• Occupancy 
• Home appraisal

It is possible that someone will want to purchase a house while meeting all the requirements, however this scenario is extremely unlikely. Using lead generation, you can essentially vet your leads, narrowing them down so the ones remaining either are trying to buy a house or meet some of the requirements above.

Competitiveness in the Mortgage Industry

The mortgage industry has become increasingly competitive in the last several years. The number of mortgage lenders, brokers, and originators have been rising, crowding the lending industry and saturating the market. Because of this, simply providing quality service won’t be enough to separate yourself from the pack anymore. 

But don’t misunderstand—quality service will still benefit your company, especially in the long run.

When I say it’s not enough, I mean it’s not enough on its own. At the end of the day, you can only provide high quality service to borrowers once they begin the loan origination process. The quality of your service, good or bad, won’t matter if you can’t get them through your doors. Regardless of your industry, it doesn’t matter how good your product is if no one knows about it.

To succeed in today’s competitive climate, it’s imperative that mortgage companies have proper lead generation. Consistently providing qualified leads to your sales funnel will not only contribute to the short-term growth of your company, but it will also help sustain this growth in the long run.  

In general, lead generation can happen one of two ways: either through an in-house marketing team or through an outside agency. Both in-house and outsourced lead generation are viable options with distinct pros and cons, but in this article we will be focusing on the benefits of outsourcing your lead gen marketing. 

Why You Should Outsource Your Lead Generation

Lower Overall Cost Compared to In-House

Arguably the most beneficial aspect of outsourcing your marketing is the overall cost, as developing an in-house lead generation team can be quite costly. Although the size of the team can vary from company-to-company, on average the total cost of paying your in-house marketers will be higher than the monthly price of a lead gen agency—and that’s not all. 

You also need to factor in the overhead costs associated with an in-house team. From the software on their computers to their company smartphone, your employees will need certain items to function as a proper lead gen marketing team. And once you include office space, training, and management, you should clearly see how expensive an in-house team can be compared to outsourcing.

A More Efficient Marketing Process

One of the most time-consuming steps in the marketing process is figuring out the initial marketing strategy—and lead gen marketing is no different. Marketing teams can spend weeks planning their campaigns, especially if they have no prior experience to work off of. If you commit to in-house lead generation, there will be a lot of time spent strategizing and discussing potential approaches to the campaign.

Outsourcing, however, avoids this whole ordeal. With a little bit of research into your prospective agencies, you can choose one that specializes in mortgage lead generation, which means they should already have experience dealing with your type of service. They can almost immediately begin the lead generation process, providing qualified leads ASAP.

Easier Time Evaluating the Results

When you outsource your lead generation marketing, evaluating the results becomes much simpler. If your sales team is receiving high-quality leads on a consistent basis, then the agency you hired is doing their job. If your sales team isn’t receiving high quality leads consistently, then the agency you hired is not doing their job. You only need to evaluate the agency as a whole, rather than each member of a team individually.

Spend Less Time Managing

Building a successful in-house marketing team that can handle the lead generation process requires extensive managing. For example, if you were a new mortgage company looking to create your own in-house marketing team, you would need to:

• Hire your team 
• Train your team 
• Provide the proper equipment and software for your team
• Create a HR department for your team 
• Monitor the results and performance of each team member

If you choose to outsource, you only need to focus on the last bullet point: monitoring the results.

Choosing the Right Mortgage Lead Gen Agency

Although outsourcing your lead generation clearly has its benefits, it does have one obvious, but significant, issue—you lack control over the marketing team. I mentioned before that outsourcing is often the cheaper option, but that’s only relevant if the marketing agency actually produces high quality leads. If the agency you choose fails to live up to expectations, this whole process turns into a waste of both time and money, which could have a severe effect on smaller companies.

Below are the main concepts you need to be concerned with when choosing a lead gen agency.

What industries do they cover?

Most lead providers specialize in certain areas, so it is important you choose one with experience in the mortgage industry. This should be relatively easy, as most agencies clearly state the industries they specialize in on their homepage.

Do they provide leads for you?

Although most lead gen agencies handle the task of providing leads, some do not. These agencies focus on the nurturing aspect of lead gen, and rely on your company having an established marketing funnel for them to grab leads from. 

If you do not have an existing marketing funnel, make sure the lead gen agency you choose will provide leads as part of their service.

How do they generate their leads?

If you choose an agency that provides leads for you, it’s crucial you understand how the leads will be produced. You do not want agencies that buy bulk leads from third-party lead distributors, as the quality of those leads is often lacking. This is because those leads will be sold to several lead gen companies and independent mortgage businesses, making them highly competitive.

Ideally, you want an agency that creates a marketing funnel solely for your business. Having your own marketing funnel will guarantee your business unique leads, giving them a much higher chance to convert compared to others. If this isn’t possible, the agency you choose should at the very least have their own marketing funnel to generate leads. These leads can be shared throughout the agency’s clientele, however most will designate certain leads specifically for your company. 

Does their lead generation software integrate with your CRM? (if you have one)

It’s important that the software your lead gen agency is flexible enough to easily integrate into the CRM software your company uses. Most CRM software’s are designed to function with marketing software, however that doesn’t mean everything will integrate smoothly. 

If your company uses a CRM software (i.e. Shape CRM), I recommend you check to see if their marketing software integrates with your CRM.

Currently, most companies use some form of CRM software, so it is important that the software your lead gen agency uses can integrate with your CRM. 

(Header 5) Best mortgage lead gen companies

Now that you have a general understanding of what you should be looking for, here is a list of a few popular mortgage lead generation agencies:

1. LeadPops

LeadPops is a marketing agency focusing on the mortgage and real estate industry, where they’ve claimed to have generated more than three million “ready-to-fund” leads since 2014. Their services are flexible, as they offer both standard marketing services and quality lead generation, depending on the needs of your company. 

As a lead generator, leadPops uses pre-built marketing funnels that are designed for easy implementation into your marketing channels, if you have them. These funnels are unique to each client, meaning any leads generated by your funnel will be exclusively yours. The funnels work by using non-threatening quiz-style forms to quickly filter your potential borrowers, ensuring your sales team only deals with qualified leads. 

If you currently have no existing marketing channels, leadPops can combine both their standard marketing service and lead generation service into one comprehensive plan, providing everything you need for a slightly higher cost.

Price Range: $97/month – $297/month

Strengths:

• Both provides leads and nurtures them
• Leads are exclusively for your company
• Generates leads for 21 different mortgage loan types
• Has CRM integration
• 30-day free trial
• Upfront pricing

2. Verse.io

Verse.io is a marketing agency that specializes in lead generation for the mortgage industry. But unlike the other marketing agencies on this list, verse.io does not offer any services that will generator leads for you. Instead, they focus solely on the nurturing aspect of lead generation, ensuring that any lead that comes to your sales team will be 100% qualified with a high chance of conversion. 

More so than anything else, verse.io emphasizes their ability to support 24/7 lead coverage with both AI and human communication. Most agencies that provide lead generation claim to cover leads 24/7, but they do this strictly through automated messaging systems and AI. Verse.io provides in-person lead coverage 24/7, which greatly increases the likelihood of a lead converting. In addition to this, verse.io also nurtures both responsive and unresponsive leads, while also supporting omnichannel communication depending on the preference of the lead.

So if you’re looking for an all-in-one lead provider for your mortgage business, verse.io probably isn’t for you, but for those who already have a proper marketing funnel, I highly recommend verse.io. 

Price Range: Varies by customer

Strengths:

• 24/7 lead coverage
• Use both human and AI
• Nurture both responsive and unresponsive leads
• Communicate however the lead wants to
• Great customer service

3. LendingTree

Founded in 1996, LendingTree is a great option for mortgage lenders that want to be involved in the lead gen process, but also need hands-on lender support. When you partner with LendingTree, you instantly gain access to a network of over 30 million high intent borrowers, with built-in filter functions to narrow down your choices. LendingTree is one of the few companies that can provide a service like this simply because of their brand recognition. Potential borrowers head to LendingTree.com to learn more about mortgages and the loan process, and are prompted to make an account during their time on the site. This is the primary way LendingTree adds borrowers to their network, so you know every person you market towards will be knowledgeable and have an interest in borrowing. On top of that, LendingTree provides client support for all aspects of their service. Your business will have a LendingTree expert at your disposal if you ever have questions about their software or marketing, and they even offer sales and leadership courses as well. 

Price: Varies

Strengths:

• Hands-on support
• Wide range of services
• High quality leads
• Large volume of potential leads
• Brand recognition

4. Arlo.ai

Arlo.ai is an all-in-one lead generator, including both standard marketing services and lead generation in every plan. They specialize in the mortgage and real estate industry, where they claim to generate 5x more loans from the same marketing budget while allowing you to work less. For their services, arlo.ai includes the following in every plan: automated advertising campaigns, intelligent web forms, and automated outreach. 

Their automated ad campaigns work by using an A.I powered marketing assistant to guide you through the duration of the campaign. All you need to do is fill out a short form at the beginning, and arlo.ai essentially handles the rest of the campaign for you. They launch ads from your social media accounts, growing your brand while ensuring that the generated leads are 100% yours.

While their ad campaigns bring in new leads, the intelligent web forms and automated outreach are designed to nurture and qualify these leads. The automated outreach is relatively straightforward—you get instant follow up on all of your leads. But the web forms are what make arlo.ai unique. These web forms are custom made for the mortgage industry, requiring less fields to fill out yet providing more data to you. Arlo.ai claims that, on average, their intelligent web forms convert 6x more visitors to loans than standard forms. Combine that with instant follow up and your leads are guaranteed to be qualified.

Price Range: $195/month – $295/month

Strengths:

• All-in-one service
• Will scale with your business
• 3-months free with annual plan
• Leads are exclusive for your company
• Upfront Pricing

5. Experian

Experian Mortgage is an industry expert that possesses both experience and insight in mortgage marketing. Although they just discontinued their self-service solution for mailing list creation and data append, Experian still offers comprehensive mortgage marketing to generate leads for your business. 

Overall, Experian provides four key benefits to your business: insight and analytics, marketing tools and guidance, a streamlined origination process, and access to consumer data. On their own these might seem relatively average, but when these solutions work together your business will see great results. For example, having access to consumer data on its own is valuable, but not game changing. But when you combine that with their industry insight and analytics, the information you draw from it becomes much more relevant and applicable to marketing and the origination process. This synergy between services has allowed Experian to remain a giant in the mortgage industry for years, which is one of the reason why they are a solid choice for lead gen.

Price: Varies by Client

Strengths:

• Experienced in mortgage marketing
• Provides a wide range of benefits
• Has access to consumer data
• Analytics focused approach

6. LoanBright

With more than 20 years in the industry, LoanBright is another potential mortgage lead provider whose business model is unique to them. With LoanBright, you don’t hire them as a marketing agency, nor do you purchase leads directly from them. Instead, you pay a monthly fee for a license that grants you a “seat” on their customized dialer system. They call this design model a “Season Pass”, which you pay for on a month-to-month basis.

Through the Season Pass, LoanBright allows you to selectively (or completely) outsource your lead gen, along with online marketing and direct response call center functions. The more you outsource the more it will cost, however if something doesn’t work out you can easily cancel, as LoanBright does not require long-term contracts to use their service. Like most lead gen agencies, LoanBright uses marketing software and tools to streamline the lead acquisition process, providing mortgage qualified leads when you use their service.

Price Range: Minimum $200/month 

Strengths:

• Abundance of experience in the mortgage industry
• Month-to-month commitment
• Real-time display of leads
• Great for local leads 

7. TransUnion

Founded all the way back in 1968, TransUnion is an experienced business that is constantly adapting the newest technology in lead gen. For mortgage leads, TransUnion does not directly provide leads like other companies on this list. Instead, the integrate their customize-made lead acquisition tools into your business, allowing your company to generate leads on its own. Then, you can utilize their prescreen campaigns to directly target individuals that have shown an interest in acquiring a mortgage. The combination of these two lead solutions provided by TransUnion is a trusted way to generate leads for your mortgage lending business.

Price Range: Varies Per Client

Strengths:

• Leads are unique to you
• Produces qualified leads
• Precise lead targeting
• Service is highly customizable

Article Source:-https://setshape.com/blog/grow-your-mortgage-business-with-lead-generation-marketing

For Megan Weil, a Marketing Manager of the independent Equity Home Mortgage in Tampa, ensuring her team can take advantage of the historic influx of buyers, and refinancers all came down to workflow. With so many new leads coming into her firm’s pipeline every week, it was critical to have a technology that could help keep everyone on her team organized and efficient without compromising client satisfaction.https://www.youtube.com/embed/PpVaTqhjIIA?wmode=opaque&enablejsapi=1

Watch the Entire Interview

Learn how Shape + leadPops is helping Megan’s team drive consistent results even in an unpredictable market.

New Year, More Volatility

Many thought that the wild ride of 2020 was well in the rearview mirror, but according to most lenders, the first quarter of 2021 has been just as challenging as ever.

“[The market now] is crazy…but good. There’s a lot of volatility with fluctuating rates, and so far, it’s been a learning experience to understand what interest rates are capable of in such a short amount of time,” says Megan. 

Due to this unpredictability, Equity’s leadership team looked at every way possible to educate and prepare borrowers for the challenges they may face ahead. The technology at their disposal with Shape + leadPops is doing a great job to help. 

“The market is scarce, and buyers don’t realize that they’re going to get into a bidding war,” says Megan. “We want our borrowers to be prepared and ready to take the plunge. So, we’re going to help them make the best decision for their situations. ‘Transparency, transparency, transparency’ is our motto.” 

Keeping Borrowers Connected

Equity is building a loyal customer base that helps them drive referrals and repeat business by ensuring borrowers leave the experience wiser. How do they do it? The power of their connected tech stack.

Megan is a fan of how Shape + leadPops work seamlessly to help her team jump right into new lead inquiries with automated tools. Still, she particularly loves the drip campaigns that help raise the water level on borrowers’ knowledge. 

“Speed to lead and nurture are key for us. Our refinance customers, for example, tend to be less informed about the process upfront and get more intimidated, so the more time that goes by, the less likely they end up being engaged.”

With Shape + leadPops, “we contact them quickly and can educate them, and that works to convert instead of them falling out the back end due to cold feet. From a borrower’s perspective, they don’t always know how rates are sourced and come in almost defensive. So, if you call them at odd hours, they can get a bad impression.” Instead, with Shape, you can create more consistency and professionalism with your approach. 

Megan says that the Equity team loves how they can tailor drip campaigns to send at any cadence and schedule, which gives their team a way to express their personality and reassure clients (while offloading manual outreach when they prefer to). 

Keeping Things Efficient

Borrower knowledge is only one part of the equation, but many lenders struggle to keep up with demand. New leads may pour in, but Equity didn’t want any potential borrowers to slip through the cracks, so they leveraged Shape + leadPops to create a powerhouse workflow that helped them close more deals than ever before. 

“leadPops helps with our tracking and storing all our campaign metrics all in one place, so we’re able to synthesize our various platforms into one central location,” which Megan says helps her be more effective with her marketing strategy and save time.  

“leadPops is crucial to all our demand campaigns, helping us in sourcing the right clients and finding opportunities. Shape is great for keeping us organized and understanding where clients are in the lending process. These tools are our backbone, and because Shape integrates with so many other tools like LendingPad, we can kick over all the client info seamlessly to remove the stress from our process. Clients love the experience,” she notes.

With her incoming lead flow sorted out, Megan says the team really gets into gear with the help of Shape and leadPops. 

“Once leads come in and are populated in Shape, they get assigned to the right loan officer, and then we can kick off the right email drip nurture campaign for the lead. Shape does a great job with lead distribution. I can break down leads by state or campaign, create ‘round robin’ leads to specific LOs, send my VA and construction loan expert borrowers, and more. It makes everything so much easier.”

Working together to help you close more deals

With Shape + leadPops working in harmony, lenders get more control over and build more efficient workflows without losing the personal connection that their clients love. 

“We’re a small local business and veteran-owned. As a close-knit community, we want to feel more like a friend that you’d refer and come back to — that we’re always easy to get a hold of,” she says of Equity. With Shape + leadPops in her corner, they’ve done that and a whole lot more. 

“We’re closing the most loans we ever have!”

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/how-one-independent-mortgage-company-used-shape-leadpops-to-build-a-steady-pipeline-of-deals

Welcome back to “Building Up Better,” Shape’s blog series aimed to help brokers build up stronger, more profitable businesses in 2021 by harnessing the power of technology.

In this post, we’ll dive deeper into everyone’s favorite topic: money. The last 12+ months have been a wild ride for brokers everywhere, but not every lender has optimized their workflow or tech stack to capitalize on the historic influx of new and refinancing borrowers.  

If you haven’t taken the plunge and invested in a CRM to make your lending workflow more efficient, lower your processing costs, or increase your team’s productivity, you’re not too late. 

And even if you’ve already got a system in place but are hesitant to fine-tune it because it may require some upfront time investment, please read on, too, because we guarantee there’s a better way.

Let’s dive into the three ways a CRM can help you make more money for your mortgage business in 2021. 

Benefit 1: Attract More (and better) Borrowers

CRMs are more than just your digital client database—in fact, CRMs designed with lenders in mind are packed with powerful tools and integrations that make finding, qualifying, nurturing, and converting great borrowers easier than ever before.  

According to the PwC home lending report, 46% of purchase borrowers consider only one lender during their search, and the majority of borrowers won’t switch the lender they chose. Lenders must be leveraging high-performing marketing campaigns to attract the best leads possible.

Why a CRM: Mortgage CRMs give your team full control over your lead sources, so you’ll get up-the-second data to understand your top-converting marketing channels inside and out. These kinds of reporting tools help you invest more strategically in the marketing activities that give you the best results and drop the initiatives that aren’t driving ROI for your business.

Benefit 2: Lower Your Loan Processing (and other) Costs

If there’s an Achilles heel for lenders everywhere, it’s the rising costs of origination fees. If you’re looking to lower the amount you spend without passing on more costs to your clients or hiring additional team members, look no further than a mortgage CRM. 

Why a CRM: When you opt for a mortgage CRM + POS that integrates directly with your LOS, you’ll drastically reduce time spent on data entry but also minimize errors or typos with borrower data. Because CRMs reduce the need for human input, they help reduce the margin of error and lower the likelihood of unnecessary rework.

In addition, many CRMs with great UX minimize the need for costly system administrators. With all your documents in one structured and centralized system, there’s no need to spend time and money hiring and training an administrator to navigate all that paperwork.

Benefit 3: Boost Your Team’s Productivity by 29% and Sales by 34%

Most employees waste up to 55% of their time on administrative tasks, and loan officers are no exception. Preparing financial documents, qualifying borrowers, or reviewing loan agreements takes a lot of time, and generating new business only adds to an already full plate. Without some workflow automation process, there’s simply not enough time left in the day for your team to focus on lead outreach or closing more deals.

Why a CRM: The numbers don’t lie: teams who use a CRM to offload those every day, unproductive manual tasks see a boost of 29% in their productivity and 34% in their closed deals, and boosted revenue of 41%. Consider how much a third more revenue would mean to your mortgage business in 2021?

Mortgage CRMs can help achieve these kinds of results by more than just automating frequent tasks. The best mortgage CRMs can integrate with your other systems, so you never have to waste time switching between screens or wondering where to find the data you need.

In addition, tools like team tools like calendar, email, document syncing, and productivity reports help ensure that your business is data-driven, and not chance-driven. Real-time performance reports can help you see which of your loan officers perform at 100% and who needs some coaching to get back on track.

Take Action Today

Want to get started making more money for your mortgage business in 2021 with a CRM? We’ve helped thousands of brokers build more efficient workflows that have helped them grow revenue and save time. It’s not a secret; it’s CRM science. 

Schedule a chat with us to learn how we can help grow your mortgage business

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/how-mortgage-brokers-can-make-more-money-in-2021

Welcome back to “Building Up Better,” Shape’s blog series aimed to help brokers build up stronger, more profitable businesses in 2021 by harnessing the power of technology. 

In our last post, we quantified how technology automation can save brokers tons of time, drive more revenue, and help create more efficient workflows. Today we’re going to dive deeper into an area many brokers struggle with: getting your LOS and CRM to integrate with one another.  

For firms large and small, the benefits of a seamless LOS integration can be huge: not only can your teams drastically reduce hours per week on manual data entry between multiple systems, but proper syncing between systems keeps your data organized and helps you drive more efficient sales. Let’s take a closer look…

Benefit 1: CRM + LOS Syncing Reduces Time Spent on Manual Data Entry 

We’ve discussed this in our previous posts, but the pitfalls of manual data entry only grow exponentially as your team size does. For those firms who insist on using manual processes, 23% of salespeople cite data entry as one of their biggest challenges and time sucks.

For any size business, these numbers aren’t sustainable. 

Instead: Choose a CRM that integrates directly with an LOS like Shape + LendingPad, so that whenever you create a new loan, all necessary client details automatically sync between systems—in the correct format—helping your team to seamlessly originate new loans while maintaining data accuracy and compliance in multiple places. This “digital paper trail” ensures your team is always working with the most up-to-date client data. 

Bonus: No more manually uploading and tweaking 3.2 files into your LOS until your face turns blue when you opt for a workflow with two-way syncing. 

Benefit 2: Good Data Management Will Save You Tons of Money

We’ll never get tired of preaching the benefits of good data management because the flip side is too scary for businesses even to consider: “Research has shown that bad data is on average costing businesses 30% or more of their revenue. Research firm Gartner has found that the average cost of poor data quality on businesses amounts to anywhere between $9.7 million and $14.2 million annually. At the macro level, bad data is estimated to cost the US more than $3 trillion per year. In other words, bad data is bad for business.”

Instead: When your CRM directly syncs with your LOS, you’ll automatically eliminate data entry errors and ensure all your client data is clean and accurate. Not only will this benefit your teams but also your clients.

Bonus: With seamless CRM + LOS syncing, you can create a more efficient lending workflow by automating updates to clients and your people, like firing off emails to let borrowers know about changes in their loan status or passing off deals to the right team at the right time. 

Benefit 3: Shorten Your Lending Cycle and Build Relationships

In today’s fast-paced lending environment, speed-to-close is second only to building great client relationships, but ensuring your LOS + CRM work together can actually help you accomplish both. 

Close deals faster: Your follow-up speed to new loan inquiries will determine your conversion rates…and your revenue potential. When your LOS and CRM are working in harmony, you’ll move prospects through your pipeline quicker by efficiently qualifying, distributing, and communicating with prospects. 

Build relationships in the process: When it comes to building great client relationships, CRMs take the time burden of manual outreach off your team. Instead, build robust marketing drip emails, send status change alerts, provide a client portal where borrowers can seek out information they need, and provide a human touch that nurtures throughout your process. 

The result? You’ll close deals with more speed and satisfaction to help you drive referrals. 

Take Action Today

Want to get started with seamless LOS + CRM syncing for your mortgage business? We’ve helped thousands of brokers build more efficient workflows that have helped them grow revenue and save time. It’s not a secret; it’s CRM science. 

Schedule a chat with us to learn how we can help grow your mortgage business

Article Source:- https://setshape.com/blog/how-to-simplify-your-mortgage-tech-stack-to-drive-more-conversions