Firestarter
Lindsi Flynn
Marketing Director at Assurance Financial
I’m the marketing director for Assurance Financial, a boutique mortgage company headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While we primarily service the Southeast, we are licensed in over 35 states. We have nearly 20 branches and close to 100 loan officers. On our path to continuing our growth, our goal is to dominate our current regions and expand into new territories, becoming the premiere lender of choice nationwide.
As the marketing leader for our organization, my core responsibilities include overseeing the management of our marketing strategy and initiatives. My passion lies in my ability to hyperfocus on the user experience throughout the customer lifecycle. I oversee every step of the journey, from initial lead capture to the final conversion. I ensure that our team implements targeted marketing strategies to maximize customer engagement at every stage.
Comprehensive customer engagement powered by Total Expert
Seamless integrations make work easier
The integration opportunities with Total Expert are limitless however our primary integrations are our Encompass loan origination software (LOS), our Consumer Connect mortgage point-of-sale (POS) software, Optimal Blue, Outlook, and lead generation tools such as Zillow, Realtor.com and more.
The integration between Total Expert and our LOS allows the loan officer to have visibility of the customer file, realtor information, rates, and more all within the Loans tab – making Total Expert a preferred tool.
Flexibility to enhance custom, personalized touchpoints for each branch
Historically, we have had a focus on general brand awareness which didn’t allow room for a hyperfocus on localization. As of 2023, we switched up our strategy which allowed us to pour back into our local markets boasting greater results. We overhauled our website and developed custom landing pages for each branch which had their personalized marketing strategies and lead funnels that would help them (and our marketing tactics) be as productive as possible.
As a marketing leader, I’m not afraid to say that I’m not the mortgage expert at Assurance Financial – our loan officers are the experts. Relying on them to understand where the missed opportunities were within our platforms was key to increasing the adoption rate of our CRM. I set up meetings internally to have a true dialogue on where they felt the tool wasn’t supporting their needs or effectively working for their workflow. Our marketing strategy had the potential for true success but to establish buy-in with our loan officers I sat down with each branch and had what I like to call a “meeting of the minds.”
I asked them the tough questions, encouraging them to have a real and productive dialogue about all the problems that they deal with and their biggest marketing pain points. I wanted to hear about potentially broken processes to tools not working properly, and I especially wanted to hear their ideas on how to make things better.
Some of their pain points were quick fixes like showing them how to properly use Total Expert by filtering their databases and creating custom lists or teaching them how to add prospects to journeys and updating their flyers. Whatever their objections were initially, I was able to create a “fix it wish list” to start productively addressing their concerns.
Once we launched our new localized marketing strategy, we saw all of our KPIs skyrocket. We saw an 80% increase in YoY website traffic a 60% increase in leads, a 22% increase in conversions, and a 106% increase in loan officer Total Expert utilization. Though these numbers are music to a marketer’s ears, what truly made the difference in satisfaction was knowing that we had a CRM that could manage this increase and help nurture these prospects, leads, and customers.
Streamlining and enhancing our customer data insights
Initially, when we were pitched Total Experts Customer Intelligence tool, we knew that there was a lot of potential but at that time we were working with a different product that we were satisfied with. What ultimately drove us to make the switch was the seamless opportunity for our loan officers to house all of their customer and prospect data in one place. Total Experts Customer Intelligence tool allows our loan officers to see their prospects through a microscope allowing them to see historical data, and marketing activity, create tasks for themselves, and more.
Our loan officers can now conduct true database mining more efficiently and effectively. They receive automated alerts when prospects and customers list their homes for sale, reach an equity threshold, qualify for a better rate, or have their credit pulled. The Total Expert integration with Outlook is a huge plus for our loan officers because it shows them their full email communications as well as allows them to set calendar reminders for themselves after customer touchpoints and interactions. Our loan officers also love the ease of mind of knowing that we have personalized journeys queued up for each alert. We’ve seen tremendous success with our CI journeys boasting an impressive 58% open rate, a 1.9% CTR, and a 3.3% CTOR.
Marketing automation and CRM specialized for fintech
It’s hard not to view Total Expert as the “creme de la creme” in the FinTech CRM and Marketing Automation space. It’s not a “one size fits all” solution. Total Expert was created to optimize as a tool for the financial services industry as opposed to most generic solutions that couldn’t adapt the way TE has. Plus, Total Expert provides so many resources and trainings which is a huge value add when it comes to helping us internally on the marketing front and externally with our Loan officers. The level of service Total Expert delivers is simply unmatched.
Click-through rate, task completion rate, and user adoption success
Like most organizations, we measure CRM success at Assurance in two key ways email KPIs and utilization KPIs. We always want to ensure that we’re increasing activity and opportunities on the marketing front, so our loan officers see more activity on the sales front. I’m pleased to say that quarter-over-quarter with Total Expert:
- Our automated campaign (aka Journey) click-through rates are up 80%
- Our direct email sends have increased by 66%
- We’ve seen an 87% increase in email click-through traffic to our site
- Our loan officer task completion rate is up 106%
All improvements drive more benefits for our business downstream—more completed applications, more closed loans, all the good things. And though these items are great, I’m most proud of our adoption rate. As anyone in marketing knows it can be incredibly hard to get salespeople to want to engage in new tools. They are running a million miles a minute so having them take the time to learn how to use new tools can be a daunting task.
Currently, our loan officers, Branch Managers, and Marketing department use Total Expert. The increase in adoption and utilization didn’t happen overnight, we had to conduct an internal strategy to train, develop, incentivize, and encourage the field to own the tool. After our “meeting of the minds,” we started to conduct quarterly marketing check-ins. We host what we call “Make More Money Mondays” once per month where we discuss the latest marketing tips and tricks in the industry while also highlighting Total Expert opportunities and benefits. It’s no coincidence that the majority of our top-producing loan officers show up to every single training we host, they help set the standard.
Another major highlight for us was visiting each branch for an in-person “Total Expert/Marketing Day” where I let the loan officers lead the discussion. I didn’t go in with an agenda or presentation, I just went in with an open mind and my notebook. We went over every TE tab, discussed all opportunities and possibilities, and were able to discover major areas of opportunity within the platform – which were all fixable. It’s truly been amazing working with such a dynamic team at Total Expert.
What’s next?
We have an exciting marketing plan on the horizon which includes the growth of our customer experience, lead nurturing capabilities, and personalization opportunities. We plan on focusing our efforts on growing our partners, database, and co-marketing program. We see an opportunity to better segment our audiences within the tool aiding more personalized milestones and touchpoints. We plan on continuing to expand our Customer Intelligence utilization as it has been a great ecosystem of start-to-finish lead funneling.
In 2025 we will continue to focus on building our brand awareness in new markets as well as increasing our brand positioning and our market strategies. There’s a huge opportunity for us to scale our efforts at a pace that continues to fall in line with industry standards while capitalizing on our local efforts. We will explore integrating Total Expert with our project management tools as well as look into how our other departments such as Recruiting and HR can benefit from the platform. The opportunities are endless with Total Expert, and we plan on continuing to see our numbers increase year over year while maintaining our Assurance personal touch.
