Initial Training – Marketing Tab

Communication with your borrowers and partners can be managed and automated in the Marketing tab of your BNTouch CRM. Here, a “Campaign” represents marketing communication that is sent to groups of people, not necessarily an individual email or text message sent to a specific person. This communication could be to borrowers, partners, co-workers, or yourself. Campaigns can be sent via several media, including email, SMS text message, phone call, mobile app push notification, CRM reminder, and more--depending on which BNTouch modules you have activated. These campaigns can be automated to send to applicable groups based upon predetermined triggers.

To access your list of available campaigns, simply click the Marketing tab from anywhere in BNTouch. Depending on your account, some campaigns may already be listed here for you by your administrator. If you have the permission to do so, new campaigns can be created using the “Add Campaign” button.

The color and title to the left of the list will show what “Group” the campaign is part of. These groups are organizational for your business, not groups of targets for the campaign. The groups listed here can be changed by clicking the “Edit Groups” button above the list. You can view specific groups of campaigns at a time by clicking the colored tabs above the list.

Actions can be taken on the campaigns in the list using the checkboxes to the left of each campaign and the buttons above the list. “Import from CE” will allow you to bring campaigns made by BNTouch and its users into your CRM. “Copy Campaign” can duplicate a campaign, saving time when making similar marketing. “Assign Rights” can transfer ownership of a campaign to a different user in your company. Campaigns can be marked as “Hidden” or “Visible” using the appropriate buttons, and the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the list can be used to filter campaigns by this status.

Each campaign will be listed with a name and brief description. Clicking the “Campaign Name” or the “Edit” pencil icon will open the campaign for editing. The “Steps” for each campaign represent how many actions take place during that campaign. A campaign’s “Length” shows how many days the campaign runs for. The “Triggers” column shows if the campaign has any automated logic for adding the campaign to your records. “Weekends” will show whether the campaign is set to send on weekends or only during the week. If the campaign uses your default template, it will display in the “Template” column. The “Owner” and “Created” columns will show who created the campaign and when. Only the owner of a campaign can update its settings or step content.

The “Quick Setup” button will open the setup wizard for that campaign, which will ask a series of questions to customize automation in your CRM. The “X” icon to the right of a campaign can be clicked to delete it.

When you open a campaign, options for modifying that campaign will appear as sub-tabs at the top of the page. The first, “Steps,” will display the individual parts that the campaign is made of. These steps are separated into two categories.

“Steps Based on Interval” will activate based upon a period of time after a specified “trigger” takes place. This type of step can be used to send out an automated email one, three, and five days after a lead is generated, or to send a reminder to yourself in-system to call a lead after a certain period. The “Interval” column will show a number representing how many days after the triggering event the step will activate. A value of “1” in this column means that the step will trigger as soon as a record is added to the campaign.

“Steps Based on Exact Date” will activate on the specified date, regardless of the duration of the campaign. This type of step can be used to send campaigns for holidays, birthdays, or other events that take place at the same time each year.

Steps can be added to the campaign using the “Add New Step” button at the top of the list. To duplicate a step, check the box to the left of a step and click the “Copy Step” button. You can also copy steps from one campaign into another existing campaign.

If a “T” appears for a step, that step isn’t set to use your default template information. Instead, each of these steps will need to have template information applied individually. If an “A” appears for a step, that step is automated via Triggers. The third letter-icon column will show who the step is being sent to. A “C” means the step will be sent to the “Client” or Borrower. A “P” means the step will be sent to a “Partner” associated with a borrower’s file. An “M” (for “Me”) means the step will be sent to yourself.

Clicking the step name will show a preview of the step. The “Method” column will show the media used to send that step, including email, SMS text, phone call, mailed postcard, in-system message, and other forms. The “Cost” column will only matter for specific module-based delivery methods, like automatically mailed postcards. The “Actions” menu button contains options to edit, test, or remove a step.

The “Triggers” sub-tab will show any automated elements of the campaign. These advanced elements can perform many marketing functions for you if configured properly. If you are interested in setting up automation triggers and want some examples to use as a pattern, reference the “Advanced Marketing Trigger Examples” article for a head-start.

The “Reports” sub-tab will display a summary of the selected campaign, including counts of records for which the campaign is active, paused, unsubscribed, or finished. Clicking the “Records on Campaign” link will display a list of all borrowers, partners, and BNTouch users for this campaign. Clicking the “Summary” link will generate a report for the campaign, which can be filtered by status using the drop-down menu in the upper-right.

To access a list of premade campaigns that you can add to your own business, click the “Content Exchange” sub-tab. This list is separated into two sections.

“Campaigns by BNTouch” are prebuilt campaigns that BNTouch has made to help your business thrive. These campaigns are available to all users at no charge.

“Campaigns by Subscribers” are campaigns that other BNTouch users have created and made available for everyone to freely use. BNTouch is not responsible for the content of these campaigns, and we recommend that you review all steps of campaigns that have been shared by other users before sending it to your clients and partners.

Social media services that your company uses can be linked to your BNTouch CRM in the “Social Marketing” sub-tab, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. In the Content Discovery section, RSS feeds can be accessed and shared to your social media accounts.

New Social Media posts can be created below. Linked platforms can be selected for each post. The “Subject” of the post is only visible in BNTouch and will not be posted. Both a text field and an image can be included. Entries here can be set to post immediately or after a scheduled delay.

The “Video-Marketing” sub-tab contains pre-generated videos you can use in your marketing communication with your clients. These videos are organized into categories, including Birthdays, In-Processing, and Loan Anniversary. When you hover over a video, you can click the “Play” button to view it or the “Send” button to send it to one of your clients. When sent, the video will appear on a unique page with your contact information, and the video will feature customization for the record you sent it to. To change the splash page the video appears on, use the “Settings” sub-tab to select a design.

Detailed reports for each of your marketing campaigns can be generated in the “Campaign Reports” sub-tab. Clicking on the campaign name will open the Edit Campaign screen. The “Records on Campaign” and “Summary” links function as they do when editing a campaign.

Campaigns can be stopped and restarted using the buttons below. Individual steps in the campaign can be rerun or assigned using the checkboxes to the left of the steps and the buttons below.

This should give you a basic understanding of the tools available in the Marketing Tab and how to use them. Many additional features are available, including advanced campaign triggers, the use of meta-tags to personalize your marketing, Facebook Adds integration for Leads and Audiences, and multiple optional modules.

To learn more about the tools and options available in BNTouch, please continue with the rest of our Initial Training series. These articles and videos will walk you through each tab of your new CRM and show you common workflows you can use in your business. The final step in your Initial Training explores the many options available when you access your CRM on-the-go via the BNTouch Mobile App.

To learn more about any particular feature, check out our training video library and online manual. You can access these at any time in the user menu in the upper-right corner of your screen.