Ep #19: How to Automate Your Marketing with Unify CRM

Geoff interviews Scott Benson about Unify CRM, a full-suite mortgage CRM platform covering lead management, automated marketing campaigns, direct mail, compliance tracking, and LOS integration. Best for LOs or branch managers evaluating CRM options or stuck managing contacts in Excel. Note: this episode is largely a product demo/sales conversation for Unify CRM.

Takeaways you can run this week

• Audit every vendor you currently pay for (email, direct mail, flyers, presentations) and identify which Unify features could replace them — Benson's pitch is that consolidating to one platform lowers cost and vendor count.
• Set up subgroup campaigns by categorizing each contact into multiple buckets (e.g., 'Realtor,' 'church member,' 'BNI contact') so one person receives different, audience-specific messages at different times rather than one generic blast.
• Use the quarterly mortgage statement mailer as a call trigger: send it, then call contacts to say 'Just wanted to make sure you got your quarterly report — any questions?' and pivot to a referral ask.
• When a new transaction opens, verify the listing agent is in your database — if not, add them immediately so automated Realtor campaigns fire to every agent involved in every deal you close.
• If your company uses Unify, request the MLS listing alert feature be activated: when anyone in your database lists a home, you get a 24-hour alert and can trigger an automated campaign before a competitor reaches them.
• If you are a lone LO without company buy-in, champion Unify internally to your manager — Benson noted a single-user multi-tenant option was targeting Q4 2016 launch for individual LOs.

The playbook

1. 1. Connect Unify to your LOS — system syncs on 'last date modified' so any LOS update auto-populates the CRM in real time.
2. 2. Import all contacts and tag them into subgroups (past clients, realtors, prospects, referral partners, sphere of influence).
3. 3. Build automated campaigns per subgroup: choose cadence (weekly, monthly), content type (email, direct mail), and triggers (birthday, loan anniversary, rate alert, MI expiration, MLS listing).
4. 4. Set up in-process milestone marketing so borrowers, agents, title, and all transaction parties receive individual (not generic) automated messages at each loan milestone.
5. 5. Activate post-close campaign so email and direct mail fire automatically the moment a loan is funded — no manual step required.
6. 6. Use the dashboard daily: review pipeline snapshot, expiring locks, appraisal status, and credit/rate alerts for any database contact who pulled credit elsewhere.

Worth quoting

“Every top producer gets on the stage and they say they do two things: they open up their Outlook and they open up their CRM.”

“You have all these loan officers chasing different avenues instead of spending the time and effort in the database they currently have.”

Best for

LOs or branch managers still on Excel or juggling 3+ separate marketing vendors who want to see what a consolidated CRM built specifically for mortgage looks like.