07 Re-evaluating the Value of Email Marketing - Angela McKay May 6 2020

[00:00:00]Greg Bray: Hello everybody, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Home Builder Digital Marketing podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine 

Kevin Weitzel: and I'm Kevin Weitzel with Outhouse,

Greg Bray: and we are really excited today to be joined with Angela McKay. Angela is the vice president of client experience with Lasso CRM, which is part of ECI Solutions.

Welcome, Angela. Thanks for being here. 

Angela McKay: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. 

Greg Bray: And I do believe, Angela, you are also our first Canadian guest that we've ever had. Is [00:01:00] that a, is that probably true? Kevin? I don't think you've gotten any other Canadians, right?

Kevin Weitzel: We haven't. And I've looked for the telltale signs of like the beady head or the floppy head and the beady eyes, like from South park or wherever that's from.

But, uh, I've never seen it. So I don't even know if really Canadians even have that or not 

Angela McKay: up North, you know? 

Kevin Weitzel: Oh it's way up north, Oh, okay. 

Greg Bray: Well, I think as a, as a Canadian might, my first question is, is it process or process? 

Angela McKay: Oh, you know how I have been in this industry for so long that I get mixed up myself. I will say process.

Process. I say process. Okay. All right. But I think you'll see that the telltale sign is, is when I say about. 

Greg Bray: Okay. Okay. All right. We'll watch for that. Well, we'll dub that if we have to so people can understand what you're talking about. So, well, Angela, give us just a little bit of a introduction and background about kind of who you are and what you do.

Angela McKay: Absolutely. So as you said, I'm, I'm the VP of client experience at Lasso and actually at ECI Software Solutions in the residential home construction division, which includes Mark systems and [00:02:00] lot view. Um, in addition to Lasso and, um, I have been in the industry and I've been with Lasso for about 12 years, which when I think back, I kind of go, wow.

 And I came in right at that time. It was late 2007, early 2008. And it was a fantastic time. To be, to me joining home building because there we were, we were primed for a little bit of a dip in the market. Um, but I came in, I started with Lasso. Um, I knew Dave Clements and Dave Clements is the, was the owner of Lasso at the time, and he had hired me right out of college way back in a previous.

Previous career and I was looking to be for some contract work. I had young kids at home and he was able to accommodate me. I came on board as an email marketing specialist. Email marketing is a feature within Lasso and they were looking at expanding the functionality, making some changes, and I was [00:03:00] able to lend some expertise.

At the time. So over the years, like I kind of, um, have worn probably the most hats within life within Lasso as anybody else. So I started in email marketing, I also became a client director and helped our customers implement last. So, uh, I moved into marketing, became the VP of marketing. And, um, now have, and in the marketing role I worked with, I worked with sales.

I also was the online sales counselor for Lasso for a period of time. Uh, and I was really, uh, instrumental and something that's  I'm passionate about is education, providing education. And we have, um, I hope. Hopefully we're known for not only providing great software, but providing education to the industry, which is really important to me.

Um, and then the last couple of years I moved into more of a client experience role in really helping our, our customers, uh, [00:04:00] utilize the software more and help them achieve greater success. 

Kevin Weitzel: Now, that's the business. Angela, I've had the pleasure of running into at IBS and PCBC and SCBC and, uh, various, uh, you know, webinars and sessions around the country, but you're always positive.

What are your three, what are the three top bullet points of Angela, the individual? 

Angela McKay: Oh my gosh. You know, me personally, I thrive off of people and connections. And to me, I have, uh, one of the greatest things that I can provide, um, and I, I hope I have helped others in, is connecting people. And when I can connect people, um, it just, and connect the right person to the, to whatever the other person needs, um, I feel it just gives me the greatest sense of joy.

And I have tried to give back to the industry as much as possible. I'm an, I'm an active member of professional women in building, uh, with, um, with [00:05:00] NAA NHB. Um, and I've really just, um, you know, I've created great relationships and honestly, friendships within this industry. And I think this is unique. I don't know of any other industry, um, where it is such a fun, social, productive.

Group of people. And you know, it is, it's unique and wonderful, and I don't think I could ever leave it. So for me, connections is important. Um, I think on a personal level, I'm always moving as much as I, you know, I sit. Still, I sit at my desk all day, but I am a, um, I'm a little bit of a, you know, I run, I cycle.

Uh, I am exercise and movement is super important to me, and I think that's what kind of gives me a little bit of energy and gives me that passion. Um, and then third, you know, personally, you know, I am. My kids are everything to me. I [00:06:00] bet to university-aged kids, we've got 44 people living in our household right now in this time, which, uh, I was an empty nester for a split second, and now I'm not.

Kevin Weitzel: They just snatched it away from yah.

Angela McKay: They did, they did! Um, and uh, but you know, we're surviving. You know, in the whole scheme of things, we're pretty, pretty fortunate. 

Kevin Weitzel: Well, that's fantastic. I'm honored to call you friends, so I appreciate the relationship that you and I have in the industry, so thank you. 

Angela McKay: I feel the same way about both of you. 

Kevin Weitzel: Oh,

Greg Bray: Well thanks, Angela. And, and just to, just to clarify, I believe you're a little bit more than just active in the professional women in building. I believe they named you their member of the year for this year. Am I remembering that correctly? 

Angela McKay: Well, just to clarify, I am national member of the year, so yes, I was a, I have been actively involved with communication and education within the association and I was honored and privileged to be granted that award [00:07:00] this year 

Kevin Weitzel: Being that your out of Canada. I'm just going to go ahead and just offer up the honorary international member the year because you're in, you're Canadian. So there you go to wards for the price of one. 

Angela McKay: Fairly certain. I'm the only Canadian who has one that 

Greg Bray: I'm, I'm just glad to know. Kevin has the power to grant awards. This is going to be really useful in the future.

So Angela, for those who. Haven't come in contact with Lasso for, for whatever reason, if there's a few out there still, um, you know, just just describe what Lasso is and what the service is just so they have that kind of context. 

Angela McKay: Yeah, absolutely. So we work with hundreds of of home builders, developers, and sales agencies throughout North America.

We've got a few international clients, but mostly mostly contained within North America. And we provide software so that they can capture leads from initial interest. Um, and then nurture and engage, um, those [00:08:00] leads through to purchase. We help them define, um, and implement a systematic approach to sales to, so to help sales people be more efficient and ultimately make more sales.

Greg Bray: Awesome. Well, today, as much as we love Lasso, we wanted to tap into your email marketing background a little bit more. Um, because I've been hearing some things out there, you know, about how email doesn't work. Um, you have to do chat or text you, you, you can't, uh, you know, nobody opens emails anymore. They all go into junk and.

I have an opinion and I'll, I'll reserve my opinion, but is email marketing dead? I'm just going to throw it out there. What it, what do you think about that whole idea? 

Angela McKay: Um, I, the short answer is no, it's not. It's not dead. Um, but you know, there can be a lot of debate about it. No question. But, you know, email is only one component.

To your marketing strategy. And it's one way to communicate. And I say email marketing. There's individual email communications, so one-to-one communication, [00:09:00] and then email marketing. And we're talking email marketing. So to the masses, to, to a, a segmented group. Um, it is, you know, it's, it's one way to communicate to them, but I have to say it is, um, it remains one of the most highly used.

Easiest effective and probably the least expensive way to, to communicate to a large, to a large audience. Um, you know, if you look at the millennials and, you know, do they read email? Do they, um. The studies have proven that yes, they do read emails of brands that they follow and that they're interested in it.

And that's the key here is you, you know, it may not be effective or it is not effective any longer too. You know, send a, an email mass email to 20,000 realtors who never opted in or never really asked for the email in the first place. But if [00:10:00] you have 500 realtors who have visited or who have actually asked for information, it can be an absolutely wildly effective way to communicate information about your communities.

Greg Bray: So you're saying then that email is not dead, which is good. I agree. Why? Why do you feel that so many people are kind of. Beating that drum though. Trying to say the email doesn't work when you just, you just highlighted a bunch of reasons that we should all be paying attention to email. How are those getting lost out there in the, in the marketing world?

Angela McKay: I think that they're trying to find different ways to, uh, to, to shake things up. Right. And, you know, I, I think they are gone are the days of, uh. You know, companies being able to say, well, I have, you know, I've got 20,000 names in my database. I want to be able to send to those 20,000 names. You know, you have to, having an [00:11:00] email address is a privilege.

It's, um, and you have to respect, respect those email accounts. So you have to, you have to modify your email. And it's now more about how do you get email to the most important people in your database as opposed to. How do you, how do you mass email to people who now don't really even know you? And that has changed.

So I would say email marketing has evolved over the years that it is less about lead generation, but more lead nurturing engagement. 

Kevin Weitzel: So that brings me to a point, actually, this is a long-winded question, but I have a personal pet peeve against like my insurance agents sending me a stamped card with stamp signature stamp message is just, there's nothing personal about it whatsoever other than the fact that it was addressed to me and I have so much more weight for people that actually take the time to hand write it.

[00:12:00] Just a little note to me. I mean, they'll, they mean so much more. So what are your thoughts on. And I know that Lasso, this is part of the CRM has, has the ability capabilities of having auto responders auto, you know, auto-populates but what are your thoughts, especially in today's client, market our climate market?

Uh, what w what are your thoughts on autoresponders, the use thereof versus, you know, literally personalizing these outbound emails. 

Angela McKay: So auto responders generally have the highest open rates. I'm an autoresponder, as in somebody who has just registered on your website and you have an auto-reply email that goes out thanking them, or, you know, as the saying, you know, thanks for just for registering, here's, you know, here's a link to more information.

 That's one of the most important emails you can have. And, and I have encouraged people particularly in today, in the current climate, to really to revisit [00:13:00] that email and look at how it's written, who it's written by, what the tone of the email is, and you know, are they using the right language?

So now is the best time, if you haven't already, to really to take a look at that email and make sure it's, you're sending the right message. Um, as far as, um, you know, I think personalization is more important now than ever before. So you think about, I use these examples quite often, like Lulu Lemon and the Gap group of companies, whichever ones, I mean, those are two that I follow and they have actually, you know, they have.

I have formed a deeper relationship if that makes sense. With a retailer based on their email that they send to me. So they customize and they provide, you know, provide the information that I, you know, I'm interested in seeing. It's like they're, they, they're using words now too, that are, [00:14:00] are a little softer, they're a little more human right now. 

And today in  they're sending me information that I'm interested in based on my behaviors. So based on the information in their CRM system, you know, they know what my, what I have, what I have purchased, what I'm interested in.

They have, they then. Um, they, uh, they alter the the email and provide me with the information that I'm looking for. So it's not always, you know, it's not always about you, the builder. It's really about the recipient on what they want to receive and what, what really makes them tick. 

Greg Bray: So I wanna, I wanna kinda go after two different things you said there.

So, so the first one is the autoresponder. I, I can't tell you how many times we see people set up where the autoresponder is a one-liner. Thank you for your request. Someone will get back to you in fill in the blank time. And that's, that's it. That's, that's the extent of, of the email. And, um, if that's what you're doing, [00:15:00] you're missing a huge opportunity based on what you just described.

So I would invite those who are listening. How do you find out what your autoresponder says? Go fill out your form. Just go mystery shop your site. Fill out your form and see what you get, and, and just, you know, that that's an easy test you can do today. No charge, go test your site. and do that.

So,  I just think I see that missed opportunity everywhere. Um, on that one. The second one is just this idea of relationship. You talked about establishing a relationship by getting an email. From what I heard you describe. That relationship is because you're feeling. That they are talking to you and not to a massive group because they've personalized.

Is that a fair assessment of, of how that is connecting? 

Angela McKay: Absolutely. And you know, it doesn't mean it's providing that connection, whatever that it, you know, a lot of times what I see with email [00:16:00] marketing is a flyer. Um, I, you know, I see a flyer of the homes that are available. Uh, you know, the communities are open and that, and that's fine.

That's a way of communicating what the status of, of communities, and what's, you know, what the the current promotion is, et cetera. But email marketing can be so much more and you want to tell a story. You want to really have think about what their, um. You know how they are feeling, the emotion, the emotional side a purchaser is going to be making, and how they feel.

So it and the email marketing, you can tell a story and it. What I also, you know, I said this a couple of days ago to a, to a customer that you, you don't want to just think of it as, uh, an email as being one instance. So you know what? You got the email, you've got five emails to send out this month. You at one, two, three, four, five, done check.

Got that done. Instead think about it as a strategy and [00:17:00] think about them as, as being related to each other. So you're going to send out five emails this month. Tell a story. So how do those emails relate to each other so that your recipient is almost anticipating the next one? So you know, what are, what are they going to tell me?

Then the next one, they covered off the kitchen. They covered off the the great, uh, you know, the great features and they know that I'm interested in that, but what snacks, so, you know, what is that outdoor living space or whatever, whatever that may be. I'm kind of making things up as I go right now, but you know, what I'm getting at is just that continuity and the familiar.

So people want to feel comfortable, they want to trust. They want to feel. Um, they want to make sure that there's some stability now more so than ever. Uh, and you know, depending on where your lead came from as well, that also comes into play as to what you, how you communicate and what you communicate.

Cause you [00:18:00] might not know as much about somebody who came from Facebook over somebody who signed up on your website and spent. 15 minutes looking at floor plans.  That's the type of information you can capture in your CRM. Whether you're using lasso or something else, it doesn't matter, but you should be capturing that type of information about your, about your prospects.

Kevin Weitzel: There's other CRS who says lasso. 

Angela McKay: Well, not

Kevin Weitzel: completely unaware,

Greg Bray:  But,  Angela, I think you've, you've hit on another key point that lots of times. We capture data, but then don't actually use it to, to inform what, what we're doing next. Right. You know, we, we have this field that says lead source, and it says website or Facebook, and then we never look at it again, but, but yet.

Taking that data and trying to now say, okay, because they came from lead source one versus lead source two. I want to talk to them differently. I want to have [00:19:00] some different information. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the message, but, uh, but I think that's really the heart of what you're getting at is, is you can't start to create that unless you know something about them and then use that knowledge to inform your messaging.

Angela McKay: Absolutely. And you know, the the the great thing is like, there's a lot of I don't know if I have that much free time right now, but I think a lot of people, a lot of sales and marketing people have a little bit of extra time right now to really dig into their database a little bit more, play around segments, and look at, look at the profiles and look at the information that you have, and then see how you can formulate a strategy. 

Kevin Weitzel: That can all be pretty overwhelming for, you know, a less sophisticated builder. You know, how can they utilize, uh, their CRM. You know, in Lasso's cases, let's say, Lasso, um, to their advantage to implement a marketing and email marketing campaign.

Angela McKay:  So, you know, it doesn't have to be complicated, [00:20:00] and it also doesn't need to be, you know, you could have a list of a hundred people.

5,000 people. It's, it's, it's just, it's starting and it is, um, you know, looking at, it's some basic information, quite honestly, Kevin, and often you're getting it from the, on your online. Forms, as far as, you know, some of that information of what they're interested in. Um, just based on the type of form that they are responding to.

Cause you often use, there's multiple forms on a website. It could be the email, maybe they don't even there. Maybe there isn't even a form on the website. Maybe it's an email, but you know, that's, that's a whole other conversation. But, but you know, the the point is, regardless of whether it's, you're talking about five people or you're talking about 500 people.

There's, there's ways to if you're talking about five, you can look at the individual profiles and customize and send personal emails. It doesn't need to be a mass email. If you're talking about 500 people, there's ways in your database to [00:21:00] segment and based on custom fields, so you know, this person is interested in, in a two-bedroom on this community.

Then send them the information that they're interested in. We also have a feature within our software called social connect. Um, and it allows you to see the, uh, public information. So it's only public, it's all public, and it's not, you know, regardless, anybody could find this information, but you're able to find a person's profile on Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter and learn a little bit about them.

And without an, you know, you don't want to. Throw it back in their face cause you don't want to sound creepy. Um, but, but you can use that information very discreetly and try to find that connection. That is the most important thing, um, for any builder of any size is finding that connection. So are you saying that it might 

Greg Bray: be just a pinch creepy to say, Hey, Angela, [00:22:00] I saw that new swingset you got for Timmy and that would look great in this new model that you're looking at?

Angela McKay: Creepy and probably, a show stopper or deal-breaker. We have website tracking on our, uh, which, you know, similar to Google Analytics. And all that kind of stuff. But you know, we, there's notification emails when somebody has visited the website. You know the last thing in the world we suggest is for you to pick up the phone or send an email saying, Hey, I just noticed you were on our website.

Now it's fantastic information and insight to know that they were just on the website, but you don't throw it back in their face. You, you do it in a discreet kind of, you know. Surprising way. 

Greg Bray: So Angela, here's a question that I get a lot, and I know there's opinions, but, but how much is too much with email?

Angela McKay: You know, I think it depends, and I know that's an awful answer, but it really, you, you want to set expectations out of the gate and you, um, you  first of all, you don't want them to forget you. So [00:23:00] sending some time in, in some cases, sending once a month or sending, um. You know, every, every three months is not enough.

But let me just qualify this too. When we're talking, we're talking email marketing, and I said right out of the gate that it's one component to your communication strategy. It's not everything. So you, you really want to gauge, um, and, and segment based on your prospects. So you're, you're A prospect. Who are actively engaged with a salesperson may don't need the same type of emails that your B's and C's need, or your C's and, and new, unqualified marketing qualified leads, not sales qualified leads, that kind of thing.

So you really, it, it, it does depend, um. I would say that, uh, you know, you daily is definitely a no-no. Um, and even [00:24:00] weekly can be too much. Um, but again, it really just depends on the market. It depends on what you have to say as well. You don't just want to send. Because you feel you need to, you, you always want to have a purpose and you always, always want to have a call to action.

Kevin Weitzel: Yes. And when you're looking at a typical sales office, you have a hundred people visit a sales office and you know, 23 of them. Move forward with buying homes. That's 2300 100 how do you measure a success of an email campaign or an outbound campaign? Uh, you know, like what tools would last provide that would allow you to measure success of that, of that campaign itself?

Angela McKay: Well, there's, there's the. Standard mass mails reporting stats that you, you know, if you're looking at success being engagement, um, then you can look at open rates and click-through rates. On an [00:25:00] industry average, your open rates are 18 to 20%, and really. It's, it's not, that hasn't changed over the last 10 years.

It's, it has stayed about the same. Um, and I would say, but I, you know, I would challenge builders to not shoot for average, and to overachieve. I mean, I, I think we see some builders achieving. 50 to 70% open rates with emails, but that's also because they're sending to a targeted list. So it, again, it goes back to who your, who you're sending it to and why you're sending it.

Were they expecting it? There's so many factors. And open rate is really just one indicator. The most important, in my opinion, especially from a lead engagement perspective, is your call to action. So did they actually click on something within your email? And that is why, you know, I see that miss. A lot, a missed opportunity of not [00:26:00] having a call to action and not having something within the email that's really clear what you want the recipient to do.

And that's the greatest measure of success in my opinion, is did they click what you wanted them to click? Did they, you know, did they click that, um, that link? And then ultimately, you know, Kevin, depending on what the goal of the campaign is. Whether it's your, your open house this weekend, whether it's creating a virtual appointment or, or signing up for a virtual appointment, you want to look at what that's, you know, what your, what the outcome was.

So, you know, you sent it to 500 people and you got 10 virtual appointments, you know. That might be successful for some people. You know, you may have, you may have been trying to shoot for 50 appointments, so you have to look at, you know, look at who you were sending to, um, and how to always do better. I think that's the key is to, is to start [00:27:00] measuring, to look at your reporting, and then look at how you could have done better and what we can do next time.

Greg Bray: Angela, I think you, um, again, just to highlight. One of those key points there is if you send an email that doesn't invite them to do anything, it's just, Hey, just checking in. You know, are you ready to buy yet? Are you ready to buy yet? You know, and there's nothing for them to do. There's no way to even know if you had an impact.

Right. You've got to at least drive them back to the website to do something or invite them to call or, you know, give them some type of action. 

Angela McKay: Absolutely.

Greg Bray: So Angela, whose job is it in the, in the organization between marketing and sales to, to, to come up with, because I think a lot of times we see the marketing folks focused on, well, we generated the lead.

We got it into the CRM. Now, nurturing. That's the sales team's job. But what you're [00:28:00] describing. Seems a little bit more requiring more of the marketing mindset than what maybe the salesperson mindset. Um, I don't know. Correct me if you disagree, but. 

Angela McKay: Well, you know, it depends on the size of the organization to no question.

Um, I, aye. It definitely falls more in marketing than it does in sales. Um, I, you know, one of the most, we haven't talked about design at all, or the look of an email. But it is really important to follow brand guidelines and your emails should look good. And we, there's a, there's a lot of emails that get sent out that don't look, don't look good.

And so if it, whether marketing provides, um, some templates to sales and then allows sales to modify and, and send out, uh. That that can work, but I [00:29:00] really always encourage email marketing to lay and marketing, uh, in, in their domain. It's, um, they will have a, um, far better. From a design creation, uh, that is, it's just the, it's a better, the mass messaging.

It's a, it's a better camp to fall in. Now, in today's world, that's changing a little bit. Um, salespeople are a little bit more involved in, um, you know, I've seen some builders giving salespeople the ability to mass mail, just in today's climate, getting information out, um, faster, easier. Um, you know, I can't say that that's a bad thing to do, but I would just be a bit cautious in making sure that you're always testing the emails first and that you are really, um.

You know, somebody got their eyes on it and making sure that it follows the brand guidelines [00:30:00] properly. Because we see some emails with, you know, five different font colors and italics and bold and, and lots of questions or explanation marks and all those things that you really shouldn't do. And Nobody does anything with the intentive V being the wrong thing to do. They just don't know proper thing to do always. 

Kevin Weitzel: So now the technology has changed as much as it has, even in the last five years with interactive floor plans, with virtual tours, with Matterports, with uh, online sales counselors being much more part of the sales equation when people are using these, you know, these email campaigns.

How has technology evolved to change it? Cause now salespeople aren't getting these, you know, fresh leads. They're getting these well-honed. Well, uh, prequalified leads right in their lap. So how, how has that changed the evolution of the email marketing. 

Angela McKay: Well, it's still, you know, it's interesting cause what happens often [00:31:00] is, you know, the emails get, um, I mean, email marketing is kind of in the background the whole time, to be honest.

It is, it, I don't think it ever really stops, uh, because it's more of a corporate. Um, or community-specific. It's, it shouldn't at all interfere with the sales process that is going on. So we're talking, there's two different things. There's email marketing and there's the email messages that can go out, you know, whether it's, um, you know, leading up to an appointment or, um, just the corporate, you know, what's happening with the builder.

What's happening with the community. But then there's also that other layer. So once it becomes a sales qualified lead and it passes to the online or onsite sales team, you've got a sales process and those may, sometimes they have a little bit of a look about of an email marketing type template.

But most often, um, more often than not, it's more of an outlook type based [00:32:00] email. But those can still be automated. So they can, um, you know, if, again, I kind of go back and in today's climate, I'm, I'm suggesting turning off automation, but, but they can be automated and those mess, those emails can be sent or sent out, um, by your, by your on onsite sales team.

Um, those ones are a little less, um, less fancy, if you want to call it that. Less, uh, less image, image-based, um, but still provide a common message. And sales often has the ability to modify those emails, but not necessarily, um, change it in its entirety. 

Greg Bray: So Angela, just to kind of take us a slightly different direction. Kind of a a thought. Have you seen anybody, um, doing a good job with the email marketing after the sale? So during the build process, you know, where as far as continuing that [00:33:00] client experience, you know, while they've,  signed the contract and now it's going to take two, three, four, six months to get this home done.

Depending. Have you seen anybody doing a good job using email there? 

Angela McKay: I have and actually, but you're, but you've, you've hit on a topic that an area that needs a lot of improvement. It is where it often falls short. So we do so much at the beginning. We do so much at the prospect nurturing, engaging, getting them to the sale, getting them to purchase, and then kind of fall off a little bit.

Um, there isn't as much communication. And that's what it's almost most important, right? I mean, you've got a nervous purchaser. They want to know what their updates are and they want to know. So that's when, you know, th th there's email marketing and you know, there's definitely updates about a community and the growth and what's happening, and that's really important.

But then there's also [00:34:00] an additional post. Purchase sales pro, we call this a sales process, but it's a workflow, a workflow that's really important to be able to give them updates on, you know, this is what you're, this is what it looks like this week. This is what your home looks like. And this is, these are your, the appointments.

You've got to come in for your design appointment. You know, making sure that they have an, they are aware of the milestones that are, um, that are still to come. That communication is so important because it really, um, you know, that's when it's, it can get into some difficult times sometimes with, with purchasers at that, you know, making the decisions or, or things.

Um, you know, dates change slightly. So if you've kept in touch, um, you have a far better. Better chance of keeping that purchaser happy? 

Greg Bray: Yeah. I think, um, one of the things I've seen is we've, we see these handoffs, right? Marketing generates [00:35:00] a lead. Now hands it to sales. Sales gets a contract, they hand it to production, and communication is not production strong point so, and so we, we suddenly.

Ended up with these people a few months later going, thank goodness this is over. Oh my goodness, just give me the keys already and leave me alone because I hate you now we're, we are no longer friends. And that's, you know, you've just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the largest purchase of your life, you know, that was supposed to be this dream home, and you're just sigh of relief that it's over.

And instead of this excitement of, of what you got to experience. And so I think their email could fill an important part of that whole. Client experience improvement that you're talking about. So just, just putting a plugin for that. That's not something that I necessarily get into on a regular basis, but, 

Angela McKay: well, and I think the importance there is more of a systematic approach, right?

I mean, we, we sometimes inherently know what we should do, but we don't always do it because we don't have an activity. Telling us to do it. [00:36:00] So that's again where your CRM will come into play with a workflow and those predictable, you know, those set of 10 activities over the course of six months, eight months, whatever, whatever that time period is to say, this is, these are the milestones, these, this is what we need, how we need to communicate to the purchaser.

And having that laid out and having it in place as a framework really helps provide ultimately a better experience um, and you're ensuring that you're not missing anything along the way. 

Greg Bray: Well, Angela, we're getting a little, uh, close to our time here, so we really appreciate all the insights you've shared.

But what would be one piece of advice that you could leave with folks today if you could just tell him one thing? 

Angela McKay: Well, I guess probably be. It just, you know, always do the right thing and say, you know, think about what you want, um, what you would want to receive if you were to put yourself in the, your purchasers or your prospect's shoes, and think [00:37:00] about what message and what they would want to receive as opposed to.

You know what, what you want, what you want to tell them. Um, and then the other piece is just, you know, I have to reiterate that having an email address, having a cell phone number so that you can text whatever way, way, whatever information you have about a prospect or about a realtor, about anyone in your database, you use it respectfully.

 it is not only the right thing to do, it's the legal thing to do.  and um, it will pay off in dividends. Um, as you, as you build a stronger relationship. 

Greg Bray: Awesome. Well, if people want to learn more about you or want to communicate or connect with you, what's the best way for them to contact you?

Angela McKay:  Uh, I, they can email me at A McKay and it's AMcKa y@ecisolutions.com.

And that's E C I. And, um, I am also actively on [00:38:00] Facebook, uh, and, uh, involve to join professional women. That builder, um, any, yeah. Any women female, uh, builders out there. Please, if you're not already part of that fantastic group, I encourage you to join even the men, I think you guys are both part of the part of the Facebook group as well.

Um, but, uh, and our website is LassoCRM.com

Greg Bray: Well, thank you, Angela, so much. We really appreciate you being with us today. 

Well, thank you for having me. Have a great rest of the day, you guys. 

Thank you. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine and I'm Kevin Wietzel with Outhouse.