Several organizations of all sizes are moving away from their
on-premise data centers to the flexibility and scalability of the
cloud. While there are thousands of cloud computing services
available, one of the most popular is Microsoft Azure, a cloud
computing platform designed by Microsoft. But what is Microsoft
Azure and why is it so popular? How are organizations using this
platform? In this guide, we’ll provide an in-depth look at
Microsoft Azure and how JourneyTEAM can help you migrate to the
cloud with ease.

Cloud Computing Definition

To get a better understanding of Microsoft Azure, it’s
important you know what cloud computing is. The simple definition
of cloud computing refers to delivering various services through
the internet rather than through a hard drive or on-premise data
center. These services include anything from data storage and
processing to software and analytics. Because the cloud is powered
by the internet, the services and tools stored are accessible from
anywhere with a stable internet connection. Some examples of
popular cloud computing platforms include Google Drive and
Microsoft OneDrive.

A Look Into Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a public cloud platform developed by
Microsoft that allows users to use tools, services, and resources
for analytics, storage, virtual computing, deployment, and
development. Azure is designed to replace or segment an
organization’s on-premise data center.

Within Azure, there are three different types of cloud
computing:

• Platform as a Service (PaaS): In this model,
  users essentially rent everything they need to build an application
  from the cloud vendor. Using PaaS, users can build an application
  using the tools and resources available from the vendor.

• Software as a Service (SaaS): This method
  allows users to access data from any device directly from an
  internet browser. SaaS is hosted and maintained by a software
  vendor.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This form
  of cloud computing provides computing, networking, and storage
  resources directly to users through the internet.

Pizza as a Service and Cloud Computing

The Pizza as a Service analogy was developed by Albert Barron in
2014 to help explain the differences between IaaS, PaaS, and
SaaS.

• Homemade: The process of making a homemade
  pizza falls entirely on you. You have to gather the ingredients,
  build the pizza, and bake it. On-premise computing is similar to
  making a pizza at home. The task of maintaining and operating the
  entire technology stack is your team’s responsibility.

• Take and bake: At Papa Murphy’s, you’re
  able to choose what you’d like on your pizza. Based on your
  recommendations, they’ll assemble the pizza after which you’ll
  pick it up and bake it. With the IaaS model, your team is tasked
  with managing the operating system and the cloud vendor manages the
  networking and virtualization part of your system.

• Pizza delivery: Ordering a pizza for delivery
  takes much of the responsibility off of you. All you have to do is
  provide a location in which the pizza can be eaten. The PaaS model
  is like this in which the cloud vendor has various services you can
  use and your team is responsible for managing the data and
  applications.

• Eating out. When you dine out and order a
  pizza, a fully assembled and baked pizza is delivered to you and
  the restaurant provides a place for you to eat it. The entire
  process is taken care of for you. SaaS is similar to this method as
  everything you need to build, deploy, and scale applications is
  provided for you by the cloud vendor.

Putting Azure to Work in Your Business

The flexibility and agility of Azure allows businesses to put it
to use in a number of ways. One of the most popular uses of Azure
is using it to run virtual machines in the cloud, but there are
dozens of ways to use the services and features of Azure. Some
these include:

• Deploy and manage virtual machines
• Build and develop mobile applications
• Development and deployment of online applications
• Analytics
• Storage
• Networking
• Security
• Data backup and disaster recovery

These are just some of the ways you can make Microsoft Azure
work for you. Additionally, Microsoft is continuously adding new
features and tools to help you manage and deliver services.

Why Use Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is one of the fastest growing cloud platforms on
the market. One of the biggest reasons for its popularity is that
it allows users to do so much more than build and host applications
in the cloud. Additional benefits of using Microsoft Azure as your
cloud platform include:

• Tight security: When you move your data to the
  cloud, you want to ensure it’s protected as anyone can access it
  from anywhere. Microsoft Azure features a number of security
  certificates and was the first cloud vendor to be fully compliant
  with IOS 27018.

• Machine learning and data analytics: Included
  with Azure is the Azure Machine Learning Studio that features a
  library of algorithms that can be used to predict customer behavior
  and provide valuable insight.

• Scalability: Microsoft goes a step further
  with scalability by allowing users to pay as they go. Whether
  you’re looking to launch new applications, use machine learning,
  or utilize data processing features, you pay only for what you
  use.

• Software development kits: Whatever your
  platform of choice is--JAVA, .NET, Ruby, or Python--Azure has an
  SDK for it.

• Budget-friendly: When you migrate to the
  cloud, you no longer have to pay for software installations or
  upgrades or pay for extra storage or disk space. Additionally,
  Azure allows you to pay for only the services you need, keeping
  more money in your IT budget.

Migrate to Azure with the Support of a Microsoft Gold Partner

The reasons to move to Microsoft Azure are endless--the
flexibility, reliability, and security of the platform being just a
few. If you’re ready to make the move to Azure, let JourneyTEAM
help you migrate. JourneyTEAM can help you learn these services and
make them work in your organization. Whether you’re interested in
machine learning, AI, analytics, or internet of things, our team is
here to support you. Contact us today to get started.

SEE THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

About JourneyTEAM

JourneyTEAM has more than 20 years of experience in delivering
IT solutions to businesses. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner,
we’ve worked closely with Microsoft to carefully provide
organizations with Microsoft products, including SharePoint, Azure,
Office 365, Dynamics 364, SL, AX, GP, NAV, and CRM, and make them
work for you. Whether you’re in need of a collaboration,
marketing, sales, or productivity solution, JourneyTEAM can help
you find the right technology for your business. To learn more
about our team, visit our website at www.journeyteam.com.

The post
A Guide to Microsoft Azure and your CRM | Pizza as a Service
Example appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics
365.

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There is no doubt that Google Chrome extensions can make your
work easier by streamlining your workflows. There are extensions
for just about anything you can imagine, after all, from blocking
web ads to tracking billable hours and correcting spelling and
grammar mistakes. But, with all the options out there today, it can
be difficult to narrow down the extensions that will be most
beneficial for small businesses.

We’ve gathered a list of the 20 best Chrome extensions for
small businesses so you don’t have to sift through all of them to
find which ones will work best for you.

20 Best Chrome Extensions for Small Businesses Multipurpose CRM
Extensions 1.
Agile CRM

Link your Agile CRM account to your Chrome browser to get even
more out of the solution. Agile CRM’s Chrome
extension lets you generate new leads by capturing and pulling
contacts from social media platforms into your contact database.
You can also track open rates and click-through rates on emails
from your Gmail account, as well as access tasks, contacts, leads,
and deals, all from your Chrome browser.

2.
Revamp CRM for Gmail

Revamp offers a free CRM solution for your Gmail account. It
allows you to track tasks, view deals in the pipeline, sync
contacts, and track orders, all from within Gmail. Its CRM
capabilities are limited, but the price is right for the number of
features available.

3.
Streak CRM for Gmail

You can use Streak to track the emails you send from Gmail. You
get basic CRM features, such as an overview of your pipeline, but
overall it is not heavy on traditional CRM features. However, the
value here comes from the ability to work in G Suite for your CRM
needs.

Lead Generation Chrome Extensions 4.
Clearbit Connect – Supercharge Gmail 

This Chrome add-on locates unknown email addresses for you.
Simply enter the name and company of the person you are looking for
and the app searches massive contact databases to provide you with
a suggested email address for them.

5.
ConvergeHub Lead Generator

ConvergeHub Lead Generator lets you capture leads from LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, Gmail, and more with a single
click. If you use ConvergeHub, this extension makes lead capture
effortless. It can be particularly helpful if you want to generate
leads for your eCommerce site.

6.
DiscoverOrg Sales Intelligence

This plugin provides instant access to lead and prospect
information while browsing the web. It automatically pulls a host
of prospecting data such as company details, recommended contacts,
phone numbers, email addresses, organizational charts, and similar
companies.

Efficiency, Productivity & Organization Extensions 7.

Google Keep

When you find something while browsing the web that you’d like
to save to reference later, Google Keep does this for you. You can
use it to save URLs, text, and images. Then take notes on those and
add labels to your notes for easy access and better
organization.

8.
ZipBooks

Use ZipBooks to add members and create customers, projects, and
tasks, then track hours and invoice them. Once those hours are
tracked, they can be automatically pulled into your invoices with
no additional work.

9.
Taco

A task management extension, Taco lets you view tasks from other
project management applications in a Chrome tab. Use it to access
your tasks from applications like Asana, Basecamp, GitHub, Gmail,
OmniFocus, Trello, and around 30 more.

10.
Block Site

If you are one of the millions of people who are easily
distracted while working on the internet, this extension could be
your savior.  The Block Site extension lets you flag certain
websites that distract you, and the plugin redirects you to other
pages when you navigate to distracting URLs.

11.
OneTab

If you are like most people, you open numerous tabs in Chrome
throughout the day, making it difficult to navigate between them.
OneTab lets you convert those numerous tabs into an easily
accessible list, which you can access anytime to restore them
either individually or as a group. In addition to helping you work
more efficiently, this also helps to save up to 95% of your
computer’s RAM, as those tabs will no longer be running in the
background. 

12. 
    LINER

Ever read a web page and find something you want to remember
later on? LINER lets you highlight lines of text on any page. It
also highlights text on any PDF. The app then saves your highlights
so that you can reference them in the future, without having to
save entire pages or articles.

13.
TeamPassword

This password sharing extension boosts collaboration on teams
that share passwords for sites or apps. You determine which team
members have access to which passwords. Then, those with access can
log into those apps or pages, using that shared password, with a
single click.

Social Sharing Extensions 14.
Buffer

Buffer lets you post on social media and track your results.
With the Chrome extension, you can click the Buffer icon to write a
post, from any page. You can configure it to send them throughout
the day at spaced-out intervals, or schedule individual posts for
specific times.

15.
Figure It Out

If you ever need to share posts at appropriate times for
different time zones, Figure It Out can help.  This extension will
display the time in your chosen time zones so you’ll know when to
schedule or post.

16.
Talk and Comment

Use this extension to record voice notes while on any app or
website. You can then share them and allow others to listen to them
without having Talk and Comment installed. You can also listen to
them later for easy reference.

Miscellaneous Chrome Extensions 17.
Quick Capture

It can be annoying to make screenshots work for you by taking a
screenshot, opening it, cropping it, and saving it just to get an
image of a portion of a webpage. Quick Capture lets you zero in on
specific parts of the page and capture just that section. You can
then annotate and share them with colleagues.

18.
Evernote Web Clipper

Use this extension in place of bookmarking pages. Clip the pages
you want to save, assign tags, highlight important text, and more.
It’s all saved in your Evernote account, which can be accessed
from any device.

19.
AdBlock

AdBlock is one of the most popular Chrome extensions available,
with over 40 million users, and for good reason. Installing AdBlock
and it will block ads from all across the web. You also have the
option to continue viewing ads that interest, you if you wish.

20.
Grammarly

Grammarly works much like the spelling and grammar check in
Microsoft Word. Anytime you are typing in your browser—for
example, writing an email, creating a Google Doc, or posting a
comment on a message board—it will catch mistakes and offer
suggestions to resolve them.

Conclusion

Regardless of what your needs are, there are almost certainly
some Chrome extensions out there that will make your life easier.
The Chrome store is constantly flooded with new apps to choose
from, so start here when trying to determine the best ones for your
small business.

The post
20 best Chrome Extensions for Small Businesses appeared first
on Agile CRM Blog.

Wave 2 of the Dynamics 365 2020 Release is just about here. And
there are some pretty exciting innovations that will improve the
way businesses do business.

The release includes substantial enhancements and hundreds of
new features across Dynamics 365 applications including Marketing,
Sales, Customer Service, among others.

While the entire 2020 release plan is immense – and laid out
in a 486-page document
that you can download here - the October release includes some
notable upgrades.

Without diving too deep into everything the new release has to
offer, here is a quick overview of some of the exciting bells and
whistles you can expect specifically in Dynamics 365 for Marketing
in the month of October.

DYNAMICS 365 FOR MARKETING

Microsoft understands customer engagement is the key to every
business development process. This month, they add meat to their
highly touted 360-degree view of customers with smart improvements
to relationship-building processes and capabilities.

• In-Place Editing of Email & Forms. No
  longer will you have to disengage from a customer journey to create
  or edit email communications or forms. In-place editing keeps the
  focus where it should be – within the customer journey. You can
  also create or edit marketing forms related to an event within the
  event itself. This one is a big improvement and just makes smart
  sense.

• Enhanced Content-Rich Social Media Creation and
  Management. The entire social media post creation
  experience has been redesigned for ease of use, better management
  across multiple channels and enhanced scheduling features.

• A Redesigned, More Efficient Customer Journey
  Canvas. The new design offers a more intuitive approach to
  building customer journeys. The experience is further enhanced by
  no longer needing to hop between the canvas and the toolbox when
  creating the journey. One of my favorite new features is the
  inclusion of negative journey paths that allows you to create
  alternate journeys and follow-up events for those customers not
  meeting a certain condition (like not opening an email or not
  clicking on a specified link). This alone is a real
  game-changer.

• Running Webinars within Microsoft Teams. With
  the onslaught of virtual events, the October release enables you to
  manage webinars and video meetings in Teams, directly from the
  Dynamics 365 Marketing platform. You can create and host live
  events – and integrate them directly into Marketing events.
  Businesses are already looking for better alternatives to Zoom and
  other video conferencing platforms and Microsoft is definitely
  stepping up to the plate.

• Expanded Entity Options for Easy Data
  Collection. Before now, forms had to be connected to a
  lead or contact. But with the new release, forms no longer need to
  be mapped this way. Instead, marketers can store form submissions
  to other entities. and workflows can be created to move the data to
  where it needs to be.

The entirety of Dynamics 365 October Release is enormous, with
updates and enhancements made throughout the entire suite of
applications including Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Field
Service, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources,
Commerce, Fraud Protection, and Business Central. There are also
notable
Microsoft Power Platform features in the new release, including
substantial improvements for Power Apps developers.

Suffice to say Microsoft continues to create and deploy
exceptional CRM capabilities – and Dynamics 365 is increasingly
fortifying its place as the industry innovator.

And there is certainly more cool stuff to come.

By Christopher Smith, Founder & CEO of Empellor CRM. 

Read "How Do I Find CRM Talent?" here. 

The post
Dynamics 365 for Marketing – Exciting Updates in October
Release appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics
365.

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When you integrate your ecommerce platform with ActiveCampaign,
you can customize messages, automate your store, and understand
exactly what campaigns are helping to grow your business.

These are some of the ways that ActiveCampaign customers segment
with the data they already have in their ecommerce platform.

• Item purchased
• Purchase history
• Purchase frequency
• Price of item
• Customer geographic location
• Time since a customer last purchased
• Number of items a customer has purchased
• Average purchase value of a customer
• Interest in a product category

You can browse hundreds of integrations in the ActiveCampaign App
Ecosystem. If you want to get started quickly, here’s what
you need to use the four most popular ecommerce integrations.

Shopify

What is Shopify?

From
Shopify:“Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone
to set up a free online store and sell their products. Merchants
can also sell their products in person with Shopify POS.”

How can you connect Shopify and
ActiveCampaign?

The
Shopify integration is available on Plus, Professional, and
Enterprise plans. This integration syncs customer data directly
from your Shopify store into your ActiveCampaign account to help
you send personalized campaigns and trigger helpful
automations.

You can connect Shopify and ActiveCampaign in
3 ways:

1. A direct integration through ActiveCampaign (recommended)
2. A third-party Zapier integration, which can add your customers
   as contacts
3. A Revenue Conduit, which passes data and ecommerce automation
   sequences into ActiveCampaign for an extra monthly fee.

Where can you find more info about the Shopify and
ActiveCampaign integration?

Connecting your ecommerce store to ActiveCampaign is a great way
to connect even better with your customers. To learn more about the
Shopify and ActiveCampaign integration, check out the Shopify app
integration page.

BigCommerce

What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce
is an Ecommerce platform that provides an all-encompassing solution
for a business’ online store. BigCommerce is a popular option for
merchants trying to sell physical goods online.

How can you connect BigCommerce and
ActiveCampaign?

The
BigCommerce integration is available on Plus, Professional, and
Enterprise plans. Utilizing the Bigcommerce platform, pass your
customer information right into your ActiveCampaign contact records
and automations.

There are
three ways to integrate BigCommerce with ActiveCampaign:

1. A direct integration through ActiveCampaign (recommended)
2. A third-party Zapier integration
3. Automatic import – This option will pass contacts into an
   ActiveCampaign list(s) and uses our automatic import tool. This
   integration option is free and available on all plan levels, but is
   not as thorough as the direct integration.

Where can you find more info about the BigCommerce and
ActiveCampaign integration?

Connecting your ecommerce store to ActiveCampaign is a great way
to connect even better with your customers. To learn more about the
BigCommerce and ActiveCampaign integration, check out the BigCommerce app
integration page.

WooCommerce

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a
WordPress eCommerce toolkit that helps you sell online. WooCommerce
connects to WordPress to easily process online payments.

How can you connect WooCommerce and
ActiveCampaign?

Using
WooCommerce with ActiveCampaign will allow you to connect your
contacts between both applications. You can build your own powerful
eCommerce presence and capture new customers with forms,
automations, and powerful segmentation.

There are
two ways to integrate WooCommerce with ActiveCampaign:

1. A direct Deep Data integration through ActiveCampaign.
2. A third-party Zapier integration

Where can you find more info about the WooCommerce and
ActiveCampaign integration?

Connecting your ecommerce store to ActiveCampaign is a great way
to connect even better with your customers. To learn more about the
WooCommerce and ActiveCampaign integration, check out the WooCommerce app
integration page.

Square

What is Square?

From Square: “Square helps
millions of sellers run their business-from secure credit card
processing to point of sale solutions.”

How can you connect Square and
ActiveCampaign?

The
Square Deep Data integration lets you connect ecommerce
activity in your Square account with your marketing and sales
processes in ActiveCampaign. It syncs historical payment
information as well as all of your current Square customers.

To connect Square with your ActiveCampaign account, you can use
the ActiveCampaign Deep Data integration.

Where can you find more info about the Square and
ActiveCampaign integration?

Connecting your ecommerce store to ActiveCampaign is a great way
to connect even better with your customers. To learn more about the
Square and ActiveCampaign integration, check out the Square app
integration page.

The post
What You Need to Integrate Your Ecommerce Platform with
ActiveCampaign appeared first on ActiveCampaign Email Marketing
Blog.

On a Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation proposal, the cost of
building custom reports can be substantial. As we mentioned in our

previous post, there are ways that you can dive in and learn to
do some of this reporting on your own. However, there are times
when it is just better to leave it to the experts. In those cases,
here are five tips we know that will help you to reduce the time,
and therefore the cost, from your Microsoft Dynamics 365
Partner.

• Explain the why

I often tell my clients, "If you can't explain why you need that
report in a sentence or two, then you haven't thought it through
well enough." There is a reason for every report.

We are doing two Power BI
projects right now. Two identical programs, two similar reports
for sales reps. Two completely different reasons why they want the
report.

One guy does sales for other companies, and he wants to be able
to provide metrics to his suppliers. He wants to show manufacturer
A what he is doing for them. Then, he wants to present a completely
different set of data for manufacturer B. Each personalized with
their logo so he can do PowerPoint presentations.

The other guy wants a Power BI report to see how his salespeople
are doing. He wants to analyze his team, to figure out where the
holes are, where the trends are. They are using the same data for
completely different reasons.

When we know why you want the report, we know how to build it.
And we can even offer suggestions you may not even have thought of
such as, "You want to see overall sales. Wouldn't it be cool if we
put a trend line on this report that showed you average sales on
your bar chart? So, you can see, sales are going up, but over the
past three years they're trending down."

So be able to explain why you need and who will read it.

• Get rid of the garbage

Everyone in the software industry has heard the phrase, "garbage
in, garbage out". Bad data gives you bad reports. So make sure you
invest time for data cleanup. For example, a single wrong keystroke
can make 2012 into 1012, and your results suffer. The Microsoft
Dynamics Partner can do the cleanup, but it will be more
inexpensive than if you do it on your own. Some companies hire
interns to comb through the data so they can deliver crisp, clean
files to their Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner.

• Make a mock-up

If you can do a mock-up of the report you are looking for the
results will always be better. You can draw it with crayon, on the
back of a napkin, whatever. Translating the expectations you have
in your mind, into a hard format, is priceless in the planning
process.

• Don't be afraid of the wish list

Some clients are afraid to admit they have a wish list. They
think that if they tell me now, the focus will be lost, or the
project will become too expensive. However, this can create
expensive problems later on.

Think of it like building a house. Someday you want to have a
pool, but you are not ready for it yet. If you tell the builder you
might want a pool in the future, they can plan around that. It will
be much less expensive to put the house in the right place now
versus ripping it down and moving it later so you can fit that
pool.

An example in the CRM world would be if you someday want to tie
the data into a project management tool, an accounting system or a
public-facing web portal. Or maybe right now you are only a few
salespeople in the office, but a few years from now you want
customers to be able to do their own ordering online and have those
orders feed into the CRM system.

If you plan for this when you are building your CRM system, it
can be structured a bit differently to make this happen. It could
be something as simple as creating a table called users, instead of
employees, which limits your options.

You want to think about where you want to be in five years and
ask your Dynamics 365 Partner to build with that in mind.

• Watch and learn

If you are setting up Power BI reports that pull data from
different sources, the first report is always the hardest. If you
need several similar reports, you could choose to pay your
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner to build the first one, then use the
data that is sitting there to create your own. A good Partner can
show you how to drag a chart over, and slice and dice the data in
new ways.

There will be a learning curve on your side, but learning these
skills can pay off in the long run.

P2 Automation can help you get the reports you need at an
affordable cost. One way we do this is with a
simple, five-stage software development process to assess your
needs and meet your demands.

Read:
Don't Buy Dynamics 365, SalesForce or Zoho Before Building a
Process Flow Diagram

Contact
us today to learn more about our Business
Intelligence services. We'll be happy to help you draw out
those crucial insights that you need to make more informed business
decisions.

By P2 Automation, www.P2Automation.com

The post
5 Tips to Lower The Cost of Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Quote
appeared first on CRM
Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

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Wealth Management firms need to manage many different types of
information as it relates to their client relationship. This can
include family relationships, legal instruments, fees, client
interactions and holdings. Information that is not organized in a
single system makes the management of this information an
administrative burden and introduces inefficiencies across the
firm. Silos of information also introduce risk to the firm through
information loss, lower advisor productivity and client
attrition.  

With this in mind, Crowe developed a relationship management
solution that enables wealth management firms to increase retention
rates and revenue growth through improved operational efficiencies,
client management and personalized service to their client
base.

Crowe CRM for Wealth Management is a solution is built on the
Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, integrated with Office 365, with
all the companion mobile app capabilities.

The key areas of focus are household and extended family
relationships (i.e. trusts, wills), legal instrument associations,
advisor and intermediary relationships (i.e. tax, legal), client
communications, document management, new client onboarding,
reporting and portfolio management integration capabilities.

Benefits: 

Operational efficiencies enhance client
interactions 

• Increase productivity by consolidating client information into
  a single application
• Expand visibility of the business using reports and
  dashboards
• Create and manage personalized client plans to meet the
  client's needs and goals
• Risk profiling and client on boarding workflows
• Document management
• Overview of a client's financial account
  value 

Relationship summary 

• Flexible house holding to model complex and multi-generational
  relationships.
• Legal instruments and how they relate to family
  relationships
• Client meeting notes and action item tracking
• Client centric profile summary provides quick access to
  information from one view

Business development 

• Referral tracking
• Inbound lead workflows (website --> lead -->
  opportunity)
• Automated mail-merge for personalized letters and emails
• Integrated search and customer segmentation for client and
  prospect management
• Automate customer-facing processes like prospect qualification
  or new client onboarding

Review details of
Crowe CRM for Wealth Management on Microsoft Appsource.

Crowe CRM for Wealth Management helps financial advisors track
information and create more meaningful client relationships. If
your firm is ready to take the next step contact
our team to start the discussion at crminfo@crowe.com or
877-600-2253.

By Ryan Plourde, Crowe, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Partner
www.CroweCRM.com

Follow us on Twitter: @CroweCRM

The post
A Single Source for Wealth Management Firms to Track Client
Relationships appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics
365.

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In our ever growing “online first” society, your website is
most likely going to be the first impression a potential client has
of your team. It will determine whether or not they consider you an
expert in your industry. Unfortunately, too many mortgage
brokerages have built a website that ends up being not much more
than an online brochure. Lacking value, these sites never compel
leads to enter their pipeline and as a result, their business
suffers. Today we want to share with you a strategy for creating
the perfect mortgage website to help you grow.

The Key Elements Of A Great Mortgage Website

A great mortgage website is going to be informative and
value-added for your prospective client. It will answer the
questions that are most important to them. Establish you and your
brokerage as the thought leader in the mortgage industry. As well
as compel them to want to give you their information so they can
discuss their home financing options with you.

Use The Right Copy & Framing

The truth is that too many mortgage websites position themselves
and their services as the hero in the loan scenario.
Psychologically this turns potential clients off. You have to
remember that by nature, we are all a little selfish. When putting
ourselves in the shoes of a character that needs a home loan, we
don’t want someone else to be the hero in the story. We want to
be the hero. This means that you as the mortgage broker are the
guide. You need to take this into consideration when planning the
content on your site.

This is a very common feature in websites in almost every
industry. It’s called a storytelling framework. The thumbnail
sketch of this framework is:

• Our hero is facing a problem
• Hero meets a guide that gives them the steps they need to
  follow for success
• Guide calls the hero to action
• Guide tells the hero what they have to gain by being
  successful
• The guide also demonstrates what the hero has to lose if they
  don’t act

To get started on this element of your website there is a great
free tool you can use online, created by Donald Miller called the

storybrand brandscript.

The shift from hero to guide is a game changer for mortgage
companies. It sets you apart from the crowd and establishes you as
the expert in your marketplace. For instance:

Many mortgage websites use phrases like:

• This year we will assist almost 700 customers satisfying their
  mortgage needs!
• We are a full service mortgage brokerage
• Click here to prequalify for your loan

Instead, frame the statements like this:

• Stress free Mortgages that fit your exact needs – We’ve
  helped over 700 customers in the Silicon Valley achieve their home
  financing needs. We can help you too!
• We’ll help you navigate the many mortgage options out there
  to find the one that best suits your needs
• We break down the home loan process, help you find the loan
  program that suits your needs best and will get you on the path to
  buying your dream home

Be Voice And Mobile Search Ready

The number of people using voice activated search is increasing
rapidly. According to
Quora Creative, 40% of adults now use mobile voice
search at least once daily

What that means is they pick up their mobile phone and speak
into it. Think: “mortgage broker near me” or “best mortgage
broker in Arlington” or “new home loan specialists in
Milwaukee”.

The best place to start is with Google Keyword
planner see what types of keywords people are searching in your
local area similar to the ones above. Then take the phrases you
find are searched most often and incorporate them naturally into
the content on the pages throughout your website. Keep in mind to
make these as hyper local as possible, local results show up way
more often in voice searches.

By optimizing the content of your website you can position it to
show up for these types of typical voice driven mobile web
searches. This will help you rank for those terms and end up in
more searches that prospective clients are making.

Provide Social Proof

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you would not believe how
many mortgage brokers choose not to put client testimonials in an
easy to find spot on their homepage. This is a giant mistake.
Client testimonials provide social proof. It’s a third-party that
is reaffirming the things you are telling your prospective clients
throughout your website. It adds instant credibility.

According to Optin
Monster, social proof can increase website conversions by up to
15%. So for every 100 website visitors that come to your Mortgage
Brokerage’s website, that’s an additional 15 leads that your
team is getting in their pipeline. Those are not small numbers.

Whether you choose to build your own website, or use a pre-built
website from a website provider, you need to make sure there is an
option you can use to post your online reviews. You don’t want to
have to do this manually. First of all it requires effort on your
part and will likely lead to stale reviews being shown on your
site. Secondly, to get the most out of your reviews, you want to
make sure these reviews are verified third party reviews. Your
website platform should offer plugins that allow you to easily pull
in reviews from places like Facebook, Yelp, Zillow and Google My
Business, directly into your website.

Be Easy To Contact

This is another one of those things that should seem like a
no-brainer, but many brokerages just get this wrong. You have to
make it stupid simple for prospective borrowers to get in touch
with you to discuss their needs. If they sense it’s even slightly
difficult to get in touch with you, prospective clients are likely
to just move onto the next site because when we are online, our
patience is at an all-time low. Even more, everyone (especially
across age group demographics) wants to communicate with someone in
a different way. For instance, someone in their 50’s may want to
pick up a phone and have a one-to-one conversation with a loan
officer. Millennials on the other hand are much more comfortable
with jumping on an online chat platform to discuss their needs with
a loan officer. Offering a contact option for everyone’s
preference is important.

First off, you want to make sure your phone number is at the top
right of every page on your website. Next, you want to make sure
that even with that phone number prominently displayed there are
plenty of other ways for people to get in touch with you. Include
features such as a chat widget on your site that can handle chat on
multiple platforms (e.g. on the site, via sms, Facebook Messenger,
Whatsapp, etc.). On your contact page you also want to have an easy
to fill out “contact us” form that prospective borrowers can
enter their info into to get in touch with you and begin discussing
their needs.

Similarly to an easy way to display social proof, web platforms
generally have dozens of options when it comes to these features
and pre-built website packages should for sure have a plan in place
for these features as well.

Utilize Landing Pages & Lead Magnets

Again, it’s important to remember that the best Mortgage
Websites are informative, establish you as a thought leader and
generate leads. To generate leads, you are going to have lots of

lead magnets that lead to landing pages throughout your
website.

For instance, if you devote a portion of your site to first time
home buyers, you will need to create lead magnets that will get
first time home buyers to want to click to go to a landing page and
give you their information. The creation of these pages should
follow the hero’s journey we talked about earlier in this
article. Taking into account the challenges your first time home
buyers are facing, create a banner or section on your site that
addresses that challenge and describes how you are positioned to
guide them through solving that challenge. Then, give them a call
to action to “click the button” to get some valuable piece of
information that will get them to their end goal. For instance, a
great item of value for a first time home buyer might be a
checklist of 10 things they need to do before they start the search
for their first home.

When you design your landing page, you also want to consider the
hero’s journey, but you want to really drive home your authority
and how you can get the prospect to their goal in a successful way.
The best way to do this is to give specific summaries of what they
will receive in that item of value if they fill out the lead form
on the page and submit their information. To do this, it can be as
simple as giving the prospect a bulleted list of what they’ll get
for submitting their information. If you want to build extra
authority and rapport with a prospect, a video embedded in the
landing page that describes what they are getting by submitting
their information is even better.

It’s important to make sure that you can build lead magnets
and landing pages in an on-demand fashion on your website, enabling
you to continually build out new items of value that are going to
get prospective borrowers to want to give you their information.
These lead magnets and landing pages will also give you a great
opportunity to increase your search engine rankings.

The Perfect Mortgage Website Will Grow Your Mortgage
Business

When it comes to driving people online to your website and
getting them to jump into your pipeline so your team can nurture
and convert them into clients, you have to have more than simply an
“online brochure” website. Taking the steps outlined in this
article will help you build an information rich website that will
establish your brokerage as the experts in your marketplace,
driving leads to your team and more business to your bottom
line.

Want To Build A Great Mortgage Website In Minutes?

The post 5 Key
Elements To Build A Great Mortgage Website in 2021 appeared
first on .

If you are investigating CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
solutions, you’ve probably zeroed in on Microsoft Dynamics
365/CRM. A lot of questions about features and usability will be
answered by reading posts by our expert members on the CRM Software
Blog. You can gain a wealth of information. But one question you
will rarely see answered until you sit down with a partner is: How
much will it cost?

It’s not easy to pin down an estimate for some CRM solutions
(plus ongoing license and user fees) because there are so many
variables. Here at CRM Software Blog, we have a solution for
that.

The Quick Quote Tool

Years ago, the CRM Software Blog developed our Quick Quote tool.
And as the industry has evolved and progressed, we’ve adjusted
the tool to keep pace. The Quick Quote tool now provides a working
estimate for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft’s comprehensive
solution that integrates ERP and CRM. You’ll still get an
estimated price for the total cost of software, implementation,
training, and ongoing costs. The Quick Quote tool is a hassle-free
way to determine if Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM is a fit for your
business and your budget.

The Quick
Quote tool takes only a few minutes, and it’s totally free.
Here’s how it works:

Look on the right-hand side of any page of the CRM Software Blog
for the orange bar labeled: “Request Instant Quote Dynamics
365/CRM.”

Click on the orange bar, and you’ll land on the Quick Quote
form.

Fill out the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Quick Quote request form to
let us know whether you’re interested in the Business Edition or
Enterprise Edition, what level you want (Basic, Basic Plus, or
Advanced), how many users you anticipate, and your contact
information. It’s as easy as that. Click submit, and within a
couple of minutes, a personalized proposal will appear in your
inbox.

The proposal will contain a detailed budgetary estimate and
information about setup and training, client testimonial videos,
and a dozen or so links to helpful information so you can learn all
about how you can use Microsoft Dynamics 365 can to the greatest
advantage at your company. Your contact information will be
forwarded to just one of our CRM Software Blog members who will be
glad to answer any questions you have and work with you on the
installation if you choose. Of course, both the estimate and the
partner referral are non-binding. They are provided for your
convenience.

So, why not try the Quick Quote
tool? It’s fast, and it’s free. Get your Quick Quote
estimate now!

By CRM Software Blog Writer, www.crmsoftwareblog.com

The post
Budget for Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM with Our Quick Quote Tool
appeared first on CRM
Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

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Many of the workarounds that have kept old systems running have
reached the end of the line. If people are already working in their
cars, the gym or the bathroom, it's hard to see how things get any
better without replacing systems. That requires a different
approach for the customer. The old adage of "if it ain't broke,
don't fix it," doesn't really apply any more.

If you’re new to your marketing automation platform
integration with your CRM system, this post is designed to give you
guidance on best practices—and worst practices—for marketing
automation. Let’s start with the good:

Your Email Must Add Value

People tend to subscribe to emails for one of three reasons:

• To receive discounts, special offers, etc.
• To receive ongoing education (e.g., newsletters)
• To receive product/service information about something they
  have already purchased

As you think through your email campaigns, ask yourself if you
have emails that fit each category—or if you have emails that
don’t service any of the goals above. More importantly,
ask yourself if the people receiving routine emails asked for them
in the first place.

Once you’ve confirmed your opt-in strategy, you can create an
automation journey. Start by build a Customer Journey Roadmap
(we
like this one here)—this will inform what types of emails
should be built to support sticking points in your sales funnel.
It’s also a great exercise to facilitate better sales and
marketing alignment! For a pro-tip, start with your most successful
marketing campaign type (e.g., events or paid media or referrals)
and map your journey from start to finish from that campaign.

Get
emfluence’s Ultimate Guide to Marketing Automation and Microsoft
Dynamics to create some of the most successful CRM + marketing
automation campaigns.

With your customer journey mapped out, you can be more
successful with automation by doing the following:

• Personalize based on time (e.g., what date or time-based events
  are coming), space (e.g., where are they located), or relationship
  (e.g., where are they in the customer journey). Think about what
  dates or events are relevant to your buyers—is it contract
  renewals? Industry happenings? Regional occurrences? Automate
  accordingly.
• Remember to consider Outlook—which if you’re B2B should
  heavily influence your design choices.
  Learn more about what to do (and not do) when sending to primarily
  Outlook inboxes in our guide here.
• Bring CRM data into your nurtures by thinking beyond triggers
  and segments and into what data points you could leverage in your
  automation strategy. Maybe you want to create personalized header
  images based on the state of each email recipient—that’s pulled
  from CRM data. Maybe you want to create campaigns that reference
  their last activity date—that’s CRM data, too. Insert variables
  where you can and pick a marketing automation platform that allows
  for you to customize data fields.
• Consider the climate by remembering to check your automation
  calls to action—especially in the time of COVID. For example,
  offers that require in-store or in-office redemption could benefit
  from virtual redemptions to match the varying comfort levels of
  risk exposure.

There are also things you should avoid as you’re building your
automation plans. Those include:

• Don’t set and forever forget your campaigns
• Don’t opt in everyone your sales team meets
• Don’t batch and blast to “All”
• Don’t forget exit conditions
• Don’t stop at lead nurtures
• Don’t automate emails with hard and fast calendar events
• Don’t send the same thing everyone else sends
• Don’t be tricky!

Depending on how your business operates, there are a few items
that you might consider as part of your automation strategy.

• Automate on behalf of your sales team to help them with follow
  ups, reconnections, and date-based reminders. You would want to
  send these “from” their email address in your marketing
  automation platform, so ensure you can populate record owner and
  record owner email address in your email system.
• Integrate contact score into your CRM so your sales team can
  prioritize follow up with leads who are most engaged with your
  content and website.
• Consider keeping your Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) separate
  from your Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) by keeping MQLs only in your
  marketing platform rather than in your CRM. That means you can keep
  leads that aren’t ready for a sales conversation away from the
  sales team until they are ready.

As you review your marketing automation strategy, be sure to
take these tips into consideration for best success on your
marketing automation goals,
check out our full post on marketing automation success
here.

The post
Your Marketing Automation Success Guide appeared first on
CRM Software Blog |
Dynamics 365.

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