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Last week it was announced that LoanLogics’ Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mary Anne Ahmer was a recipient of a 2021 HousingWire Woman of Influence award. We couldn’t be more thrilled that her contributions to both the company and the industry were recognized for all to see and celebrate.
With over a decade of mortgage experience at LoanLogics, we wanted to pull back the curtain a little further and get more of her perspective on what puts the company’s marketing prowess on center stage.
Below we share responses from a candid Q&A with this latest LoanLogics industry influencer.
You’ve had a long tenure with LoanLogics. What about the company has kept you in your role leading its marketing function for all these years?
From the very beginning of my employment with LoanLogics I have always been impressed with the innovative and creative ideas the company generates to address industry problems. These cool ideas are then transformed into technology automation that is differentiated by its intuitive design use of the latest software development techniques. The obvious value proposition is a marketer’s dream and has led to the creation of a variety of campaigns over the years that stress “automate first” to solve problems. As a company, LoanLogics has solved and continues to solve many problems across our product portfolios. From machine learning document processing (see ma, no hands), to audit automation tools with color-coded indicators to focus attention (look here), and drag and drop report building capabilities (no IT required), there is truly concrete value that is inspirational for our marketing strategy and is leverageable in fun and thought provoking ways across a wide range of marketing tactics.
We’ve heard a lot about how the industry had to pivot in 2020 with remote work and how we did business with borrowers. Tell us how LoanLogics’ marketing efforts had to pivot in 2020 to reach insanely busy financial institutions about the technologies and services we offer?
We really needed to find more ways to extend our reach when some of the marketing tactics typically included in our marketing mix simply vanished overnight. Live conferences, face to face client events and even presentations at a client location or LoanLogics office had to be replaced by other means to “virtually” interact. We quickly pivoted to online content we could market and the industry could consume at its leisure. Online webinars, product demonstrations, and thought leadership discussions filled the void. And knowing that people consume information in different ways, we took content developed in one format, such as a live webinar, and repackaged it as shorter, easy to listen to, podcasts. All of this content then became marketable through tactics ranging from email, to social media, to Google Adwords campaigns.
The mortgage industry is ever-changing and complex, to say the least. As a recognized thought leader for LoanLogics, how do you keep yourself educated on important concepts?
I realized early in my career that if marketers do not fundamentally understand their target market needs and technically how products they are marketing address them, they can’t create the right messaging. As a result, I have always believed it was my responsibility to constantly evaluate industry trends and hone my technology aptitude in order to educate the industry on how advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning actually address the needs of mortgage lenders, servicers, investors, and other industry participants. I keep my industry knowledge fresh by subscribing to a wide range of industry publications and leverage technical websites and discussions with the members of the LoanLogics’ technology and product teams to understand concepts around machine learning, cloud native applications and robotic process automation. When you’re responsible for marketing cutting edge products built with advanced technologies, you need to acknowledge the fact that not everybody is all that technical—which is probably why there are so many delays in adoption throughout the industry. You have to be able to drill down so people considering different technologies understand what it means for them.
Things are starting to look a little more “normal” these days with the Fall tradeshow season upon us and in person! What exciting marketing initiatives does the company have planned for the rest of the year and into 2022?
As I think many vendors to the industry are doing, we will be taking advantage of the re-emergence of in-person events. At those events we will be offering several “Try Before You Buy” programs so that we can capture interest and quickly deliver a technology experience. Companies can “test drive” our technology with their own loan files for free. Cross-functional collaborative efforts have led to these programs, including one for our on demand document processing product and HMDA audit tool.
I am also very excited about introducing our newest white paper to the industry. The Double Act of Human and Machine explores how the relationship between human and machine in mortgage processes is lowering the cost of ensuring loan file accuracy, helping validate production quality, and optimizing the transfer of loan assets and mortgage servicing rights.
What are 3 must-haves that reside in your work environment each day?
An industry pulse, a view of nature and a checklist.
The mortgage industry is a close community that values the ideas of vendors and lenders alike to move more quickly to the end game of the completely digital mortgage. That’s why I always begin my day by scanning industry news and get a lot from what this community has to say. To keep me focused, I also have positioned my work environment with a view to the outside, which now includes a window mounted hummingbird feeder. This gives me a break from my computer screen and some inspiration as I think through new marketing ideas and strategies. Finally, I always have a checklist with priorities for the day/week/month captured. Marketing is really multi-faceted with a lot of plates in the air at all times. Making sure the team is focused on executing our priorities and meeting our deadlines is key.
What motto do you live by?
You know more than you think you know, and you can always learn more.
