Lenders Fuel Marketing Firm’s Growth

Broomfield, Colo.-based In Touch Today creates direct mail campaigns, customer relationship management materials and customized presentations for about 10,000 clients across the country, according to founder Boni Lonnsburry.

Eight-five percent of those clients are in the mortgage industry, she said.

Lonnsburry, who holds a degree in marketing from Western Connecticut University, started the company in 2000 out of a spare room in her home — and on a shoestring budget — after working in the marketing department of a mortgage company that went defunct, she said.

It began with a $50 investment and has escalated to a revenue stream that is expected to reach $5 million this year, $1 million more than 2005, and with no sales staff to speak of, she said.

“We really don’t have a sales force,” Lonnsburry told MortgageDaily.com in a phone interview. “We have customer liaisons that work with our clients but we don’t seek sales; we try to practice what we preach and add value-added educational information to help them build their business.”

In Touch, which operates online at www.InTouchToday.com, hosts free Webinars twice a month for anyone to participate in as part of their value-added services. They cover different marketing techniques such as maximizing referrals, niche campaigns and other topics of mortgage marketing, Lonnsburry said. They also offer the Webinars in a PDF format on their Web site for anyone to download for free.

The firm develops digital newsletters for $30 that can be sent to any number of clients via e-mail. This is where Lonnsburry said “you get more bang for your buck.” Postcards can be developed for 50 cents a piece and greeting card campaigns can be set up for closings for $25, Lonnsburry said.

Lonnsburry said the company offers services individually or they can be hired to handle the entire campaign, taking all the marketing responsibility out of the client’s hands.

“We specialize in being flexible,” she explained. “Some people want to be on an auto pilot program, they just sit back and close the loans.”

For reference, the client receives e-mail updates on the campaign but for the most part Lonnsburry said, “it’s however involved they want to be, they choose.”

Lonnsburry’s company ranked no. 45 on Colorado Biz Magazine’s top 100 women owned companies for 2005, up 5 spots from the year prior. She was also recently nominated and chosen as a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award, she said.