Automating Success: Cutting-Edge Solutions for Business Growth | Katherine Campbell from Shape

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Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Katherine from Shape CMO with them. How you doing today, Katherine?

Katherine Campbell: Very well, thank you. Nice to be here. So thanks for having me.

Ernesto: It’s great to have you on, Katherine. And I’m sure our listeners are tuning in, wondering what Shape is all about, so let’s kick it off with that. Katherine, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Katherine Campbell: Sure. I recently joined Shape. It’s very exciting to be on the technology side. I’ve been on the financial services client side for several years now, but back in my earlier years in San Francisco, I did quite a bit of technology work. So it’s exciting to see the gigantic leap that’s been made. And certainly Shape has taken advantage of all the modern capabilities.

It’s a feature rich, all in one sales and marketing solution, and I really stress the feature rich because it is as sophisticated as some very large competitors in the CRM space — that’s client relationship management space. However, the complexity to actually accessing some of these tools is much more simple. We’ll go into some of the capabilities more as we discuss it, but that’s the core of what Shape is.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. And so that way our listeners can get a good understanding of Shape, what would you say are some key problems that you solve?

Katherine Campbell: Today, there is so much noise in the world. Particularly if you’re a mid sized business or a small business, you don’t have enough marketing budget, and you certainly don’t have enough time yourself to get in front of all the people you need to get in front of.

What you need is technology that has the capability to get in front of your database and all the people you’re meeting. It’s important that you quickly add contacts you come across. You likely have a database of people you know or have worked with, but you should be meeting people all the time.

Especially if you’re in sales, you should be able to easily upload new contacts into that database and then market to them with specific messaging based on the conversation or context.

In addition to that, having automated workflows — everything from emails to texts to sending out your point of sale system link to apply for certain products — should all be done without having to track manually how many times you’ve gotten in front of that person. The main thing is getting you very prominent without all the work.

Ernesto: Pretty awesome to hear that from Shape. What would you say is a vertical segment or ideal ICP for Shape?

Katherine Campbell: We are expanding. When you look at competitors, it’s either older platforms that are robust but never kept up with modern UI/UX, or newer platforms that don’t have the complexity Shape has to optimize what you’re spending.

There’s really no competitor doing anything close to these capabilities for the price point Shape offers.

We started in the mortgage industry and we are heavy in mortgage. We branched into other financial services. We’re getting pretty heavy in insurance.

And when you have critical large projects or long sales cycles, you need a strong CRM because you can’t miss that one opportunity. Solar has become a great industry for us because if you miss that one complete setup, it’s difficult to expand capability with a client.

We’re also into education, debt consolidation companies — we’ve run the gamut. There’s nothing we can’t customize because of the flexibility of the platform.

Ernesto: Awesome. And how would somebody usually find out about Shape? Is there a top line acquisition channel?

Katherine Campbell: Most people are aware they need contact management. They might not know the acronym CRM, but they start looking for it.

And since this is a marketing platform, and we work with professional marketers, nobody should do it better than us to drive leads and interest into learning about Shape.

We have a great SEO team and a good share of voice. This team has been doing this for 15 years. We have well over 100,000 customers at this point.

We understand what buyer success looks like and can capitalize on lookalike audiences.

Ernesto: Awesome to hear that. And for listeners, they can check you out at setshape.com. What role does a website play for your client acquisition?

Katherine Campbell: It is the core place where we convert. We have automated landing pages that make it simple, and a lot of our core pages are built as landing pages.

Whether it’s insurance, mortgage, or whatever we drive traffic to, acquisition tends to happen on those pages.

These are business owners who want to really understand, so they tend to go through the site no matter where we land them. The site has to be a simple funnel to drive acquisition.

We tested immensely — where the form lived, how many fields, what image, left or right, up or down — and we’ve mastered a high acquisition rate.

Ernesto: On that, are there any tools or tips you recommend, like Hotjar?

Katherine Campbell: Hotjar is great to see where clients hang out longer, where they abandon, where they click, what content they’re interested in, and what CTAs they use.

But also just good analytics — Google Analytics or whatever platform you’re using. You have to constantly be aware of the path you’re trying to accomplish.

Sometimes, if someone is early-stage searching “what is a CRM” or “how do I contact my customers,” it’s not likely they’ll convert that day. They might get a demo, and the demo should be the goal.

Signing up today may not be the goal — it depends on the keyword and segment and how you assign value to the traffic.

Those basic tools give you the data.

Ernesto: Great tip there, Katherine. Let’s switch gears and talk about you as a leader. As CMO at Shape, what are key tasks you focus on day to day?

Katherine Campbell: At a C-level, my key task is company valuation. Marketing used to be “brand voice,” but today the anchor of companies comes from metrics, and metrics come from marketing data.

We understand sentiment, conversion, attraction, social media’s role versus competitors — and no one else in the company has that market data.

Marketing has shifted from art to science. Future CEOs tend to be CMOs today. Few people understand core business success metrics better than marketers do. That’s my focus.

Ernesto: It sounds like you have a lot on your hands, but you’re going the right way. Let’s jump into rapid fire questions. Are you ready?

Katherine Campbell: I’m ready. Let’s go.

Ernesto: First off, what is the last book that you read?

Katherine Campbell: I’ve actually got it right here: Master Mortgage Marketing. I’m never above picking up an actual book and still learning about marketing. By Kelly Yell.

Ernesto: Great read. Next: what is one single thing the company is focused on the most right now?

Katherine Campbell: Going after enterprise. Growing up the brand a bit now that we have an established user base.

Ernesto: If there were no boundaries in technology, what’s one thing you’d want out of your role as a marketer today?

Katherine Campbell: Completely automate social media. Constant top-of-mind reminders that we’re still here — I’d love to automate that and remove it from my plate.

Ernesto: And if there’s one repetitive task you could automate, what would that be?

Katherine Campbell: That repetitive task — uploading brand samples, color palette, feeding website content into a tool, and it creates a content calendar including creative.

Like what ChatGPT can do today — if it could generate the content and creative, then you just drag and drop where you want. That would be phenomenal, and we’re not far from it.

Ernesto: Definitely agree. Lastly, what’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you restarted your marketing journey today?

Katherine Campbell: I would have blocked time earlier in my career just to learn — and trusted that it was acceptable.

I’d block at least two separate one-hour segments in the middle of the day. At night you’re tired, mornings are hectic.

During the week, it’s easier to reach out, read a white paper, ask questions, catch up. Marketing is changing every day, especially with AI.

I book Thursday afternoons with open demo slots. When vendors call, I tell them Thursday afternoon. If it’s full for a month, then it’s next month — but I know I’m dedicating time to learn competitive capabilities.

We can’t assume being good today means we’ll be good a year from now. Constant learning and demos is what I’d have started earlier.

Ernesto: Some great advice there. Katherine, coming to the end of the show — last word: if someone forgets everything, what should they remember about your company?

Katherine Campbell: That technology does not need to be so hard anymore. Gone are the days where it needs to be difficult to log in, accomplish significant progress, speak with your audience, and move on with your day. That is what Shape does.

Ernesto: Definitely. Thank you so much for that. And to our listeners, you can always check them out at shape.com. Thank you so much, Katherine, for being on today’s episode. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in, and I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Katherine.

Katherine Campbell: Thanks, Ernesto.