Shape’s Cross-Branch Email Campaign tools allow authorized users to create, target, schedule, send, and monitor bulk email campaigns across multiple branches from one centralized workflow.
Instead of building the same campaign separately within each branch, you can define your audience across the organization, select or create your email content, review recipients, and manage the campaign from one place.
This is especially useful for organizations with multiple offices, locations, brands, teams, or business units operating within Shape’s branching structure.
Why Use Cross-Branch Email Campaigns?
When an organization has multiple branches, managing company-wide communication separately within each branch can create a lot of unnecessary work.
Cross-Branch Email Campaigns allow you to manage applicable communications centrally while still using the data stored within your individual branches.
Common uses include:
- Company-wide marketing campaigns
- Customer or client announcements
- Seasonal campaigns
- Past customer outreach
- Product or service updates
- Partner communications
- Newsletters
- Educational campaigns
- Compliance-related communications
- Campaigns targeting a specific audience across multiple branches
Rather than recreating the campaign branch by branch, Corporate users can manage the audience, content, delivery, and reporting through a centralized workflow.
How Cross-Branch Email Campaigns Work
The campaign builder walks you through the process step by step:
- Start a new email campaign.
- Choose the record types you want to target.
- Define and filter your audience.
- Select or create the email content.
- Review the campaign and recipient preview.
- Send immediately or schedule the campaign.
- Monitor the campaign through centralized reporting.
This gives you multiple opportunities to review the campaign before anything is sent.
Step 1: Start a New Email Campaign
From the applicable Cross-Branch Email Campaign area, select the option to create a new campaign.
This opens the campaign builder and begins the setup process.
Nothing is sent during this step. You’ll have an opportunity to configure and review the campaign before submitting it.
Step 2: Choose Your Record Types
Select the record type or record types you want to include in the campaign.
You can select multiple supported record types when your audience includes different types of contacts.
The record types available depend on your Shape industry template and system configuration.
Depending on your system, examples could include:
- Leads
- Prospects
- Accounts
- Customers or Clients
- Referral Partners
- Contacts
- Other supported record types
Once you’ve selected the appropriate record types, continue to the audience selection step.
Step 3: Build Your Audience
The audience step determines which records should receive your campaign.
This is one of the most useful parts of the Cross-Branch Email Campaign tool because you can create a targeted audience using data from across your organization’s applicable branches.
Standard Audience Filters
Available filters can include:
- Created Date From
- Created Date To
- User
- Status
- Source
- Opt-Out Status
Many filters allow you to choose whether records matching the criteria should be included or excluded.
For example, you could create an audience that includes records:
- Created during a particular time period
- Assigned to selected users
- Currently in specific statuses
- From particular lead or marketing sources
- Matching applicable communication preferences
The exact filters and values available can vary based on your Shape template and configuration.
Using Custom Filters
You can also add Custom Filters using supported filterable fields available within your system.
This gives you more control when the standard audience options are not specific enough.
Depending on your configuration, you might filter by information such as:
- Custom fields
- Product or service
- State or location
- Lead Source or Sub-Source
- Tags
- Campaign information
- Other record data
Custom filters can be combined with the standard audience options to create more targeted campaigns.
Why Audience Segmentation Matters
Not every communication should go to every record in your database.
Audience segmentation lets you use the information already stored in Shape to create more relevant groups.
For example:
Past Customers + Specific State + Selected Product
Referral Partners + Active Status + Selected Company
Leads Created This Month + Specific Source
The fields that make sense will depend on your industry and how your organization uses Shape.
Building the audience directly within Shape also means you can use current CRM data without first exporting records and building the audience somewhere else.
Filtering for Communication Preferences
Communication preferences should be considered whenever you’re creating a bulk email audience.
Shape provides applicable opt-out filters that can be used when defining the campaign audience.
For multi-branch organizations, Shape also supports cross-branch management of applicable opt-out information, helping organizations maintain communication preferences when the same individual may have records in more than one branch.
These tools are intended to support your organization’s communication and compliance processes. They do not replace your organization’s responsibility for determining when and how a particular contact may legally be contacted.
Step 4: Choose or Create Your Email Content
After defining your audience, configure the email itself.
There are two primary ways to create the content.
Choose an Existing Email Template
Select a pre-built template from your Shape email content library.
This can be especially useful for organizations that maintain approved templates for recurring communications, branding, marketing, or other standardized messaging.
Create Your Email in Shape
You can also create the content directly using Shape’s email editor.
Before continuing, review applicable information such as:
- Subject line
- Email content
- Merge fields
- Links
- Formatting
- Sender information
Mortgage-Specific: State Licensing Eligibility
Mortgage systems have an additional campaign option related to state licensing eligibility.
When applicable, users can determine whether the campaign should account for the assigned user’s state licensing eligibility before an email is sent.
For applicable records, Shape looks at the property state first. If a property state is not available, Shape can use the present state.
This licensing logic is specific to applicable mortgage configurations and does not apply to industries where state licensing eligibility is not part of the email campaign workflow.
Step 5: Review Your Campaign
Before sending, Shape provides a summarized view of the campaign so you can review what you’ve configured.
The review can include:
- Audience
- Subject Line
- Sender Information
- Content Preview
- Recipient Preview
- State Licensing Eligibility, when applicable
This is your opportunity to make sure the campaign looks correct before submitting it.
Recipient Preview
The Recipient Preview lets you review a sample of records expected to receive the campaign.
For multi-branch organizations, you can use the available branch options to review recipient samples from different branches.
This can help you verify that:
- Your audience filters are returning the types of records you expected
- The appropriate branches are represented
- Your email content looks correct
- The campaign is targeting the intended audience
The preview displays a sample of recipients rather than the campaign’s entire recipient list.
Review Your Sender Information
Take a moment to confirm the sender information before submitting the campaign.
This can be particularly important for organizations where branches have different users, brands, email configurations, or sending requirements.
Schedule or Send the Campaign
Once the campaign has been reviewed, you can send it immediately or schedule it for later delivery.
Scheduling is useful when you want to:
- Prepare campaigns in advance
- Coordinate a company-wide announcement
- Align communication with your marketing calendar
- Send at a specific date or time
- Review and approve campaigns before their scheduled delivery
Always confirm the scheduled date and time before submitting the campaign.
Step 6: Confirm the Campaign
When you’re ready to proceed, Shape presents a final confirmation before the campaign is submitted.
This provides one last opportunity to verify that you’re ready to send or schedule the campaign.
After confirmation, the campaign is queued for processing according to your selected delivery settings.
Monitor Campaigns Across Branches
Cross-branch campaign management doesn’t stop once the email has been submitted.
Shape provides centralized bulk email reporting so authorized users can monitor email campaigns across multiple branches from one location.
This eliminates the need to log into every branch individually just to check campaign activity.
Depending on the campaign’s current state, you may see campaigns that are:
- Scheduled
- Queued
- Processing
- Completed
- Stopped or canceled, when applicable
Stopping a Campaign
If you identify an issue with a campaign that is still scheduled, queued, or processing, available controls within the reporting area can be used to stop applicable remaining campaign activity.
Emails that have already been sent cannot be recalled.
For this reason, we recommend carefully reviewing your audience, recipient preview, content, and sender information before confirming a large campaign.
Why Centralized Reporting Is Valuable
Centralized reporting becomes increasingly useful as the number of branches in your organization grows.
Instead of Branch A → Check Campaign → Branch B → Check Campaign → Branch C → Check Campaign, Corporate administrators can review applicable bulk email activity across branches from one centralized report.
This makes it much easier to answer questions such as:
- What campaigns are currently processing?
- What campaigns are scheduled?
- Has a particular campaign completed?
- Which branches are involved?
- Does a campaign need to be stopped?
Cross-Branch vs. Branch-Level Email Campaigns
Both tools have a purpose.
Use a branch-level email campaign when the communication belongs specifically to one branch, such as a local campaign, branch-specific announcement, or audience that exists entirely within that branch.
Use a Cross-Branch Email Campaign when the campaign needs to reach records across multiple branches or when Corporate wants to centrally manage the communication.
For organizations that allow individual branches to manage their own marketing, both approaches can be used together.
Best Practices for Cross-Branch Email Campaigns
Start With the Audience
Determine who actually needs the communication before building the email. A more targeted audience generally creates more relevant messaging and makes the campaign easier to review.
Use Include and Exclude Filters Carefully
Pay attention to both who you’re including and who you’re excluding. Review statuses, sources, users, communication preferences, and any custom filters that affect the audience.
Take Advantage of Your CRM Data
You don’t have to limit campaigns to broad groups like “all leads” or “all customers.”
Use the information your organization already tracks in Shape to create meaningful audience segments.
Preview Before Sending
Use the Recipient Preview and Content Preview before submitting a campaign.
For cross-branch campaigns, review applicable branch previews when you want to confirm how the audience looks across different parts of the organization.
Reuse Templates Where It Makes Sense
If your organization frequently sends similar communications, reusable email templates can help keep messaging and formatting consistent.
Schedule Campaigns in Advance
For planned campaigns, scheduling gives your team time to prepare and review the campaign before it goes out.
Monitor Campaign Activity
After submitting a campaign, use centralized reporting to monitor its progress rather than checking individual branches.
Stop a Campaign if Necessary
If something needs to be corrected and the campaign is still eligible to be stopped, use the available controls as soon as possible. Messages that have already been delivered cannot be recalled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I send one email campaign across multiple Shape branches?+
Yes. Cross-Branch Email Campaigns are designed to allow authorized users to manage applicable bulk email campaigns across multiple branches from one workflow.
Is this feature only for mortgage companies?+
No. Cross-Branch Email Campaigns can be used across Shape’s supported industry templates.
Some options within the workflow can vary by industry or system configuration. For example, applicable mortgage systems have additional state licensing eligibility functionality.
Do I have to log into each branch?+
No. The campaign can be built and managed centrally rather than recreating it within each individual branch.
Can I choose multiple record types?+
Yes. Multiple supported record types can be selected when building your campaign audience.
The specific record types available depend on your industry template and configuration.
Can I filter the audience?+
Yes. You can use standard audience filters as well as supported Custom Filters to narrow your recipient list.
Can I filter by date, user, status, and source?+
Yes. These are among the standard audience filtering options available within the campaign builder.
Can I account for opt-outs?+
Yes. Applicable opt-out information can be incorporated into your audience filtering.
Can I use an existing email template?+
Yes. You can select an existing template from your email content library or create the email using Shape’s email editor.
Can I preview recipients before sending?+
Yes. The review process includes a Recipient Preview showing a sample of the expected audience.
Can I schedule a campaign?+
Yes. Campaigns can be scheduled for later delivery rather than being sent immediately.
Is there a final confirmation?+
Yes. Shape provides a final confirmation before the campaign is submitted.
Can I monitor campaigns across multiple branches?+
Yes. Centralized bulk email reporting provides visibility into applicable campaigns across branches.
Can I stop an email campaign?+
When a campaign is still in an eligible state, such as scheduled or actively processing, available reporting controls can be used to stop applicable remaining sends.
Emails that have already been sent cannot be recalled.
What is different for mortgage users?+
Applicable mortgage systems can include state licensing eligibility as part of the campaign workflow. This allows the campaign to account for whether the assigned user meets applicable state licensing criteria before sending.
Manage Multi-Branch Email Campaigns From One Place
Cross-Branch Email Campaigns are designed to make organization-wide communication easier to manage without taking away the independence of individual branches.
Corporate teams can build an audience using CRM data from across applicable branches, create or select the email content, preview recipients, schedule or send the campaign, and monitor its progress through centralized reporting.
Individual branches can still manage their own branch-specific campaigns when needed, while Corporate has a practical way to handle communications that span the larger organization.