First let me define what I mean by “long tail” marketing both on and off line. The term was really defined “online” when marketers first noticed they were selling products to the strangest people who found their sites using the strangest search terms. They would then build offerings targeting these niche terms and discovered there was an entire “hidden” market way outside the main market…out on the tail.
As you see above the bulk of the market is big and tall; the tail trails off and is much smaller. It’s the yellow part above…it looks like a tail. And there is real power in the tail. Have ever heard the phrase, “the tail wagging the dog”? Well when it comes to mortgage marketing getting “the tail wagging the dog” is exactly what you’re looking for…and here’s why.
The “dog” or the bulk of the market is going to go to Countrywide or Wells Fargo anyway…so, let’m have it. There is more money in the tail for guys like you and me!
Online marketers found that the tail market converted easier, were more loyal, and bought more. That describes the perfect mortgage client, right?
Now, here’s why this is great news for mortgage marketing. The mortgage market is already “nichey” in the first place (i.e. bad credit, jumbo, conventional, owner occupied, investor) and each of those markets has a tail…an under-served, dying to be understood, forgotten by the big boys…tail. Make a blog or website for each tail market and you’ve got a lot of potential clients. Mortgage folk think they are stuck with one website or one blog when you really should have dozens…each dominating a long tail market.
Here’s an example…and then I’ll tell you how I spent $90K and unwittingly proved this in my own mortgage practice.
Think of the long tail market as they type in search terms. Take the big market of “reverse mortgage” (see below, searches first column, competing pages second column) lots of searches but also lots of competition. Then look at “reverse mortgage senior”. It has just under half the searches, but virtually no competition. You dominate that “long tail” market with a webpage, blog, or ezine, optimized for “reverse mortgage senior”. It is also known the longer the term a searcher uses the more likely they are actively shopping for that product or service and not just researching.
By the way, I just pulled this data as of 2/14/2007, so it’s very fresh.
Search Term, Number of Searches, Number ofCompeting Sites
reverse mortgage, 63,661, 1,150,000
reverse mortgage senior , 24,063, 758
Let’s keep going with those “long tail” search terms:
well fargo reverse mortgage , 7,355, 12,400
reverse mortgage association , 2,870, 616
national reverse mortgage lender association, 2,438, 10,100
reverse mortgage definition , 563, 12,600
reverse mortgage for dummy , 515, 3,440
info mortgage reverse , 496, 15,400
reverse mortgage pro and cons, 430, 6,940
american reverse mortgage , 428, 25,700
disadvantage of a reverse mortgage, 382, 500
reverse annuity mortgage , 381, 72,700
financial freedom reverse mortgage, 347, 20,200
To extend this further, if you happen to be a florida broker, you could also optimize your online marketing for:
florida reverse mortgage 7,193 48,300
florida reverse mortgage lender 194 11,000
Now let’s add this up and see if our reverse mortgage market can get wagged by our long tail.
24,063+7355+2870+2438+563+515+496+430+428+382+381+347+7193+194= 47655 We can damn close to dominating the market just going after what other folks forgot!
Given the long tail market converts better and is more loyal, I’ll take 47K of those prospects over the 63K “lookie loos” in the main market any day of the week.
I got taught this lesson not on the web but on my mortgage radio show I did in Denver for 3 years spending $90,000 on air time. I was always disappointed in the leads we got from the show, because in the beginning, I was completely unaware of exactly who was listening out there. It took me over a year to figure it out. Once I understood the demographics of talk radio, I realized I was not “talking” to the big market like I thought; I was talking to the tail mortgage market.
Talk radio listeners are college educated males, ages 35-75, 90% home owners, with great credit and investment portfolios. They think of themselves as “informed” (because they are) and are not bashful voicing an opinion if passionate about it. These guys won’t fall for the typical mortgage marketing garbage…they need something more. This “overly intelligent” market is a classic “long tail” mortgage market. The banks forgot them, the brokers either didn’t know about them or thought they’d never make any money there. I was even thinking once I discovered this I should bail out since I originally thought I be talking to first time home owners, bad credit folks, or move up buyers. But out of stubbornness, I decided to re-tool the show instead.
I changed The Mortgage Insider Show, and gave them “college level” material to help them make financial decisions not just with home financing but investments, real estate investments, and tossed in a political (albeit leftist) angle to boot. The show did great after I figured it all out. Many “copy cats” came on the air and went bust because they didn’t understand who they were talking to…it’s all about the audience. Speak to their hopes, desires, wants, passions and you’ll do well with your long tail market members. But be prepared to wait…they don’t come running…at least they didn’t on my radio show. They want to see if you are the real deal and that takes a little time.
This is where blogging, ezines, and websites come in. If you have a site, blog, etc. build your content around the long tails and then be patient. Keep giving them great posts, articles, tools, and you’ll see a huge payoff. The average client from my radio show has a much bigger loan amount than what I normally saw. My clients are bright, easy to work with, and easier to get approved than any of my pre-radio clients. They come back as often has they need to without much prompting, and they refer like no other client base I’ve ever seen.
I’ve only recently put up my own blog (2 months ago) to support my website and paid very little attention to it so far (I should take my own advice, eh?), and it’s already ranking very well and driving as much traffic as my 200+ page static website. My blog and web site clients are very similar to my radio clients…simply the perfect clients.
So jump in and start a blog if nothing else…and get ready for the best clients a mortgage professional could ask for.
Good Luck.
Rob K. Blake, The Mortgage Insider
The Mortgage Insider’s Blog
PS: If you need a head start, you’ve got a whole blog blueprint above. Make every search term a Category. Call it Reverse Mortgages for Seniors Blog or something. You’d ranked #1 for that term the minute Google spidered your site. Write a post about each of the long tail search terms, put in the appropriate category, and you’d probably be at least on the Google first page for them as well. Don’t be surprised if Financial Freedom & Wells Fargo both want to pay you bundles of money for an ad in a month or two.
PPS: Why am I giving this stuff away again? I promised Todd at Lenderama something that would “blow his readers socks off”. What do you think Todd…are your readers barefooted yet?
PPS: By the way, this article is for the sole, exclusive use of Lenderama. Do not copy or redistribute in any fashion. I’m not even using on my site! If you want an exclusive article for your blog or site, Click Mortgage Insider Articles to request one tailor made on a topic of your choice.
