Think back to 3 – 4 years ago. What was it like being a loan officer? What sort of mortgage marketing strategies did you have in place? Judging by what I’m told when loan officers call me up desperate for a marketing solution, many had very little in place, or at least they didn’t have to try so hard!
Things certainly do change in evolving markets don’t they? But there’s something else you need to be aware of. Something that you need to be ready to take action on. One of the first questions I like to ask when loan officers tell me how tough the market is, is this:
“What sort of mortgage marketing are you doing to generate more business?
I can easily sum up the answers I get:
Direct mail
Cold calling
Met with a realtor
Flyers
Newspaper ads
It’s quite rare that I hear anything other than these 5 responses. Did you spot a pattern in the 5 marketing strategies above? That’s right, they are all what we would consider “traditional” mortgage marketing! Direct mail, cold calls, newspaper ads etc. These are traditional methods that loan officers flock to when they need to “get back to the basics.”
I applaude those who take action instead of sitting around twiddling their thumbs and staring at the phone with an intense gaze hoping to somehow influence it to ring. (Ring darn-it!)
But there’s a hidden problem here. Things are changing. What worked 10 years ago, or even 3 – 4 years ago is becoming less effective in todays market. See, a very important statistic was released early this year. That statistic showed that “2008 was teh first year that more people used internet search engines to find local businesses than the Yellow Pages.”
Wow! All along the Yellow Pages have been the 1,917 pound gorilla on the block. Nothing touched the Yellow Pages. But studies reveal that for the past number of years, Yellow Page use has been slipping, while search engine use has been growing.
It only makes sense though. A static peice of paper doesn’t tell me much. A website on the other hand can answer most of my questions through text, audio clips, video clips, active links, blogs, feedback from clients and much more.
People in general don’t trust the way they used to I’m sure you’d agree. This is even more true in an industry such as ours that has a black eye, egg on its face, and more to deal with. People need reassurance before just picking up that phone.
It only makes sense that your mortgage marketing plan should incorporate a plan to give this reassurance. Online marketing makes it easier to deliver. One of my latest projects has been to call up happy clients of mine and ask if they’d be willing to leave me an audio testimonial. I have about 10 of them now.
In adding them to my site, (Will be complete shortly) now visitors can listen to the voices of my happy clients instead of just reading words that skeptical visitors are probably imagining “I bet he wrote those himself… These sound too good… Probably had his brother write that one…” Ever found yourself having those type of thoughts?
I know I have as well. It’s natural to be skeptical. In todays market, you need to push harder to cater to what you know people are concerned about, and understand the way they are shopping. This means getting online, and this means establishing yourself as a credible expert.
Mortgage marketing does not need to involve a lot of spending. With more and more people going online to do their shopping, you need to make sure you’re there to be found. Are you?
CW – Mortgage Marketing
Establishing yourself as an expert and a standup guy is probably the hardest thing to do on the internet – on a website, I mean. If you can do that, it’s the motherlode. That’s why wikipedia is so darn popular. People just know that whatever’s written there is all true.
The audio testaments are a good idea. It will make a visitor pause before he makes a snap judgment. Putting your picture and contact info on every page helps a lot too.
When marketing online, a loan officer may see results sooner if they target mortgage related keywords in a local geographic area.
Hello Ling. It can be difficult to establish credibility, but there are several proven ways to do this:
- Articles
- How To
-Educational video clips
- Linked to well known and respected websites
- A full blog (Witho usable instead of self promotional posts)
- Podcasts
Really, think of establishing credibility as synonamous with “proving you know your stuff” and you’ve won 90% of the battle right there.
CW – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com
Great post. It almost seems cliche when you say it now, but your absolutely right. Online marketing is the way to go. And not just the whole set up a website and hope people flock to it, people in the mortgage industry really need to take the time to learn SEO, link building, effective blogging, etc. You are right that the game has changed, its different that sending out a whole lot of fliers and playing the numbers game. What I’ve learned in the last couple of years is that online marketing is different, not necessarily harder, just different.
Good post Hopeful.
You’re right. It does come across as cliche’ chatting about online marekting these. Unfortunately, talking about it does little good, and just “talking” is what many trainers do, and the same for many loan officers.
Taking action is where it is at. Setting up a site with unique content, (Hybrid site – No more of that corporate, glossy, faceless look and feel!) and interacting with visitors can go along way.
The focus is on lead capture, credibility development, and traffic generation. A specific set of steps can get loan officers onto the front page of most search engines in 3 – 4 weeks. Hard to beat!
CW -
Chad, you’re a billion percent on the money here. Consumers’ buying habits have radically changed over the past couple of years. Just think about this… where was Trulia two years ago? The ML-Implode-O-Meter seems like it’s been around forever but actually it was only 2 short years ago that Aaron built that webpage. There’s just so much information online now – mortgage calculators, tutorials, FAQ’s, pricing engines (yes, even retail ones), etc… mortgage pro’s are going to need to get with the web 2.0 movement and fast. Not just reading and learning, but actively blogging, optimizing their site for search engines, capturing critical data and gaining permission from clients. I could go on and on. Love the audio testimonial idea… and with today’s technology it’s become pretty easy for even tech novices like me to use video and audio to spice up our content. Thanks for the article.
Social networking is the new way to reach clients, make connections, and get yourself “out there”. I don’t think I have opened the Yellow Pages in years…but just earlier today found an address I needed through Google. Yes, the times are changing, and we have to change with it or get left behind.
Chad,
Internet is where it’s at nowadays. No question. The best thing about it is that you as a mortgage consultant can get your website, or blog, ranked high on search engines pretty much for free. Well, let’s clarify this a little. To do that for free requires learning about search engine optimization, blogging, participating on mortgage and real estate networks etc. It takes hard work and quite a bit of time, but it can be done.
I have done all of the above, but my biggest success has been my blogging and ever changing website. These tools have brought me more realtors and clients than ever before
Hello Ling. It can be difficult to establish credibility, but there are several proven ways to do this:
- Articles
- How To
-Educational video clips
- Linked to well known and respected websites
- A full blog (Witho usable instead of self promotional posts)
- Podcasts
Really, think of establishing credibility as synonamous with “proving you know your stuff” and you've won 90% of the battle right there.
CW – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com