Smart Mortgage Marketing

Public relations, or PR, is often the forgotten side of mortgage marketing. When you say “marketing” to most mortgage folks, they think of things like direct mail, print advertisements and the like. These are legitimate components of a mortgage marketing program, but PR can be equally effective (if not more).

People define PR in different ways. In my opinion, PR is when you put yourself in front of your primary audience through techniques other traditional advertising. Conducting home buying seminars can be a form of PR, as well as the media exposure you could generate through such seminars. Publishing mortgage-related articles online or in your local newspaper is another form of PR. And, of course, there is the press release.

PR has changed over the years. In the past, PR meant pitching a story idea to journalists and hoping they picked it up. But these days, you can publish press releases intended for your audience, not for journalists. You can use services like PRWeb.com to publish press releases that match the Internet search terms of your target audience.

Adding Value to Your Mortgage Marketing
When you incorporate PR into your marketing program, you are adding value through legitimacy. PR helps you build credibility by spreading your message beyond traditional advertising channels. When somebody reads about you online or in the newspaper, or attends one of your seminars, they will be more inclined to trust you (than if they had only seen your advertisement).

A mortgage marketing program should be well-rounded. You never want to put all your eggs into one basket. Sure, run some ads if it has worked for you in the past. But be sure to incorporate other marketing channels, such as PR.

Related articles: Mortgage Marketing - The Power of PR | Press Releases and SEO

This week’s featured article is not on the Smart Mortgage Marketing website. In fact, it’s not even about the mortgage industry. It’s about lead generation for real estate agents, but it’s entirely relevant and chock full of lead generation tips that can easily be applied to your mortgage marketing program.

Besides, the real estate and mortgage industries are so closely related in terms of audience, that the marketing tactics for one can easily be applied to the other.

So, when reading through this article (and the many resources it links to), just mentally impose the word “mortgage professional” over “real estate agent” and you’ll have some excellent tips for mortgage lead generation.

Real Estate Lead Generation - Collection of Tips

Many mortgage brokers turn to direct mail postcards as a way to broaden their mortgage marketing programs. Postcards have plenty of good points, and because of this I find myself writing about them a lot.

In fact, in a new article on the blog, I’ve listed two specific ways to incorporate direct mail postcards into your mortgage marketing. These techniques are the seminar and the free report, and direct mail can support both of them effectively and affordably.

Read the article:
Mortgage Marketing With Direct Mail

Related resource:
If you like the article above, you’ll also like this article over at PostcardSmart.com. It offers ten ways you increase response rates on your marketing postcards:
How to Increase Direct Mail Postcard Response

Home Buying Institute for Sale - Large Real Estate Website With Strong Search Engine Performance

Mortgage and real estate companies in the U.S. will be interested to know that one of the Internet’s largest home buying websites is now for sale.

(iRealtyWire.Org) – Round Rock, TX - May 7, 2007 — HomeBuyingInstitute.com, one of the Internet’s largest libraries of home buying articles and advice, is now available for purchase. Brandon Cornett, the website’s owner, announced the sale today.

Cornett began building the website at the end of 2005, with the goal of making it one of the largest home-buying resources on the Web. “We have worked hard to create a website that serves home buyers with quality information,” Cornett explained. “As a result, HBI has truly earned its place on the web, appearing in search engines alongside such home buying ‘heavies’ as HUD.gov and Money.CNN.com.”

The Ideal Buyer:
Cornett thinks the ideal buyer for this website would be a large mortgage or real estate company that operates nationwide in the U.S. “We get hundreds of visitors a day who read several pages of information before leaving the site,” Cornett said. “More than 90% of them are within the United States. These are research-minded folks, so a national real estate or mortgage company could really capitalize on this audience.”

Vision and Recommendations:
Home Buying Institute offers a wealth of information on all aspects of the home buying process — reviewing one’s credit score, choosing a real estate agent, house hunting, choosing a type of home loan, shopping for a mortgage online, preparing for settlement and more. Because of this focus and the “information-hungry” nature of the website’s visitors, Cornett feels the possibilities are endless:

“I get emails from people asking me home buying questions, and I don’t even ask for that kind of interaction. If a company continued the growth of this website, and implemented a series of lead-generation techniques, it could become a steady source of relevant leads. In the right hands, this website could become the ‘About.com of home buying information.’ That’s what I envision.”

Learn More:
Cornett has prepared a website profile that contains information on the website’s search engine performance, traffic statistics, history of growth, sale price and details, plus a variety of forward-thinking ideas and recommendations. To request a copy of this profile sheet, email editor[at]homebuyinginstitute.com, or visit http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/for-sale.php

For most mortgage brokers, referrals account for a lot of business. In fact, I’ve seen more than one survey that put client referrals at the top of the list of business sources.

So if that’s the case, it only makes sense to try and get as many genuine referrals as possible. In other words, you should count referrals as yet another one of your mortgage marketing channels.

So how do you get more referrals? Good service and good follow-up are the two best ways. Think about your own experiences with service providers (auto mechanics, real estate agents, insurance companies) — what things have they done in the past that prompted you to recommend them to a friend? Or, on the flip side, what things have they done that caused you to steer people AWAY from them?

And how can you integrate these things into your own mortgage business to maximize your referrals?

Good follow-up is especially important. Often, people remember their last dealing with a person more so than the rest of the relationship. So the “parting impression” you leave people with goes a long way.

Let me ask you this. How hard would it be to create a follow-up system where you send a email note or postcard to a homeowner, just thanking them again for their business and wishing them well in their new home? It would be pretty easy, wouldn’t it? Well are you doing it? If not, you’re missing a golden opportunity to pleasantly surprise your past clients … which can lead to a more favorable “parting impression” … which can lead to referrals … which can lead to new business!

Referrals should be a part of any mortgage marketing program. Client care after the deal should be given as much consideration as prospect marketing in front of the deal.