Smart Mortgage Marketing

This blog post is part of an ongoing series about mortgage lead generation via the web. Click here to access the full list of articles in this series.

What is a blog, and why are mortgage professionals starting to use them? More specifically, how can a blog be used as a source for mortgage lead generation? These are the topics we will address in this installment.

In the previous article in this series, we talked about using FAQ programs as a mortgage lead source on your website. Well, a blog can be used in much the same way. But as you will soon see, that’s not the only benefit of blogging.

Let’s start with a quick definition, for those who are new to the world of blogs.

What Is a Mortgage Blog Anyway?

Let’s define what a blog is in general, before we get into the mortgage uses for it. Basically, a blog is a content-management tool that makes it really easy to publish content onto the Web. By default, this information is usually published in reverse-chronological format, with the most recent blog posts appearing at the top.

Were you expecting a more complicated explanation? That’s really all there is to it. That’s the beauty of blogs — they do all of the web coding for you, so all you have to do is type the information and click the “Publish” button. It really is that simple.

So by extension, a mortgage blog is one that’s published by someone within the mortgage industry — a mortgage company, a broker, etc.

Besides being a potential lead source for your mortgage business, blogs have other benefits as well. They give you an easy way to grow your website over time by adding fresh information. Blogs can help with search engine visibility as well.

But this an article series about lead generation, so let’s talk about the ways you can use your blog as a mortgage lead source to grow your business.

Blogging gives you several ways to produce inquiries from potential clients:

• When people subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed
• When people leave comments on your blog
• When people are motivated by your blog to contact you directly

Help People Subscribe to Your Mortgage Blog

Another great thing about using a blog is that you can allow your readers to subscribe / sign up for future posts. This goes a long way in helping you use the blog as a mortgage lead source. People can sign up anonymously, if they want, simply by adding your blog’s RSS feed into a feed reader. People can also sign up for future blog posts in newsletter fashion, which we will talk about next.

Using the Blog as an Email Newsletter

While consumers are becoming more familiar with the concept of RSS feeds, many are still confused by it. For these people, you can offer an RSS-to-email subscription option. The goal here is to offer multiple ways for people to stay in touch. Your blog cannot live up to its full potential as a mortgage lead source unless you get people subscribing.

With the newsletter technique, your readers can sign up to receive future blog posts by email. Whenever you update your blog with new information, it will be sent to the subscriber’s email address in text format. But chances are, you don’t want to hit their inbox every time you make a blog post. That might be too many emails too often. Fortunately, you can set the frequency of email distribution — daily, weekly (recommended), or each time you publish.

There are several RSS-to-email services you can use. For what it’s worth, I use a program called Zookoda on one of my real estate blogs. It’s free, which is always nice, but it’s also a pretty solid program that does what it’s supposed to.

Quality Content for Mortgage Leads

Thus far, we have discussed the different ways your mortgage blog can serve as a lead source for your business. You can increase the success of all these techniques if you keep your blog current. You should also make it as useful as possible to your target audience. This means posting information and resources they really want — real estate news, interest rate updates, helpful tips and the like.

Let People Leave Comments on the Blog

Comments are another way your blog can generate valuable leads for you. All blogging software programs have this feature built in, and you can easily turn it on or off. This will make more sense if we look at an actual example. Here’s a snapshot of the comment section on one of my own blog posts at TopTenAgent.com. I’ve added the notes in red for clarification:

You can see how easy this makes it for readers to interact. You can also see how this could function as a lead source by sending reader inquires direct to your email address. Here’s how it works. The reader types his or her comment into the box provided beneath the blog post / article. Then they click the “Submit” button. Their question or comment would then go to the moderation queue, where you can review it. If it’s a legitimate comment or questions (and not spam), you would then approve the comment, and it would be added to the blog post the person commented on.

In the picture above, you’ll notice that the commenting feature asks for the person’s email address as well. This is where it serves as a mortgage lead source — by sending your questions from people who are interested in your services. Sure, you’ll get some fake email addresses, but most will be legitimate. So the blog becomes a tool for online dialogue between the blogger and the readers.

Blog Effectively to Generate Leads

In addition to gaining subscribers and comments, a good blog can also lead to direct contact from readers. The reader was interested with something you posted to the blog, so he or she contacts you directly (because you wisely have your contact information featured prominently on the blog).

Stay Tuned for More!

In the next addition to this article series, I’ll talk about other web-based tools that can serve as a mortgage lead source for your business. Want to stay in touch to receive future lessons like this? If so, sign up for our free newsletter today!

This blog post is part of an ongoing series about mortgage lead generation via the web. Click here to access the full list of articles in this series.

Have you ever been on a website that had an interactive FAQ section, where you could click on a button and type in your question? This is another great way to generate mortgage Internet leads through your company website.

It works like this. The website visitor comes across a FAQ tool and sees a library of previous questions and answers somehow relating to mortgage loans. The visitor wants to take part in the process, so he or she clicks on the “Ask a Question” button and does just that … asks a mortgage-related question. And presto, you’ve just earned another Internet mortgage lead for the day.

As the administrator of the program, you will receive an email whenever somebody submits a question online. Then you would simply log into the admin section of the FAQ program and answer the new question(s). The program would post your response onto the website in the appropriate question category, and it would also send an email notification to the person who asked the question. And because you have the person’s email address, you could follow up with them after answering their question for website purposes.

So, in addition to being a great way to generate mortgage Internet leads on a regular basis, this is also a way to grow your website with content that people really want — frequently asked questions about mortgage loans!

I recently put one of these FAQ programs onto my home buying website, and it receives questions about once a week. If I featured it more prominently on the home page and within the main menu, it would probably yield daily questions from home buyers.

Image: The FAQ / knowledge base program at Home Buying Institute

From the screenshot above, you can see how this tool makes things very easy for the person asking the question. Remember, the easier you make it for people to respond, the more likely they will be to do so. This means a higher number of mortgage Internet leads each day. In the example above, all the person has to do is enter their email address, select a category, and ask their question. Now that’s easy!

Also, when you use this technique, people will be less likely to use a fake email address. That’s because the program needs their email address to notify them when the question has been answered. Without using a legitimate email address, they’ll have to keep returning to the site to see if the question has been answered.

If you use this technique to generate mortgage Internet leads through your own website or blog, I recommend that you make it very specific to your city or town (if you are a local mortgage broker). Unlike me, you don’t want people from all over the country asking you questions — you want potential clients asking you questions. So you want to pitch it as a Q&A forum for mortgage shoppers. Those are the Internet leads you want.

If you offer services nationwide, you can still use this technique. You would just keep things general and not geographically specific.

Setting Up Your Q&A Program

These tools go by different names. So when researching them, you should know that they are also referred to as “knowledge base” programs and Q&A tools.

To get the program up and running on your website, you would first have to install it (or have somebody install it for you). Basically, you would download the files for your chosen program, upload them onto your website, and then perform some basic customization. All I did to “customize” the Q&A tool pictured above was to create a simple logo and add a picture of a house. Pretty basic, I know, but it illustrates how these programs come ready to use right out of the “box.”

And the faster you get it up and running, the sooner you can use it for generating mortgage Internet leads from prospective clients.

Below, I’ve provided a list of programs worth your consideration. The first one on the list (Omnistar’s Kbase program) is what I’ve installed at the Home Buying Institute. If you want to try this technique on your own mortgage website, I recommend playing around with the programs listed below, comparing tools and prices, etc.

FAQ / Knowledge Base Programs:

• http://www.omnistarkbase.com
• http://www.interspire.com/activekb/
• http://www.novosolutions.com
• http://www.mykb.com

Once you have the tool installed onto your website, the next logical step is to make people aware of it. Add a button or link in prominent places on your website, such as the upper-left portion of your menu area. The easier it is to find, the more people you’ll have using it. This directly corresponds to a higher number of mortgage Internet leads produced with the technique.

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This blog post is part of an ongoing series about mortgage lead generation via the web. Click here to access the full list of articles in this series.

I hope the title of this blog post got your attention. If you’re reading this introduction, I can assume that it did. I labeled this article as Free Leads for Mortgage Brokers with good reason. That’s the entire premise of this blog series on lead generation.

By developing your web presence, and by creating your own system for web-based lead generation, you are setting yourself up for a steady stream of free leads from mortgage customers.

Think it’s impossible? I’m living proof that it’s not. My home buying website generates inquiries on a daily basis from people researching mortgage loans, looking for quotes, etc. I’m not a mortgage broker — just an Internet publisher. But if I were a broker, that one website alone would produce free leads on a daily basis.

This is what I am trying to teach you through this tutorial on mortgage lead generation.

Let’s consider the alternative. If you don’t start developing your own system for generating leads via the Internet, you will be forever dependent on the leads generated by others. In other words, you will always have to buy them from some other company.

When you purchase mortgage leads from somebody else, the cost is only one of the disadvantages. You also have no way of knowing how fresh the leads are, or how relevant they are to your business. The people you contact will also have no idea who you are — you’ll be cold calling strangers. This is not the best way to begin a business relationship.

Generating Broker Leads for Free

Now consider my approach. When you develop your own system for producing inquiries via your mortgage website, you’re essentially getting free leads from a more qualified audience. In this scenario, you are not cold calling strangers. You are responding to people who have contacted you first. That’s a much better way to begin a business relationship, and you’ll be more likely to turn those people into clients.

So far in this article series, I’ve offered several tips and techniques for generating free mortgage leads through your website. In the next article, I’m going to explain another easy way to increase your performance in this area. I’m going to introduce you to web-based Q&A tools.

Think free leads for mortgage brokers don’t exist? Think again. A small percentage of brokers have figured out how to obtain such leads via the Internet. And as we continue through this article series, you’ll have the knowledge you need to join their ranks!

Did you enjoy this lesson? Want to stay in touch to receive future lessons like this? If so, sign up for our free newsletter today!

This blog post is part of an ongoing series about mortgage lead generation via the web. Click here to access the full list of articles in this series.

So far in this series, we have focused on generating leads through your mortgage website. Don’t worry … we will talk a lot more about that topic. But let’s zoom out the lens for a moment and put lead generation in perspective. There are actually five key components of your mortgage website marketing program. That’s what we will examine in this article.

1. Planning & Strategy

In your mortgage business, it’s never a good idea to rush into things without proper planning. That concept applies to your website marketing program as well. In order to get the best results from your online marketing efforts, you’ll need to have a solid strategy in place. This will come from doing plenty of research and planning — an essential step for mortgage marketing success.

You can jump right into this process by examining three things…

• Your Mortgage Services — Here’s a timeless premise of marketing that you should understand early on. A bad product with great marketing behind it is still a bad product. So your first step to website marketing success is to offer great services. If your services are no different / better than your competitors, your marketing program has already failed. In other words, why are you (and your website) so special?
• Your Intended Audience — Can you tell me three things that your prospective clients have in common? Do you know what concerns them the most? In order for your mortgage website marketing to be successful, you need to know as much as possible about your target audience. How can you provide solutions if you don’t understand their problems?
• Your Marketing Goals — What are the specific objectives of your online marketing program? How does your mortgage website support those objectives? Above all else, what do you want people to do when they visit your website, and what have you done to increase the likelihood of that happening?

There’s a very good chance the questions above will lead to even more questions. That’s the point to this exercise. By asking key questions about your services, your audience and your marketing goals, you will begin to have the framework for your mortgage website marketing program. You will identify strengths and weaknesses. You will set clear objectives for yourself. In short, you will increase your chances for web marketing success.

2. Website Visibility

So let’s say you have answered all of the questions above regarding your online mortgage marketing program. You are now eager and ready to promote your mortgage website and grow you business via the Internet. Now what? Well, now you need to work on your Internet visibility. In this context, I’m referring to the ease with which people can find your website when researching relevant topics online.

Good visibility is crucial for mortgage website marketing success, because consumers today face information overload like never before. For example, there are billions of individual documents online today, ranging from web pages to videos to PDF documents. And this growth is not going to slow down anytime soon.

Obviously, this makes it harder for individual websites to be found. It’s simply a numbers game. So having a mortgage website is enough anymore — these days, you need a website with excellent search engine visibility if you want to succeed online.

Okay, I’ve depressed you enough. Now for the good news. You can increase your website’s visibility in many ways. In fact, there are many articles and tutorials on this website that show you how. Search engine optimization (SEO) can certainly help. But why stop there? You could also publish free information online to increase traffic to your mortgage website. You could start a blog to build up an audience. You could distribute press releases online. You could network with others in your industry for mutual referrals … there’s no end to the possibilities.

3. Website Conversions

There’s no need to go into the topic of website conversions in this article. After all, this entire article series is dedicated to that topic. But website conversions (a.k.a. lead generation) represent one of the five primary components of your mortgage website marketing program. So I’ve included them here to make the list complete.

4. Tracking & Analysis

In order to know what’s working and what’s not with your website marketing program, you have to have some kind of tracking and analysis in place. In this context, I’m referring to an analytics program on your website that gives your information about your site traffic.

You should also keep track of your search engine rankings for important phrases. This is important, because each day more and more people use search engines like Google to conduct mortgage research. So you have to know how you’re doing in the search engines, and make improvements where needed.

One of the things I like most about mortgage website marketing (as opposed to traditional forms of advertising) is the fact that you can get nearly instant feedback on the actions you take. You can experiment with a certain technique, such as pay-per-click marketing, measure the effectiveness for a few days, and then vary your approach for the sake of comparison. It can actually be pretty fun … especially when the results are positive! But you can’t experiment in this way (and learn from it) until you start tracking and analyzing your efforts.

5. Constant Evolution

Here’s a fact of mortgage website marketing you may enjoy hearing. Consumers today are motivated by the same things as five, ten and twenty years ago. Sure, technology changes all the time. And you have new ways to reach and communicate with consumers. But we all still want the same thing. We want products and services that will help us in some way. In this context, that means saving some money on a mortgage loan, getting a good interest rate, having an easy qualification process, etc.

Did you enjoy this lesson? Want to stay in touch to receive future lessons like this? If so, sign up for our free newsletter today!

This blog post is part of an ongoing series about mortgage lead generation via the web. Click here to access the full list of articles in this series.

Earlier in this series, I talked about changing the way you think about mortgage marketing in order to make the leads come to you. This is the entire premise behind this article series, and it’s also a way to liberate yourself from ever making cold calls again.

Effective lead generation is a way to achieve mortgage marketing success with no cold calls whatsoever. That’s what we will discuss in this article entry…

The Death of Cold Calls

If you need some motivation to improve your lead system, try this on for size. In the very near future, cold calling as a mortgage marketing technique will be extinct. As more and more people join the National Do Not Call list, it makes less and less sense to call strangers about your mortgage services. Add in the fact that you can actually be fined for making cold calls and your mission becomes clear — find a way to improve your mortgage marketing without calling strangers!

When you employ the techniques I have shared (and continue to share) in this article series, you can increase the amount of mortgage leads you get each month while decreasing the number of cold calls you make. Work hard at it, and you could even eliminate cold calling entirely.

Shift Your Mortgage Marketing Logic

Think about the huge difference in the consumer’s mindset here. Think about your own reactions when you receive an unsolicited sales call at your home. You are annoyed right from the start, aren’t you? Well, the consumers on the other end of your cold calls feel the same way. When you try to start a business relationship by annoying somebody, you face an uphill battle!

But what if you could use your website to attract people who were in a “mortgage state of mind” … and what if you could get a certain portion of those people to contact you about your services, and on a regular basis? This is what an effective lead system can do for you. It can remove the cold calls from your mortgage marketing program. Now that’s something worth pursuing!

The steps to accomplishing all of this include (but are certainly not limited to) the following…

• Understanding the concept of lead generation
• Setting goals for your mortgage lead system
• Combining multiple techniques for best results
• Offering something of value to generate a response
• Experimenting with different offers and “freebies”

More Lead Generation Tips to Come!

By the time we finish this tutorial on mortgage lead generation, you will have more ideas than you know what to do with. You’ll have a variety of techniques to choose from and — more importantly — you’ll understand the concepts behind those techniques.

Rest assured, there’s a lot more great information coming. So if you haven’t done so already, join our free newsletter so you can stay informed.