Integrate Your Mortgage Marketing Channels
by Brandon Cornett
In a previous post, we talked about tracking your marketing channels to find out which ones are producing the most leads. In this post, we will talk about ways to integrate your mortgage marketing channels to achieve better results overall.
So What is Integrated Marketing?
I found the following definition of integrated marketing online: “Integrated Marketing: The practice of blending different elements of the communication mix in mutually reinforcing ways.”
That’s a pretty good definition. But let’s simplify it even more and apply it to your mortgage business. Integrated marketing takes place when your several mortgage marketing channels (print, web, email, search marketing, etc.) work together to support a common goal. The “work together” part of this definition is crucial, and it prompts me to create a title and definition of my own.
In my opinion, “integrated” is not the best word to use here. It is past-tense, for one thing, suggesting something that has already taken place and is now done with. But marketing is never done … it’s an ongoing thing. So let’s come up with a term that’s more forward-thinking.
So let’s call it “cooperative marketing.”
Cooperative Marketing in Action - Marketing Your Mortgage Business
Scenario: John Smith is a mortgage broker who focuses mostly on new loans for home buyers. John creates a direct mail mortgage marketing campaign in order to generate emails and phone calls from potential clients.
To persuade his prospects to contact him, John has offered a free seminar for home buyers, with a mortgage angle of course. Here’s how cooperative marketing can help John achieve his goal:
First, John mails a postcard to his prospecting area. He uses a postcard printing service to simplify this step. The postcard showcases the free (and valuable) home-buying seminar that John has prepared. The postcard gives clear instructions on how to sign up for the seminar (as well as learning more about it).
The postcard also features a small thumbnail image of a valuable information kit / takeaway item people will receive for attending the seminar. This provides even more enticement.
Having nothing to lose, several of the recipients go online to the seminar website mentioned on the direct mail postcard. They read about what they’ll learn at the seminar, how there won’t be any high-pressure sales pitches, etc. This appeals to them, so several of the postcard recipients sign up for the seminar.
John now has some partially qualified leads that he can follow up with (by sending more details about the event) … to mention the “captive” audience he will have to whom he can demonstrate his mortgage expertise. Talk about a business builder!
In this mortgage marketing example, you can see how the postcard, the website, and the email follow-up all worked together to achieve a common goal — new leads.
Now that’s cooperative marketing.
- On its own, a mortgage marketing marketing postcard cannot convey much information. But when it entices the reader with a promise of value, and points the reader to a website where that value can be obtained, the postcard gains a whole new level of effectiveness.
- On its own, a mortgage website can offer valuable information. But your prospective clients will never know it’s there, unless they stumble across it. The mortgage marketing postcard puts the website in front of them, and it gives them a specific reason to visit (the free home-buying seminar).
In both cases, cooperative marketing achieved.
Lastly, do not mistake the word “cooperative” for the word “dependent.” In the above mortgage marketing scenario, neither marketing channel is entirely dependent on the other. The postcard doesn’t depend on the website for success — nor the opposite. Each channel is capable of generating a response on its own. They’re just capable of a lot more when they cooperate.
