Smart Mortgage Marketing

Note: This blog post is part of an ongoing series about Internet mortgage lead generation tips and techniques. Click here to access the full list of articles in this series.

I’d like to talk briefly about the concept of landing pages, as they pertain to mortgage marketing in general and lead generation in particular.

In the world of Internet marketing and lead generation, a landing page is where a website visitors “lands” upon reaching your site. So in a way, each page of your site could serve as a landing page, because a person might enter the site through any of them.

But let’s talk about landing pages you can create to support your Internet mortgage lead generation program. In this context, we are talking about a specific landing page designed with a particular objective in mind (such as the one in the foreclosure example below).

Internet Landing Pages for Lead Generation

Earlier in this series on mortgage leads I talked about using free information to produce inquiries through your website, such as offering a booklet of some kind. This is a perfect example of a scenario where a landing page could be used to optimize results. Within the context of this Internet mortgage lead generation technique, the landing page would have two objectives. It should be designed to (A) increase the visitor’s desire for the booklet and (B) make it really easy for them to request the item.

Let’s say that John Doe is a mortgage broker in the San Diego area who helps people refinance into fixed-rate loans, as a way of avoiding future rate increases and possible foreclosures. (A timely topic, I think you’ll agree.) John has really positioned himself as a specialist in this area, and he has created a free booklet to help educate his audience on the subject. The book supports his goals for Internet mortgage lead generation as well, because of the way he offers it through his website.

It’s a fine idea for a mortgage marketing tactic, and it could work very well for John. But we’re talking about landing pages here, so let’s keep our discussion focused on that. Here’s how I would design a landing page for John Doe, based on (A) his audience, (B) his booklet and expertise, and (C) his lead generation goals. You can click to enlarge the image, by the way.

Example of a landing page. Click here to enlarge

So here we have a nice-looking web page that is obviously designed around a certain objective (in this case, generating leads via the Internet). Now let’s talk about the specific things that have been built into this landing page.

Analyzing John’s Landing Page

The page above looks clean and simple. But in reality, a lot of thought has gone into the design, layout and items on the page. This page uses proven techniques of Internet marketing to help John Doe generate more leads from his website. Here are some things to notice:

• The headline clearly identifies the audience and the subject matter. Right away, visitors will know exactly what this page is offering. Don’t waste people’s time or make them guess.
• The introductory statement (shown in italics) expands on the promise made in the headline. It also includes a call-to-action with a hyperlink. This is in place for people who do not need to read any further — people who want the booklet right now.
• People believe in what they can see. So with this in mind, a “virtual cover” image has been used for visual enticement. It’s a simple technique, but one that has been proven to increase conversion rates.
• The key selling points / benefits are listed in easy-to-read bullet points. Again, it’s clear and straightforward. The reader “gets it” upon first glance.
• The final bullet point is a hyperlink that restates the call to action. Note that there are three things to click on if you want to continue — two hyperlinks and a big button. This redundancy will increase the likelihood of a click-through.

It’s also worth noting that the page content has been written with certain keywords and phrases in mind, such as “San Diego foreclosure” and related phrases. Eventually, this will help with search engine visibility. That’s more an SEO topic than an Internet lead generation topic, but it’s worth mentioning here.

Stay Tuned – There are many more lessons to come in this series on mortgage lead generation strategy. So if you haven’t done so already, sign up for our free newsletter to stay informed!

Note: 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.

Let me start this lesson off with a brief disclaimer. Of all the strategies I’ve outlined in the lead generation tutorial, this one requires the most work. But it could also become the most effective mortgage lead generator you’ve ever used. So if this strategy intrigues you and you wish to go for it, my advice is to enlist support. Creating an online forum / community can be a lot of work, so it’s best to go into it with partners.

Okay, enough introduction. Let’s talk about how you can create your own mortgage forum and use it as a lead generator to grow your business.

Starting Your Own Mortgage Forum

These days, most mortgage professionals are familiar with web forums. These online communities give like-minded people a place to ask questions, offer advice, and generally share ideas. In fact, there are a number of online forums specifically for mortgage brokers and others in the industry.

But let’s turn things around and talk about the benefits of creating your own forum, instead of just being a member of one. Specifically, let’s look at the ways you could use this concept as a mortgage lead generator to help grow your business.

Imagine that you have created your own mortgage forum online, a web-based community designed to serve home buyers and borrowers within your target area (city, town, nationwide, etc.). Can you appreciate the business-building potential of such a forum … one that’s frequented by mortgage-seeking consumers in your area? One that you owned and moderated?

At this point, you’re probably thinking: “That sounds great, but it also sounds like a lot of work. And I have no I.T. department to help me. So how could I possibly accomplish such a feat?”

I’ve already conceded that this approach takes a lot of effort. But with that being said, most mortgage brokers have the resources needed to pull this off. In fact, I’ll explain how you can get your own mortgage forum up and running in a matter of days. I’ll also tell you how to turn your forum into a mortgage lead generator as well.

We will get to the technical stuff in just a moment. First, I want to start with the benefits of having your own mortgage forum online.

A Web-Based Mortgage Lead Generator

The benefits of having your own mortgage forum can be summed up with two words — traffic and leads. During the initial stages of forum development, it’s best to put lead generation on the side burner and focus instead on attracting visitors / users to the forum. This is one of the biggest challenges of launching a new forum, getting people to use it.

The good news is that once the forum has a group of folks who use it on a regular basis, it will continue to grow on its own (without as much effort from you). At that point, you can begin to focus on the mortgage lead generator aspects of your forum, by integrating some of the techniques covered in this tutorial.

Here’s what you should take away from this lesson. Simply by hosting a mortgage forum in your city / state, and by answering people’s questions in a helpful manner, you will begin to generate leads from the forum. To get even more of them, you can implement other techniques as well (such as a chat tool, or a free booklet, or any of the techniques we will cover in this article series).

Keep in mind, however, that your mortgage forum should serve people first and be used as a mortgage lead generator second. If you grow a large and active community over time, and you help people with their mortgage questions, those leads will come eventually!

Creating Your Online Forum

I’ll briefly touch on the technical aspects of starting your own forum, because it’s actually not that complicated. These days, there are some great software programs that do most of work for you. Upload the software program onto your web host, customize it as needed, and you have a fully functional forum ready for visitors.

Free programs include phpBB and miniBB. If you want to evolve your mortgage forum over time (and I recommend that you do) you should use a more full-featured program such as vBulletin.

If this sounds way too “techy” for your liking, there’s no need to worry. Anyone with basic web development skills can handle this process for you. If you have a webmaster, for example, he or she could probably get the forum up and running in a day or two. You could also post the project on a freelancer’s forum (such as Elance.com) and get bids from developers. Easy!

Promoting Your New Forum

So now you have a mortgage information forum online, and you’re ready to start bringing (and helping) visitors. Now what? Well, you’ve got some work ahead of you. You may not realize it at this point, but setting up a forum is the easier part of the equation. Generating traffic and encouraging people to participate is another thing entirely.

Anyone can put a forum online. But only the truly dedicated can turn a forum into mortgage lead generator to grow their business.

So why bother, if it’s so much work? Good question. Let’s revisit the benefits of having your own high-traffic mortgage forum. What you are doing here, essentially, is building an online community of people who are researching mortgages, home buying and related topics — whatever topics you choose to include in your forum. You own this community, and you can leverage it to build your business! Can you put a price tag on that? I can’t.

Lesson Learned: The people who visit your forum will be more inclined to join the conversation if there’s actually a conversation taking place. On the contrary, if they visit to find that nobody is posting any mortgage questions or answers, they may think it’s a ghost town.

So before you start promoting your forum to the world, get the help of friends and colleagues. Have them post some initial questions and answers in each of the categories you’ve created, just to get things rolling.

7 Ways to Market Your New Forum

1. Publish a press release online to announce the new forum, focusing on the benefits it offers to those who participate.
2. Get extra mileage out of the release by sending it to your local news channels (TV, radio, newspaper, etc.). For best results, track down the contact info for the person who does the real estate segment. Contact them directly to announce your forum.
3. Link to the forum from your website menu, your home page, your blog, etc. To get people’s attention, you could create an eye-catching button / image that links to the forum.
4. Do a direct mail / postcard mailing to your target audience. Again, promote the benefits of the mortgage forum, the knowledge-sharing aspects, etc. Include an eye-catching thumbnail image of your forum on the direct mail postcard.
5. Use your professional network to promote the forum. Tell all of you colleagues about it. Invite them to participate by answering questions posted to the forum (as long as their not direct competitors).
6. Repeat as needed. Like any other aspect of marketing, this is a never-ending process. The more you promote the forum, the more visitors and participation you’ll have. And participation is the key to using your forum as a mortgage lead generator later on down the road.

So there you have it, a comprehensive guide to launching and promoting your very own mortgage forum. Granted, it will take some hard work to get from here to there, but the long-term results can justify any effort you put in. You just can’t put a price tag on having your very own community of home buyers and mortgage shoppers!

Stay Tuned – There are many more lessons to come in this series on lead generation. So if you haven’t done so already, sign up for our free newsletter to stay informed!

Note: 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.

Whenever I suggest the use of chat programs as a way to generate online mortgage leads I’m often met with blank stares. Many people hear the phrase “online chat” and they think of teenagers sending messages back and forth through their computers.

But online chat can be used for many business purposes. It’s also a way to generate online mortgage leads on a regular basis. Did that get your attention? If so, stick with me. Because in this lesson, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about using online chat as a lead generation tool.

Using Online Chat to Generate Leads

This is actually a simple technique to put into place, but it will only work in certain scenarios. Basically, you will need an office manager or customer service person — someone who is near a computer for most of the day — in order to use this technique. The goal here is to install a chat program on your website (easier than it sounds) to serve as a channel for online mortgage leads and inquiries. In other words, you will use it to convert more of your website visitors into leads.

The concept behind this technique is simple. You are capitalizing on the impulsive and impatient nature of many web surfers. People want answers to their questions, and they want them now. By its very nature, a button that says “Click here to chat” tells your website visitors they can get quick answers to their questions (provided they are within the chat times).

You’ve probably seen this technique in use before. Perhaps you’ve visited a website that had a button encouraging you to “Get live help” or “Click to chat.” Same exact concept. These tools are a great way to get a spur-of-the-moment response from your website visitors, the kind of response that could lead to a business relationship as well.

The key here, of course, is to have somebody on the other end during normal business hours. Most of the chat programs I’ve seen will also let you create a default welcome message, which you can use to show your business hours and chat availability.

How the Process Works

It may sound intimidating and technically challenging, but it’s actually quite simple to install a chat program onto your website. And it could turn out to be a great source of online mortgage leads and inquiries, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Here’s an overview of the steps involved:

1. Choose an online chat program (software script).
2. Complete the setup process.
3. Put a chat button on your website.
4. Train the person handling the chat inquiries.
5. Generate online mortgage leads through your chat program!

Step 1 - Choose an Online Chat Program

Obviously, your first step will be choosing a chat tool that meets your needs. I’m referring to the third-party software programs that will either be (A) installed onto your web server or (B) hosted remotely by the software company. There are several really neat program out there, and some of them are particularly easy to install. I’ve listed a few products / companies below to get you started.

It’s always best to start with a free trial of any software product. At the time I posted this lesson, all of the products below offered a free trial of some kind. This is a good way to ensure the product does what you want it to do.

Here’s a short list of online chat programs worth considering:

• www.boldchat.com
• www.liveperson.com
• www.livechatinc.com
• www.chat4support.com

Step 2 - Complete the Setup Process

So now you’ve chosen one of the chat tools listed above, or you’ve found another one that meets your needs. What’s the next step to generating online mortgage leads with this technique? Well, now you have to install the program and complete the setup process.

Here’s the good news. Depending on the program you’ve selected, this could very well be a short and easy step. If you have chosen a program that will be hosted on your own web server, you will have to download all of the necessary files from the company’s website, and then upload the files to your own web server — a downside to this approach.

On the contrary, if you’ve chosen a remotely hosted chat program, you can probably skip all or most of this step. That’s because “remotely hosted” means the software tool will run from the chat company’s web servers instead of yours, even though the “Chat” button itself will be located on your mortgage website.

The button is the key to producing online mortgage leads with this approach, so let’s talk about buttons in more detail.

Step 3 - Put a Chat Button on Your Website

Now we are getting to the important stuff, the customer-facing aspect of this lead generation strategy. Where you place your button is an important consideration because it will directly influence the number of people who use it — and, by extension, the number of online mortgage leads you produce.

Here’s the most important thing to take away from this lesson. If online chat is going to be an important part of your online lead generation program (and it very well could be), you need to give the chat button its own piece of your website. Put the button in a prominent and uncluttered section of your site, where people simply cannot miss it. Here’s an example…

This image shows where I would probably place a chat button on my home buying website. Currently, chat is not being used on this particular website (nobody on the other end to manage it). But if it were, this is how I’d do it. Note how the chat button fits in nicely on the right side of the website, while still being hard to miss!

Image: Sample placement of chat button. Click to enlarge

Where you put the button on your website will depend on the site’s layout. But the placement is critical for generating online mortgage leads with this approach, so you need to give it some thought. If your mortgage website has a left-hand navigation menu (a standard layout), you may want to put the button at the top of that left-hand menu. The goal here is give the button a designated space of its own so that the eye is drawn to it — a fundamental practice of Web Design 101.

Step 4 - Train the Person Handling Chat Inquiries

I’m not going to explain how to use the program once it’s installed, and for two reasons. First of all, I don’t know what program you will end up choosing. Secondly, these programs are incredibly easy to use once they’re up and running on the website.

It basically works the same as instant messaging. A visitor to your mortgage website will click on the chat button, which will open a separate window on their computer screen. It will also open a chat box on the computer screen of your designated chat support person, usually accompanied by a “ding” or tone of some kind to get their attention. This is why you need a customer service person of some kind in order to use this strategy for online mortgage leads.

When I say you’ll need to “train” the person handling chat inquiries, I’m not talking about the technical details of the program. As mentioned, those are pretty simple. Any computer-literate person can figure it out in only a few minutes. Instead, I’m referring to your method for handling online mortgage inquiries from strangers.

Remember, the goal here is to move these people toward contacting you by phone or email. When they first pop up on your screen, you will only have their name — no email address of phone number yet. So the person who is going to handle those inquiries when they “pop up” must be able to balance two things at once. He or she must address the visitor’s immediate question (the point of a customer service chat program), while also moving them toward a more “formal” conversation via email or phone.

For this purpose, I highly recommend using a copy-and-paste script of some kind, to be used after the customer service person has handled the person’s initial inquiry.

Conclusion and Going Forward

When I first mention using a chat tool for online mortgage lead generation, people are skeptical. But that’s only because they don’t understand (A) how these programs work, (B) how they can be used to generate mortgage leads, and (C) how easy they are to use. I hope that this lesson has opened your eyes to all of these things.

Will this kind of strategy work for you? It may, or it may not. Like any other Internet marketing technique, there is only one way to find out. You have to try it for yourself. Experimentation is the key to superior marketing and superior results. Who knows … this could become one of your top channels for online mortgage leads and inquiries. I’ve seen it happen.

Stay Tuned – There are many more lessons to come in this series on lead generation. So if you haven’t done so already, sign up for our free newsletter to stay informed!

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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