tor, elevate your personal brand by being an educator, and empower your customer with information and scenarios to consider whenever possible.
3
Get automated The more customers and prospects in your database, the harder it can be to effectively stay at the top of their lists when it comes time for a refinance or to purchase a new home. Not even the most ambitious loan officer would be able to manage his or her relationships with hand-written notes and cookie-cutter mass marketing. The pros have a secret – and that is to use a CRM that contains fresh, relevant and compliant email and direct mail options for you to send to your clients based on varying factors or triggers. Most CRMs today have dashboards that will tell you which clients you should focus on based on their rate as it compares to today’s rates, clients who you have flagged for follow-up or any other client that you have set up to trigger in certain scenarios. If your goal is to go after any FHA loan you have done in the past four years and attempt to do a FHA Streamline refinance based on the new lower FHA mortgage insurance premiums that became effective January 26, you can do an advanced search of those customers and send them an automated campaign letting them know about this new rate and how to contact you. A good CRM and automated marketing partner will monitor what’s going on in the lending world and will most likely have this campaign already developed for you.
4
Get social You would be hard-pressed to find a loan originator today who is not at least on LinkedIn or Facebook. However, simply setting up a profile or two does not equate to being engaged in social media, nor does it set you apart from the millions of others who have done the same thing. Real engagement involves spending time exploring and understanding how to use social media as a tool for establishing yourself as a SME. While many loan originators have Twitter accounts, the reality is that most people are not looking for tweets on current rates or saving opportunities. Focus on social out-
lets that are appropriate for the business of lending. For example, if you log into LinkedIn and go to your profile, there is an area just under your photograph and basic information that is called ‘Posts.’ If you have nothing there, then you’re not doing enough to establish yourself in the worldwide web of experts. Take whatever angle of focus you can think of and get your thoughts out there, whether it’s ‘Top 10 Reasons You Should Consider a Refinance’ or your own personal ‘Why Work With Me’ mission statement. Be thoughtful and intentional about what you write, and then publish
half that, and spend the other $15,000 on a combination of Facebook advertising (which you can set your price at using cost-per-click), one month of banner advertising on a local news site, sponsor in a local race or community event, and then donate $500 of it to a charity and send out a press release about it. People like people who give back to the communities they live and work in – and to return to the diversification point, this plan reaches people who actually read bulk mail, young parents posting their child’s pictures to Facebook, the group who reads local news online – and you’ve established yourself as
Diversification of your marketing portfolio is one of the smartest things you can do for yourself, because while you may have one single message, different people react to and engage with various mediums in diffferent ways it. Once it’s published, share it with your connections. Join some groups that are relevant to the lending industry, or even groups that are relevant to your interests outside the office. You can establish yourself as an expert and get a whole new doorway into prospects by sharing your expertise within groups of people that may know you simply for your love of fly fishing.
5
Diversify your mediums An investment advisor would tell you not put all of your investment dollars into a single basket, but instead to reduce your risk and maximize your returns by investing in different areas that will react differently to the same event. This is exactly the case in marketing. Diversification of your marketing portfolio is one of the smartest things you can do for yourself, because while you may have one single message, different people react to and engage with various mediums in different ways. For example, rather than spending $30,000 a month on direct mail only, spend
someone who cares about the community around you. These five tips are merely things you should consider as you evaluate how you spend your marketing dollars in the upcoming year. Each of these topics could be delved into on a much deeper level, but the goal is to get you thinking about what you are putting out there, how it is being perceived, how efficient your marketing is, whether you are truly engaged on social media and what mediums you are using to get your message out to the world. Spending just a little extra time on being thoughtful of your audience, crafting your brand, maximizing your reach and diversifying your marketing efforts can go an incredibly long way and yield you much higher results. Be smarter and more intentional this year and every year after, and you should have no issue remaining fresh and relevant – and watching your success grow to whatever level you ultimately want to achieve. Kim Goldstone is director of marketing for Mortgage Returns.
www.mpamag.com
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