Oftentimes, mortgage business owners have a confused picture of what marketing really is. They see it as some kind of gamble. Sometimes it pays off; other times it is a waste of money. But that just isn't the case. You can use marketing to consistently grow your mortgage income—and it has nothing to do with luck.
Here are four steps that will help you write more mortgages this summer:
1. Identify your target market. A fundamental misunderstanding of this step is why people think marketing is like playing the slots. If you skip or gloss over this step, your marketing will be largely influenced by luck. But, if you are aggressive about this pursuing this step, your marketing will perform consistently and profitably.
To discover your target market, examine your client list. What kinds of people have gotten mortgages through you? Retirees? Upper-echelon wage earners? Low-income households? Small businesses? Of course, there are likely multiple markets you have serviced in the past. The key is to figure out which group was the easiest to close, and target that group first.
Once you experience success with your first targeted market, your income will increase and you can set aside more money for marketing. Then, you can begin to target some of the other groups you know have bought from you.
2. Identify your most profitable products. In your situation, it may be that the products you sell for the highest commission are also the most difficult to sell. In that case, you ought to focus your marketing on the product with the broadest market base. Then, after you have steady income coming in through that product, move on to higher commission products.
The key is to get your marketing ball rolling with the “low hanging fruit”—whatever that may be in your situation. These are the prospects that will be the easiest to get and the quickest to close. Once you have done that, you will have some momentum and you will be able to go after the bigger fish in your pond.
3. Promote to your target market. Over and over again, I have seen direct mail postcards work wonders for my mortgage clients. Because you have such a specific benefit to offer prospects, a postcard is an ideal way to spread your message.
What makes postcard marketing campaigns so successful is a custom-tailored mailing list. You can target by so many factors that it is an extremely effective way to target the market you identified in Step 1. The right postcard mailing company can help you secure the perfect list.
Once you have the list, just mail to it—consistently. If you are not consistent, there is no guarantee of success. However, if you are consistent about putting the right ad in the right hands, you will see great, consistent results. This is especially true of the mortgage industry, where your product isn't necessarily in demand for everyone all the time.
4. Follow up with new leads. When your mailings go out, you get calls in. That's the way marketing works. However, at this point, the postcards have done their job. They have created leads. Now it is your job to close those leads. So, you need an effective way to gather contact information from your new leads and stay in contact with them.
To make sure you have a consistent system to collect contact information, create a “new caller sheet.” This is a sheet of paper that contains all the questions you need to ask, such as name, phone number, email address and how they heard about you. Once you have created this sheet, put a stack of them by the phone. Then whenever someone answers the phone, they will know exactly what to ask and what information to get.
Email marketing is your best bet for following up with leads. There are companies that can set you up with a system known as “email auto responders.” These are emails that automatically get sent to your prospects once they are entered into your email database. This automatic follow up is a huge boost to your name recognition and helps you close prospects by keeping your name in front of them.
If you have enough new leads coming in, the laws of marketing say that some of them are bound to close. All you need to do is stick to these three steps and you will see an increase in your revenue and the number of mortgages you write. Not enough business owners are willing to be committed to their marketing. If you are, you will see very positive results.
