Loan Officer Marketing - How to Target the Right Agents
Jul 1st, 2008 by admin
Once there was a loan officer, who marketed his services to some Realtors
Tags: loan officer marketing, marketing to realtors, mortgage marketingMarketing to Realtors Create a Power Position in Your Marketing Efforts
Jun 23rd, 2008 by admin
Every day a real estate agent receives several marketing attempts from loan officers. In fact, this information comes in a steady, unrelenting stream. It is no wonder agents have become adept at tuning out the static of these marketing attempts.
Your challenge is to find a way to differentiate yourself from all the buzz of other loan officers. You do so by establishing your marketing position.
Your marketing position is what defines your business. Take a moment to browse your competition websites. Does their marketing position look identical to yours? If it were not for their logo on the top of the page, could it basically be your website?
If the answer is yes, your marketing position is too close to that of your competition. You are competing with them for a place in your prospects mind, and chances are you are not winning the battle for first place.
Take a look at your business and what can you offer that nobody else is doing? If you feel stymied by how you could possible differentiate yourself from your competition, think about a couple of examples of businesses that have done a remarkable job of creating a marketing position.
Federal Express is a great example. They started a business with a position no other shipper occupied. They advertised was when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, they were there to do it.
Dominoes Pizza started their business by emphasizing that they would delivery a pizza within 30 minutes of the order, or the pizza was free.
Southwest Airlines have marketed themselves as the low-fare airline.
What special skill or niche could you develop and use in your marketing materials and what can you use to set yourself apart from your competition? When your services are similar to another loan officer, real estate agents will look for ways to differentiate.
The more your services are scrutinized for differences, the more important it is to give details about how you are different. You need to accentuate those details.
Prices and rates are not necessarily the kind of difference that gets you noticed. In fact, most often it merely gets you into a bidding war. You should instead find an unexplored niche and specialize your services around it.
You can develop a unique niche within a product line like HUD, ARMs or Jumbo Loan expert.
You can develop a niche around details of the process for example, loan approvals within an hour (or less), loans that close 5 days ahead of COE, daily email updates to agents.
You can position yourself around gender, ethnicity, geography or another demographic, specializing in exclusively serving the Hispanic community, single professionals, Town & Country Ranch, etc.
Spend some time thinking about what makes you and your business unique and then market to that position.
Jeff Nelson helps loan officers increase loan originations by attracting quality relationships with real estate agents from the development of customized relationship-building strategies.
Click here to get a free copy of the Marketing Planning Guide, a 20-page workbook designed to help you outline a strategy to become an Agent Magnet.
Visit us at http://www.loan-officer-marketing.com
Tags: loan officer marketing, marketing to realtors, mortgage broker marketing, mortgage marketingEstablishing Proof Key to Mortgage Marketing
Jun 14th, 2008 by admin
Let us say that you are working on your mortgage marketing presentations. You have just made a perfect presentation to a Realtor. They were excited and impressed with your services and said they were ready to move full stream ahead with you. What is the next step? Going back to the office and waiting for a phone call?
You may find yourself waiting a long time. It is incredibly frustrating to be promised one thing and never have it come to fruition. That is what happens when your mortgage marketing does not focus on building a solid relationship with the Realtor, even if it sounds like they made a commitment.
You know the expression of “Out of sight, out of mind”. If you have not properly built your case for doing business with you, the agent will forget all about you as soon as the door closes.
For your mortgage marketing to be effective, you are going to have to continue to build your case. Then, and only then will you solidify your relationship with the agent.
Documented Performance Builds Case
When you document your performance you account for your actions with clients. It demonstrates how you work to solve problems. Nothing captures prospects attention like a track record for proven performance.
One way to document the performance is by meeting with the client. It works well because it gives you an opportunity to remind them of why they should continue to use you, instead of your competition. If you find there is not a positive experience to document, you can use the meeting as a learning opportunity. You can interview the client to find ways to improve your future performance.
When you demonstrate your performance, you have something concrete to follow up on. It is difficult to follow up on mere promises. But, with demonstrated performance, you have something to promote.
It is far easier to promote your proven track record than it is to promote a promise. For example, which of the following is easier to promote, and more importantly will produce results?
Example 1: I promise I will close your loans on time.
Example 2: Over the last 3 years, 99.5% of my loans closed early, usually at least two days before the close of escrow.
The second example has a great deal more impact because it employs the S.M.A.R.T. method. It is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time dependent. It makes the reader sit up and take note. As you continue to document, you have fresh results to share with your prospects.
Keep it Fresh
We are a “see it to believe it” population. We are far more likely to believe what we read versus what we hear. So your first effort at documenting your track record should be in writing.
But after your first effort, it pays to mix it up a little bit. There are many ways you can document your case to prospects. Your mortgage marketing materials should vary, such as case studies, newsletters, audio CD’s, articles, postcards, and flyers.
It is important to produce your documentation in different formats because people access information in different ways. Some prospects want to know everything; others only want small manageable bite size information. Those that want the abbreviated version will appreciate a postcard, while the prospects that want to know all the details will prefer to read a lengthy article.
Presenting a variety of styles also gives you a chance to reinforce the information by repeating it in a variety of formats. This way you first send an article, then an audio CD of the article, followed by a postcard, etc. You are using the same message, but communicating it in different ways.
Keep Your Focus
When you begin documenting your performance you will find many examples of your superior service to share with your prospects. Resist the temptation to show your prospects all your documentation at one time.
If you shove all your marketing materials at them at once they will never absorb the information ; they will just tune it out. And, if you throw them all of the information at one time, you do not have anything fresh to give in the future which can make mortgage marketing even more frustrating.
Sometimes, it is far more effective to share drops of information, instead of an ocean.
Jeff Nelson helps loan officers increase loan originations by attracting quality relationships with real estate agents from the development of customized relationship-building strategies.
Click here to get a free copy of the Marketing Planning Guide, a 20-page workbook designed to help you outline a strategy to become an Agent Magnet.
Visit us at www.loan-officer-marketing.com
Tags: loan officer marketing, marketing to realtors, mortgage broker marketing, mortgage marketing