Posted by John Scott Smith on Mon, Apr 19, 2010 @ 01:37 PM
After what happened to me at the store, I simply had to write this article, today. Read on, and you'll understand why.
When we're working with FHA mortgage leads (or, for that matter, with ANY kind of mortgage leads), we will often arrive at a point in the conversation where the prospective customer needs something that we cannot or do not provide. It's to be expected. Maybe they want to go look at a house. Perhaps they are in need of an inspection. It may be time to go assemble their documents. Whatever "it" is, "it" is something that will need to be done outside of our office, away from us. If we have planned for this in advance, we can set up the "next, right step" and we will have a much higher chance of getting our customer back for the sale when they've completed that next step.
Here is my story that gave me the inspiration for this post. In Massachusetts, there is a deposit taken on every soda can, every two-liter bottle, and on every beer bottle to make sure that they are returned for recycling and do not end up in some landfill. It's only $.05 per bottle, but, like everyone else in Massachusetts, I build up a little inventory in the basement before I pack up the car and take them back to the store. While I'm there, I will ALWAYS spend more money. ALWAYS. Unfortunately, when it's a beer bottle, the liquor store would like me to spend my money somewhere else. How do I know this? Because if I bring a six-pack of "special" beer (like some German import that you don't find everywhere, or some microbrew) and if that "special" beer isn't sold at that liquor store, they make me take my bottles away. Not only will they not give me $.30, but they won't even let me *leave* the bottles there. In essence, over a measly thirty cents, they want to send me running over to their competitor's store where I initially bought the beer. The lack of foresight here is truly stunning..
A clever business-owner *could* instruct their clerks to give me $.30 off of my purchase and just leave the empty six-pack behind the counter. (In marketing, we would call this spending thirty cents on "market research" to find out what our customers would like us to stock, and it would truly be a bargain to be able to "buy" that kind of research for only thirty cents.) Alternatively, they could get a little creative with some kind of membership card that offers you "one-stop-shopping" so that only members could return ANY and ALL bottles without worry of having to return the errant six-pack, elsewhere. Scanning my new member card would, of course, let them make me suggestive sales offers that I might like to hear. "Mr. Smith, I know that you have been trying some small batch bourbons, lately. Would you like to see a bottle of Black Maple Hill? We just started carrying it last week, and we have a bottle in stock."
Does that sound like the kind of store that you'd like to shop at? Or would you rather hear, "I'm sorry, we can't take those bottles.."
Applying this approach to your FHA mortgage leads business plan would be simple. When your client needs to schedule a showing, pull out your "standard form" to collect some information about the real estate agent with whom they're working. Now, you've got someone to introduce yourself to. (And, of course you already know that it will be a better introduction if you can introduce yourself to that agent at a Chamber event or some other networking opportunity.) If they don't already have a real estate agent, you can hand them three different sheets, one on each of three agents whom you trust, along with an explanation about each one's strong points, about which neighborhoods they are most expert in. Same with your list of inspectors. For the mortgage lead who is at the "collecting their documents" phase, you can give them the special folder that you've had printed that lists every doc that they're going to need, maybe even with a special pocket in it for each grouping of documents.
The point is that the easier that you make it for your customer to come back to you, the more likely that they will. Whatever you do, though, have a plan.
It is the lack of a plan (and of business insight) that allows clerks to say, "I'm sorry, we can't take those bottles, here." And, it is that same lack of a plan that can send your hard-earned business right into the hands of your competitors.
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 03:12 PM
There are three main ways to look at your mortgage web site.
- You can use it as a pamphlet, to let prospective customers know who you are and what you do. For this approach, all you need is to have your site on your business cards, in your print advertising, or recited in television and radio commercials. Like a pamphlet, it's a way to provide much more information to your prospects than you could fit, otherwise.
- Your site can be an aid to your existing customers. This method usually has a way for your customers to "log in" and check on the status of the mortgage application or see where it is in processing. This is a membership function.
- And, the third way to look at your page is as a way to produce your own FHA mortgage leads. For this, you need to drive traffic, either through Inbound marketing (which we'll cover in another post) or through advertising, or a combination of the two. This article is going to discuss how to get started in advertising through Google.
What is advertising with Google? Any time that you search on Google, it will show you two different types of results: organic and paid. Organic results are the ones that you see below the shaded box. These are the ones that Google "thinks" will be the most relevant to your search. The paid results, also called "pay per click" (PPC) will appear in a shaded box, directly below the search box, and also on the far, right-hand side of the screen. Every time that you "click" on one of those ads, the advertisers gets charged a fee. This is Google's main source of revenue.
In order to get started, you'll need to open your advertising account, called AdWords, with Google. Doing so is very easy and is a testament to both Google's success and its stock price.
First, head on over to AdWords. If you already use Gmail or iGoogle, it will allow you to add AdWords to your existing account. If not, enter a valid email address that you use and choose a password.
Set your timezone and currency. In my case, Eastern Time, US dollars.
Google will send a verification email to your account with a link that you have to click to validate. Once clicked, viola! You're ready to get started.
Select a budget. (And, keep it small on your first time around the block!)
Now comes the REAL work. (Or, put another way, Welcome to My World!). When focusing on paid advertising you'll want to look at a number of things, always keeping one mantra at the top of your mind: how are my customers using the Internet.
Choose the kinds of ads that you think will appeal to the kinds of customers that you'd like to attract. Customize your ads so that they will only appear in states in which you can originate FHA mortgages. Select the page(s) that you want your customers to land on when they click the ad. Note: your "home page" is NOT always the best place to direct the click. (Nor is your "application page," for that matter.) Instead, choose a landing page that makes the most sense for both the ad and the search term. For example, if they click on an ad that is specifically about a 203K mortgage after searching for the term "FHA 203K loan", you may want to have them "land" on a page within your site that is specifically about 203K mortgages.
You can, and should, do endless tweaking to this new advertising program. The overarching theme is that if your website is not on page one for a particular search term, like "FHA mortgage Boise, ID", you can run an ad to insure that those people searching for desired term will find you.
What questions do you have? Ask me, below, and I'll answer to the best of my ability.
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Mon, Mar 08, 2010 @ 12:59 PM
Are you a parent? I am. Of two young boys. My oldest is two and a half years old, and is no longer into Elmo, Big Bird, and "Sesame Street". He's moved on to "The Wiggles." Now, that's what we watch, right before bed, as part of his nighttime routine. When he shouts, "It's our SONG!" as "Rockabye Your Bear" comes on, it kind of melts your heart, no matter what my day was like.
Curious, I did a little research on "The Wiggles" and found out something that hadn't occurred to me: "The Wiggles" weren't always "The Wiggles". They had been aspiring musicians, each with a different level of success. After leaving music, three of them met while working on degrees in early childhood education. They had been studying to become teachers.
Money quote from the a New York Times article about them, Murray Cook (one of the founding members) "I'd played in rock bands and didn't get anywhere in the 80's."
For their school courses, they made a music project incorporating early childhood lessons with original music and dancing. And, it caught on. Caught on in a BIG way. (In 2005, they raked in forty-five MILLION dollars from their CD's, concerts, and merchandising.)
What does this have to do with mortgage sales? Pop music was a tough market. But, by discovering an unfilled demand in the marketplace for quality children's music, they got to perform for larger audiences in more venues making a LOT more money.
Right now, amidst this mortgage wreckage, there are still underutilized skills, and market demands that are not, yet, met.
Where can you specialize and make more money? Your unique patch of grass has its own answer, but foreclosures aren't going to end any time, soon. What if you learned everything there was to know about getting people financed to buy foreclosures? Do you know enough, yet, to give an informed presentation on FHA 203K mortgages to your local Realtors Association? On a more basic level, do you know everything there is to know about the changes taking place with regard to FHA mortgages beginning on April 5th?
For a living, I have to stay up on all changes to FHA, so I read several articles per day for my work, here. I am constantly amazed by how much information I find out there that is flat out wrong on ActiveRain and other real estate sites.
If you're still in the business, there are unexploited areas that offer less resistance for those who study and do their homework.
Right now, most of us are struggling pop musicians. Maybe it's time we became "Wiggles".
What do you think? What areas can expand into in your area?
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