Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Apr 15, 2010 @ 03:45 PM
I'm letting the word out. "Lead nurturing". Yes. "Lead nurturing". That's been our secret sauce for a while, now, and ever since we started using it, I've been hopelessly, helplessly, head-over-heels in *love* with lead nurturing. Today, I'm going to tell you why.
Email contacts are a part of sales for everyone. If you're already using it for your mortgage leads, you probably have a boilerplate that you send off to your prospects to remind them of who you are. Keeping it relevant, interesting, and, above all, NOT about sales is what works. This is what shifts "email marketing" into "lead nurturing".
The purpose behind every email marketing campaign is to help move the process along. We do this by keeping our name or brand in front of our prospects. We demonstrate expertise and knowledge. Share good information. Get them back to the websites. Inspire a call. All of these accomplish your goal. But, always keep in mind that the purpose of the email is NOT to sell.
I've heard that irrelevance is the new Spam. So, give your prospects good, relevant material. Send them "The Five Most Important Things to Do Before You Become a Homeowner". Or, this month "Three Ways That Your Taxes Will Improve Once You're a Homeowner" will be relevant AND timely. These are the ways that email marketing is most effective.
Here are two of my favorite examples of companies who send me email campaigns. King Arthur Flour blasts out their lead nurturing campaigns infrequently (maybe once a month), but in them they include outstanding recipes: recipes that you will read, bake, and save. (I have even been known to print them off and put them in my baking notebook!)
When Blue Sky Factory sends out their campaign, they tell you about a brilliant, FREE webinar that you can attend. It's always one that will be interesting and that you'll actually *want* to attend.
Neither one of these emails that I'm talking about is trying to close the deal or tell you how brilliant the companies that are sending them are. They don't need to tell you how brilliant they are: they've just demonstrated it with their brilliant content.
What is the takeaway, here? Use email marketing to nudge your clients along. Keep them informed. And, build trust. You've already got their email address and, far more importantly, you've got their interest. Move slowly. Demonstrate your worthiness. And, the sales will come.
Do you use email marketing? Are you automating it to nurture your leads? Tell us what you've been doing!
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 02:08 PM
Whatever business we are in, whether our customers are verbalizing that question or not, THAT is the question that they are trying to answer. "Can I trust you?" In order to offer evidence is why we get licensed. Or, join the Better Business Bureau. Or, ask others to vouch for us.
In a weird, Zen-elusive kind of way, if you think too much about the question, you won't be able to convince anyone of your honesty or your integrity. You have to let it go, and be yourself. Allow yourself to connect. That connection is what builds trust.
In the mortgage industry, product knowledge is useful, so learn it. Availability is helpful, so answer the phone, reply to your emails, and return you messages. But, connection is what people crave and what will lead to higher success.
How do we build that connection? Be sincere. Share your experience. Learn about your customer's needs and keep their needs at the top of your mind.
Before I started in mortgage lead generation, I sold mortgages. Often, I was so focused on getting my customer the right product or pricing it correctly, that I forgot about their anxiety about whether or not they would be approved.
One of the biggest advances that I made in my selling career was when I helped them address their feelings on this. Now, I didn't use any "when you, I feel" statements or anything overly "touchy-feely". What I changed was one simple behavior. When I got a DU "refer/eligible" on a pre-approval, I made a commitment to my customer. "We'll have an answer for you within three days." (That was our timeline, back then.) "In the meantime, I am going to call you with an update, each day, even if that update is to say 'there is no update,' until we have an answer." Of course, once I laid down that bridge, I had to walk over it, each and every day. That daily effort was what built the trust. And, that was what got my customers to commit to working with me.
Someone else may have had an eighth better rate, or a quarter of a point less in closing costs, but I had already had several conversations with my customer. And, I had proven myself to good on my word.
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Posted by John Scott Smith on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 @ 01:11 PM
I admit it. I'm on Twitter. I'm on facebook. I read and comment on blogs. Struggle that it is, I try to send only "good" Tweets, and avoid contributing to the pointless babble with which these networks are wrought. I do all of these things with the stated goal of promoting my business, but, mostly I do it because it's fun!
Traipsing through the Internets, it will seem that everyone talks about how invaluable these services are to business. Many real estate agents and loan officers out there saying that social media are important to them, too. But, how are they important?
The very best description that I've heard of the usefulness of social media for most of us was from an interview with legendary social media expert, Chris Brogan, when he spoke on HubSpot TV. Brogan explained that social media was a great place to keep people (leads, customers, prospective customers) warm between meetings with them. That's it.
My thoughts are that Twitter, facebook, et.al. are an excellent way to interact, lightly and occasionally, with your leads and customers, but probably not a very good way to get new customers.
What do you think? How are you using social media for your mortgage business?
(By the way, if you would like to read my very own brand of pointless babble, I can be found on both Twitter AND facebook.)