Mortgage Leads: Best Practices

Five Insider Secrets on Producing Your Own Mortgage Leads

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You do it.  We know you do it.  Let's just get this out of the way and say it: you produce your OWN leads.  (Not to the exclusion of us, of course, or you wouldn't be here, but you do try.)  And, that's okay.  In fact, I encourage it.

For most lenders, buying mortgage leads is, and, should be, a complement to your other marketing efforts.  

You work open houses with comfort and charm.  You teach first time home buyer seminars brilliantly.  You produce a beautiful and informative newsletter (that even other agents read!).  And, you have a compelling web page where you want to harvest your own leads.   So, where the hell are they??

This is where you, the knowledgeable and accomplished loan officer, banker, or branch manager will often fall down.  But, it's not your fault.  Really, it's not.  

Lead generation is its own science.  Being good at these other things does not, in any way, imply being good at harvesting leads: in fact, it's being good at those other things that is probably getting in your way.  So, together let's take a step back, and let me share some of the "secrets" of mortgage lead generation.

1. Don't ask too much.  It's tempting to have your prospects fill out a full 1003 on your webpage, but it's also unnecessary.  And, it's counterproductive.  Your goal is to eventually get them on the phone or into your office.  All you need for that is a name and a phone number.  (And, an email address would be nice, too).  Asking for more information, especially a social security number, leads to what those of us in the business like to call "form abandonment", and, yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.  Shorter equals more likely to be completed.  Period.
2. Get found.  Use long tail keywords.  Yes, you read that right: "long tail keywords".  (And, of course, I'll explain what that is.)  The HUGE lead generation companies (you already know who they are) spend tons of cash on the most general and most difficult to optimize keywords in order to be found on the search engines.  "Mortgage."  "Loan."  "FHA."  These terms are not only too difficult for you to use and be found by, but they are far too general to be of any good to you.  You don't want hundreds of leads from all over the country.  So, what about having a part of your web page with the title of something like "mortgage loan for Bethalto, IL" which would look something like this: www.joesmortgages.com/mortgage_loan_for_Bethalto_IL  With some decent content, our fictional friend, Joe, stands a very good chance of ranking highly for all of his target customers in Bethalto.  Likewise, Joe can work on Rosewood Heights, and Roxana, IL, too.  This is what long tail keywords are: longer, more descriptive variations of the big keywords, likely to get you the prospects that you want to turn into leads.
3. Nothing flashy.  In fact, don't use Flash, at all.  I don't like it.  At least, not on your page.  (Nor, on mine, for that matter.)  Have a basic, professionally-built webpage that looks smart and timeless.  You don't need distractions.  You certainly don't want music that will clue your prospects' employers in to the fact that they're surfing your page while on the clock!   Your customers are there for your brilliant content and your reassuring voice.  Leave the fancy stuff to the Amazons and the Mercedes of the world.
4. Remember your audience.  The most common mistake that I see on bankers' and brokers' sites is that they are writing their content to the wrong people.  In layman's terms, describe the home buying process.  Or, the mortgage application process.  Or, the closing process in your target area.  Mentioning "supporting documentation" and "1003's" are what we, in the business, do every day.  Your customers generally don't know that language, and, more importantly, they won't respond to it.
5. Use a pay per click (PPC) campaign.  ALL of the pros are running PPC campaigns.  Every single one of them.  And, most amateurs, too.  With Google, it's shockingly easy to get your own campaign started.  AdWords at Google will walk you through the whole process of getting your account set up.  A couple of quick suggestions which I can add (which may well evolve into an entire other post): choose which page on your webpage that you want people to land on, set a low daily budget, remember what we said about long tail keywords by picking as many of them as you can think of (and, as Google can recommend) when you get started, and (in the name of all that is RIGHT!!), don't ever, ever forget that your campaign is running!  Costly mistake.  Been there.  Done that.  Would rather have bought myself something nice...

There you have it.  As I read this over before hitting "publish" I fear that I may come across as preachy.  I apologize in advance if I do.  Instead, I would like to be helpful and approachable.

So, what are your thoughts?  How is your own lead generation coming?  What other questions do you have for me?  Ask, and I'm happy to share what I know.

(As I've said before, you are welcome to follow my constant "stream-of-consciousness" updates on Twitter and facebook .)