When mortgage professionals market online to their clients, email inevitably comes up. It is one of the fastest, and most personal, ways to leverage online. Customize it with their name, first, last, or both, and bam! – you have a captive audience. Today we will talk about the top three pros to marketing this way.

Pro #1
You can reach ten or ten thousand people at the touch of a button, and will have no more time invested to reach them all no matter how big your list grows. Simply type your message, load it into your formatter or broadcast service, hit send, and every one of your clients or potential clients are notified of your message. And the best part is is costs nothing more than your subscription. Try doing that offline!

Pro #2
Done correctly, email marketing can have a much higher close rate that other marketing tactice. Your potential client is hit with a sort of ‘in your face’ strategy whereby you are talking directly to THEM. Unlike an ad in the paper or a commercial on TV that is generic, email is personal. Get their attention by including their name. Write as though you are addressing their particular problem, and you have the battle half won.

Pro#3
Personal emails work well as pre-sellers. Autoresponders are wonderful in that you can load up your messages and set them to go out at certain intervals. You do this once, and they continue to go out for each new potential customer that signs up, without you lifting another finger. Basically, it will be warming up your potential clients while you are free to do other tasks – even sleep!

If you are already using this great tool in your business, great! But if not, you really should start, and soon. You don’t want to get left behind.

There are a lot of great services out there: Aweber, GetResponse, VerticleResponse and Constant Contact are a few. Do your homework and shop around. Make a list of the features you want and see which providers have them available, in your price range. This shouldn’t be too hard, as many are filled with all of the bells and whistles and usually start around $19 a month – so this shouldn’t be a budget breaker for you! Our newsletter uses Aweber and we love it. We also have experience with Constant Contact and can recommend it for both newcomers and experienced marketers.

Good luck, and stay tuned for the next post in which we’ll be sharing some tips about email ettiquette, and why it is especially important to loan originators…

Wow, what a couple of years it has been.   While I appeared to drop off the face of the earth, the fact was that I entered into an exclusive engagement that required me to be 100% focused on my new project.   I took a lot of the internet marketing philosophies that I started talking about on here and applied them to a group of websites that provided lead generation in the elective medical space.  From an initial contract as “SEO Guru” I ended up transitioning into a COO role and, thanks to a visionary CEO and an AWESOME team of operations and sales folks, we grew revenue from 2007 to 2009 by over 200%.

We recently sold the company to a public company and are now in the last months of the transition period.   Even in this down economy, the incredible team I have had the privilege to work with just posted a 60% sales increase November 09 vs. November 08.  I can only imagine what our numbers would be in a “normal” economic climate let alone the boom times of just a few years ago.

While the majority of my time and energy will, for the foreseeable future, still be devoted to the people and product that I’ve spent the last two plus years working with and developing, I’m excited to get back to working with, helping and learning from other like minded folks learn how to utilize the internet to grow our businesses and enrich our lives.

I’ll be devoting additional resources to make sure this blog stays updated and fresh.  I’ll be bringing in additional experts in mortgage marketing and online marketing in general to help share the tips, tricks, practices, and ideas that continue to produce top results.

For those who are still fighting on after two and a half plus years, welcome back! And, to those who are new, welcome!  I’m excited to be back and very excited to see what 2010 and beyond has to offer!

To say it’s been a crazy few months barely scratches the surface . . . but, as Andy Roach, recently let go when Greenpoint Mortgage shut down, stated in an AP interview -

“The mortgage business isn’t dead — there’s just going to be less people in it.”

Sign up for our free newsletter now for information on how to stay relevant in a dramatically changing marketplace!

Technorati Tags: subprime meltdown, mortgage crisis, mortgage jobs, greenpoint mortgage

First, allow me to apologize for my lack of posts recently. However, I did want to take a break from my daily grind to share a great resource with you regarding the changing mortgage marketplace.

Here in Mortgage Capital USA (aka Orange County, CA), the Orange County Register has devoted an entire section of their website to the “Subprime Shake-Up.” I find it a quick resource to help me keep on top of the public perception of our industry.

Technorati Tags: subprime, subprime shake-up, mortgage industry, mortgage marketing, orange county register

I just stumbled across some great programming being offered by Microsoft this week as part of their “Small Business Summit“. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ve missed the first two days but there are still plenty of sessions that I hope to catch over the next three. And by “catch” I mean try to pay attention to in the background as I try and do some “real work”. Take a look, its free and it really looks like there will be some great information being shared! Even if you can’t make it to the live broadcast, the sessions will be available on demand 72 hours after the event as well.

Wednesday, March 21

11:00AM
Get a Higher Profile on the Web – Jennifer Laycock, Editor of Search Engine GuideThursday, March 229:00AM
Visionary Business - Gary Hoover, Serial Entrepreneur and Author, Hoover’s Vision, Original Thinking for Business Success

11:00AM
Building Customer Trust – Joanna Krotz, Author of The Small Business Kit

12:00 PM
Buzz Marketing – Gregg Spiridellis, Co-founder of JibJab Media

Friday, March 23

11:00 AM Pacific Time
Building a Brand as a Startup – Lance Morgan, publisher of Brilliant magazine12:00 PM Pacific Time
Where To Go For Money – Jim Nolen, Financial Advisor and Adjunct Professor, University of Texas12:00 PM Pacific Time
Create a Marketing Plan – Rob Adams, Entrepreneur and Author

1:00PM Pacific
Develop Customers for Life – Joanna Krotz, Author of The Small Business Kit

I try and give advance notice when these great free educational opportunities come up. Sign up for my free mortgage marketing newsletter to receive direct notifications and make sure you don’t miss out on future events!

Technorati Tags: microsoft small business summit, microsoft, continuing education

I just read a great article by Jake Matthews of 10e20.com detailing why search engine optimization is crucial for your small business.  If you are even half interested in making the internet a solid part of your mortgage business, you really should take a look at the article.  As someone who considers himself a firm believer in the importance of the interest as it relates to the future of my mortgage business, I found the article to be a great reminder that the internet goes far beyond being a venue for traditional “mortgage marketing.” Jake goes over the following topics in detail:

• Obtain Increased and Higher Quality Sales
  
• Increased Search Engine Visibility
• Brand Recognition
• Enhanced Credibility and Legitimacy
• Investment in your Domain Name
• Competitive Edge and Research Advantage
• Ad Spend predictability and High Return on Investment (ROI)
• Passive Business Development

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, search engine optimizatin, mortgage marketing ideas, 10e20

Over the past few days, I’ve been surfing around viewing probably hundreds of mortgage broker websites and real estate agent/broker websites.   I was surprised (not pleasantly) at how many of us seem to think that fancy flash introductions and muzak are adding any real benefit to our online presence.

I think the most annoying thing that can happen to me while I’m careening willy nilly around the internet is have some website start blaring music out of desktop speakers. 

Perhaps it’s a control thing and I get upset when my computer does something I didn’t ask it to do.  Perhaps I’m a bit peeved that some website decided it was a good idea to start playing elevator music over whatever I may have actually chosen to listen to.  Perhaps I just don’t like the white noise / computer hum of my insulated workspace to be violated by uninvited muzak.

Whatever the reason, I immediately begin the process of regaining audible supremacy over my computer.  Depending on the location of the mouse cursor on my screen, I typically do one of two things.

1) I quickly strike the “X” located in the top right corner of my browser window.

2) I jab at the little green arrow located at the top left edge of my browser window.

Whichever action I choose to take, the website I was just at has lost a visitor.  And, with every lost visitor is a lost opportunity to gain a new client.

So please, if the default setting on your website is set to play music, disable it or at least set the default to off.

And, if you don’t believe me, just type in “music on websites” in any search engine and read the comments out there.   Music does have it’s place online, but in most cases, it will take away from the professional image that you are trying to project as a mortgage professional.

Technorati Tags: mortgage markeing ideas, music on websites, mortgage broker websites, real estate websites

As social networking continues to gain momentum, I thought I’d take a moment to feature some of the top mortgage/real estate based on-line communities…

Active Rain – Giant Blog for Real Estate Industry. Earn points to be the “featured” agent/broker/company in your city/county/state. I recently joined this forum and have to say that, at the moment, it’s my favorite destination. I really like it because it provides direct access to real estate agents across the country. If you are willing to participate in the discussion, this is by far the best place I have found to build a network of realtor referrals. Join ActiveRain Here

Broker Outpost – The Big Daddy of Mortgage communities. The Outpost is simple and efficient. There are only 4 public message boards with the main one simply titled ” The Outpost recently passed 30,000 members, so, there’s good chance that if you’ve found this blog, you’re already familiar with the Outpost. if you become a “Premium Member” for $10 a month, you will receive access to a private forum along with the ability to participate in an collaborate marketing effort. There are lo’s and brokers there who rely almost solely on this system to generate their leads. Also, premium members frequently give away leads that they aren’t licensed to handle.Broker Universe’s “Mortgage Grapevine” – In all honesty, I haven’t really spent any time at all on this site. It’s a bit too chaotic for my tastes but I know a number of people who visit it frequently and find it to be a great resource.

Wanna Network – I just signed up for this one today. So far, I’d classify it as the MySpace for Real Estate, within moments of joining you’ll have people asking you to join their networks. They have a discussion forum as well as member profiles. I glanced over them and they seem to have some good information.

It can be very easy to get lost in the wealth of information contained in these forums and on these networks. But the best feature by far is the ability to connect with others. If you really want to get the most of any of these communities, you need to be prepared to be a participating member. “Lurking” can be quite informative but those who participate are the ones that reap the true rewards.

I’m working to put together a piece on using more mainstream social networks (Friendster, MySpace, YouTube) to grow your business. Other than watching the occasional video or checking out a MySpace profile here and there, I really don’t use/visit these sites all that often. But, from my initial research, there are quite a few real estate and mortgage professionals that have had some great success via these platforms.

I’d love to hear from people who are currently using these sites as marketing tools. Leave a comment or join my mortgage marketing newsletter list and shoot me an email if you have had success generating business via on-line social marketing!

Now get out there and network! Just be sure you make time to get offline now and then and do some actual work!

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, social networking, active rain, activerain, youtube, broker outpost, mortgage grapevine, mortgage marketing ideas, realtor referrals

Just received the following from Novastar, the last email makes a bit more sense now . . .

Loans priced in NovaStarIS and NovaQual will automatically retain their lock status on pricing for 30 days.

As a one time adjustment, loan rates locked prior to Tuesday, March 6th will adjust unless closed by Wednesday, March 14th.

Just got this from Novastar.   I’m not thinking the pricing on the day docs are drawn thing is going work . . .

Due to fast moving shifts in the secondary market beyond our control, we can no longer honor pricing approvals in NovaStarIS for an extended period of time.

To avoid pricing adjustments on loans already approved in NovaStarIS but not yet funded, docs must be sent out by the end of the day on Wednesday, March 14^th.

Beginning Thursday, March 15^th, loans will be priced based on the current rate sheet when the docs are drawn.

Technorati Tags: novastar, subprime, subprime meltdown