I can’t stand paying big lead companies for leads. I also refuse to pay $5-$20 per click for visitors. As an independent broker I’m smart enough to know that the “best” leads will rarely make it to me no matter how much I pay per lead. And, even if I do get someone who actually answers the phone, odds are I’m just one of four or five people to have called them within the last 48 hours. I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.

It only took me a couple of orders with some of the big names out there to decide that I needed to just start generating internet leads on my own. It’s important to note, at the time I made that decision, I had virtually no experience at all when it comes to websites and internet marketing. Fast forward two years and hundreds of hours later, I’m finally generating enough leads to keep me comfortable. And, I’ve developed quite an obsession with helping other individual brokers loan officers do the same.

Over those two years I estimate that I spent about $4500 on internet marketing courses, tools, and other ways to “supercharge my web rankings”, “explode my traffic,” and “send a flood of visitors” to my websites. Let’s just say I have a file folder full of so called “tools” and a pile of cd’s and books that I may get to reading . . .some day.

Now, in all fairness, some of the tools are very useful and they can greatly help automate the process. There are few that I do actually use frequently and most of them had good information included with them. And, in quite a few cases, I just never got around to spending the time to implement them or learn how to properly use them.

I’m going to let you in on a secret, you can build a website that ranks well in the search engines and generates leads for less than $100 a year. Starting from scratch, with virtually no tools or experience, this can be accomplished in just a few of months if you are willing to put in some work. I’d estimate that with as little as an hour a day, you will be able to archive results. Now, the more time you spend, the better the results.

I do have one warning, you will not start raking in the search engines and generating exclusive leads overnight. It can even take a few months for your new website to even start showing up in the search engines. Persistence is the key and if you stick with it, you will be rewarded.

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to go over what you need to do step by step to build your own exclusive mortgage lead generation website. I’ll go over topics like hosting, domain names, keywords, blogs, link building, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and much more.

I can’t tell you how great it feels to flip on my computer and see an email with the heading “NEW LEAD” pop up in Outlook! I want to help you achieve that feeling as well.

Be sure to sign up for my free Mortgage Marketing Ideas newsletter. The newsletter is the best way to make sure you don’t miss any information. Subscribe now and receive a free link back to your mortgage website from our Find A Mortgage Match directory!

Stay tuned for more!

Technorati Tags: internet lead generation, internet mortgage lead generation, mortgage leads, mortgage broker website, loan officer website, exclusive mortgage leads, exclusive internet lead, mortgage lead

As I was sitting at my desk at home this evening sorting through my daily pile of mail, I cam across a letter that I just had to open!

It was a plain white envelope, with a regular first class stamp, and my name and address printed in a script font. I think you’ll agree, there was nothing too spectacular there. But, as I went to reach for the envelope, I noticed it had a small lump in it. Ok, now my curiosity was peaked!

I picked up the envelope and gave the lump a squeeze … It was firm but part of it gave a little bit. As opposed to continuing to play little kid shaking a present under the Christmas tree, I dove in and tore the envelope open. I dumped it upside down and out popped an eraser! You know, the little pink erasers that you stick on the end of a pencil.

Ok, as I always open every piece of mail to examine the “junk” for ideas, this time I actually wanted to ACTIVELY read what was on this letter. Lo and behold, it was a friendly neighborhood mortgage broker!

Up to this point, he had all the credit in the world for actually making me curios about his envelope. However, as I read his letter I was a bit disappointed. He just included the standard “I can help lower your payments and save you money” lines. Rather boiler plate stuff. I was waiting for the “Call me know and let me help you erase your debt!” or something to that effect.

Want to try this yourself? Grab a box of 144 erasers and give it a shot!

Want to more great ideas and tips to help grow your business without breaking the bank? Sign up for our free mortgage marketing newsletter!  To get you started, as a thank you for signing up, you can claim a free listing on our sister mortgage broker directory!

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, mortgage marketing ideas, mortgage mailers, open rate

Wow, wish I shorted New Century . . . NEW has dropped 63% at the time of this post on news of federal criminal investigation into its practices.

I also received an email from my Fremont Investment rep this morning saying they’re closing their doors as well.

The “easy money” of the past few years is coming to an end. I, for one, welcome it. I look forward to the weeding out of the uninformed, unscrupulous, and just plain uneducated when it comes to this industry.

I welcome moving towards a day when I don’t have to explain to underwriters and account executives how their programs really work and what their guidelines say. I look forward to fewer deals making it all the way to “secondary” before someone decides that loan actually doesn’t meet investor guidelines and that they just may not fund it after all.

Don’t get me wrong, I have had the pleasure of dealing with quite a few VERY knowledgeable AE’s and underwriters. As I type that…the funny thing is they all are with companies that I don’t think are having the major problems at the moment…. Coincidence? And I’m sure those on the lender side who actually understand the industry will enjoy dealing with originators who are in the game for the long haul.

I do feel for those who will be losing their jobs due to the criminal activities and equally criminal mismanagement of their companies.

Perhaps its a dream, but I’m look forward to a more professional future for our industry as well as a more profitable one for those who choose to take the time do the right thing all along and actually build a solid business rather than chase the easy money.

I’m interested to hear what others feel about the “meltdown” and it’s impact on our industry. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: new century, freemont investment, subprime meltdown, mortgage industry

I was just introduced to ActiveRain and I liked what I saw!

The “ActiveRain Real Estate Network” is a free online community for real estate professionals.  From Mortgage Brokers, to LO’s, to Real Estate Agents, to Appraisers, you’ll find a little bit of everything.

ActiveRain has a number of user groups that are both profession and geographically focused. These informal forums present a great way to network with other professionals.  The also have quite a few marketing groups with some good ideas being shared.

I also love the fact that they let you create your own blog.  More on the value of blogs to come, but in a nut shell they are probably the one of the best and easiest ways to grow your exposure online. 

 By the looks of it, this community is going to become a powerhouse in online real estate communities.

Take a second right now and check it out! 

 Have you signed up for our free mortgage marketing newsletter yet?

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing ideas, online mortgage marketing, activerain, real estate, real estate forum, mortgage networking, real estate networking

Once I start my postcard campaign up again, I know who I’m using for the postcard designs.

Do yourself a favor and check out Lender Design. For $145 a year you get a whole arsenal of mortgage marketing materials.

The folks at Lender Design have put together the best virtually turnkey print marketing piece package that I have ever seen. From signup to having a full toolbox of customized mortgage marketing pieces took me less than 10 minutes!

Once you complete a quick profile, all you need to do is select the marketing piece you want and the system will produce a downloadable PDF that you can print directly or send out to have printed. In addition to the completely turnkey pieces, they offer a number of completely customizable templates that you use for any purpose.

Lender Design offers materials in the follow categories customized with your company name and contact information:

• Mortgage Marketing Flyers
• Mortgage Marketing Postcards
• Customer Follow up Marketing
• Open House Flyers
• Realtor Co-Marketing Pieces
• Realtor Referral Marketing
• Mortgage Newsletter (Newscard)

Take a quick second and preview what they offer. For quality, ease of use, and affordability, you can’t beat them.

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, mortgage mailers, mortgage flyers, mortgage postcards, mortgage marketing ideas, mortgage broker marketing, loan officer marketing, marketing

First I apologize for the delayed post on this. With the holidays this project fell behind and I just haven’t had the desire to get it back on track (I’ve put myself 100% behind an online mortgage marketing project).

As a quick recap, I initially planned to do a distribution for to the same households for six consecutive months. These were distributed and placed on front doors, not mailed. I wanted to see just how inexpensively I could at least attempt doing something with postcards.

My first distribution went out in December to 3000 households and had sub par results. I’m sure most of this was my fault as this my first attempt. (get the whole back story here mortgage marketing with postcards and mortgage marketing with postcards update 2 )

I’m going to place this project on the back burner for now for two reasons.

1) I am more excited about online mortgage marketing.

2) The distribution company I was using for the postcards went belly up and I don’t really feel like finding a new one at the moment.

This isn’t the last you’ll hear of this project, but I expect to be at least 6 months away from starting up again.

I have some really exciting things planned so be sure to sign up for my free mortgage marketing newsletter to make sure you don’t miss out on anything!

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing ideas, mortgage marketing, mortgage marketing with postcards, mortgage mailers

Note to self - be sure to double check the phone number on your postcard before printing. Yup, I went brain dead and printed the wrong phone number on my first 1500 post cards!
While debating the best way to fix the postcards, I quickly ordered 1500 more with the correct phone number and had them rush delivered. VistaPrint had a discount going and the second round of 1500 ended up costing less than the first ($118 vs. $124) even with the 3-day rush. So far, I am very impressed with VistaPrint (if you haven’t done so already, sign up for our free mortgage marketing newsletter and I’ll send you the super VisaPrint discount link).
Being impatient and not wanting to wait for the new cards (not to mention not wanting to waste the ones I already printed), I ended printing the correct phone number on 1500 file folder labels. A couple hours of arts and crafts time later, the postcards were good as new.

Now that I had the postcards, it came time for delivery. I put on some walking shoes and loaded up a backpack with about 500 or so cards and hit the neighborhood surrounding my home. After just over 3 hours I had delivered about 275 or so postcards to neighborhood doors. That averages out to about 70 to 80 deliveries per hour. These 275 cards went out last Tuesday, and as of yet, there have been no responses. I’m not surprised as this is the holiday season and 275 is a relatively small sample.

If I was to pick up my pace and deliver 100 postcards an hour, I’d be looking at 30 hours of delivery time. As these are holiday themed cards, I need them go out as quickly as possible. And, while I did enjoy the exercise and exploring my immediate neighborhood, I decided that I’d look for some help to deliver the remaining 2,750 cards. After doing some research, I found that most companies will charge between 8 cents and 12 cents per door for door to door delivery of a standard flyer / postcard. I’ll gladly trade $270 for 25 hours of my time! But, if you weren’t in a rush to deliver the cards, it is definately feasible to deliver 3000 cards a month on your own.
The distribution service came to my door this mooring and I handed them a check for $270 and 2750 postcards. I believe they will be using a crew of 4 and my cards should be out by the early afternoon.

So, the total for this adventure comes to, roughly, $550. ($250 for printing, $270 for distribution, and $30 for labels to correct my misprint.)

I’ll post the continuing results of this campaign on a semi-regular basis. Going forward, I plan to market to the same 3000 households I’ve hit with this postcard on a monthly basis for at least 6 months. If I decided to design a new postcard for each month, I should average about $500 a month. So, the total six month campaign would come out to $3,000 or $1 per household. If I decide to use the same design for a couple of the months, the cost should come down a bit as I will be able to realize some savings from bulk printing.

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, marketing, postcard marketing, post card marketing, mortgage marketing ideas, direct mail, door to door

As a follow up to my earlier post “Mortgage Marketing With Postcards“, I’ve finally gotten around to creating my first postcard campaign. I used Adobe Photoshop to create my holiday themed postcard and have selected VistaPrint to provide the printing services.

I am printing 1500 full color standard size (5.47″ x 4.21″) postcards that will be hand delivered over the next 2-3 weeks to a few local neighborhoods. Total cost for the printing came out to be $126.99. I initially selected 1000 full color front and back standard postcards with 7 day delivery to take advantage of the 50% off printing special that I’ve linked to below. Upon completion of that order, I was given the option to add 500 additional postcards for $24. I’m not sure if they do the additional postcard offer with every order or not. I’ll pay attention next time around and see if they give me the option to do the same quantity upgrade again.

The only other cost at the moment is my time. I could hire someone to do the design and delivery but I want to go the most inexpensive route possible on this first run. I’ll post updates as this initial postcard campaign progresses.

Also, be sure to check out VistaPrint for all of your printing needs. After doing some research, I think they’re one of the best firms online. Currently, VistaPrint has a special offering 50% Off All Postcards.

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, marketing, postcard marketing, mortgage marketing ideas, mortgage

We’ve all seen the news stories of the people lined up for hours outside retail stores waiting for a shot at the limited supply hot holiday toy or the mass of people ready to grab up all the holiday season sale goods that they can cram into the nearest shopping cart.

In fact, at some point or another, we’ve each probably contributed to the crazed rush of humanity that gets up before the crack of dawn to be at our favorite retailer right when they open on sale day.  You may have even drug a sleeping bag and lawn chair out of your trunk to reserve your spot in line the night before a grand opening, product launch or super sale.

Well, this year, I suggest that you arm yourself with some warm coffee, doughnuts, a friendly attitude and a stack of business cards and take advantage of the incredible opportunity that is presenting itself.  As an independent mortgage originator (or any anyone else hoping to gain some low cost exposure) looking to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace, I can’t think of a better way to make a lasting impression than to brighten the spirits of the weary on a cold dark night. I can guarantee that if you show up around 2 am with warm coffee and free food, those standing in line will welcome you with open arms.

I personally favor the low key approach. Just pour the free coffee, pass around a couple boxes of doughnuts, and mingle with the line. As you pass out the goods, toss in a “compliments of XYZ Mortgage Company” here and there. While everyone is enjoying the caffeinated sugar rush that you just delivered, chat up the line casually mention that if they need any mortgage advice to give you a ring and hand them a card or some other type of takeaway.  When you find someone who has more than an average amount of questions for you, don’t be afraid to ask for their phone number.  Let them you that you would like to call them later and schedule a time to talk about their situation.

use your imagination when it comes to keeping the crowd entertained.  A few quick ideas off the top of my head include:

* Bring a projector and show a movie on the side of a camper or building
* Give out hand warmers
* Make a “dollar menu” fast food run and take orders from the whole line
* Give out decks of cards with your information on them

I’m sure you’ve come up with an idea or two yourself in the short time that it has taken you to read my ideas!

Be sure not to go overboard and annoy the crowd. Some people may want to just be left alone so that they can suffer through the night in solitude.  Why they would want to do this, who knows.  Just respect their rights as well if for nothing else to help ensure that your interactions with the rest of the line aren’t tainted by a disgruntled deal seeker.

Also, use your best judgment to avoid any unpleasant situations with retailers whose property you will most likely be on. In fact, you may even try contacting the store manager before you go after their line of customers and see if you can do anything to assist them or to make their job of dealing with the cold, tired, and hopefully enthusiastic shoppers easier. Most importantly, have fun with it and just meet some new people.

Remember, the plan doesn’t need to be fancy, just get out there and do something!

If you haven’t done so already, sign up now for our free Mortgage Marketing Ideas newsletter. Sign Up Here

Technorati Tags: mortgage marketing, marketing, holiday marketing, loan officer, mortgage broker, loan originator