Loan Officer Unleashed – 2012!
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We’ve decided to do something we haven’t done since 2010! A live round of Loan Officer Unleashed!
Yep, this is a rare opportunity to get step by step marketing instruction for loan officers who want/need to get Realtor referrals ASAP!
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/599784274
When: Tuesday, February 28
Time: 1:00 Central (11:00 PST/2:00 EST)
After you’ve registered, I recommend you download this spreadsheet and save it for use on Tuesday. If you’re ready to take action, then you’re going to need it. See you on Tuesday!
Mortgage Marketing Predictions for 2012
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So now that we’ve turned the corner, wrapped up the holidays, and have a whole year ahead of us – It’s time to seriously ponder what the heck we’re going to do in 2012! The market is not static, as we’re faced with an ever increasing variety of options to consider investing our time in.
While there are no guarantee’s, I have assembled a short list of marketing trends that we’ll witness in 2012. Let’s have a look shall we?
Mortgage Marketing Prediction #1 – A database will be more important than ever before
Follow up marketing has always been 1 of the critical components of mortgage marketing. That has never changed. However, as social media and SEO play an ever increasing role in lead generation efforts for loan officers, those who have the fore-sight to capture important data (Email, profile names, etc.) and build their online audience will dominate.
It will become even more difficult for those without a database to compete with those who have created, or are in the process of creating a database. Of course, having a database is not the same as making use of it. This will of course be the determining factor.
Mortgage Marketing Prediction #2 – Google will make it easier to implement SEO with Google+, and more difficult to implement without it.
We’ve already seen some small movement in this area in late 2011. In 2012 I am predicting that Google will continue to place growing importance on your entire online “foot-print” – Which includes Google+. The more information Google has about your website, and who it targets – The easier it is for them to mark you as relevant, or non-relevant.
This is the primary goal of SEO right? Relevancy… If we make that job easier on Google, there is a very good chance that our goal of top rankings will become a bit easier as well. Please note this is speculation at this stage. (Just insulating myself from angry comments demanding proof.)
Mortgage Marketing Prediction #3 – Social media will continue to play a larger role in SEO
This prediction was a no-brainer for me considering that one of the top criteria of search engines these days is “popularity.” The search engines want to see proof that your website is hot, that people care about your content.
Social media is a powerful indicator of how many, and how much people care about what you have to say. If your website is tied in with your social media efforts, you have a distinct advantage over your competition. My prediction here is that we’ll see this happen to an even greater degree in 2012. Google made some very telling aquisitions in 2011 that indicate they are paying very close attention to your social media activity.
My guess is that we won’t have to wait long to see the results of this practice.
Marketing Prediction #4 – Loan officers and Realtors at the top of their game will continue to work together in a wider range of activities
Along with follow up marketing, maintaining a source of regular referrals is one of the quickest, effective, and reliable ways to generate endless leads in this industry. There’s no way around the fact that Realtors continue to control the decisions of more than 61% of all home buyers.
Those who tap into this source will likely find high performance Realtors more willing to join efforts on seemingly more difficult tasks that we all know we need to be engaging in. (Such as social media, SEO, blogging, etc.)
Think of it as “group marketing” or “crowd-sourcing lite” – Sharing in tasks that are mutually beneficial is as old as marketing itself. My prediction is that we’ll see this in action even more in 2012.
Mortgage Marketing Prediction #5 – Loan officers who ignore the marketing trends will find it more difficult to originate
This is one of those “well duh” moments right? The reason I included this in my list of predictions is to illustrate how much marketing and originations have changed in the last 2 – 3 years.
In 2011 we were privy to study after study demonstrating that buyers rely more heavily on the web now more than ever. Even as we shifted our focus to the web, the trend continued as more buyers began to rely on social media, and mobile platforms.
If we don’t market in a way that caters to the way our prospects buy, then we’re only going to fall further behind. Not a great way to kick off 2012! With the surge of sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social platforms it has become easier than ever before for your competition to stay in front of large groups of prospects on a regular basis.
If you’re not using these tools yourself, then your competition is being heard far more often than you are… Certainly not a scenario we wish to encourage! My hope is that you’ve already begun to implement your marketing efforts and plan for 2012 – I wish you all the best this year, and I’m certain we’ll chat again soon. Make it a great 2012!
A Quick Message to Loan Officers
By · CommentsA quick Christmas Eve message from me to you… Happy holidays to all of you!
Facebook Mortgage Marketing Guide
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Pop quiz! If you’re a loan officer running his/her own fanpage on Facebook, where can you locate interesting topics to cover each day to keep your fans engaged and coming back? Don’t know? Then you’ll most certainly benefit from downloading this handy Facebook Marketing for Loan Officers guide: (Nothing to fill out, nothing to buy – Just download, and enjoy! My way of saying “Happy Holidays!” to you!)
Here is what is covered: (To download now, click here: www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/facebooklesson.pdf)
Privacy Settings
Content Upload
Recommended Apps
Successful Fanpages to study
Secret source to locating updated content for your page
“To Do” list for the next 7 days
www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/facebooklesson.pdf
Enjoy, and I’ll chat with you again soon in the coming weeks. I wish you all a lovely holiday…
Guerrilla Mortgage Marketing – Jay Conrad Levinson
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When you think of industry titans such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, or Steve Jobs, what words spring to mind? If you’re anything like me, you automatically associate such names with words such as “success” or “accomplishment” or even “ultra-rich!” (Sorry, there’s no way around that one!)
What if we were to toss in well known company names such as Pillsbury, AllState Insurance, or Betty Crocker and Kelloggs? Once again, you’re back to associating these companies with success, and as dominant forces within their respective industries. We’re talking about multi-billion dollar businesses here, and all of them have at least one thing in common.
They’ve each been influenced in one way or another by one Jay Conrad Levinson – The legendary author behind the Guerrilla Marketing series of books, which just so happens to be the best selling marketing series of all time.
With the above in mind, I’m forced to ask: “Who wouldn’t want to spend some time picking th is mans brain?” We’ve setup a second chance webinar for those of you who missed yesterdays round table discussion with Jay:
http://www2.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=316482f818
You’ll want to jump in right away, as the available slots are filling up quickly! We spent 45 minutes with Jay to chat about Social Media mortgage marketing, and how it will impact loan officers in 2012.
Obsession and Marketing
By · CommentsI’m going to break from tradition and post my opinion on something… (Oh no! Gasp!) Sure, this might be a bit controversial to some, but my goal is to open more eyes to new ways of looking at your own career as a loan officer – And what often goes wrong with the marketing efforts. We’re not talking “technique” today – Nope… Today we’re talking about obsession. (Anyone else who still thinks of a fragrance when they hear that word?)
Are you ready for the controversial part of the post? Good, because here it comes: “My assertion is that many loan officers are not successful with their marketing efforts because they are not obsessed.”
Wait, wait wait… Before you leave this blog and delete it from your favorites for making such a crazy statement, let me explain where I’m going with this. How many success stories have you read about, or watched on TV? We’re talking professional athletes, Olympic contenders, amazing musicians – Or really anyone who absolutely excels at a particular skill. What do they all have in common? Read More→
Internal Document Leak from Google! – Download it Here!
By · CommentsI have something pretty darn awesome for you this morning – In fact, it’s downright amazing! If you’re like most loan officers who are looking to rank your website using SEO strategies, it’s easy to get confused by all the misinformation, contradictions, and pretend experts talking about a subject that have little to no experience with! The big problem with main-stream SEO is that a lot of what is taught is little more than a “best guess” since Google does not publish their algorithm for others to see.
That’s why I got more than just a little bit excited when I stumbled across a document this morning that I think you’ll appreciate – A leaked 125 page internal document straight from Google highlighting websites that should be banned, and why – The document shows what the reviewers (Google) like, and what they dislike about each of the sites!
Now since I’m a super nice guy, I’m going to make this document available to you here: http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/google-guidelines.pdf
If you like this document, why not “Like” us on Facebook as well, or join us on LinkedIn? DO NOT MISS THIS DOCUMENT! It’s almost unheard of to get access to such a clear picture of how Google rates and ranks websites – Right from the horses mouth! Put this one to good use folks!
Tip: The areas highlighted in yellow are worth paying close attention to
I’ve been talking a lot about how important SEO is, marketing online, having your own website (That is properly structured and marketed) for quite a while now. Many times I like to throw impressive statistics out there on my webinars for loan officers to consider as well…
But today I’m going to take another approach. I’m going to post straight from the source undeniable proof that if your mortgage marketing does not include a well structured website, SEO, and additional web marketing – Then you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage.
See the slides I posted below? The National Association of Realtors does a great job of surveying home buyers and sellers throughout each year. At the end of each year (They’ve been doing this since the 90′s) they compile all of the surveys and put them into a book that you can purchase that provides a veritable X-Ray of how buyers and sellers shop, make decisions, use tools, etc… In other words, it’s a book that tells you (We are in a purchase market right?) exactly what you need to know about your prospects.
I posted a slide-show of the first 40 or so pages so that you can see what’s happening with your potential borrowers these days. Keep scrolling to see a list of the most important slides:
Let’s look at some of the more important slides:
Slide 11: This statistic reveals that 81% of home buyers viewed the internet as “very important/helpful” to finding their home/making a decision. That’s an impressive number all by itself, but consider the fact that it perfectly matched that the same percentage of buyers (81%) viewed their real estate agent as “very important/helpful” in the process… In other words, the internet is every bit as useful in the eyes of home buyers as their own real estate agent!
I’ll just let that one sink in for a few moments… This is big news that needs to be taken seriously. The message we’re being sent is that if we market to buyers (The people that need home loans) then we NEED to be online! Comparatively, only 15% of buyers found the web important, and only 17% found billboards important. Yard signs? 41%… Open Houses? 39%. None of these came close to the web. Traditional marketing strategies don’t carry the same weight they did even 10 years ago.
Slide 15: the main take-away here for me was the fact that 64% of buyers used the first agent they spoke with. 64%! So if we already know that 90%+ are going to the web to search, and that 91% of web users don’t bother with page #2 of the search engines… Are you seeing what I’m seeing? That’s right! If you have a search engine optimized website that is on page #1 of Google, then you stand a good chance of capturing these leads and borrowers before anyone else! Sure, you’re not a real estate agent – But these are people who are not paying cash – They need loans!
The leads are there for the taking for loan officers who are pro-active!
Slide 30: This slide showed the stats on how frequently home buyers used available resources for home shopping. The #1 spot? The internet! 74% of home buyers stated they “very frequently” used the internet. 69% stated they “very frequently” used their Realtor… Open Houses? Just 12%… Print media? 9%. These stats are coming right from the horses mouth here, and the picture being painted is quite clear: The web is where all the home buyers are going on a very regular basis!
Slide 34: 45% of home-buyers who used the internet took action and physically toured the home, another 21% drove by the home in question, and 29% found their Realtor this way.
Do you see the importance of a web presence now? These stats have grown from year to year as the web continues to absolutely dominate this mortgage/real estate market as the key lead generator. If you haven’t taken action yet to get your own free website installed, here’s that link again:
http://samplesite.freemortgagewebsite.com
It’s time to claim a piece of that marketing pie for yourself! See you there!
The Big News from Facebook F8 Conference?
By · CommentsWow… I just took a look at the all new Facebook “Timeline” as it has been dubbed, and there certainly are a lot of changes being made this go-round! Before I share my own personal thoughts on these sweeping changes, I decided to share the link with you first to get your thoughts… So what do you think of the new direction Facebook is headed? Yay? Nay? Love it? Hate it? Total uncertain what to think? haha
Dangerous Emails
By · CommentsYou know what really ticks me off? Spoof emails… Spoof emails are messages you receive that appear to be from someone, or someplace familiar/important. For example, fake Facebook message notices, emails from friends, or even your own email address, your bank, etc. While these messages are typically from SPAMMERS (Which is bad enough right?) sometimes the messages contain clickable links or files for you to download that are filled with malicious code, or even viruses.
These tactics really burn me up. Even with your SPAM filters turned up, some of these messages are bound to get through. It only takes falling for one of them to really foul your day! I’ve fallen victim to a well hidden spoof email before, and I sure as heck don’t want to see it happen to you – So I’m going to show you a super quick litmus test make sure the email you’re about to act on is legit or not.
Step 1: Notice the multiple emails I’ve received from YouTube. (I get at least 3 or 4 of these per week)
Step 2: At quick glance it looks legit as even if I click to reply it will still show that the reply is going to “service@youtube.com.”
Step 3: Instead of trusting the email, we’re going to locate the “Header” link to reveal the path this email followed to be delivered to me
Step 4: Hello what’s this? It appears a bit of deception was in the air. This is where the email really came from. Last I checked, YouTube wasn’t sending messages from this address!
Step 5: If you don’t see the Header link at the top of your email, it may be found underneath your message just as it is here in Yahoo:
My hope is that this will help you avoid falling victim to malicious emails. Most of these emails are quite obvious, but from time to time you will run across a well cloaked message. If there is even a speck of doubt as to the origin of a message, check the header as described here and you just might save yourself from some big headaches!
