know, I know… Active Rain is primarily a real estate specific blog, so why would I choose to post a blog that talks about mortgage lead generation? For starters, you’d be surprised with how many mortgage professionals regularly visit, and post to Active Rain.

It’s a great platform, and excellent tool to reach a targeted demographic. Not to mention, everything I post about mortgage lead generation applies to real estate marketing as well – We’re all targeting the same group of people. Those who want to buy or sell a home.

Though my comments today will be short, they will be pointed. Mortgage lead generation has changed. We’ve all watched it happen in fact… The market has shifted, the refi boom ended, and people have been hesitant to take action.

As if these changes were not enough, the shopping habits of the average consumer has changed as well. According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2009, 93% of home buyers used the internet to help select a new home. While I don’t have official statistics in front of me, we can imagine that a huge percentage of those home buyers also used the web to check on mortgage rates, and compare loan officers.

Direct mail, magazine ads, cold calling… Traditional methods of mortgage lead generation are not as effective as they once were. I’m not here to scream that the sky is falling, and that these means of generating business are completely dead. Traditional methods will always have their place when used correctly.

However, in 2010, the average consumer is hit with (According to the most recent stats from the DMA) more than 3,000 advertising messages per day. That’s right, more than 1.2 million per year! Is it any wonder that interuption based advertising methods such as direct mail and cold calls are not as effective as they once were?

This is advertising overload! Which brings me back to the original point I wanted to make. If you want an effective marketing strategy, you’re going to need to alter your focus. Instead of lumping everyone into a single group to advertise to in bulk, why not spend your time marketing to those who are already interested?

Sounds impossible at first glance doesn’t it? I named this blog post “mortgage lead generation” for a reason, and that’s because despite appearances, it’s very doable. There are hundreds, if not thousands of prospects in your area taking the time to search for mortgage rates, companies, brokers, and more. These people are actively searching, and they’re leaving bread crumb trails for savvy marketers to follow.

I’ll continue telling you about the process in my next post. Make it a great week, and please check back in a few days to learn how to identify these hot prospects.

http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

Mortgage brokers and Realtors, I have a fun test for you. This test will give you an idea of your ability to think through situations. Believe it or not, no matter how fun it is to answer these questions, this exercise is still relevant to generating more business. Are you ready for this? Here we go:

Question #1 – There are 6 eggs in a basket. 6 people each take 1 egg. How can it be that 1 egg is left in the basket?

Question #2 – Acting on an anonymous phone call, police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don’t know what he looks like, but they do know that his name is John. Inside, they find a carpenter, a cab driver, a mechanic and fireman playing cards. Without asking his name, they arrest the fireman on the spot. How did they know they had their man?

Question #3 – A man escaped from prison and is making his way home on foot. After walking about 2 miles from the prison on a rural country road, he notices a police car coming towards him. Despite knowing that all squads will be looking for him, he ran towards the car. Only when he was about 10 feet away did he turn and run into the woods. Why did he run towards the police car?

You will find the answers to these questions at the end of this article. So what is the point of presenting you with these questions? The above scenarios were designed to test an individual’s lateral thinking ability. What exactly is lateral thinking?

Lateral thinking is approaching a problem from diverse angles instead of focusing on one approach at length. All of the above questions had relatively simple answers to them, but when presented in the context that they were, the scenarios can seem confusing.

I used these scenarios to demonstrate the way we as mortgage brokers approach our own business and the gaps in training that can daunt the “Average Joe” mortgage broker or Realtor . Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where there seems to be no easy answer. In fact, many mortgage brokers are feeling downright confused about what to do in today’s market condition.

Many originators and real estate professionals look at their options, and they find 1 or 2 recommended solutions that may or may not work as advertised. What happens when the marketing approach doesn’t bring in the desired results? They give up! Why resign yourself to mediocre results or to a less than fulfilling career when there are so many solutions still out there for mortgage brokers and agents with even an ounce of self-confidence?

By using our own brainpower and the mountain of information available to us, there are simple solutions available at our finger-tips just waiting for us to implement. The problem is that a fine balance needs to be struck between creative lateral thinking while adhering to sound and proven business truths.

Try approaching your challenges from a different angle. Apply critical and lateral thinking to the hurdles that you face to find solutions where previously there seemed to be none.

As long as originators and agents continue to implement the same strategies and approaches that everyone else is using, they will continue to get the same results they always have. It’s amazing what a little brain power and creative thinking can accomplish. Take a look at the answers to the questions above to find out what the answers were.

I think you’ll be amazed at how simple the solutions were. Yet due to our own limited view of situations and the world around us, many times we create our own mental prison. Free the creativity within yourself, and apply these principals to some of your most pressing challenges. I think you just may surprise yourself.

Answers Key:

#1 – The last person to take an egg took the basket with him.

#2 – John was the only man in the room.

#3 – The criminal was on a bridge, and was much closer to one side than the other.

http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

A very true post written by Chad Weber…

Many originators cannot envision themselves as being successful. No joke! Most sales professionals feel deep down inside that they will never reach their true financial goals. Isn’t this depressing? In order to reach success you have to first believe that you can do it! No, not just the uncommitted “you can do it” pep talks that we sometimes give ourselves; but the firm conviction that you are almost there! Believe in yourself and take affirmative action to supply the necessary education and tools to hit those goals.

Most loan officers are closer than they realize and just need that small helping hand to push them over the edge.Then there are others that for 1 reason or another inwardly believe that the world is against them, or “things just weren’t meant to work out for me.” My advice to these loan officers? SNAP OUT OF IT! We all have bad days, weeks, and even sometimes months and years!

Or at least it may seem that way at times. But let me give you the best advice I can based on my own personal down-turns and roller coaster rides… Despite the fact that I had some months where every single day seemed to bring 1 disaster after another, (In fact, I once had a 6 – 7 month stretch of bad news, work-related disasters, and even my condo that was nearly destroyed while I was on vacation) I can tell you in all sincerity that very little progress was ever made when my attitude was negative.

The only time I was able to make forward progress, and change my circumstances for the better was when I put the negative “poor me” and “nothing ever works out for me” attitude behind me. Too often we give in to pointing fingers at others, or circumstances instead of taking responsibility for our own future. Make the decision today to make a change for the better. Success is not too far away if you are committed to finding it. No games, no excuses, just action!

http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

What if I told you that there is a massive crowd of hungry buyers that are looking for your services? What if I then told you that this huge list of loan officer/Realtor leads went ignored by nearly 90% of mortgage brokers and Realtors? Would you believe me?

It happens every single month, and will continue to happen for quite a while. So what exactly does this mean to you? This means that there is a relatively untapped market just waiting for you to jump in and dominate! So what is this mystical market that no one has ever heard of?

The internet… You heard me right, the internet! According to Google, (There’s even a way to verify this information) each month, even a medium sized city in the U.S. will get over 200,000 searches for real estate! Let that sink in for a moment! Over 200,000 searches every single month for homes for sale!

While we already know that most of those individuals will not buy a home for any number of reasons, even if 10% of that number is serious about buying within the next 6 – 12 months, you have a gold mine just sitting there on the web right in front of your face!

Yet, despite these hundreds of thousands of searches each month in city after city, more than 90% of loan officer’s surveyed reported that they close 1 or fewer transactions per year from their websites! Talk about missing the boat! There’s more than enough loan officer or Realtor leads flowing through the web to keep any loan officer busy as can be, yet most are going broke in today’s market.

So what’s causing this strange phenomena? Simple. Most loan officers subscribe to the “build it and they will come” method of online marketing. They purchase a ‘pretty’ website, and then sit there to wait for business to roll in!

Sorry guys! The web is such a large place (Total websites now number in the billions!) these days, that if you don’t actively market your site, there’s no way your hungry prospects are going to find you! It’s akin to building a McDonalds in the center of a Rain Forest! How much business will you get? None!

All is not lost. There are simple techniques that can place your website at the top of the search engines so that home buyers can find your site, and ultimately end up in your pipeline. Since most loan officers never take the time to learn these techniques, this means that there are just that many more loan officer leads waiting for you.

If you’d like to see first hand how to find out just how many leads you could develop in your own home-town:

http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

Credit goes to Chad for piecing together one of the best autoresponder summaries ever…

When most lenders/Realtors hear the word “auto-responder” they think of a pre-written message that is given the lowly task of informing your contacts “Sorry, I’m gone for the day and will be back on…” Not much more than an online answering machine when you think about it. This is not the auto-responder we’re discussing today. Not even close.

A true email marketing autoresponder comes with the following features:

1. Groups
2. Pre-set delivery intervals
3. Auto – subscription
4. SPAM check tools

So what are all these features for? Let’s have a look:

1. Groups

What is it: Most true email marketing systems allow you to set up multiple “groups.” A group is simple a list of people you want to email to, that all share something in common. Such as realtors may be one group you email to, while “past clients” may be a second group. Obviously you don’t want the same drip emails going to other business contacts, as you do your past clients, so you create 2 seperate groups. I recommend that you have at least 5 groups:

1. Past Clients
2. Deals in process
3. Prospects
4. Realtors (Or at least 1 other referral source)
5. FSBO prospects

2. Preset delivery intervals

This one iss pretty straight forward. You want your auto-responder to have the ability to pre-set the delivery of your email campaign at regular intervals. Day 1, day 15, day 30 and so forth. This means that you setup your campaign once, and let the machine do the work for you from that point forward. Sounds nice doesn’t it? So where are all the mortgage marketing tools that convert sales for you? Can’t wait until they invent one of those!

3. Auto-Subscription

This feature allows you to capture names and phone numbers (Along with any other relevant info you want) right from your website. A good auto-responder will make this a simple step as well. Place the form on the proper pages, ads, or blogs and voila – a new source of leads!

4 – SPAM Check Tools

Spam filters have gone crazy these days. It seems a higher and higher percentage of messages are labelled as spam. If your messages aren’t getting through, then they’re likely not getting read. Not a good situation. A good auto-responder will scan your email message prior to delivery, and warn you of potential spam red flags. There are dozens of words, and phrases that can set off spam filters these days. Not to mention font size and color amongst other things.

http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

This post was originally written on Loan Officer Unleashed, so kudos to Chad Weber for these words of wisdom:

I want to talk to you guys about something. Networking. If I had to take a wild guess as to how many loan officers (percentage-wise) actually get a reliable amount of business from realtors (Or any affinity partner for that matter) I’d have to guess that number is less than 20%.

There’s nothing scientific about this number, but I’m basing this off the fact that I speak with thousands of loan officers each year and most of them want to know 1 thing… How do I get more loans closed!? Better than 80% of these loan officers tell me they are not working with realtors.

I cringe at this. I cringe because in a market this tough, why would you want to make your job more difficult than it has to be? If you had to get your house cleaned in the shortest amount of time possible, would you rather do it yourself, or have 3 others helping you?
When the market gets rough, and all your prospects seem to be hiding behind parked vehicles when they see you coming, or crawling under rocks, do you want to continue doing all the “hunting” yourself, or would you like some help?

Both you and your local real estate agents are going after the same prospects. It’s time you put together an assembly line of lead gneerators. If you keep hacking at your prospecting efforts by yourself, you’re going to wear yourself down. (A rule of thumb here, not a reference to all of you)

But take a small group of frustrated, yet motivated professionals who are sick and tired of empty pipelines and are ready to make a change… Well, you can make some great things happen! How do you make this happen?

Keep checking back to see what gems we have in store for you…

 http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

It’s unbelievable how much time is wasted each day on non-revenue generating activities. Every week I talk to at least 3-4 loan officers and (Even in California) who are still managing to close 8 – 10 deals or more per month. But at some point in talking with some VERY stubborn professionals out of the bunch, it never fails to inspire at least 1 or 2 loan officers to speak up and object, claiming it’s impossible to accomplish in this market.

My answer to this? Take a look at how much time was wasted in the middle of the boom time… Compare that to what you are wasting in todays market… About the same right? Humans are creatures of habit. We tend to do things the same, even when we shouldn’t!

In a down market, you need to spend at least 40 – 50% of your day in front of people! I’ll say it again: in a down market you need to spend at least 40 – 50% of your day in front of people! What people? Prospects, realtors, fsbo’s, affinity partners etc… Hold teleseminars to save cash, but leverage your time. Network with realtors, host mastermind round table discussions…

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you structure your day properly. You know all that time you’re spending responding to low priority emails, and checking each and every voicemail right away? Yep, that time could be spent making you money…

Chris Hallmark

Amidst all the news and debating about what could/should/will happen with a bailout, I wanted to post a quick reminder of what marketing tools you should have in your arsenal to keep your pipeline flowing. I was going to title this as a loan officer marketing post, but in reality, whether you are a loan officer, or a real estate agent, these tools need to be attached firmly to your “toolbelt.”

Call Capture -A call capture hotline is a wonderful thing. Rarely will you find such a versatile marketing tool that allows you to capture leads, track performance, and even distribute information in such a flexible manner. Why it works: Call capture works because of the mindset of the consumer. Any time information is made available 24/7, and (most importantly) without having to talk to a salesperson…

Well, there’s a winning combination! Mistakes that cause failure: Take a quick look around and you’ll find many mistakes that can kill a call capture marketing campaigns right out of the gate. Often I see real estate ads just “giving away the farm” so to speak. Price, address, all the details you could want are right there on the page for the buyer to read.

With all the details there, this person has everything needed to make a decision, and there is no reason for them to call. Marketing is about “dangling the carrot” a bit. Sure, give some useful information, but leave a bit of mystery while you’re at it, or hint at something great they can learn by calling in now. Next, I often see the call capture number posted as just another 800 number…

This is a terrible abuse of the call capture line! The primary motivation to call is the ability to collect recorded information without speaking to a live party right? If you leave out the words: “Free Recorded Information 24/7″ then you’re effectively cutting your calls in half or even worse! Ouch!

Overall, there are plenty of great things you can with a call capture line: – Advertise listings – Market First Time Buyer seminars – Host teleseminars (Great for marketing to FSBO’s) – Market special financing options – Host a 24/7 question hotline See? With a bit of creativity, there’s plenty of lead generating activities you can partake in. I’m sure you can easily double the size of this list. Just imagine what you can do with a blog, your call capture line, and a blank piece of paper… (I’m leaving that one to your imagination) Make it a great one!

I know it’s turbulent out there, but it’s critical that you let the news remain just that… The news, not a significant part of your day. It’s easy to waste hours each day watching and reading, and discussing. But at the end of the day when it’s time to pay the bills, which activities do you want to reap the rewards from?

Chris Hallmark - http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish