Mortgage Marketing &amp; Lead Generation Blog

by Jackie

I can’t help myself. Everytime I meet someone who is in the mortgage business, two of the questions I ask are “How are you marketing online?” and “Do you have a blog?” With over 80% of new business coming from the Internet, and the love search engines continue to show blogs, blogging seems like a no-brainer.

I am appalled at the number of mortgage professionals I meet who are reluctant to take advantage of blogging’s many benefits. So appalled, in fact, that I developed a webinar to teach mortgage professionals easy, doable ways to overcome blogging roadblocks.

Jeff offers wonderful tips on how to conquer the excuse of “I have no time to blog.” While I do not agree with his views on guest bloggers (there are ways to get help to finish your blog posts AND maintain your authentic voice), I think his tips will help anyone who is struggling to get their blogging done.

Let me add two more ideas:

When keeping the list of blog topic ideas, include a few notes. I use a mindmap to sketch the outline of a topic while it is “hot” on my mind. That way, when I’m ready to work on the article, I already have a starting point.
Use “google alerts” to stay on top of breaking news in your niche or geographic area. Offering your take on an existing blog post or article is a good way to get quick blog content (of course, you must always provide proper credit to the orginal author, and include a link).

JC Kadii, Virtual Assistance & Online Marketing for Mortgage Professionals

Via Jeff Dowler ~ Carlsbad Real Estate ~ 760-840-1360 (RE/MAX Associates (DRE Lic. # 01490977)):

I have often heard, from experienced and new bloggers, that they have no time to blog.

Some use it as a reason to not get started

Others fade into the sunset soon after beginning

And those of us at it for awhile often find it hard to take the time when other things are flying at us faster than we care to think about

So how to do you conquer that excuse that you have no time to blog?

In some cases I think it is a commitment issue. Those who truly understand the value and the power of blogging find the time – it’s part of their marketing plan, and they make it work because of the ROI and ROE (that’s return on effort, or perhaps ROT, return on time). And it may take the place of those marketing efforts that cost money and yield little or nothing. Get rid of those and you will have the time. I’m preaching to the choir here.

But time management is always a struggle, and with the unpredictability that can come in our business, even when expectations are set, time is precious.

Here are some ideas that may help:

Set aside time to write when you can. Often the excuse of no time is due to lack of scheduling. But not always. However if you do some planning (it IS part of your marketing PLAN, is it not?) it will work. Time has a way of getting filled by other stuff that may be less important. Drinking the morning coffee and writing can be a time saver, provide you are awake enough. And if you make it planful, instead of an afterthought, you will find the time.

Use down time, such as a slow open house, to write – I can bat out 2-3 articles (or at least drafts) if I am not over-run with buyers and looky loos. Then I have a few days of articles almost ready to go.

Keep a list or a file of ideas. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with an idea on the spot – why waste time thinking about it if you have a file folder with newspaper clippings, post-its and notes of all your terrific blog ideas.

Use existing marketing pieces, with some editing (no plagiarizing) for an article or a series. Why recreate something that already exists? What’s in your pre-listing kit? Your buyer counseling file?

Keep in mind the standard questions that buyers and sellers ask and answer them in a post. You get a great article and you can send the link to folks who will be interested. Look at all the emails you write with answers to questions – there’s a wealth of topics in those emails.

Use guest bloggers – how about asking vendors your work with to write articles for your blog. You can write a brief intro, then paste in their article (with the appropriate credit and links to their site) and presto it’s done. Not only do you save time but you foster a relationship, readers get a new viewpoint and learn something, and you both may get some SEO advantage or a lead or two. I used a mold company owner I know for 3-4 articles, and a friend who is an organizing consultant for at least 4 articles.

Use technology – I use Voice Cloud (which transcribes my voice mail to text in an email) to record short posts, or several voice mails. Once I get the email I copy and paste the text, edit it, and I’m done. Of course this works best for short articles, and you have to record a voice mail that is somewhat coherent. But for some topics this can work work. Or use JOTT in the same way.

Share videos and photos with a small amount of text. It’s quick and visually interesting to readers. Just don’t do it all the time. I suggest taking as many photos as you can, too. You won’t have to search for photos for your posts, and some of them will generate terrific article with almost no thought.

Use the re-blog feature on ActiveRain. This does NOT mean re-blogging everything in sight with no commentary of your own. Any idiot can do that, so what is the value? But now and then there are great posts worth re-blogging on your blog, with your own thoughts as an introduction. Just don’t over do it.

Personally, I do NOT advocate using a ghost writer as a time savings. But that’s just me. If you want someone to write YOUR stuff once you give them the ideas, that’s your decision. I’m not going to debate the issue here. I don’t like it and I don’t do it. Your choice. I want readers to know ME, not Casper.

And it you are in the mood for some tongue-in cheek humor, read 10 Reasons Why I Hate Blogging

Well, gotta go. I ran out of time, and it’s on to the next thing

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Mortgage Marketing Tips: 8 Ideas for a Tough Market

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by Jackie

By JC Kadii, Virtual Assistance & Online Marketing for Mortgage Professionals

There are no 2 ways about it – it is tougher than ever to
get a client to closing. Even credit and asset-worthy
clients are heavily scrutinized, and some of the stips
seem nonsensical.

All is not lost, however. Lenders are still lending,
people still want to buy homes, and this is the best 1st
time homebuyers’ market in decades.

Here are a few ideas for surviving
the market slowdown.

Keep marketing. This is not the
time to stop your marketing efforts. It is
more important than ever to keep in touch
with your previous clients and referral
sources. As Jay Conrad Levinson states: I don’t like admitting this but mediocre marketing with commitment works better than great marketing without commitment.
Look into less expensive marketing
methods. If your marketing budget is
tight, consider using
email
marketing for
your entire list and direct mail or other
more expensive marketing avenues with your
clients and referral sources.
Make your website do double (or triple) duty,
by optimizing it for search engines.
Organic search engine optimization
is a low-cost way to expose your business to
a wide variety of potential clients.
Educate your prospects, encouraging them
to adopt the habits that will make it easier
to get approved.
Get out and network. If the phones aren’t
ringing, find a group or two that you can
participate in over the long term (6 months
or more), and network.
Stay in and network. Use social media,
blogs, or networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn,
Active Rain or Facebook to increase your visibility.
Social networking can be a colossal waste of
time if it’s not approached with a clear set of goals.
With a good strategy, however, social networking can
reap big benefits.
Educate yourself. Become an expert in the
guidelines of the programs that do exist.
Create a system for quickly identifying the
loans in your pipeline that will fly, and
those that won’t. The days of finding an
underwriter who is willing to make a judgment
call are gone (for now). The quicker you can
identify the files that won’t close, the
better for you and your client.

If you have any questions about leveraging any or all of
these tips, feel free to contact me.

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JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistance and Online Marketing Services . 770-469-7385. Are you reaching out to the 70% of new buyers who start their search online? Our team provides results-driven mortgage internet marketing services. Visit our website and sign up for the More Closings email newsletter to receive the report 6 Steps to More Referrals.

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Twitter Tool – Make it Easy for People to Retweet your Posts

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by Jackie

By JC Kadii, Virtual Assistance & Online Marketing for Mortgage Professionals

While surfing the Internet, I came across this really cool tool encouraging people to retweet
your posts or articles. It is called
TweetMeMe. It adds a button to your posts. When someone clicks on the button, their twitter window opens with the proper text in the “What are you doing?” box. For example,

RT @tweetmeme Lifehacker – Quickly Navigate Your Calendar to Find the Day of any Given Date – Calendars http://ff.im/-43wct

The only caveat is that the button is created in javascript, so the page you put it on has to enable javascript.

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While not Glamorous, This is More Important to your Mortgage Business than Sales & Marketing Combined.

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Virtual Assistance & Online Marketing for Mortgage Professionals

by Jackie

What’s more important to the survival of your mortgage business than sales and marketing combined?

Way back in 2004, I offered the opinion that the regulatory environment is more important to the success of your mortgage business than marketing and sales combined. The feedback I received from my ezine readers told me I struck a chord.

All the glossy postcards and website search engine tactics in the world will not help if regulations make it difficult for you to conduct business. What we saw in 2004 is coming to pass.

What is one way to proactively deal with the regulatory environment? Participate in your trade association’s Regulatory Committee.

Why participate in the Regulatory Committee?

Participate in the Regulatory Committee to protect your interests.
Every mortgage trade association has members from different segments of the industry. While a committee works to protect everyone’s interests, it stands to reason that a regulatory committee made up of all mortgage brokers will be more concerned with the effect regulation has on brokers. It behooves you, therefore, to participate in the committee to make sure the interests of your segment of the industry are represented.
Participate in the Regulatory Committee because they need your help.
Let’s face it. To many people the Regulatory Committee is nowhere near as interesting as the Membership, Programs or Events Committees.
Participate in the Regulatory Committee to gain a competitive advantage.
How would you like to be one of those “in the know”? By participating in the Regulatory Committee you have the opportunity to know what’s “coming down the pike” long before everyone else. While your competitors scramble to figure out what the latest edict means, you have already had the time to make the changes in your operations, and are now poised to leverage the change to your business’ advantage.

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The Easy Peezy Way to Build a Database of your Active Rain Blog Posts

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by Jackie

By JC Kadii, Virtual Assistance & Online Marketing for Mortgage Professionals

I have content strewn all over the Internet. It occurred to me that it’s probably a good idea to do a better job of organizing all of my written material, so that I can put it to use by re-purposing it.

After putting together my database of 6 years worth of email newsletters, it was time to tackle my Active Rain posts.

Imagine my delight when I found a way to get it done in 10 minutes instead of hours?

Here’s how you do it.

Log into your account.
Click the My Home button, on the upper right hand corner of your screen.
Click the Statistics link. It’s on the left side menu, towards the bottom.
This will take you to your Statistics page(s). And there you have it. Every single post you’ve written, along with the number of times people have clicked through.
Simply copy this information into Excel, and now you have a list of all of your blog posts. As an added bonus, the titles are hyper-linked. So, if you click on a blog post’s title in your Excel list, you will be taken to that blog post.
How cool is that? Don’t you just love technology when it saves you time?

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Introverted? You can Network, Too!

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by Jackie

By JC Kadii, Virtual Assistance & Online Marketing for Mortgage Professionals

Jennifer Allan’s post Introverts Are Salespeople, too! inspired me to to republish this article, which I wrote in 2003.

Do you consider yourself shy, bashful, introverted? So do 80% of American adults. Successful networking is not the exclusive reserve of extroverts. In fact, because of their thoughtfulness and great listening abilities, introverts often are the best networkers.
The hardest part for introverts is to just get out there. I am a card-carrying introvert myself, yet manage to network and form great business relationships.

Here are some networking tips for introverted professionals.

Get rest.

Extroverts are energized by social interaction. Introverts, on the other hand, are energized by time spent alone. Network at your peak energy time, or make sure you get enough rest before attending an event.

Avoid back to back networking events.

Nix the numbers game.

Some networking experts advise people to set a goal to meet x number of people, or to meet a particular person. These types of goals can be very stressful for introverts. Instead, set a goal you know you can easily reach, like getting to the event on time.

Get a job.

If you belong to an association, the best place for you is at the registration table. Everyone has to come by the table. You get to talk to everyone, without having to walk up to people and introduce yourself.

Get there early.

It’s intimidating for most people to enter a room full of strangers. Get to the event early so that you can establish rapport with other early birds.

Make connections before the event.

If this is your first time visiting a particular networking group, call or email a key member ahead of time. Let them know you were thinking of attending, and ask one or two questions. That way, you’ll know at least one person when you step into the room.

If you’re not in the mood to network, please stay home.

Sometimes you’re tired, or just run down by many networking activities. If you aren’t playing an integral part in the event, do yourself a favor and stay home.

Introverts do not have to be left out of the networking mix. Get some rest, set reasonable goals, and go meet people!

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Twitter Quitter Conundrum

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by Jackie

By JC Kiadii, Online Marketing Help for Mortgage Professionals

Neilson’s research of twitter user behavior shows an interesting statistic: 60% of new twitter users drop off after one month. I guess the twitter community went into an uproar, because Neilson conducted a follow-up study to include 30 sites that feed into twitter and the result was essentially the same – 60% dropoff.

I imagine that this confirms what some people feel about twitter, that it’s a waste of time.

I don’t think it’s true. Twitter can be a valuable business building tool; all you have to do is accept the fact that most of your followers may not be around next month and do something about it.

Here are my two tips for dealing with the twitter quitter conundrum.

Build a large, targeted following.

In addition to following those who follow you (as long as they are not spammers), use the tools that are available to you to start strategically following people. The larger your list, the more opportunities you have to communicate.
Get your followers into your funnel

If 6 out of 10 followers won’t be around next month, it’s to your advantage to get them into your marketing funnel. In other words, get them on your email list, or attract them as subscribers to your blog. This allows you to continue to build relationships with them, even if they are no longer on twitter.

I’d love your feedback – what would you do to handle the twitter quitter conundrum?

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JC Kiadii, Mortgage Internet Marketing Specialist . 770-469-7385. Are you reaching out to the 70% of new buyers who start their search online? Our team provides results-driven mortgage internet marketing services. Visit our website and sign up for the More Closings email newsletter to receive the report 6 Steps to More Referrals.

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How Smart Executives Handle Economic Crisis – Lessons for All of Us

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Please click here to get the next issue of the Mortgage Virtual Assistance & Internet Marketing Services blog via email.

by Jackie

By JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant and Internet Marketing Specialist^SM

I made a decision when this situation (aka mortgage mess, subprime crisis, housing debacle, chickens coming home to roost) started; I was not going to wallow in fear or join in negative talk. I would do whatever it took to focus on the positive.

Sometimes implementing the decision has not been easy – you see, I am a news junkie and having to shut off the news in the middle of my daily fix hurt. After a time, I learned to apply a filter while listening to the news. I looked for stories of businesses thriving in spite of the crisis. I made notes of growing industries, industries with a ton of opportunities.

To my delight, it seems as if the media and the publishing industry are finally coming on board. I found a wonderful excerpt of the new book by Geoff Colvin, Sr. Editor at Large at Fortune. The title says it all: “The Upside of the Downturn: Ten Management Strategies to Prevail in the Recession and Thrive in the Aftermath.”

In the excerpt, Colvin shares 4 Ways Leaders View Crisis, and 5 Steps you can take right now. The article is well worth a read, and I cannot wait to add “The Upside of the Downturn” to my library.

JC Kiadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant^SM . 770-469-7385. Through http://www.close-more-loans.com/, JC leads a team providing top notch administrative, internet marketing, and technology services to mortgage professionals. Mortgage professionals are encouraged to visit the website and sign up for the More Closings email newsletter to receive the report 6 Steps to More Referrals.

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The 2 Word Question that Will Catapult your Results

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by Jackie

By JC Kiadii, Online Marketing Help for Mortgage Professionals

If you decide to use this tip, I would love to read your blog post. Please include a link to it in the comments section.

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The Difference Between Social Media & Social Networking – Where Does Active Rain Fit?

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by Jackie

By JC Kiadii, Online Marketing Help for Mortgage Professionals

In his blog post, Is there a difference between social media and social networking?, Lon Cohen offers a really clear definition of each term, and differentiates between the two.

It’s well worth a read if you’ve wondered about the question yourself. In a nutshell, media has to do with broadcasting information, and networking involves making connections. Lon goes on to explain where LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter fit in the social media/networking mix.

Reading the article made me wonder where Active Rain fits in the mix. Is it a social media or social networking site?

My experience is that Active Rain is both. By participating in Active Rain, I’ve been able to make valuable connections. Its platform also enables me to share (i.e., broadcast) information to my target market.

So, read Lon’s blog post and let me know what you think. Is Active Media social media, social neworking, or the whole enchilada?

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