| As a loan officer, you are always looking for an edge. | | | | autoresponder service to get the free report. Once |
| Tools and techniques to find new business as easy | | | | the prospect does that, the free report is automatically |
| and as quickly as possible, as well as strategies to | | | | sent, as well as the follow-up messages. These |
| increase your time to more effectively process the | | | | messages are not only sent automatically, but you can |
| loans that are already in your pipeline. However, with all | | | | also decide on the delivery times (ex. one day after |
| the choices and technologies now available to | | | | report sent, 3 days after, 7 days after, 21 days after, 6 |
| mortgage professionals, it can be somewhat | | | | months after, a year after, etc). |
| overwhelming to find the best options to use. | | | | Tool #4: Loan Officer Websites. It seems like |
| Through interviews and personal experience, I have | | | | everyone has a website these days. But 99% of loan |
| come up with 5 mortgage marketing tools that will | | | | officer websites are useless. Why? It's not because |
| increase your commission checks and reduce your | | | | they aren't professional-looking or lack valuable |
| stress while spending less time working on your | | | | information about you, your company and your |
| business. Some of these tools will be obvious but | | | | products. It's because setting up a website is just the |
| under utilized, while others will be a complete surprise. I | | | | beginning of the process. If you don't know how to |
| hope that this article opens up your mind to new | | | | market that website and get people to it, it serves no |
| possibilities for marketing and running your mortgage | | | | purpose. First, you are going to need to place your |
| business. | | | | web address on all of your promotional and marketing |
| Tool #1: Business cards. Every loan officer I know has | | | | materials. Next, you are going to incorporate your |
| more than enough business cards, but I have yet to | | | | autoresponder with your website. So you place a |
| find a mortgage professional who is really working this | | | | classified ad offering a free report. The prospect |
| tool to its full potential. Your business card is your own | | | | emails your autoresponder, and you start your |
| little advertisement, and should be given out at EVERY | | | | follow-up series to them. Now in those follow-ups, you |
| possible opportunity on a daily basis. Give out more | | | | need to stress the value of visiting your website. |
| than one. Ask the individual to give them to friends and | | | | Maybe it's the helpful mortgage calculator. Maybe it's |
| family. Beyond giving them out, you need to make | | | | the additional 3 reports they can download by visiting. |
| them more unique and valuable. How do you do this? | | | | You need to really promote your website through your |
| You can make them unique by making it a different | | | | autoresponder series. |
| color or shape, making it magnetic, glow-in-the-dark, | | | | Tool #5: Ebay. Everyone knows that you can sell |
| etc. You can add value to them by making it a phone | | | | Beanie Babies and antique clocks on Ebay, but some |
| card or CD-Rom, or by writing down a personal | | | | smart loan officers are promoting their businesses their |
| message on the back. | | | | too. Here's how they do it. They take that same report |
| Tool #2: Toll-free 1-800 hotlines. Back in the late 1990s, | | | | used in your other marketing campaigns and put it up |
| very savvy loan officers were using this tool to the | | | | for sale on Ebay for $.99, or even a penny. The goal |
| max. Here is how it worked. The loan officer would | | | | here is not to make a profit selling these reports (you |
| place a classified ad in the paper offering a free | | | | will be lucky if you even break even). The goal is to |
| report. All the prospect had to do was call the hotline | | | | find people who are interested in doing a mortgage |
| and leave their name and address. However, the | | | | loan. Once they purchase the report from you, you |
| hotline captured the caller's phone number as well. So | | | | then email them the report and offer to do a free |
| the loan officer would call back the prospect to verify | | | | evaluation of their mortgage needs. Or, you can send |
| the mailing address and build rapport. It was effective | | | | them to your autoresponder and hit them with a series |
| then, and is effective now although it seems that | | | | of follow-up messages. This technique works only if |
| fewer loan officers are using this tool. | | | | you can originate loans outside of your state (which |
| Tool #3: Autoresponders. Autoresponders have been | | | | most originators are allowed to do - if you are not one |
| around for about ten years, but are just now starting | | | | of these, you can still sell these leads to the numerous |
| to become mainstream. An autoresponder is simply an | | | | mortgage lead companies on the Web). |
| email program that responds automatically to any | | | | These are certainly not the only tools available to |
| email that is sent to it. They now also have the ability | | | | mortgage professionals, but used effectively, these |
| of sending an unlimited number of follow-up messages | | | | tools can get you more mortgage leads with much |
| plus managing your database of email addresses. All | | | | less effort. A few of these techniques really use |
| automatically. The most popular autoresponder service | | | | automation to your advantage. The hardest part is |
| being used is Get-Response ( Using the marketing | | | | setting up the process up initially. After that, they pretty |
| technique for the 1-800 hotline, loan officers are now | | | | much runs on their own. |
| directing prospects to send an email to their | | | | |