Loan Officer Consultant

A lot of business owners are mystified and frustrated by direct mail marketing. The fact is, small and medium businesses can benefit so much from direct mail that they can hardly afford not to market this way. If you are looking to get into direct mail or are trying to increase your success rate with an existing campaign, this article is aimed to give you the tips you need to move forward and succeed in your efforts.

First, it is most important to understand the functions of direct mail. There are several things you can do with a postal campaign, such as lead generation, clearance of old product, broadening of your market base, creating repeat business with existing customers, branding and rapport building. Think about this when organizing your marketing and ask yourself, “How can I get the most out of a single mailing?”

Second, and almost equally important, is what your advertisement itself looks like. If you have a generic looking mailer that doesn’t stick out of the pile of junk mail the potential customer is bringing into their home every day, they’ll never even see your offer. The response rate for mailers is usually in the 1.5-3% range, but if your mailer is invisible, you can bet it will be lower. Use colors that contrast but enhance the overall message of the offer. Bold, sans-serif fonts are easy to read from a distance and really stand off a page. Find a designer who can create visually appealing designs that make sense to you. Before you print, show the proof to a friend or colleague and ask their opinion without giving yours first.

Third is information hierarchy. If you are selling a $10,000.00 product, it is not often a good idea to make the price the largest part of the design. Think about the order in which the user will absorb the information you are giving them. We live in an online era where short, relevant paragraphs separated by white space are the norm, and it is what your target audience will likely be accustomed to and expect from products they buy online all the time. Mimicking the web in your designs can assist in creating a comfort not often associated with print media anymore.

Finally, you must carefully choose your mailing list. If you aren’t targeting your leads right,  you won’t even get your foot in the door. Make sure you pay close attention to your demographics both at a regional and state level. Take into account local foreclosure rates and other financial factors in the areas you target. They may be in different shape than they were just a year or two ago, so know your mailing zones. Additionally, you may consider purchasing a dialer to hit your leads twice, once in the mail and once on the phone. Often, mailing lists include data such as email addresses and telephone numbers, so make sure to ask your broker if your records will include that info.

If you follow these guidelines, your mail response rate should increase in time. Best Rate Referrals has decades of combined experience in the direct mail industry, and we put these concepts into practice every time we do a mailing of our own. We want  you to succeed and see a great return on your investment, so we provide custom tailored direct mail solutions with hand-picked lists sorted and configured to your needs. Visit our homepage for more information on mortgage direct mail or to order leads, lists, dialers, mailers, telemarketing training resources and more.

Not all leads are created equal, and understanding this concept can save (and make) you a lot of money. First, it’s important to grasp the different types of leads you can expect to come across during your marketing campaign.

Real-time leads are generated within seconds of an opt-in, which greatly increases your chance of closing a deal. When the idea and desire for your services are still fresh in the consumer’s mind, it is much easier to sell something to them. This, of course, makes real-time mortgage leads some of the most expensive leads available, but with one of the highest returns on investment.

Pre-screened leads are prospects that have been pre-qualified by a lead company’s in-house call center before they can be sold. These leads are great because the chance of getting bad lead info is virtually eliminated, saving you lots of time that you would have wasted with bogus information. Additionally, these leads are usually guaranteed to meet the criteria for a sale, and this can increase the chance of landing a deal. These are sometimes referred to as “verified leads”.

Aged leads are time stamped data that is usually sold as 30, 60 or 90 days old. These leads are much less reliable than the leads above, but are also cheaper, allowing you to tap a broader demographic without breaking the bank. Often, lead companies will recycle these leads, having purchased them for a few pennies cheaper than they intend to sell them. When this is the case, there is often not a time stamp associated with the information, and these leads have generally been contacted several times already.

Exclusive leads are sold only to one or a very limited number of clients, usually under 3. Some lead companies twist their verbage, however, to allow them to sell these “exclusive” leads up to 10 times in some cases. Be sure to ask your lead broker what their policy on exclusive leads is, because it is not often a good idea to call a customer who has already received several similar offers in a short period of time.

Be cautious about dealing with larger lead companies, as they oftentimes have fine print allowing them to sell you short on what you are buying. Be sure to deal with a trusted company that puts a lead buyer’s interest first, rather than relying on bulk business. When your broker treats you well, be sure to stick with them, as a good lead broker is hard to come by these days. Sometimes, it is a good idea to look for companies that offer more than just leads. A well rounded direct marketing company Usually, these types of businesses practice what they preach and won’t sell you leads they wouldn’t use themselves. Still, it may be a good idea to start with a smaller sampling of leads when you are trying a new company to see what the quality of their data is like, but remember that small campaigns, especially in direct mail, can generate false positives in your marketing reports which could cost you down the line.

Best Rate Referrals is a direct marketing company based out of Las Vegas, NV. They are partnered closely with giant Leads360, and are a full featured direct marketing firm complete with an in-house call center, print & mail department and internet marketing division. Best Rate Referrals’ owner, Ray Bartreau, has created a proprietary lead generation and verification system that harvests high-quality leads from trusted and internal sources. The conversion ratios for leads used in correctly targeted marketing campaigns are generally higher than most other lead brokers due to this system being in place. They offer free leads with many purchases and run regular specials for new and repeat customers. Visit Best Rate Referrals’ mortgage leads page for more information, or call 1-800-811-1402 for more information.

With the idea that starting a family might not be such a good idea right now, many people are settling for rentals and leases rather than outright purchases of property. American’s simply don’t want to follow in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents with such an unstable economy and volatile global political environment. A recent study showed that 9% of women with incomes less than $25,000 annually said they were likely to postpone childbirth, while only 2 percent of women earning more than $75,000 a year said they would put off having children. This can seriously defer the desire to purchase real estate, if not eliminate it completely.

For the first time in history, there is a generation of US citizens who have not seen real estate as an investment, but rather they have learned from experience that it tends to go down in value. The apex of home ownership peaked in 2004 at 64%. This was due mostly to billions of dollars of toxic assets being filtered into the mortgage industry via the Wall Street “Bubble”. Many of these products have still not been eliminated and there is much evidence of this on bank balance sheets, despite banks posting record profits this year. Nearly 20% of all loans fall into the Alt-A or subprime category, which are considered to be potentially toxic assets. As far as loan modifications are concerned, nearly half of all modified loans re-default after 90 days. This is almost to be expected, however, due to the fact that over 17% of the population is unemployed or significantly underemployed.

People are turning to new means of living in the new millennium. More and more Americans are moving in with friends, living with family, consolidating households and getting roommates. Over 1 million households have disappeared since the recession has started. This means that you can expect a lag in the housing industry and household formation in the coming years. Recent annual housing starts have seen a jump since early 2009, but homebuilders are not optimistic about trying to fill the need for new inventory. Most people will agree that there are plenty of houses to go around at the moment in the existing supply. This increase in demand is a passing phase, as it is generally regarded as “cheap money” trying to do something quickly before the next dip.

Short sales are still a big factor in today’s market, but not so much that they will affect the housing industry in a major way. Short sales simply put more inventory out, but are ultimately dominated in numbers by foreclosures. When you begin to see the foreclosure numbers stabilizing, the industry as a whole will follow suit. Option ARMs are still rampant throughout the country, with over half a million still out there. Unfortunately for lenders, nearly 35% of these adjustable rate mortgages are non-performing, leaving a big problem for banks until 2010 when many of them are set to hit their recast periods. Judging by past performance, there is little reason to believe that these loans will come through and not just turn out to be bad deals themselves. The shifting of a loan’s category is one tactic banks use to keep the number of non-performing loans off the books, but this only buys banks time and doesn’t actually improve anything.

Mortgage rates are predicted to rise in the near future due to the insanely low rates that currently are in place. Over $1 trillion dollars in mortgage back securities have recently been purchased by banks at this artificially low rate of 5%. The historical 40 year average for mortgage rates has been 8.5-9%. This is making many American re-evaluate retirement plans, opting to stay in one place and settle down rather than move around a lot like past generations. With no new home building and move up buying stagnant, it is obvious that the housing industry is in for a struggle which may affect our children quite dramatically, and could last more than a decade. Unless Wall Street is the subject of some serious reform, there is little that can change about our current situation.

Once you get your target audience down you have to figure out just exactly what you are going to send them. There are all types of mail pieces from post cards, to personalized handwritten letters, to black and white printed letters for mass mailers, to full color letters that show a high professionalism IMO, to even snap pack letters that print on inside of the envelope with tear off edged. Thats just the content options themselves, then you have packaging. IF you are targeting a very small audience and you are hand writing the letter you are probably going to simply handwrite the envelope and send it. Time your area by sending yourself a piece and make sure it hits on either a Tuesday Wed or Thursday (best from my experiences)

If you don’t want to do it yourself because it takes too much time find yourself a trustworthy mail house. As you search the internet you see many print houses or mail houses advertise all kinds of different color envelopes with sizes and tricky printing, etc…. The thing to most think about when looking for your piece is…

1) what’s my budget? (try to find yourself the best way to reach the MOST targeted audience for your budget)

2) How saturated is your state or the audience you are mailing? (this will make a huge difference in how you hit them) If you are mailing to a small town state like WI or AL you may want to use a nice color piece letter with a picture. Color envelope is helpful but really a standard #10 black and white will do since these folks are hit as ofter and they will open almost every mail piece. This will give them that sense of comfort they are used to.

You can do the same thing in bigger cities but since they get hit harder I like to use unique packaging and cheaper print (black and white) so that you can reach a few more people with you budget. If they open it they will read it usually. The bigger cities are hit more often nationally by many industries so keep that in mind when picking out your envelope. It has to either look very official or be a difference size or color than most mail, (my favorite is official looking ones as in these times people want security in any financial move they do.

3) If you choose to do post cards there are two things to think about….
Pros and Cons

Pros.
-They see your face and read your message right away
-they are much cheaper than direct printed mail
-great for converting renters to buyers
-since they are cheaper you can hit almost 40-50% more people in one drop or you can drop multiple times to the same list to get name recognition

Cons.
-they look cheaper to some consumers that frown on them
-They are not as personal
-they get much lower response on refi drops (they do good on purchase campaigns though)
-its hard to get a good point across to them with such a small amount of room to print on

IN CONCLUSION: If you are going to mail you get your list and then find an affordable way of mailing to them. Think about the homeowner and what they would open first of all and then make the content something readable. It can’t be boring, make it pop. If you have never mailed before try to find an honest mail house that can print and mail for you. They normally get the best rates in the biz and the good ones don’t mark up the postage on you which saves you money as well. Not many of them include the data source with your mailing but you can can find one that does then you may want to go with them. If the mail piece drops and fails you only have one company to call and blame not a mail house and then a data vendor. Just do good research on finding one and you should be good.

There is a lot to think about when looking into doing a direct mail campaign.

The first thing I would do is to think of a target audience or a niche that you want to be doing such as FHA, reverse, ARMs, purchase, bailout, etc….

The next thing you need to do is figure out how to get the best list of home owners that fit that target audience criteria.

For example if you are targeting for loan products that require high ficos you want a list of home owners that have decent credit and the only way to get that is to get credit data either from a list broker or directly form the credit bureau.

Another example would be if you were looking for ARM recast data to do a mail piece to the ARMs coming due. Most list brokers now have access to this. You can also target the purchase market by pulling a list of renters within a certain area in which they make a good income and or they have good credit.

The demographics of these lists can be targeted by a number of measures….city, county, state, zip codes, radius of a location, etc.

The main thing to worry about when looking to drop a mail piece is your list. This is the most important component of any mail drop. There are a few other factors such as the print, the envelope, the day of the drop, etc. and I will touch on all those as well as the Direct Mail portion continues.

If you have any questions about direct mail please shoot me an email.

Thanks!

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DIALERS

Hardware Predictive Dialers

Definition: The predictive dialer uses a variety of algorithms to predict both the availability of agents and called party answers, adjusting the calling process to the number of agents it predicts will be available when the calls it places are expected to be answered.
English: A predictive dialer is a computerized hardware system that automatically dials batches of telephone numbers on multiple lines for connection to agents assigned to call stations. Predictive dialers are widely used in call centers and are very effective when ran correctly.

My favorite type of Predictive dialing is the hardware based systems that have NO VOICE RECOGNITION. This is a program that causes a slight delay due to the software trying to figure out which calls are reaching live people. It is designed to eliminate disconnects and answering machines. However from my experience you loose about 35% of you’re “pitch able connects” due to the customer saying hello twice. In my office we use a 6 man dialer that calls out on 8 phone lines. My reps pitch 100% of every person that answers the phone because they hear the call ring into the home owner. Each six man dialer should be able to generate about 30-40 mortgage leads per day.

Hosted predictive dialers

Hosted predictive dialers (aka: Web-based predictive dialer, or VoIP Predictive Dialers) use the hosted servers in their model to provide organizations and individuals with a predictive dialer capability without having to buy expensive hardware or phone systems.

Pros:
-No required investments in computer or telephone hardware
-No required investments in software or licenses
-Administration and support are handled by the service provider
-Links into the system are remote, enabling agents and supervisors to connect from any location
-Software updates and upgrades included.

Cons:
-Service is dependent on an internet connection; when the internet goes down, so does the service
-Providers using VOIP as their primary delivery method experience limited reliability and performance. There are services with analog phone capabilities but they usually limit you to a certain computer. The services that offer a full VOIP are usually a fix cost and unlimited dialing capabilities.

Auto Dialers

Definition: An auto dialer is an electronic device that can automatically dial telephone numbers to communicate between any two points in the telephone, mobile phone and pager networks. Once the call has been established (through the telephone exchange) the auto dialer will announce verbal messages or transmit digital data (like SMS messages) to the called party.

English: the key technology for auto dialers is the ability to detect the difference between a live human pickup and answering machine or disconnect. These are a little outdated with the newer predictive dialers and hosted services being so much better. I don’t know of any auto dialers that can come close to the basic predictive solutions out there.

OVERVIEW and CONCLUSION

With over 8 years of dialer experience in different sized call centers I have come to one major conclusion in dialing as we know it. Predictive dialing is the absolute best way to go. I use the 6 agents x 8 lines per dialer method because my reps get to pitch every single person. This model is great for the small to midsized operations. The nice thing with my hardware systems is that you can stack multiple dialers on one computer so growth is pretty inexpensive in comparison with some autodialing systems that require a computer at each station.

The Auto dialers are almost a thing of the past. The only settings they are good for is big call centers that have 100s of agents and really need to use the Voice Recognition. Due to big payroll costs. These centers have to be only talking to live people even if they loose 35% of the pitches due to the delay. These are not good fro small to mid size operations.

The one down side to the predictive dialers is that they are an investment. They can be costly and for most small business it’s hard to come up with the capitol for a system like this. What I suggest for shops like this is to start out using a cheaper hosted service until you make enough to invest in the in house system. Hosted dialing can be very good but it’s still just a stepping stone to the hardware systems.

Thanks!

WHATS THE BEST PAY STRUCTURE?

The first thing to consider is that most of the telemarketing world does require a base rate of pay. Most telemarketing jobs are hourly plus commissions and sometimes spiffs and bonuses are included. On average you will want to budget approximately $300-$500 a week for your telemarketer (depending on how productive they are.) Each pay structure is production-based. Therefore, the more leads your telemarketer generates, the more they get paid.

The second thing you need to investigate are the state laws in your area to see what type of worker you can hire (1099 or W-2). From an accounting standpoint, it is easier and ultimately cheaper to 1099; however, some states do not allow this. If you do hire 1099 independent contractors, you can usually pay about a dollar or two less per hour or even a small $300-$400 per week sliding scale base since they are taking home more than a W-2 employee. (Please consult your local laws regarding employment. Each state is different and I do not offer legal/accounting advice on this subject.)

Here are a couple pay structures I would recommend…

1) Advancement Opportunity

This is one of our favorite pay structures and business models for hiring telemarketers (TMs). We have clients using this model right now and it works wonders on overhead and production. You are already looking for money- motivated people, and like everyone else, they want to advance in life. People generally want to advance their careers and definitely their paychecks, so we can use this human instinct to our advantage. Finding yourself a TM that is highly motivated to learn a new industry and advance within your company is going to be your best employee.
After hiring the individual, give them a goal to reach within the company. For example, start them at a flat hourly and commission per funded deal ($100-$300 is a standard loan bonus). IF or WHEN they generate 10 funded deals for the company (within the first three months), you will promote them to a Jr. Loan Originator. This is really just a glorified telemarketer position, except now they would be required to get the full application as well as gather docs. At this point, you can put them on a small $250-$350 per week base plus 15-20% of each deal they generate. Keep in mind that they are taking the full application as well as gathering docs, so a Senior Loan Officer or Processor only has to price and place the file.
By setting this target, it gives them a goal within their career to reach. You can make it 15 or 20 deals if you want. It’s all about making them see that goal and wanting to get there as fast as they can. The faster they get to that goal, the more beneficial to you they are. It’s no different than an athlete making it to the big leagues or a stock broker becoming senior broker. It’s the same concept played out in a different profession. You can even take it further once they reach this point. Give them another goal. Once they hit another 10-15 loans at this tier, you can move them up again. Take away their salary and put them on 30-40% commission-only. This will mean more money than most telemarketers have ever had the opportunity of making. With just one or two of Jr. Loan Originators per office, you will have a profitable mortgage shop.
You will find a lot of people that love this pay structure and work very hard for you, as long as you keep the dream in their sights. It is essential that you keep the dream of them one day becoming a Loan Officer. Only a small handful of people will ever stay long enough to advance this far, but again, if you can get that one or two you will be golden. Not to mention, you will still make a good living off of the TMs that start the path with you and never finish. You simply cannot lose if you have motivated people dialing for you, and you know how to keep them motivated. One of the best ways to do that is to show this advancement opportunity model.

2) Locally Competitive Standard

The next pay structure is one of the most widely used in the telemarketing industry. Look in your local paper for companies hiring telemarketers to see exactly what you need to pay in your area. Most ads will even read x hourly, plus commissions, and give the weekly schedule and hours. This is the easiest way to start, but with a higher base and a lower commission, your TMs can get too comfortable and lose their drive to produce and succeed. Most lead generators and appointment setters are used to making an hourly wage plus a small commission. It is the easiest pay structure to hire telemarketers with because of the guaranteed hourly.
DO NOT EVER GO COMMISION-ONLY when hiring new reps. The majority of the time it is hard to hire someone on a commission-only basis. There are only a few instances when using this type of pay structure will be to your benefit:
1. When you have a rep that wants to go from full- to part-time, you can give them the option to go commission-only at $15-$25 per lead. This works best with college students and people that have second jobs. It’s also nice because you have a fixed cost per production, and no more concern over paid hours wasted without a lead.
2. If your TM wants to work extra hours above and beyond their normal schedule to make extra money, you can pay them commission-only during the morning hours since most of them will be paid hourly for evening dialing.
3. If you find a TM that has a lot of experience on the phones and they want to get into the mortgage business, pay them commission-only. The majority of these people come from commission-only sales jobs at which they excel. This type of telemarketer may have sold stocks, HGH, ink and toner, tools to contractors, home based businesses, etc. Pay Structure #1 is another good pay structure for this type of individual.

3) Front End Motivated

This is the pay scale we use in our own call center. We use this commission structure since we sell our leads and don’t get paid on the loans; however, this works well for broker shops as well. This pay structure forces consistency. Take a close look at the fact that every single revenue stream for your TM is based on production and consistency… hourly, bonuses, commissions, and even monthly bonuses. The hourly is based on production with a sliding scale. The hourly wage can change every week depending on the number of leads they generate. Telemarketers have the ability to make over $10 an hour plus commissions and bonuses. However, they have to produce (x) number of leads each week. The $10 per hour is not guaranteed unless they stay consistent every week. This bonus structure is set up so that the telemarketer averages .75 - 1.0 lead per hour. Once they are consistently generating you 5-6 leads per day, you should write 6-8 loans off of each TM every month.

How to choose the right call list?

First of all after you’re compliant with a SAN (http://telemarketing.donotcall.gov) you need to figure out what your target marketing will be.  Constructing a proper call list is very important to your success.  It is an absolute must to figure out the target audience and then mold your list around that.  For example… if you target reverse mortgages you want to filter by homeowners that are over the age of 62 and have 60% or lower LTV, scrubbed against DNC of course.  Another one might be to target renters that make a good income to try and convert them to buyers.  Not only is it a great time to buy in most markets with the values so low, but you can also network with realtors this way. 

Now you can get these lists from various different vendors as well as some online sites.  There are numerous databases to pull from as well.  You have the Consumer database which is the most common.  Most every data supplier uses this as their main database because you can pull so many different lists out of it for many different industries.  For mortgage this one isn’t the best though, reason being that every mortgage filter is modeled.  It is derived off of averages in that geography.  The pros of this database are that you can get it a lot cheaper than some of the other mortgage databases.  The cons are that it only runs 65-70% accurate after filtering.  This data usually ranging from 6-12 cents per record depending on the vendor and the amount of filters you use.  This is the database you should use for a small call center to a large one.  Or if you doing a mass mailing to blanket an area.  I use a lot of this database in my call center.   The Filterable columns normally include…

- Loan Type (Variable & Fixed)
- Credit Score Range
- Credit Card User / Debt
- Loan Amount
- Home Value
- LTV
- Loan Origination
- Length of Residence
- Lender Type

The second data bank that is most common is the Prescreened data directly from the credit bureau.  This requires an approval with each buyer as well as third party agreement not to resell the data or misuse it.  The bureau’s data is filterable by credit selects obviously and runs very very accurate.  About 90% is the average accuracy.  This stuff runs between 28-38 cents per record depending on the vendor and filtering.  If you go directly to the bureau and skip the vendors you can get the data cheaper per name but they make you commit to $10,000 per month.  This database is best used by a single dialing LO of a small shop with a bigger marketing budget.  The filters that are mortgage related to this data are…

-Revolving Credit Balance
-Credit Score
-Monthly Payment
-Delinquencies
-Mortgage Origination
-Bankruptcies
-Mortgage Balance
-Length of Residency
-LTV
-Phone Number
-Installment Loan Balance

The third type of list is a specialty list.  This is where you go and find a niche database.  One example of this would be arm recast, or an FHA database.  These are very niche and expensive but if you manually dialing sometime the investment are worth it.  There are compiling agencies that gather this targeted stuff and sell it as a premium.  The compilers include title agencies, certain lenders, etc..

The main thing to think about when paying for a list is to deal with a sales rep that knows their stuff.  Not just some order taker that knows nothing of your industry.  Make sure that they are scrubbing for DNC and also make sure you do your due diligence on picking a legit vendor.  There are a ton of resellers out there and you need to be careful!  Do your research on the company and its track record before diving in with your check books!

The first thing we must all do when looking to tele-market for more business is compliance. You must stay compliant with the national and state DNC (do not call) laws. To do this you must get a SAN (subscription account number) from the do not call registry. This SAN registers you so you can call into certain area codes. They give you 5 area codes for free for one year. If you want to call into more area codes then you can buy them. The registry sells them per area code and last time I checked they ran $65 each. Stick to the 5 free that you can start with and when you make money. Then buy some other area codes if you need to venture outside your call zone.

List- Now once you have your San number you want to start looking for a list. The main thing to think about is no matter what list vendor or Title Company you use, no matter what database they pull from, always make sure you ask them if they are scrubbing for DNC. You would be suprised what some people are doing out there. Oh wait this is a mortgage forum what am I saying, nothing can suprise you guys. Just make sure your lists are scrubbed for DNC by your SAN #. There are many types of databases that you can pull from which is another post for another day soon….

Phone line- you want to make sure that your caller ID states the name of your company and has a call back number that is reachable with an opt out message. There are some fine lines that people cross all the time but I would not suggest doing it. It’s easy to set up with what ever provider you use. They will all let you put what ever you want to show on their caller id, etc. No matter if you go VOIP or not that is a discussion for another day.

Scripts-think of a niche you want to call on and develop yourself a good script. You can find them all over the place on line. In a lot of places for free. Find some of those and get some ideas for your own. Think about if what market you want to target, sub-prime, arms, reverse, etc… Then write your script to target that market. This also becomes important when compiling your list. The main thing I always tell everyone is to keep the initial part of the script short and grab their attention. There are many ways to do this. Ill help with this later on in this thread as well.

Dialers-when starting out don’t worry about dialing systems. Get a real analog phone line or a VOIP one if you have to. Then start pounding away using your pre written script. Once you have your pitch down and you feel comfortable then we can start worrying about dialers. For those of you that are experienced in this and are ready for or have used dialers, I will talk about that soon so stay tuned. There are so many systems out there that you want to have all the knowledge about each type. I’ll share this with you in the next post or two.

Review, get set up for SAN, make sure phone line is right, get a list provider, and hang on for the ride. For those of you who are already dialing definatly stay tuned, I can teach you guys a few really great tricks as well to increase your production. Trust me I have 24 Tele marketers myself.   I’ll be teaching you all that I have learned over the years in the next few posts.

When doing any type of marketing the first thing you have to understand is the consumers point of view. You must understand your audience to have success. In our industry our audience sees for sale signs up everywhere, they hear of for-closed properties, etc… The point is that with all the consumers hearing negative publicity on TV, radio, on-line, word of mouth etc… it builds fear into any financial move on their home. It builds this ‘exterior’ you have to break through when trying to reach these people. WITH THAT SAID, you have to now look at the different forms of direct marketing….

Direct Mail- whether your using post cards or envelopes, color or no color, or the type of advertisement that’s on it its still just that..”advertisement.” Any form of advertisement will get lower response in the target market when consumer confidence is down in that particular market. For us its the fear of entering any change in their finances when its “scary” Tough to get to someone like this when they get so many others and its easy to through them all away. There is not one mail provider (that can say that responses are not down in the last 8 months and are not getting better. That is exactly what has happened. NOW MAIL CAN WORK IN A GOOD MARKET but ours unfortunately isn’t good right now and mail is expensive! very risky with little control.

Voice Broadcasting- again a simple form of advertisement which requires little maintenance but since it is an advertisement in this market is going to get low response. I know in a lot of states its illegal as well so definitely consult a lawyer if you ever do decide to try it in your state. I just know that its easy for people to hang up on a recorded message and then even easier to hang up after the button is pressed. Cheap form of marketing but low returns as well. A lot of this depends on the type of list and the script and recording. Almost way to many factors involved for the max return you COULD GET. I tell my clients to shy away from it unless they already know what their doing with VB. If your new to it its not the right time to learn.

TV- this one varies nationwide. Other forms of marketing do as well but TV just depends on social activity of that market. For example if its big city your targeting TV wont work as well because people are more active socially and professionally that they watch about 35% less tv per person than smaller rural cities where most things shut down much earlier. Not to mention that it can be very expensive. If it was me in a city like Kingman AZ with 50k people i would do some local adds and if the add is catchy it will work because a decent number of that community will see it. How ever if I’m at home an hour away in Las Vegas marketing there then TV is not going to work because most people don’t watch TV here more than 1 -2 hrs per day.

Email Marketing-I flat out think this can work if you get a good list of Internet leads from a trusted supplier. Problem is that i don’t know of one unfortunately. They all will seem good maybe the first campaign or two but then they start weeding you out for new clients that will pay more. But if you can find a guy you can trust then this can work for you just make sure the emails are all text to make sure that at least some of them get through

Faxing businesses- don do this!! You might hear your industry peers making money doing it but trust me, you don’t want o get caught doing it. risk is definitely not worth the reward.

Social Networking-very big way to gain business. obviously we are all here but i mean social networking within your community. You would be surprised how many loan officers don’t even have business cards. get your butts out their and meet people. go to church, go to city league softball games, go to HOA meetings, go to neighborhood watch meetings. Oh and here is one that has gotten me more loans than anything lately….mlm social networking. don’t get me wrong i don’t do the mlm to make long term money with the mlm. I do it to meet other people who have visions of making BIG money. Those types own home, think about finances, and understand savings and benefit if you can show it to them. Its easy to get through that ‘exterior’ if your already discussing way to make money. I signed up for helloworld (which i do not do anymore) which was a videoemail service mlm. the third meetings went to had about 50 people in it. I did a loan for 8 of the 50 their that night with in the next 45 days. I didn’t care about he mm at all, the networking was the key for me.

Internet Leads-dead market. the problem lies in the fact that the consumer is the shopper. They enter their info into numerous web sites to get quotes not knowing that one site may be and probably is selling their information over and over again. so even IF you can find an honest sales rep somewhere the lead it self may be being sold by other companies and resellers which saturates your quality leads actual quality.

Live Transfers- Hot Transfers- this is the biggest con in mortgage marketing if you didn’t already know that. First of all its far to expensive to do live transfers from the united states to the united states. Did you know that the labor is so much cheaper anywhere out of the US that it make no business sense to do it form the states. The cost is almost double here per transfer so no smart business man would even do it from the states and secondly the quality of the transfer after it got a recorded message, then spoke to some person they could barely understand, and then get transferred again to answer the questions all over again. The only person that will go through that will be a desperate loan prospect that is desperate because they cant get financed. Pretty expensive turn downs most of the time in my opinion. you can generate your own live transfers and skip that process of the over seas call center however it is illegal in some states so please advise your lawyer. Also if you do ever try the live transfers make sure the company’s call center is in the US.  Its a BIG difference.

Telemarketer Generated Leads- usually from a predictive dialer with live agent pitching a script or a manually dialing agent. In my opinion it the most effective and “guaranteed” form of generating business every day. Its more of a personal way of doing it. Now i know a lot of you are probably thinking “telemarketing sucks” and your right it does suck, BUT IT WORK. From where I’m from what works makes money and money is why we work, so even if it does suck i still have most of my client generating their own leads doing this method for 2-3 hrs per night. It cheap, mostly costs you your time. Now if Telemarketing is not your thing personally hire a “telemarketer” to do it for you. There are tele marketers in every city that are in the same week to week check and would be eager to try a new industry with more possible potential. You know that if you make x amount of dials in the same hrs every night you will get at least x amount of deals per month. Pretty hard to stop doing once you realize you are getting 3-4 apps per night which is very obtainable for an average cold caller. Of course the right scripts and list helps as well just like in direct mail but here its harder for them to hang up on a live person then to throw away a piece of mail.

In the end no matter what you do try to do as much of it in house and try to be very specific about who you are targeting. The shotgun approach is definitely not working. You have to target your market, reach them the best way you can to get through the ‘exterior’ and then do it routinely. if you do these basics you should at least do 2-3 more loans.

I’m sure a lot of you will agree with me on some of the stuff i mentioned here. I do apologize for rambling but its i love this stuff, plus its late and I’m tired….lol