Mortgage & Real Estate Marketing

Search Twitter for Opportunities, Real Estate Market Buzz, and Referral Partners

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:35:19 -0800

Twitter is becoming the Google of the real-time web.

In fact, I am often monitoring several real-time search terms at any given time. You should learn to do the same. Not only will it give you real-time insight into what is happening in your local real estate market, but it will put you on alerts for customers needing help and potential referral partners.

Here is a quick example:

Watching what is happening in my city: Ann Arbor, MI happenings
Watching what is happening in my real estate market and potential referral partners: Ann Arbor, MI Real Estate

Can you think of other ways to use Twitter Search in your real estate marketing and sales strategy? I would love to hear more ideas.

Smart Real Estate Strategies in a Tough Market

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:13:48 -0800

Wouldn't it be great to get hundreds of real estate marketing and training courses for free. Many have already spend hundreds and even thousands on "secrets" ebooks, DVDs, and workshops, but I might have found something even more valuable.

Looking around for great resources to help Realtors succeed in a tough market, I stumbled on an unlikely teasure trove--Slideshare.net.

I encourage you to take a look at the Real Estate section of Slideshare. It is full of presentations from online marketing strategies to how to educate clients on eligible tax credit opportunities.

Enjoy!

Mortgages are Confusing, Help Answer the "Can I Afford it?" Question

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:53:52 -0800

Whether you have a personal blog or are managing content for a big real estate portal your primary objective should be helping people buy homes. That very simply means answering some basic questions about homes for sale, quality of the community, and most importantly--"Can I afford it?"

I can't tell you how many real estate sites I visit and consult that don't help me with this fundamental question. How many website visitors do you think didn't take the next step to contacting your or making an inquiry because you didn't give them some simple guidance on mortgages.

Mortgages are notoriously confusing to new home buyers. These days it is even more daunting with every major news outlet blasting doom and gloom. There is no excuse to make this simple, but lead killing question go away quickly in the borrowers mind--add a free mortgage calculator.

Let me show you how easy this can be:

1. Find free mortgage calculators at Google Gadgets or WidgetBox by searching for "mortgage calculators
2. Here is one I like to use that offers mortgage calculators and content widgets: http://www.mortgageloan.com/widgets/
3. Select the content or calculator widget that you think will best answer your Web visitors' questions about mortgages
4. I picked one on mortgage payment to answer, "Can I afford this home?"
5. Click the "download code" button. It will show you this:

<div class="mlc-objectBox" id="PaymentCalculator">
<script type="text/javascript">toolId="PaymentCalculator"</script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mortgageloan.com/javascript/widget.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="http://www.mortgageloan.com/css/tool/GenerateCss.php?toolcolor=%23000000&toolbgcolor=%23FFFFFF&width=190&height=263&brbgcolor=%23E5E5E5&bordertextcolor=%23000000&toolid=PaymentCalculator" />
<h2>Mortgage Calculator</h2>
<iframe frameborder="no" src="http://www.mortgageloan.com/tool/mortgage/PaymentCalculator?toolcolor=%23000000&toolbgcolor=%23FFFFFF&v=3&width=190&height=263&size=small" style="width: 190px; height:210px" type="text/html"></iframe>
<p class="center"><a href="http://www.mortgageloan.com/calculator/">Mortgage Calculator © ML</a></p>
</div>

6. It looks a little intimidating, but if you copy that mess of HTML code and paste it into your ActiveRain custom sidebar or WordPress widgets, you will have a nice little dynamic mortgage calculator.

How effective is this at generating leads for you?

Well, I will help you answer this question for you. Go to any pop-up or online banner advertisement for mortgage or real estate. If you click on it 99% of them will send you straight to a mortgage calculator.

Yes, this has been the simple little secret that has been fueling the mortgage and real estate lead generation industry for years. Now you know the secret and you can do it too. Give it a try and happy selling more homes!

Here are a couple of good examples that I found:

5 Tips to Getting Your Real Estate or Mortgage Blog to Generate Leads

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:07:38 -0800

There are very few great real estate blogs on the Web. But, what does "great" really mean? For most that use the term it probably refers to the appearance, traffic, or lively industry banter in the comments section. I challenge you to change your definition. Start making "great" mean I actually generate sales and closings.

It is really easy to get side tracked by false indicators of Web/Blog success. Let's make our metric really simple--generating the right traffic, traffic that generates sales leads. Here is my 5 step K.I.S.S formula:

1. Keep it local. By concentrating your blog content, pictures, and context local you will easily seize top ranking in search engines for your real estate market. This will feed you less traffic, but very targeted traffic.

2. Use local communities and cities you serve as categories. Categories in most blog software (like Wordpress) create a well optimized internal linking architecture. This puts great "link pressure" on your keywords--more well targeted Google love.

3. Add alt-tags to all your photos. This is simple, but often neglected step in maximizing your keyword search opportunities. Especially with the advent of Google images and other images searches--your local pictures and listings are potential back-links, again strengthening your local search.

4. Meet customer expectations. This is the biggest mistake I see in most real estate blogs (actually blogs in general) make--missing customer expectations. Think about what people expect when they arrive at your website. Here are a few basics that I think are critical and easy ways to get them on your website or blog:

Local housing prices and trends
Mortgage calculators and payment estimates
Local demographics (haven't found a good widget here--if you see one let me know)
Local listings (hopefully you are already doing that)
Are there others you can think of, let me know...

5. Ask for the deal. This is certainly the second biggest mistake I see--ask them to call or contact you. And, make it easy. Your telephone number, email address, and contact form should be on every page.

5a. My traffic to lead conversion recommendation: Place your contact information in the upper right-hand corner of every page and at the end of every post. Both should be banner images with name, telephone, and email that clicks through to a contact form landing page--maximizing your conversion opportunity.

Give these tips a try on your website or blog. I would also love to hear feedback, more suggestions, and success stories. I would also love to have examples of blogs you consider great meeting customer expectations--either link to them in the comments or send them to me via Twitter. I would love to do a post on "great" Real Estate and Mortgage blogs and websites.

If you have any questions follow me on Twitter: @billrice and ask away.

Mortgage Applications and Home Purchases Up, Time to Manage Leads Again

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:46:47 -0800

Wow! Ben Bernanke knows how to give the market a jolt--give it (nearly) free money. I have been talking to a lot of my mortgage and real estate friends and clients and they confirm that there shops are hopping with inquiries, showings, and applications. Which brings most of us back to an old (oh, the glory days of the Refi Boom) problem--managing all of these leads.

Get organized right off the bat, take the extra few minutes to get those new inquiries into some form of tracking or contact management system. Follow-up is always crucial in an emotional market surge. Customers will fly at the first feeling that they are going to miss the window of opportunity. That is why lead management, which keeps you hyper-communicating is important in this period.

Here are a few things I suggest:

Pick a system that makes it easy to import (past clients) and export (direct mail) leads
Have a system that can integrate with lead sources and websites
Select a system that focuses on the simplicity of what is important--making contact
Look for integrated email marketing and follow-up campaigns
Look for quick implementation (web-based) and simple contract (month-to-month)

Here are a couple of other articles I have written on lead management:

However you go about managing your leads, remember the most important thing during exuberant consumer bursts--follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Hyper-communication wins the deals in markets like these.

What is you experience since the Bernanke announcement? What is working for your business? It would be nice to hear success stories again.

Clever Twitter Marketing Example

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:58:55 -0800

No sooner did I publish my 10 Killer Steps to Build a Killer Twitter Community than I see a great example by Duct Tape Marketing.

So, go read the post, look through the comments for interesting people to follow, and then leave your own comment and Twitter ID to build your community.

Here is another tip: In stead of your name enter in a descriptive title or keyword for what you do (i.e., Tucson Realtor or Boston FHA) and then you will capture the right people, potential customers or referral partners.

Oh, and by the way don't forget to follow me on Twitter: Real Estate Marketer :)

10 Steps to Building a Killer Twitter Community

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:43:30 -0800

Twitter is certainly one of the hottest things in the real estate and mortgage industry. Twitter is becoming the hotline for getting the latest real estate news, marketing tips, building relationships, and most importantly engaging customers. If you have figured it out yet, not sure where to start, or just hesitant lets take the next 10-15 minutes to get you started.

Here are 10 simple steps to get your Twitter started and productively giving you results:

1. Get a Twitter account
2. Watch this "What is Twitter?" video
3. Add a picture and fill out the bio (otherwise you look like the emerging spammers)
4. Make a few quick post to give it a try--What are you doing?
5. Find a few (10-20) people to follow (Use Twitter search to look people chatting about real estate or mortgage)--Follow me: @billrice
6. Listen for a little bit
7. Start engaging in the conversation
8. Now you are seeing people talking to other people--follow the interesting ones
9. Get you blog involved. Use Twitterfeed to alert your community to new blog or ActiveRain posts
10. Ask questions and give short tips you learn (adding value and being interesting gets you more followers)

Bonus:

11. Get a great Twitter desktop client like Twhirl or TweetDeck to make it easier to listen and converse
12. Don't forget to interact with your community--this is a social thing, a conversation don't forget that
13. Use TwitPic to show off pictures of your listings, your office, you helping a client
14. Talk about deals, rates, unique things you do for clients
15. Most importantly! Use Twitter to get people a good idea of what it is to work with you.

Enjoy your Twitter experience! If you have any questions send me a Tweet--@billrice.

Jump Start Your Personal Brand in 5 Days

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:02:59 -0800

The Internet is quickly becoming the de facto authoritative source of record. It is your resume, your reputation, your credibility, and your performance. If you are interested in future success you had better own your namespace. That begins with personal branding and I am going to show you how to get a solid foundation with a 5 day roadmap.

Day 1: Build a Website (This is NOT hard)

This is your home–it is where people can find the authentic you. This is your safe place and all personal branding roads should lead back to this safe place.

I recommend this be your personal domain name. Hopefully, it can simply be your name. Start with .com, .org, .net. If necessary you can drift into .name and .me, but I suggest those only as reinforcing redirected domains if possible.

You can also effectively use a clever brand name you make up, but they may take a little longer and more creativity to build personal brand around.

My second recommendation for the home base is that it be a blog. It is fast, simple, versatile, and Google loves them. Remember our objectives are immediate search results.

Day 2: Build Your PR Engine

There are lots of ways to do this, but my recommendation is keep it simple and focused. Sign-up and complete your profile for the following services:

I will tell you how to use each in a moment. All you need to do now is sign-up and have your Web URL in each pointed at your home base.

Read the rest of this post on my Better Closer sales blog...

Blogging, Make It an Open Invitation to Customers

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:56:21 -0800

Blogging is simple way to boost sales. If you design your blog to be an open invitation into your business you will immediately accomplish two of the main ingredients to a sale--trust and accountability.

Blogging brings your customer into your business--not the lobby, but the chair next to your desk, the break room, the closing room. This is the relationship Internet customers want--demand. They want to know who they are working with and assurances that you will be accountable to there needs.

Trust in Blogging

Blogging the right way is more important than blogging. Don't use dry PR-speak, eloquent prose, or marketing hyperbole--be you. This is a conversation. So, plain language and letting out the little nuances of your personality are critical.

You will misspell things, you will say things you shouldn't have, you will get mad sometimes, you will share your joys, you will show what it is like to have a beer together. This is authentic, this is what attracts an audience of customers.

Customers want a conversation when they ready your blog. They want to talk back. They want transparency. Don't tell them you want to help them--show them.

Blogging is a great way to showcase you solving real problems for clients. By blogging tips, solutions, opinions, or showing pictures of you in action you're giving new prospects a taste of what it is to work with you.

Traditional marketing and websites are so easy to hide behind. A skilled web designer and programmer can knock you out of the visual appealing competition overnight. However, months and years worth of valuable blogging will give you relationships and trust that are unbreakable--not to mention hundreds of SEO rich sale landing pages on the Internet.

Now Be Accountable

You have invited people in, now you have to live with the accountability part. Like any relationship you will have to live with these people. Some will challenge you, other promote you, and occasionally you (being human) will disappoint them.

These are all good things if you deal with them head-on. It is apart of any relationship. Working through things together, in a good way creates huge value to everyone. Be accountable to your customers. Show them they are important. Nothing is more powerful than good customer service played out publicly on the Web, even if it was fixing a mistake.

As uncomfortable as this might be it is essential to a solid, loyal, trusting relationship. If you create a blog that blends transparency and accountability you will ignite an amazing response in your customers.

Blogging can transform customers into an auxiliary sales force auxiliary. They will defend when your attacked and refer you readily and repeatedly to friends and colleagues.

Successful blogging works best when not confused with traditional web publishing. It is not marketing to customers--it's about having conversations with customers. The result lots of great relationships and sales.

4.5% Mortgage Rates, Do Your Past Clients Know?

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:07:04 -0800

Can you believe that the Treasury is actually considering a plan to force mortgage rates down to 4.5 percent? That is incredible news for real estate and mortgage brokers everywhere--assuming your clients know about it.

Millions of homeowners and new home buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for that magic number. And hundreds, maybe thousands of them are sitting in your contact database.

The question I pose to you is who is going to tell them about that magic number, when it comes? If you are like most real estate or mortgage brokers, it will most likely be the local newspaper or a more aggressive broker. Don't let that be your fate--start talking to your past clients now and regularly.

Segment Your Database by Rate Targets

Start segmenting your lead management database into target rates. This will create list of people to market to at various rate triggers. This segmentation will help you build appropriate campaigns that make sense considering their current loan program.

Do this now, not when 4.5% hits and you are now scrabbling to compete with everyone else. Remember 2000-2004 when every borrower was getting assaulted with calls from everyone with a mortgage license.

Develop a Campaign

This is a more complex market and household are nervous. This isn't going to be a one call, email, or direct mail close. You are going to have to develop a relationship.

The nice thing is that this is one of those rare mortgage market opportunities that is showing itself early. Fortunately for you, most Realtors and mortgage brokers are too worried about surviving to lay the marketing groundwork for this big opportunity.

Educate Customers on What is About to Happen

You can make this a great experience for your customer--let them know what is about to happen with no sales pressure. Your only objective is to get them back in your active sales pipeline. We often forget they don't watch the market like we do--they may not even know this is coming.

This first step is going to be a big win. They are going to appreciate you making the effort to tell them about the lowest rates in recent history, the chance to stop squirming over their ARM, and you will be a lock to get their business when their rate target comes. This is how you avoid competing with all the lemmings when the Treasury rolls out that magic rate.

Ask Them to Let You Managed Their Rate Target

If you are really smart you will take it one more step. If your customer is not ready to do something today with already low rates, that's okay. However, don't let that be a rejection. Ask them to let you worry about when their rate comes along. Offer to manage their mortgage. Ask them what rate they would like to refinance at--tell them you will call them immediately when it is available.

The best way to do that is to get them on your email list for market updates. You don't have a regular email newsletter? Get one today. Go to AWeber right now and sign-up. It is easy and cheap and will bring you hundreds of deals.

Now they don't have to worry about it--if it is available you will get it for them. And you have a customer lock, no competing.

Be Ready to Lock and Close Quickly

If the borrower trust to monitor their mortgage rate, don't betray that trust. Set up an air tight tickler system to alert you to who is ready to refinance and at what rate. Then lock and close fast. Making the process painless and worry-free will get you a client that trust you to manage their mortgage for life.

TODO: Design Housing and Economic Recovery Marketing Plan

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:05:53 -0700

Coming October 1 the US government is giving you quite a few more tools courtesy of a bunch of FHA modernization. Unfortunately, legislation does not generate fresh mortgage leads, but you can. Media coverage and nervous home owners will generate a ton of uncertanty and questions in potential and even past clients--make sure you are on point to capture and answer those inquires.

Here are a few quick and dirty tips, I am sure to have more as we get closer to these reforms:

Study the changes. Attend the HUD workshops that are traversing the country.
Get FHA approved
If you have a blog, start pumping up the volume (keywords) on these concepts: FHA, mortgage loan limits, maximum mortgage calculation, minimum cash investment, seller funded non-profit gists, HECM
- If you don't have a blog...of course you do--ActiveRain!
Offer to host a local mortgage workshop for local civic service organizations (Rotary, VFW, AmVets, PTA)
Fill you local library with information (not marketing)--offer a workshop there too
Don't forget your recent prospects and past clients--this may change their qualifications

This can be a great opportunity to help the housing recovery and get your own business back on stable ground. Read more about this topic from my original post on my mortgage sales and marketing blog--Better Closer.

Nehemiah Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Wage Final Battle with HUD

Bill Rice (Kaleidico.com) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:42:11 -0700

I am fairly certain that Nehemiah's efforts with DPAgroundswell.org is a final and futile attempt to save "charitable" down payment assistance programs. In a mortgage and real estate market bleeding with risk I find it unlikely the Congress is going to unwind a conscieous risk mitigattion provision in the recently signed Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

However, I do think that it is a very interesting case study in using Web 2.0 and social media to wage political warfare outside of the traditional means--lawyers and lobbyists. Is this a smart way to rally support? Will Nehemiah be successful? Are their intentions atruist or financial?

I am curious to hear your thoughts. Or is the DPA v. HUD battle to beleagured to even consider the tactics of the fight?