Exclusive Mortgage Leads: How Can I Generate My Own?

Trace Richardson — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:00:09 +0000

Internet Mortgage Lead Generation is comprised of three interdependent components: a search engine optimized mortgage web site, mortgage website traffic and mortgage lead conversion. If any of these components are not executed properly, internet mortgage lead generation will suffer greatly or be non-existent. This is especially true in the extremely competitive environment that exists among mortgage companies and mortgage websites online today. Simply stated, these components are mandatory for mortgage lead generation and there are no shortcuts. Understanding how these components work and how they are relevant to each other is the key to generating your own online mortgage broker leads.

1 Search Engine Optimized Mortgage Website

The first component in online mortgage lead generation is a Search Engine Optimized Mortgage Website that has been optimized for specific mortgage keyword terms. An SEO optimized mortgage web site will have content that is tuned for specific mortgage keyword phrases which will not only occur throughout web pages but within technical aspects of the site such as header tags, alt tags (image descriptions), meta tags, site maps, etc. (this is known as on-page optimization). Together, these optimizations provide a context for which search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN are much more likely and able to index your mortgage website and help to increase mortgage search engine rankings and generation of exclusive mortgage broker leads.

2 Mortgage Website Traffic

The second component in internet mortgage lead generation is mortgage web site traffic. As you rank higher for keyword search terms, more visitors see your mortgage website in the search engine results pages, which results in increased traffic to your mortgage broker website and generation of internet mortgage leads. Simply stated, the higher you are in the search engine rankings, the more traffic and clicks you will get. Search engine rankings equal traffic and the more traffic you get, the more internet mortgage leads you will generate.

Search engines rank websites by importance for specific keyword combinations. One important metric they utilize to rank sites are the amount of external links pointing to a website. If Mortgage Site A has 1000 links to it from other websites and Mortgage Site B has 20 links to it, search engines will deem Mortgage Site A as having more authority and will grant it higher search engine rankings.

How to Drive Traffic With Organic Search Engine Rankings

Unique Content. This is content in the form of articles or posts on your mortgage website that serve to inform and educate viewers on topics that they might be searching for in search engines. This content must be unique and not simply copied from another online source, otherwise it will likely not rank well as it will be deemed duplicate content by search engines, after all if another mortgage website already has the material ranking well, giving viewers the same content twice is of no use to them.

Link Building. The practice of obtaining links from external web sites to your own website is accomplished by engaging consistently in a link building or internet marketing campaign. The most cost-effective and effective link building strategies consist of creating unique mortgage related content (new pages / articles and press releases) on your mortgage web site and then building links to this content. Links are created by submitting this content to hundreds of high ranking and relevant websites, directories, social bookmaking sites, press release websites, and blogs. These sources than publish your content with a link back to you. Other websites will then publish your mortgage related content from these sites, adding yet more one way links back to you mortgage lead website. These activities are very effective, but even more time consuming.

3 Mortgage Lead Conversion

The third component in online mortgage lead generation is lead conversion. If you are successfully driving traffic to a search engine optimized mortgage broker web site, then you must be able to convert those visitors to mortgage broker leads when they visit your mortgage lead generation web site. For a mortgage website to be able to convert visitors to mortgage leads, it must be authoritative, must provide ample opportunities to gather leads (calls to action), must be a resource for visitors with useful information and tools, and must have high converting application forms.

Just Say No To the Full 1003. A very common mistake made on many mortgage broker websites is that they use the wrong style of mortgage application by providing a “Full 1003″ application. The truth is that borrowers rarely, if ever, fill out a full 1003 application online. It is simply an outdated idea and approach to generating mortgage leads online. Conceived as a way to improve loan originator efficiency in the early days of the internet, the full 1003 application has fallen by the wayside as a useful tool and in most cases it actually causes significant harm to mortgage lead generation in mortgage web sites that employ it.

The above assertions are evidenced by the fact that virtually none of the major mortgage lead generating companies, mortgage marketing companies, and lead aggregators use a Full 1003 Application, instead they use a short form. We consistently get feedback from mortgage companies that they too, have had this same experience with the Full 1003 Application not generating mortgage broker leads for them in their mortgage marketing campaigns.

Mortgage lead generation cannot occur until all Full 1003 Mortgage Applications are removed from your mortgage broker website. To confuse matters, virtually every major mortgage website design company / provider today not only offers the Full 1003 Application, but they tout is as a lead generating tool. They are not only doing their clients a disservice, they are hurting their clients’ bottom line. Any one to four page short form mortgage application is preferable to a Full 1003 Application.

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Mortgage Marketing Success: The Role of the Mortgage Website

Trace Richardson — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:29:18 +0000

Every day mortgage companies invest money into offline mortgage broker marketing activities such as direct mail, flyers, radio and TV, among others for the purpose of generating exclusive mortgage broker leads. While careful thought and consideration is given to these offline mortgage marketing activities, many times very little thought is given to how their current mortgage broker web site directly affects the success of these activities and ultimately, the ability to generate mortgage broker leads.

FACT: Most prospects today consult your mortgage web site BEFORE contacting you after they are exposed to your offline advertising – This means that the wrong website will directly hurt your offline advertising ROI and ability to generate mortgage leads.

Cautious - In today’s market environment, prospects are more cautious than ever in choosing a mortgage broker to work with. Simply being exposed to your offline mortgage advertising is many times not enough to convince a prospect to contact your company.

Since today’s borrower often needs more reason than simply being exposed to your offline advertising to contact you, they often turn to your mortgage broker website to:

Learn About Your Company and Services
Build Trust With Your Company
Build a Rapport With Your Company

A Quality Mortgage Website is No Longer Optional

When prospects visit a mortgage broker web site to build trust, the mortgage lead generation process is short-circuited if the mortgage website they visit is generic, outdated or generally unprofessional. Unfortunately, this is the case with many of the mortgage web sites offered by mortgage broker website design companies today. Additionally, most mortgage broker websites today break basic rules of mortgage lead generation which assure that users will abandon your mortgage website before you have a chance to even speak with them.

For the reasons above, mortgage brokers that choose to “save money” by utilizing cheap or free mortgage website services are in fact seriously damaging the success of all of their offline mortgage broker marketing activities resulting in a reduction of mortgage broker leads generated. The prospect’s process of building trust means that today, more than ever, the mortgage website plays an important and essential role in mortgage broker lead generation and directly affects your offline mortgage marketing ROI. You will generate less mortgage leads if you do not have the right mortgage website.

Leadpress Tip: Something is Not Better Than Nothing

Many mortgage brokers find themselves unable to afford a quality mortgage web site or are simply holding off to get the right site until they fund their next deal. It’s a tough market and this is understandable, but many of these mortgage brokers will setup a “Free” mortgage broker website such as those offered by Alamode or the like thinking that “something is better than nothing”. For the reasons outlined above, if you drive traffic from your offline mortgage marketing activities you will experience high levels of abandonment when visitors see the lack of professionalism exhibited by your site. You will never hear from these visitors again and you have lost the one opportunity for conversion that existed.

To avoid this loss of conversion, you are much better off NOT sending these visitors to a less than professional mortgage broker web site, but by forcing them to call you directly so that you at least have an opportunity to build rapport and show them how you can help them. The alternative is sending them to a dead end website where a loss of conversion is all but guaranteed. In this case, something is not better than nothing and any savings realized with a “Free” site are an illusion since you are guaranteed to lose more money and deals than you are “saving”.