Are you a mortgage broker marketing to Realtors? How many times have made a call to a Realtor and found them incredibly annoyed because you had interrupted their day? Did they read you the riot act or tell you how much they enjoy working with your competition? One of the most challenging aspects of mortgage broker marketing is getting the Realtor attention.
It is frustrating to be given the cold shoulder, especially when you know that more often than not the Realtor spends a significant amount of time socializing with others in the office. You know that it is not the agent time alone that is the problem.
Why spend any more time marketing to Realtors that are not interested in working with you? When you use permission marketing, your mortgage broker marketing efforts are far more productive.
In essence, permission marketing means acquiring permission to pursue relationships with Realtors. Like most relationships, you do not automatically create a friendship or connection. Instead, you seek out permission to move to a new level in the relationship, with each level creating a stronger bond.
Through your mortgage broker marketing, you will take a series of steps. Each step is taken with the intention of gaining permission to take a relationship to that new level.
Here is an example of acquiring permission. Each marketing piece is an opportunity to get the prospect to grant permission; permission to move the relationship deeper.
Let us say you create a marketing mailer. Your goal with this mailer is a simple, yet small step. The mailer should be designed to get the agent to call, email or request information from you, such as a free special report, CD, or video. Their action of requesting information can also be considered as being granted permission.
Next, the goal of the special report or CD is not a sales presentation, instead it is an opportunity to gain another level of permission. The report or CD should convince the Realtor to meet with you. This time, you are seeking permission for a personal meeting.
Again, your goal with each stage is to gain permission for increased contact with the prospect, and to gauge their interest. With each level, your relationship deepens until you create a lifetime relationship with the prospect.
Permission Marketing Means Providing Benefits
With each contact, you seek permission to continue to market to the prospect. But those contacts cannot be mere information exchange. Each contact has to provide a benefit to the prospect and be relevant to the prospect.
Your goal is to establish yourself as a resource and a partner to the Realtor. The more you provide this foundation, the more the Realtor pays attention to your marketing.
Permission Marketing Means Providing Bite Size Pieces
With mortgage broker marketing using the permission process, you extend information gradually to your prospect. Imagine being stuck on a plane with someone who immediately gives you their entire life story. How frustrated are you by the end of the flight? Do you want to continue to stay in contact with this individual? Probably not.
But you are far more likely to be intrigued with a relaxed give and take. You can use this concept with your permission marketing plan. You develop your materials in a step by step process that gradually shares information.
With frequency, your prospect develops a level of familiarity and trust with you. At that stage, your relationship can develop into a productive lifetime relationship.
Your mortgage broker marketing plans do not have to rely on the whims of your prospect. Develop your plans to gradually get additional permission from the prospect, and you will eventually have a big pay off.
You only get one chance to make a first impression. If you aren't using your first contact to really connect with your audience, you may as well forget it. Unfortunately, too many loan officers are trying to capture the attention of real estate agents, but for all their efforts, they might as well be speaking another language.
What do you think an agent considers the most important problem or service that you could offer? Do you think it is customer service, competitive rates, referrals or leads, qualifying home buyers, etc? If you answered yes, you may not have spent much time around agents.
Like most of us, real estate agents are interested in the things that affect them directly ? listings, sales, commissions, referrals, open houses, and marketing. Finding the most competitive rate on a loan doesn't mean a thing to them. They want to talk about their business, real estate ? not mortgages.
Focus On Problems--
If you want to capture the attention of agents you need to focus on the problems that are important to them. There are a lot of people that offer mortgages ? real estate agents don't need mortgages, and if they did there are a line of candidates waiting outside their office. What they need is someone who understands their problems ? that's where you come in.
Maybe you think you can solve their problems. So, you put together a marketing piece that gives them a solution to their problem, right? Well, no ? to really have impact in your message you need to describe the problem, not the solution. Agents are more likely to ?tune in? to your message when you describe a problem.
Competent and Caring Builds Curiosity--
Problem-based marketing communicates two things to the real estate agent ? that you are competent (you understand the problem), and you are caring (you want to help). Agents are used to a lot of empty promises from loan officers ? but your message doesn't promise anything, it simply communicates your understanding and your potential to help.
Your message will generate curiosity on the agent's part ? they will naturally want to know more about what you offer, what your solution to the problem is. And that curiosity will lead to moving the relationship forward, one step at a time. The more options you have for one-on-one interactions, the more familiarity and trust you develop. These two ingredients are essential to creating the kind of reciprocal relationship you want.
How else can you speak the language of real estate agents? Start with advertising channels associated with agents. Use channels that allow agents to discover you. Think about where do they network, what magazines, publications and newsletters appeal to them, which conferences and workshops do they attend. Again, this is just one more method to stand out from your field of competition.
With a little time and patience, you can build bilingual skills that attract agents. In your marketing efforts, what you say and how you say it can make all the difference to your business.
Jeffrey Nelson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Debts Loans, Marketing and Real Estate. Go to to get a free copy of Jeff Nelson's Marketing Planning Guide, a 20-page workbook designed to help you outline a str. Jeffrey Nelson's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.