Social media and marketing go hand in hand, especially when it comes to real estate.  The following is meant to help get you started in using Twitter to build your database of potential clients and ultimately close more loans, by using a contest strategy.

You need to do a few things prior to launching your contest:  1) be sure you have a Twitter account already created 2) try to give the Twitter account a name that reflects your mortgage business, rather than some random name 3) begin posting “tweets,” which are short one-line bits of information 4) follow some people that are posting tweets on interesting topics – these people will often follow you back!

The next step is to determine a prize for your contest and the rules for entry, award and eligibility.  Possible prizes could range from a Home Depot gift card to a 3-month Netflix subscription or anything else of value to the general public.  Choose something easy to purchase and deliver, if you want to minimize the time requirement of actually running the contest.

As for contest entry, most successful Twitter contests require people to reply to or “retweet” your contest tweet to be officially entered.  Retweeting is when one of your “followers” likes what you have to say and re-broadcasts your message to their entire list of followers.  If you get 100 people retweeting your message, who each have 100 followers, and if any of those people want to enter your contest and retweet as well… you get the idea.  Your message can be broadcast to tens of thousands very quickly.

Generally, you want to give people time to find and retweet your contest before awarding the prize, so consider something like “50th person to retweet wins”.  If you choose relatively inexpensive prizes, you can run several contests and experiment to find out what works best for you.   You will probably also want to limit eligibility to areas of the world where you can do business.

Once you have your contest outlined with prize, entry and award stipulated, consider running it past legal just to make sure you won’t be violating local law.  And finally, let ‘er rip and enjoy!

Facebook has become more and more attractive for advertising campaigns and those trying to market any type of product or service because of the huge traffic and the way the public uses the site. As one of the fastest growing websites out there, Facebook has successfully found a way to harness the interests of both those looking for a reliable social media outlet, as well as a place to go for information about products and places. This mixture of brand placement and social sharing is the perfect place for you to introduce mortgage services to interested individuals.

Advertising your services on Facebook is very easy, taking just a few minutes depending on how involved you want your page and advertisements to be. To start, simply register for a Facebook account and then create a business page to include all the information and links back to your website. You can include pictures, graphics, contact information to start, and make sure you have correctly categorized your business page.

Once you have set up your Facebook account, you will be offered the chance to advertise your mortgages services on the site and put your business in front of hundreds of thousands of users everyday. There are several different options ranging from simple block ads to full size banners to cross promotion opportunities among users. How much you want to advertise is your decision. However, once you do decide to register a page and advertise, it is important that you continue to update your page regularly, adding content that continues to bring interested individuals to your page and then your website. Remember, your advertising is only as good as your follow through, so be sure to follow through with each and every contact on Facebook.

Smart mortgage professionals are now realizing that a Wordpress mortgage blog is a vital marketing tool. Here are 10 reasons to start your Wordpress mortgage blog:

1. Wordpress blogs are free, professional in design and easy to use. No need for an expensive web designer or website. Anyone can start a Wordpress mortgage blog today for free and start generating readers and prospective customers instantly.

2. Your Wordpress mortgage blog will provide you with the ability to keep your clients current on your new offerings and products.

3. Prospective clients can subscribe to your blog feeds or receive them by email, which will allow you to develop a deeper customer base.

4. With your Wordpress mortgage blog, you can develop a conversation with your clients, whereby they can comment on your blog posts, ask questions, and have you answer back. This is open for other readers and potential customers to see and benefit from the information you provide.

5. Customers like the ability to have a conversation that blogs allow. It becomes a two way street where information flows back and forth between those seeking a product or service and those providing the product or service.

6. Successful blogs develop trust with their readers and trust translates into sales.

7. Wordpress blogs provide you with statistics that allow you to see where your readers are coming from and what sources or search engines are driving traffic your way.

8. Your Wordpress mortgage blog can be easily linked and automatically updated to all your social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

9. Your Wordpress mortgage blog is a fast way to build your personal brand and be recognizable in the marketplace.

10. Your Wordpress mortgage blog will allow you to develop a community of readers, customers and peers.

I can’t emphasize how easy this marketing method is, nor the effectiveness per minute spent compared to other marketing venues.  Here’s the formula… get ready because it’ll really blow your world away… it might scare you…

1. Set up a free blog for your mortgage business
2. Set up free accounts on Twitter and Facebook (at least)
3. Set up a free account on TwitterFeed
4. Within TwitterFeed, create RSS feeds for your blog to automatically post to both your Twitter and Facebook accounts
5. Blog blog blog!

The idea here is quite simple:  harness the power of modern web technology to broadcast your message from a single place that reaches three key high-traffic sources (search engines, twitter, facebook) automatically for you.

There are a TON of ways to do the actual marketing portion (i.e. post topics, etc), but if you can’t figure out what messages you want to send to people you are probably in the wrong business.

Feel free to post questions and your blog, facebook and twitter info in the comments and MBL will be glad to be friends and follow you!

MBL on Twitter

MBL on Facebook

Is there a secret formula to winning a customer “for life”?  Many say there is.  In fact, entire marketing systems have been developed with the goal of earning life-long customers.

As a mortgage professional, do you put any value in doing business today in a manner that will help you do business with the same customer a few years from today?

Let’s assume for this article’s sake, that you Mr. or Ms. Reader, work towards repeat business with each of your customers.  What specific behaviors do you engage in that increase your chances of getting a 2nd, 3rd, 9th deal from the same customer?  If you don’t immediately have a list of answers to the question, it probably means you aren’t really working towards repeat business.

So what can you do?  Here are a few simple ideas that may seem obvious, cliche or old fashioned, but they work.

• Be honest.
• Be fair to your client and to yourself.
• Put your client’s interests before your own.
• Communicate with your client.  You don’t have to be their best friend as long as you deliver information the client wants and needs in a timely manner.
• Stay in touch.  Whether you send an annual birthday card or call them every once in a while to see how life is going, just find something and do it.

What else do you purposefully do with every client that helps you earn repeat business with them in the future?

Creating “Link Bait” is what search engine marketers call the art of creating unique, compelling content that motivates other webmasters to link to your site. It often comes in the form of weird, funny or controversial and it is probably the single most effective thing loan officers can do to boost their website or blog’s search rankings and website traffic.

The reason link bait is so effective is that it plays to what search engine algorithms like the most: growth of so-called “natural” one-way links from other websites. If you put something on a page of your site that inspires other webmasters and bloggers to link to it, you have generated more positive affect to your search engine rankings than submitting your website URL to 1,000 directories or getting 1,000 reciprocal link deals with other sites BY A HUGE MARGIN.

A great example of link bait and it’s close cousin, viral marketing, is the following video posted to YouTube. You’ve probably already seen it because it is effective and people have talked about it, linked to it and generated buzz for the creator.

Viral marketing isn’t a term often used in the mortgage industry, probably because many people believe it’s too difficult to achieve viral-like results in an ultra-competitive marketplace and the concept really only exists in online marketing.  However, thinking “outside the box” may lead you to alternative approaches in your marketing that can achieve viral symptoms.   So what makes marketing viral anyway?  There are three basic keys we’ll discuss in this article.

Viral Marketing Key 1:  Make it easy to pass on 

Think of a virus – it easily transfers from host to host usually via air or touch.  Viral marketing gets it’s name because the marketing material is easily passed from one person to another and so your viral marketing campaign must include a way to get your material from one person to another, the easier the better.

When a customer visits your website and finds some aspect of it really cool, do you have a way for them to quickly and easily share it with their friends and associates?  If not, find a way to do it because otherwise you may not be maximizing the investment you’ve made in your mortgage website.  A feature that lets site visitors “share with a friend” is a good example.

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The brokers out there who are still around since the market turned sour all have the ability to adapt.  Congratulations to you all!  Looking at the silver lining in heavy storm clouds doesn’t pay the bills, however, but returning to business basics can help you weather the storm until the cold winter the industry is now facing melts off into a warmer spring-like market place again.

FHA

With subprime loans going extinct for all intents and purposes, FHA loans are more important than ever.  If your brokerage is still not approved to originate FHA loans you may want to get approved now or it just may be “never”.

Work with Realtors

When refis are few and far between, funding purchases can be the gravy train you need to keep things rolling until refis heat up again.  Establishing new Realtor contacts and greasing existing ones is a good place to start.

Home prices falling across the board in the U.S. is good for buyers and though there are currently less buyers eligible for financing, many eligible buyers may be looking to upgrade while prices are low.

Cut Costs

Cutting costs is not only not enjoyable, it’s often difficult to do.  Equipment leases, leases for office space, employee salaries and other expensive items can be difficult to reduce and possibly impossible to cut when the revenue isn’t around to pay all the bills.   However, now is the time for creative thinking so that cash flow can meet expenditures.

Overall, a shift in mentality is required to make it through times like these and if you don’t adapt, you die.

If you’re into search engine optimization as a strategy for driving traffic to your mortgage website, you may want to purchase a listing in the BOTW.org directory.  They aren’t cheap, but they are quality links.  If you have a blog, you can get into the blog directory for much less since it’s still relatively new.

Also, if you go before the end of today (Aug. 31st), use promo code SIZZLE25 for 25% off.

If you are like me you have a certain number of hobbies (unrelated to the mortgage business even) that make life more enjoyable. Pursuing hobbies is not only enjoyable because of the hobby itself but also because of the people you meet who share the same interest.

A few months ago I volunteered to help out with a local film festival, movies being a hobby of mine, and promptly met some amazing people. What I wasn’t expecting was a great opportunity to both support the festival and do some fantastic marketing at the same time.

As it turned out, the festival was looking for sponsors from local businesses (mostly film related businesses at that) to pay for some of the expenses, provide locations for viewings, and provide food for parties. Sponsors could donate cash, goods, or services and received exposure at three levels depending on the cash equivalent of the donation, with the minimum being $100.

The exposure for the sponsors was fantastic with things like logos in press releases, logos and links on the film festival’s website (excellent link value from a very respected site), logo screen time before viewings, and even the ability to provide an insert in the festival program.

What’s more, the festival organizers had developed a demographic profile of the historical and expected attendees to help sponsors better formulate their ads. 400-500 people were expected to attend, not including participants.

So what started out as merely an opportunity to get geeky in a particular hobby soon became a great opportunity to do a little marketing as well. (And there’s nothing wrong with that, right?!?)

The point of this story is that there are opportunities to expand your business all over the place – sometimes you just need to open your eyes and your mind to see them.