I am not sure if you have noticed the trend of TV commercials that supposedly trick the consumers into believing they are eating food from a fine dinning restaurant, but are in fact eating fast food. These commercials have been driving me nuts. Let me tell you why.

First, if you haven’t seen the commercials here is a good example:

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According to MarketingSherpa’s Business Marketing Survey, lead nurturing is an area that is a point of pain for many businesses. They asked 980 marketers in a variety of industries if they have a process for lead nurturing. Surprisingly, only 56% have a solid plan in place.

56% have some defined lead nurturing process in place, but only 36% of them are satisfied with that process. I believe that most lead nurturing programs out there are not really as successful as they could be in optimizing communications during the sales cycle.

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Another company that was covered here and interviewed here few months ago, SmartHippo made an announcement today. The community based mortgage shopping network announced that it has created an advisory board that included a number of industry experts.

Founding advisory board members include Lori Collins, former Senior Vice President and General Manager for LendingTree Exchange; Bill Rice, CEO of Kaleidico; and John Philip Green, Founder and CTO at LearnHub.

George Favvas, CEO of SmartHippo.com, said: “We’re excited to have some of the smartest and most accomplished business and technology leaders join our advisory board. Their expertise in lending, customer acquisition, social media, and consumer Internet will be invaluable assets as we grow our business.”

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So, who has the most loyal customers in financial services? Here they are according to the Brand Keys 2007 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

Bank

1 Wachovia/
Washington Mutual (tie)
2 Bank of
America
3 JP Morgan Chase
4 PNC/Bank of NY (tie)
5 Wells
Fargo
6 CitiCar Insurance1 Geico
2 State Farm
3 Allstate
4 Nationwide
5 ProgressiveCredit Card1 Discover
2 Capital One
3 Visa
4 American Express
5 First
USA/MasterCard (tie) Insurance1 NY Life
2 ING/The
Hartford (tie)
3 MetLife
4 Prudential/Travelers (tie)
5 AXA
6
AetnaMutual Fund1 T. Rowe Price
2 Fidelity
3 American Funds/Janus (tie)
4 Putnam/Vanguard (tie) On-Line Brokerage1 Scottrade
2 Schwab.com
3 Fidelity.com
4 TDAmeritrade.com
5 ETrade.com
6 MerrillLynch.comSource: Brand Keys 2007 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index

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I am not sure when the last time you have been to you local shopping mall, but if you’ve been to one in the last 6-9 months I am sure you have noticed a specific store full of buzz. People are slammed together inside the large store chatting with store attendees, testing out the products and quite literally pushing other shoppers out of the way.

If you haven’t been to the mall in a while I will try to fill you in on the huge buzz that is the Apple store. It is simply crazy! There are grandparents, parents and children all enjoying the store and its products. Aside from Apple offering amazing products they have changed the way people shop. They added convenience to process! Not only is Apple an innovator of technology, but they are also innovators of the consumer experience.

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This is one of the biggest mistakes I see lead buyers making with their leads. An Internet leads, if generated with any level of integrity, is not a cold call. It is an initiated, hand waver!

Think about what a quality Internet consumer lead implies:

• There was a need
• They have done some level of research (i.e., did a search, read an email, had a discussion)
• They provided private contact information

They are asking to be called so don’t treat them like strangers–complete the experience. Continue Reading

I am back after a little hiatus and many of you have been wonder where the only out spoken consumer advocate on the Internet has been. Well, I can only tell you that lead providers should beware! I have been on the prowl scouring the Internet for offensive behaviors. If you are out there foregoing the rights of the consumer please change your ways or I will find you and call you on it.

In the in the spirit of the NFL playoffs I am going to throw my first penalty flag at a specific lead generator for unnecessary roughness on the consumer. It is my opinion that there is a fine line of how many offers you can present to a consumer in one form and how many different types of leads you can generate from one consumer. A person fills out a mortgage form to receive quotes for a mortgage and that is it. Although a form may be able to present a few options for the consumer and possibly offer them credit repair solutions if applicable and of course only with their consent.

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In the past we have discussed going the consumer more control over the loan shopping process. George Favvas took a positive step forward with the creation of SmartHippo which is gives borrowers the chance to post the rates they received, rate the lender and also shop for the lowest mortgage rates. Now another website looks to give more control to the consumer by allowing them to compare apples to apples. Nameyourloan.com is an auction based platform that allows consumers to view multiple offers before they ever have to speak to a lender.

“Through advanced technology, we are starting to make haggling and deceptive lending tactics a thing of the past,” explains Salahi. “At the same time, we are transforming a generally stressful and complicated process into a very pleasant and easy experience for borrowers. Our multiple bid auction format, coupled with constant consumer feedback, will make it easy for us to weed out dishonest lenders–and hopefully put them out of business!”

The process is fairly simple, a consumer fills out their information similar to a typical mortgage inquiry. Once the form is complete the auction begins. The auction last 24 hours from that point. After the form is completed a notification is sent to 3-4 lenders who’s filters are aligned with the borrowers information. These lenders then price out an offer according to the borrowers info and an email is sent to the borrower notifying them that offers are waiting for them.

The offers are fairly thorough and gives the consumer all the corresponding rate information and fees. Once the consumer views the rates they have the choice to accept the rates, restart the auction with different parameters or cancel the auction altogether.

Overall I liked the the UI on the website and the ability to view the rates before ever speaking to a lender. I am not sure that viewing the rates first is going to reduce the likelihood of fraud, but it is a painless process and very convenient. We’ll have to wait an see if consumers find it useful, but none the less it is another evolution of the lead industry and another step closer to giving the consumer full control of the loan process.

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There is a huge disparity between buyers who call leads to many times and buyers that don’t call leads enough and in this post I want to address this topic and give my two cents.

I have heard it too many times that buyers have not been able to succeed with the leads and to only find out that they called the leads on average 3 times. The fact is that succeeding with leads involves being respectfully persistent. Bettercloser has a post about call back periods and there is another one on the bettercloser blog that I couldn’t find that you should check out as well. (Bill maybe you can post the link in the comments if you can figure out what post I am talking about) The post talks about making broad strokes until you find the sweet spot where the consumer is usually available. This happens in the first 3 days or until you have contacted the consumer. You will want to make a phone call in the morning, noon and then once at night until you have reached the lead. I recommend leaving one message per day. There are guys out there that will tell their LO’s not to leave messages at all and I find this to be ridiculous. You clearly do not want to leave a message every time you call, that would be annoying.

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Over the weekend it came across the wire that the website/Blog/Forum Broker WatchDog would be implementing Icosales into their interface.

Prior to implementation of icoSales, Broker Watchdog users posted leads for exchange on the website’s forum. For example, if a broker had a customer who needed an FHA loan and the broker did not specialize in FHA loans, he could post the lead to the forum where another broker could access it and work with the customer. Broker Watchdog members are now able to manage leads posted on the forum and determine completion of the sales process, an option that was not available prior to icoSales.

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We often banter, in marketing and sales, about delivering customer satisfaction or the WOW factor. What does that mean? Does it translate into real long-term success? My morning blog reading came across a post about the difference between the WOW and YUM.

It is a great way to frame the problem.
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The best solution is to have support in the email for both HTML and plain text. The specific technique I am referring to is called multipart text/HTML format and it allows you to utilize HTML’s design possibilities while also sending out the message in plain text form.

Plain text email lacks any formatting or graphics and looks very plain. Using plain text email marketing is like sending out a direct mail piece without any design…. there are no hooks in place to grab them by the collar.

HTML emails have more visual appeal and support color, images, and formatting. There is good reason to develop email in both HTML and also support plain text. You can take advantage of the strong design HTML brings to the table and still, at the very least, have the ability for it to be viewed in plain text.

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In deference to a few minor criticisms I’ve removed any mention of the LMS company I work for that offers email services.  I would point out to you that you should check into email capabilities of your CRM/LMS/LOS system and see and use that feature.  Some LMS systems charge you $.04-$.05 per email they send out.  Others will not host the email server – you must do so and yet others offer free email services hosted and setup to go out in drip campaigns. 

You bought a lead with a bad phone number? Darn – Return it to your vendor and let me close that deal.

I recently begun work on an email template for the company I now work for, we sell Lead Management Software.  When I started to look at our processes for setting up new clients I noticed some best practice flaws. Our advice to the client base will involve more information about using the LMS to nuture the leads through the client cycle using multiple emails.

We need to stress the fact that internet leads are filled out on the internet.

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I find that so many mortgage companies sell themselves short with their email campaigns. I am not only talking about their lead-gen campaigns, but also their client retention or introduction emails campaigns.

Email can be extremely successful and very cost effective, as long as you do it right and thank goodness it is really not that difficult to do it right, it only take a little effort. The most important factor is making the email look professional and personal. The hard part is not going over board with the professional feel and not getting too personal. More on this in a second.

Not to divert the subject too much, but I want to point out an excellent email from a lead provider. First, email is an excellent tool for lead-gen if it is done right and there are a number of providers that participate in email marketing but here is the key. When vetting a lead provider, please please ask for an example of their email campaigns. If they cannot provide the examples you should question their tactics for a couple of reasons. For one, they probably have affiliates generating the email creative and those typically look something like this:

—– Original Message —–
From: Casandra
To: [your harvested email address]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: and he said even

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 14:38:08 -0600

Dear Sir:

I hope you enjoined the last morudtgage lowban you got from our company. We strongly recommend to rece finance at 3.4 % rsyate and decrease your monthly payment, please check details below and click the necessary link. Please note since you are our previous client, you are already apzrproved and it will take less paper work to apply:

Please visit this link to apply online. Please enter your Personal Secure Code 6246 on the secure site.

Thank you.

Casandra
Personal Bromuker Group

This is Spam!

They misspell words on purpose and they probably scrubbed your email off of some website. The second, is if they cannot show you an example because they do not show “proprietary information” then hit the road, they are full of shit.

A company that shows you an email like this is doing it right. The issue here is that Adchemy does not currently participate in email marketing, but if they were this is what they would use:

This email explains to the consumer exactly what is going to happen and their is not bait and switch happening here.

If only more lead providers used these tactics. The problem is that so many consumers fall for the low rates and the “your approved” tag lines.

If you are interested in improving your email campaigns check out this blog by Jason Korte of Softvu. He provides some excellent tips and tools for a successful email campaign and more.

I guarantee you if you spent a little time on your emails and possibly even had a professional graphic designer create a simple but professional template for you, you will see a difference in your success rate.
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Recently, Root Markets took another swing at building a direct relationship with a search engine. Last year Root gave AOL a try to no success and this past week they gave it another shot with Yahoo!. Now Root claims they are not a lead-gen company and claims this is a Yahoo! lead as they did the AOL leads, but this clearly looks like a Root lead. No matter how they want to word it Root is paying for this ad space and selling the lead.

The pitch is that the consumer is allowed to choose which banks are going to be able to compete for your business. Which at first sounds good, but thinking about it a little further I would guess that this would only benefit the well known, branded banks. One major reason why brokers buy leads from an exchange or a lead provider is to leverage their advertising expertise and ability to get in front of a consumer at a lower cost.

After seeing this ad on Yahoo, I wonder if it generated any leads? The ad in general is some what ridiculous, in my opinion. Nothing on the ad gives me the urge to “Apply Now” which brings up another question. What am I applying for, a loan? Do I have to apply to receive quotes? I find this terminology kind of strange in the situation. Maybe its just me and I am being too critical, but be a little more consumer friendly for crying out loud. Instead of telling the consumer about the ability to choose a lender prior to submitting a form, tell them why this will benefit them. I can’t imagine a consumer is going to know why this feature is beneficial to them unless they have filled out an online form before and had a bad experience.

What is Root really up too anyway? They have struggled to attract any quality leads and now seem to be only focused on grandiose ideas like partnering with AOL and Yahoo to generate a lead rather than first attracting the long tail of lead providers. Over a year ago they promised a transparent lead exchange with actionable data sources and today, as far as I know, they still do not provide historical performance data for the lead buyers. For a start up they sure do seem to act like a company that has been around for 25 years.

If in fact they are doing things and releasing new features how about a press release or two to let us know? The lack of press has also given lead buyers the impression that LeadROI has fallen off the map even though they were the first to implement an auto dialer and a pricing solution to their platform.

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In a presumed effort to improve the consumers experience Lendingtree partners with Mortech to offer the LendingTree buyers an opportunity to accurately price loans to consumers.

“Our partnership with LendingTree clearly puts us at the forefront of
pricing engine technology and services for managing Internet lead sources.”
said Don Kracl, Mortech’s president. “Marksman combines Mortech’s real-time
pricing with Merit Matrix’s industry-leading product finder and together
will provide LendingTree a state-of-the-art platform to help their lenders
close more deals.”

At this point it is not exactly clear how this will be offered to the LendingTree network but Loudoun Enswiller had this to say:

“We are looking forward to a marked increase in the speed,
accuracy and customer service tools offered by the Marksman platform.”

I think this will be a clear benefit to the network, if in fact they have access to the service but are these types of add ons in vein? Isn’t the overall lead generation model what is “broken”?

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I am really beginning to feel the winds of change in the lead generation space. In the last few post I covered Smarthippo which combines the feel of a social network, a rate comparison engine and a lead generation site. More recently there has been another addition to the “consumer controlled” rate comparison party. Now I have been monitoring this company for the last few months because I noticed a little buzz brewing. Well now it seems they are going to unveil what they have been working on at the FINOVATE conference.

Mortgagebot is primed to unveil their new platform, Mortgage Marvel. Mortgage Marvel’s goal is to improve the consumers experience when shopping for a mortgage. They claim to be the only online mortgage shopping website that delivers real-time quotes from multiple lenders in complete privacy. Mortgage Marvel allows a consumer to compare rate, fees and closing costs and then directly apply online. They also claim that you could have an approval in 30 minutes.

Taken from the Mortgage Marvel website:

Why you can trust Mortgage Marvel.

We see it like this—if you can accurately research a pair of shoes, a refrigerator, or a new car without disclosing everything about who you are, then why not a mortgage? So we built a site that we’d want for ourselves. Mortgage Marvel and the visionary lenders we present believe you deserve all the information you can possibly have right from the start.

Unfortunately that does not answer the question at all. In fact, that makes me think that they are really nothing more then a Bankrate only with the addition of the ability to apply online. They also say that no personal data is required, only loan amount, property value and zip code. With the limited amount of data collected the question has to asked: Are consumers being led to believe that the rates they are choosing can actually be attainable?

The winds of change are increasing, but I truly wonder if many are simply reinventing the wheel and simply using the buzz words we discuss here so often.

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I enjoyed a brief discussion with the co-founder of SmartHippo this morning and wanted to share it with you.

I thought it was very enlightening and I think you all will enjoy it.

Let me know what you think.

On September 17^th the industry moved one step closer to a consumer controlled social network based lead generation process. It was more of a baby step, but none the less a step forward.

On Septmeber 17^th a company named SmartHippo released their public beta version. SmartHippo allows users to compare rates and feedback with other users that have a similar criteria.

“SmartHippo allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. This lessens the chance of consumers with the same lending and risk profile getting different rates on the same loan, which can happen currently.”

“Consumers need services like the one SmartHippo has developed,” said Gary Lewis Evans, President & CEO at Bank of Internet USA. “Competition is always good, and SmartHippo’s social network will allow banks to promote products while providing consumers with the opportunity to validate and or challenge the offerings by pointing out the hidden negatives.”

The rates on SmartHippo are posted by its users and participating banks like Quicken Loans and Bank of Internet. The site gives you the ability to input your specific situation, such as credit score, equity, loan amount, etc and compare your offered rate to users rates with the same criteria. SmartHippo is also a lead generation company and if user choose they can also have up to four brokers call them. I have put in a few calls and once I receive a call back I will pass along the information to you, as far as pricing. I will also try to extract more information about their user base on the call.

As a broker you are able to post your own rates, similar to BankRate, view what rates users are claiming to have received from you and also track your competitors.

What does everyone think about SmartHippo? Do any of you see pitfalls or benefits of a platform like this?

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Recently there has been a large amount of buzz and news revolving around FHA products and guidelines. Many brokers are beginning to refocus their business and product mix with FHA products. The HUD continues to expand guidelines to be more flexible for borrowers. With all these developments happening many lead buyers are calling for lead providers to accommodate the FHA filters in their products and promote FHA products through their ads. Well it looks as though one company is answering the call.

QuinStreet will be introducing an FHA qualified lead beginning October 2^nd. This is exciting news for a few reasons. One, we have a lead company listening to the demands of their clients and two we have a company that is looking to help brokers put consumers in the best suitable product available.

For so long lead providers simply advertised the lowest possible rate and they still do, it will never go away and that’s okay. I get the feeling that QuinStreet is making the first step towards improving the consumer experience. You may ask, how are they doing that? Well they are simply offering or qualifying consumers and directing them to brokers that can best suit their needs, rather then sending the lead to a option arm cowboy that may put them in a product simply for the large payout.

I don’t have all the details regarding the leads, but you can easily give them a ring to find out more.

To find feed back on QuinStreet leads you can see my opinions and others in the LeadCritic forum. (you may have to register to see the private forum about lead providers) Although, I will tell you now that they are a recommended LeadCritic source and I am in no way compensated for making that statement. Just passing on the good news.

Kudos to QuinStreet.

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