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:
While researching search terms and keyword trends there are a two that I will always check out of curiosity and the they are “Mortgage Quotes” and “Mortgage Leads”. I believe the last time I checked these two keywords was over 3 months ago, possible much longer. Either way, it is worth noting for lead buyers the results I found.
December is traditionally a slow month in the mortgage industry where contact rates and funding rates tend to drop by at least 15%. Loan officers start scheduling significant time off and prospects get very busy. I remember even during the mortgage heyday our loan officers dreaded this month. Is anyone experiencing the December drag? Have your contact rates dropped in the last few weeks?
From time to time I spend the evening playing with Google Trends and Microsoft’s AdLabs. There are a few keywords that I always check in Google Trends. The first is Mortgage Leads and the second is Mortgage Refinance.
Here is what I found: According to Google Trends there is a decrease in searches for mortgage leads. Not really all that surprising, I guess. Especially with so many brokers and LO’s shifting out of the mortgage industry.
First, and most obvious start doing it.
Stop whatever you are doing right now and look at your website or any marketing material you have laying around. Who are you talking to? If you have terms like IO, ARM, LIBOR, The Fed, or DTI you are talking to yourself. Throw it out and start over. Borrowers are in a complete state of confusion right now–don’t add to the noise.
Here are some immediate steps to help you gain trust with consumers and build a great consumer focused lead generation platform:
By the way, if you do mortgages in a local community plaster the city and State on everyone of these pieces of content and add social tags–you will own that corner of the Web for search on mortgage <your hometown>, <State>.
Have your friends, family, neighbors, and clients digg, reddit, stumbleupon, and delicious your content.
Write your success story below.
Tags: mortgage, marketing, lead generation, consumer
Here is another video from Inman News. This video is of Konstantin Guericke the co-founder of the very popular LinkedIn Network.
He explains Click-to-Call and the new development of a widget that can be added to your website to generate inbound sales leads.
Real Estate Video by – Real Estate Blogger
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I wonder if mortgage companies and the tightly coupled lead generation companies have the guts to depart from the “Gigantic Lead Generating Contraption for Business-As-Usual?” What does that mean? What would it look like?
Glenn Kelman at Redfin has a proposal that seems like what a lot of us in the idustry have said, but few have had the guts to execute:
Our purpose is to use technology to put consumers in charge of buying or selling their home. This is the most valuable change we can offer the consumer. We hope that it can lead to our becoming the most valuable company in our industry.
Hats off to a leader in putting smart consumers in the drivers seat!
-Silence Dogood
telldogood@gmail.com
Hi, I would like to introduce myself as Silence Dogood! Yes, I am obviously the namesake of the slightly prudish widow of Poor Richard’s Almanac. I felt obligated, having observed this market for numerous years, to wade in where there lacked a fair representation of the fairer (and notably smarter) sex and an advocate for the poor and downtrodden Internet consumer.
Enough introduction. You will grow to know, love, and perhaps even fear my pen a bit in the coming months. Therefore, I think it is only fair to warn those who will come under my wrath and those who will receive my fair praise…This is my mantra:
“I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary consumer thrashing and unlimited power to lead providers”
And since a proper lady does not herself wade into the muck and mire of Internet consumer lead “gin” feel free to reveal those who deserve the mighty pen: telldogood [at] gmail
-Silence Dogood
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
Benjamin Franklin
Is your website living up to its full potential?
Many websites give 100’s of irrelevant options to the user. When was the last time you checked your website analytics? Maybe the better question is, do you have any type of analytics platforms set up for your website. If not, get with your web developer and have him implement a simple 3 sentence HTML code that Google provides and set up the best analytics software available, Google analytics.
I would like to give you a couple of radical ideas that could increase you sites conversions and reduce your bounce rate. Now, if you aren’t currently monitoring any analytics for your site you may not even be aware of what bounce rate is. The bounce rate of a page is fairly simple. It is a percentage of how many visitors come to your site and then immediately leave. They can leave for a number of different reasons but usually they leave because they did not find what they were looking for. Example, there was a point in time where I was bidding on the keyword “mortgage rates” which I have no where on my site. Because of this the bounce rate on visits from that keyword purchase was extremely high. I obviously had two choices, add mortgage rates to my site or discontinue the bidding of that keyword. I chose to stop the bidding on that keyword. I stopped bidding on this keyword for the same reason why you need to update your web-page.
I have a friend that has a popular e-commerce site, which sells tennis gear and apparel www.doittennis.com, he has been working on perfecting is PPC campaigns and noticed that he was spending money on keywords that did not convert. He also found that specific keywords that may have lower impressions, but that were “buy keywords” converted at a much higher rate and generated a higher ROI. Illuminating the the lower converting keyword bids saved him time, money and lost opportunity.
So here is my advice to you, cut out the crap! Really, get rid of it. Make it simple. Seth Godin, points out the “small is the new big” and he is absolutely right. I like to put a slight twist on his quote and say, “simple is the way to go”. There are service out there that will set you up with a template website and it will include all the bells and whistles, such as an A La Mode xSite. These site are, in my opinion a waste of money. If you want a corporate site that does not generate leads than fine, but last I checked we all want to generate your own leads.
So first you need to set up Google analytics on your site. You than need to dive into it and find what consumers are doing on your site. Are they coming to your page and then bolting? If so, they are probably becoming overwhelmed with too many choices or just not finding what they want.
My suggestion is to simplify. Give the visitor to your site 3 choices immediately:
Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) This should be placed in the top left section on the site and should should stand out. This could be a tag-line, a special offer, or 2-3 bullet points.
A box that include the first three questions of a lead form. (See LowerMyBills)
Give them 3 choices and make these choices bold and easy to figure out. An example would be: Special Products, Rates, Definitions, About the Company. Each page should have some corresponding call to action, “Want more rates?” “Lock in your rate today”, “Learn more about ‘company’”.
My second suggestion is to test different images, formats and USP on the home-page. The key to a successful website is testing. Try different colors too. Obviously you will need to stay to true to your corporate colors however test different colors for your call to action buttons. Many people will tell you that red is the best color for call to action buttons, but I want to tell you now that all websites are different and you can not assume this will be true for your site or even every page on your site.
I know many of you guys where many different hats out of necessity and are thinking when am I going to find the time to do this? Well, I don’t know…lol. I would suggest first, if you don’t have a website , find a developer that is fluent in Internet Marketing, not only design. Second, spend an hour a week reviewing your analytics and looking for ways you to increase your sites conversions.
If you have any further questions let me know or if you would like me to evaluate your site and give a few tips, shoot over an email to me a info at leadcritic dot com.
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In this Podcast we briefly speak with Atul Patel former co-founder of LeadROI about where lead-gen is going. Although he is departing from the lead generation space, we reviewed the session. We also discuss the ideas that were gathered during the session. The group discussed the idea that the consumer could own their own information and therefore sells their information to the bank or broker. I believe that this is the future of lead generation.
What do you think?
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This is a recap, question and answer with Connie from Lowlender . We briefly reviewed the first session of leads2007, which was entitled “Improving Consumer Experience”.
The first annual leads2007 un-conference has come to an end and the overwhelming response was that it was a great success.
I want to briefly recap day 2’s discussions for those of you who could not attend.
The first session was moderated by Noel Collins and discussed the lead buying process. Here are few points and key topics that were discussed.
How many leads should you purchase to determine the failure or success of a lead provider? Many people agreed that 50-100 leads over a one month period seemed to be ample time to gather enough data to judge a lead provider. Many added that it depends on the number of LO’s with the company, but all added that a 30-60 time frame is needed to gather the correct data to analyze and base judgement.
Are affiliates bad? The consensus was that yes they could be bad and typically are if they are mismanaged. Providers must be active and hands on with their affiliates to have success and minimize fraud and the overselling of leads.
What are the key questions that a buyer should ask all potential lead-gen companies? Does the company or their affiliates participate in coregistration? What methods do they use to generate their leads? Ask for references. Especially ones from company that similar in size to you. Is the Lead Provider licensed in the states that you are buying in?
The session evolved into talks about the formation of a third party organization that would evaluate and vet lead providers in the space. Basically giving lead providers stamps of approvals.
The big take away from this session was the discussion about the need for a third party organization that could facilitate the grading of lead sellers and buyers as well. Yes, lead buyers too. A number of the providers expressed the need for the vetting of lead buyers so that they too can make optimal decisions when building their client base. They would like to have an open source to file complaints about lead buyers that do not pay their bills. At first glance I was concerned that this would encourage or foster a “you complain about me I am going to complain about mentality”, but maybe this is a good thing. I think it is only fair that the lead sellers have a place to judge or complain about dishonest buyers just like many of the buyers want a place to judge or complain about the sellers.
It has been really great to see many of the top tier sellers and buyers agreeing on such standards and initiatives. I really feel the desire to clean up the industry and rebuild its reputation from all the parties involved.
Day 2, Session 2
The topic of this discussion was titled the “Interaction between Publisher, Advertiser and the Consumer.
The general discussion revolved around ideas for improving the customers experience.
A few of the questions that were asked included:
Is the level of questioning sufficient?
Would the increase of more specific questions really improve the customers experience?
What is the optimal number of times a lead should be sold?
Should all companies be required to show which companies the lead has been matched with?
From there the discussion broke out into new opportunities to improve the customers experience. The idea of flipping the scenario was discussed heavily. For example: Based on the consumer profile banks would compete for the consumers interest. Once a bank was chosen by the consumer, based on product offerings or rates only then would the contact data be given to the bank/s. The idea of giving the consumer more control over the process was a hot topic.
Out of that discussion came the questions does the lead generation game or processes need to change to really make a difference in the consumers overall experience?
Really great discussion took place during this session again and the future of lead-gen space will surely be effected one way or another by what was discussed here.
Day 2, session 3
Thinking About a Telemarketing Front end.
Another great session that reviewed the positives of implementing a telemarketing front end to your sales process. The room discussed and reviewed the pitfalls and challenges that may arise when implementing this strategy.
Day 2, Session 4
Briefly discussed the ability to capitalize on web 2.0 marketing and lead generation techniques. Blogs, social networks, notification networks (Twitter) were all discussed during this session. The room also discussed the different experiences people had with these types of platforms and services and how they can beneficial and cost effective.
Please look forward to Leads2007 podcast which should be available in the next few days.
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