If I were starting a new lead generation company, and I’m not, here are a few new things I would try:
- Start with content I would focus first on content. I would hire hungry, creative copywriters and journalist and this would be their mission:
- Focus only on topics interesting to consumers
- Scour the industry for smart and interesting voices and engage them
- Snoop out trends, tips, and teasers
- Work like a gossip columnist
- Add in profiles Not a Web form on your loan amount and credit grade! Think eHarmony. I want to know:
- Why you are you interested in mortgages?
- How many times have your purchased or refinanced?
- What are your financial objectives & goals?
- What is your current mortgage or rent situation
- Tell me what you want me to Alert (email opt-in) you about
- Tell me when you need a mortgage or even better let me make a suggestions when it is time
- Sprinkle in Social Tools Don’t build your own! That just gives me one more thing to check. Do it like this:
- Create a Facebook app to feed in your content
- Create a Twitter feed, maybe even a Twittergram–break news here first
- Leverage LinkedIN, more on this in a minute
- Add in plenty of RSS
- Build momentum and consumers Time to stock the pond and create the buzz:
- Do a little PR. DIY or Professional.
- Pepper the network and relationships with some emails and telephone calls
- Find a few more new relationships (make sure they are important) to tell about your cool lead generation platform
- Create some widgets
- Get mentioned where high net worth consumers hang out: here, here, here, here, and even here
- Add in your revenue Time to make money and happy consumers. Bring in the mortgage bankers and brokers:
- Allow bankers and brokers to sign-up for a monthly subscription. Credit card only please!
- Subscriptions gives you the opportunity to post your LinkedIN profile (your reputation is your business card)
- Each subscriber gets a blog or can add in their existing RSS feed
- Each subscriber gets to build a consumer profile. This is where you get your real-time personally matched leads
How would you build your lead generation company?
Bells and web 2.0 whistles won’t cut it. I have stated before on this blog there are fundamental problems with the mortgage lead generation model which was created in the late 90s, and I think anyone here could offer an opinion about what these problems might be.
Furthermore, new obstacles loom on the horizon: the credit crunch + ARM adjustments + continued property value declines = increased demand and marked inability of lenders to solve critical credit issues for many homeowners.
Hiring a bunch of copywriters and journalist? What about the people consumers are really reading these days–bloggers?
Paul, to your point, some of the challenges you mention are a combination of exotic products (developed with little regard for normal market cycles), incompetence in financial/mortgage counseling, and the structure of capital markets. How can lead generation solve these problems other than improve the ability to educate and guide borrowers into the “right” places for counseling and give them a valid reputation system to gauge the competence of their counselor.
I think there are seeds of a viable approach here, Lead Critic.
Of course, the fundamental thing lead gen must do is to “improve the ability to educate and guide borrowers into the “right” places for counseling and give them a valid reputation system”. My belief is that web 2.0 doo-dads will not suffice to get us this improvement.
To help consumer find the “right” solution, there needs to be a more fundamental change in lead gen, and this change needs to correspond to the change that the entire residential mortgage landscape is now starting to go through.
This looks like essentially the blueprint Christopher Michel followed in building military.com and is now following in building out communities for police officers, nurses and educators at Affinity Labs. Seems to work well, but as always, the challenge is in building out a robust community
knag—–
you still won’t come clean on your FHA remarks on the LC blog
brown
Hello,It’s the responsibility of mortgage lead generation companies to verify the authenticity of the leads. They make profits and expand business by exploiting those leads.
I think the problem is where you’e looking for the leads.
People don’t look for mortgages, they buy houses and homes. They need a way to finance that purchase. Lead generation needs to relook at that relationship. You want to generate leads, work with the realtors websites and listings. Create your call to action around listings content.
Just my thoughts.