65 Resoures To Turn Your Mortgage Leads Into Money.

January 8th, 2013 by Wade Schlosser on Financial Lead Generation, Online Lead Generation 13 Comments

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Here at Forward Leap Marketing, we’ve got a wealth of experience in helping companies increase their lead flow and add to their bottom line.

It’s no secret, to have a healthy thriving business you need revenue. To increase your stream of revenue, you need leads to close. The Internet has quickly become a great market to develop mortgage leads in.

However, depending on the Internet, to generate leads can produce a dizzying amount of “must dos.”  From figuring out how to generate leads, tracking them, nurturing them and converting them, the task of using the Internet to build a business is not for the faint of heart.

Fortunately for you, what I’ve done is compiled 65 resources that will help your mortgage businesses online efforts thrive.

From giving you practical tips on how to increase onsite conversion…to providing you a list of dependable social media tools, as well as reviewing essential software systems…this comprehensive list will help produce an uptick of leads and turn them into dollars.

To increase the number of mortgage leads you close, here’s what you need to focus on.

Conversion Optimization – All the traffic in the world doesn’t meant Diddly Squat if you’re not able to turn site visitors into customers. Working to increase site conversion saves you time and money, as you don’t have to constantly invest in getting more leads.  Expect to see conversion rates increase anywhere from 100%-200% when you optimize for better conversion.

Social Media – Social media and social networking play a vital role in lead acquisition. 77% of b2c marketers acquire leads through Facebook, Linkedin provides 65% of companies with leads, and Twitter has been shown to give 40% of businesses leads. Remember, your customers are already there; your competition is already there too, so you need to be all over Social Media today.

Marketing Automation – Marketing automation’s usefulness extends into how much time and money you’re able to save. MA software saves you time and money, helps you measure and optimize marketing investments, and produces faster revenue growth. It does this by reducing the number of employees spent managing marketing campaigns, providing in-depth, real-time reporting and analytics, and allows sales reps access more opportunity to close on incoming leads.

According to Forrester Research, companies that use lead nurturing programs like MA software generate 50% more sales (at a reduced cost of 33%) than those that don’t!

E-mail marketing – It’s important to remember in all of this, that most people who come to your website don’t buy the first time they come to your site. That’s why an e-mail marketing system is absolutely essential to nurturing leads for later conversion. Via email marketing you’re able to market to both prospective customers…as well as your best prospect…someone who’s purchased from you before.

And, how does this sound…for every dollar spent on email marketing, $40.56 is returned as per the Direct Marketing Association. How’s 4,000% ROI not a good thing?

Fraud prevention – According to research done by CPAdetective, it’s estimated that anywhere from 10-30% of your mortgage leads are fraudulent. If your loan officers are “dialing for dollars” and their leads are D.O.A…then help them out by giving them better quality leads they can close.

So, let’s get into the goodies.

Do You Know These 10 Ways To Optimize Website Conversion?

Remember, tons of traffic and low conversions does not make revenue.

Listed below are 10 of the most effective areas to focus on if you’d like to see your conversion rates grow on order of 100%-200%

1. Write KILLER copy – Don’t bore with useless content that does nothing to compel visitors to take action with you. Trust copyblogger to give you amazing ideas on how to boost web copy to convert at higher rates.
2. SPLIT TEST – A/B split testing can help you determine whether or not the actions you’re performing on your website are producing the results you want to see. Use optimizely for efficient A/B split testing.
3. Have 15+ landing pages – In a survey of 7,000 businesses it was shown that the more landing pages you have, the better for conversion. When a website has 10-15 landing pages they are likely to fare 55% better than they did with 10 or fewer. And for companies that had more than 40 pages they experienced a 100% increase in conversion. Check out sitetuners to see where you’re thriving and how you can improve your landing pages.
4. Try out different calls to action – The call to action is one of the most important parts of getting someone to respond to your offer.  Have clear, benefit-oriented calls to action in your e-mails, landing pages and PPC ads…and test frequently. Unbounce will meet your needs for quality split testing on different calls to action.
5. Test your forms – Forms are there to gather information so you can market to, and nurture leads. Test the size of forms, as well as what kind of information you should be gathering. Opt to make them simple when you can so people aren’t scared to fill them out.
6. Provide AMAZING content – 80% of consumers turn to the Internet to research high value purchases. When you provide valuable content on your website, visitors will trust you as an authority in your niche. Great content will be honest, clear, concise, and will avoid overt salesmanship.
7. Test your offers – People arrive to your site at different stages of the buying process. Offering a free informational guide is perfect for a person who is just settling into the idea of getting a mortgage. Where as an offer that asks the customer to get in touch with you now before rates change, will be at the tail end of the decision process and will be much more likely to make a purchasing decision.
8. Have appropriate proof elements visible – Sometimes customers don’t know whether they can trust you or not.  Display badges like the BBB badge on your website, as well as your rating with the BBB.  Additionally, show them that you care about Internet security by displaying other appropriate certificates like this.
9. Give away the farm – Offering free information such as an e-book or a newsletter is a dependable way to develop new leads. Giving away valuable information puts you in a position of authority as well as trust with prospective clients. It also helps you gather information so you can market to them via additional channels later. Neil Patel is a master of using this method to bring in great conversions.
10. Talk about your customers needs first – What are your customers shopping for? Are they looking to refinance? Do they want a second mortgage? Are they concerned about rates changing soon? Remember, that if they come to your website via search, you should focus on addressing their problems and concerns before launching into an explanation of why you’re the one they should do business with.

Why Social Media Matters So Much To Your Business Growth.

Social media plays a vital role in business growth in 2013.  However, social media isn’t a catch-all marketing device that directs streams of leads to your website just because you’re using one of the available platforms.

You must be able to use social media correctly. Social media is great for a number of reasons, namely that it engages a very active online community. But, most marketers don’t understand that with social media, the consumer is the marketer.

Thus, most marketers don’t understand the role social media plays for lead generation…thinking that they need to market to the consumer, rather than letting the consumer market for them.

It’s been shown that consumers use Facebook to shop for deals and promotions and then share the deals with their network.  So keep that in mind when using Facebook to share media about your company.

Likewise, Linkedin has been shown to produce solid B2B leads, but isn’t as good for B2C.

Listed below are 10 tools that will help you use your social media utility for its intended purpose.

10 Social Media Tools To Use To Manage Your Brand.

1. IceRocket – This free tool helps you know who is talking about you and what they are saying about you and your brand. It covers the web, Twitter, Video, and more.
2. Klout – An online tool that gives you an idea of your “clout” on the web, it takes profiles from popular social media platforms like Google+, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and displays your impact power on the web. Free, and growing fast.
3. Board Tracker – Forums are an overlooked kind of social media. Board trackers follow customers who are spending more time on message boards as opposed to other platforms.
4. Google Blog Search – A free tool provided by the folks at Google. This tool allows you to search blogs for the keywords that are ranking in the blogosphere. It operates like Google search, but for blogs.
5. Wetoku – A free tool that gives you the ability to compose side-by-side video interviews. Easy to use and easy to share, this tool gives you a sense of professionalism for online video interviews.
6. Social Mentions – This awesome tool not only lets you search what words are trending in the web and on social media, it also lets you set up alerts for when a certain keyword you want to follow is used in the social web.
7. InboxQ – Yet another free tool that allows you to search for people asking questions about things you know. Gives you the opportunity to engage customers who use social media to find things out about mortgage products.
8. Kurrently – Free tool that acts as a social search engine. This tool is simple and streamlined and lets you see what’s being shared on Twitter and Facebook.
9. Social share buttons – Social share buttons are widgets or apps that can be installed for free on your website to prompt visitors to share your content/website across a vast array of Social networks.
10. Buffer – Buffer is a paid service that allows you to manage all of your social media accounts from one dashboard. Giving you the ability to schedule posts as well giving you in-depth analytics and insight to how your accounts are performing. Available on mobile as well.

Why You Need To Set Up A Loyal Affiliate Network.

If your mortgage company is…

• Licensed in 15 or more states.
• Offering loan amounts of 80k and up.
• Set up with different lead capture and landing pages.

Then you should be directing your attention towards affiliate marketing to increase revenue growth.

Affiliate marketing is primed for explosive growth as it has the 3^rd growth rate behind search and mobile marketing according to a study conducted by Hubspot.

The options with affiliate networks vary. You can choose to run an in-house affiliate program where you have more control over the process or opt to use an affiliate network where you depend on their established affiliate networks to bring you leads.

Affiliate networks are out-of-the-box ready and are great ways to boost lead generation quickly.

For the sake of simplicity and because of their dependability I’ve decided to cover 5 Affiliate networks that I trust and recommend.

1. Comission Junction – Commission Junction is one of the most well regarded affiliate programs on the web. They’re known for easy interface, amazing customer service, a broad spectrum of easy to use features and great reporting for both program managers and affiliates.
2. Clickbooth – The #1 Affiliate Network in the world. Clickbooth provides you with top affiliates and great customer service as well.  They’re always pushing forward by giving their publishers access to better features.
3. Direct Track – Direct track is a highly recommended affiliate service. They have dependable features, a smooth interface, they offer competitive commission structures and have access to a healthy amount of affiliates. Not known for the quickest customer service, they’re still a dependable company to approach and do business with.
4. Share A Sale – One of the most popular affiliate programs available on the Internet, Share A Sale offers several unique and proprietary technologies that provide for robust merchant and affiliate relationships. They are somewhat more limited with advanced search and sorting options, which can discourage users from signing up. Overall, a reputable company with a large network of affiliates to engage.
5. Google Affiliate Network – Attached to the Google brand, the Google affiliate network is an up and coming affiliate network. The Google affiliate network is smaller than some of its competitors and doesn’t have as many features either. It does offer affiliates competitive commissions however. Additionally, customer service is done entirely online, so be aware of that before establishing a relationship with them.

Don’t Lose Money To Fraud!

Once you have an affiliate program in place, you have to regulate. There’s always a bad apple in the bunch, it’s just the way things are. Therefore it’s important you implement protocols that protect you from said apples.

Unfortunately fraud sophistication has ramped up as the limits of technology allow it.

Because this is true, fraud prevention systems are needed to prevent fraudulent affiliate scams, eliminate false/positives, and to prevent your bottom line from being scraped thin.

Fortunately for you, because the opportunity to prevent fraud is a business as well, there are numbers of companies who provide dedicated services to analyzing your leads and weeding out illegitimate submissions.

Which mean,s if you’re serious about getting high quality mortgage leads you should consider reviewing these 5 great fraud detection and prevention programs.

1. CPA Detective - Dedicated to providing an affiliate fraud detection service for your online traffic with unparalleled accuracy. CPA detective assures that you’re not paying for fraudulent clicks and are gleaning the highest possible quality leads. David is making a real impact on saving companies marketing dollars.
2. ScrubKit - If you are running multiple sources of online marketing. You will need to try Scrubkit. They are a fraud analytical system that helps you identify fraud in real time. Find out if you are at risk. - http://www.scrubkit.com/fraud-calculator
3. Vericlix – If you’re running PPC campaigns or buying media to bring in leads, the networks control most of the information in regards to your PPC dollars spent. Vericlix gives you all the information in regards to the activity on your PPC expenditures…even the information the networks don’t want to share.
4. FraudLogix – A fast growing affiliate fraud prevention company.  They have a database of millions of fraudulent leads/sales that have been crossed checked and verified as “fraud profiles.” Bottom line, save money and your loan officers time by capturing fraud before it captures you.
5. Leadid – Lead Sellers and Buyers often have a love hate relationship. Lead ID makes it 100% love. These are great friends of mine, making a big impact in understanding where your leads are coming from.

Why You Need To Consider A Market Automation Service.

Marketing automation software is quickly becoming an essential for small to medium size business. Marketing Automation software is software that helps you roll out content such as landing pages, e-mail marketing campaigns and the like to your potential buyers in a timely fashion.
Depending on the scope of your business needs, an investment in MA software is essential.  With the development of Internet intensive lead acquisition processes, using an MA service streamlines the process, leaving you free to mange your team instead of dealing with software constantly.

By using MA software you can:

• Have Marketing Accountability - You can see how your investments performed.
• Automate Marketing Processes – MA allows you to do things no human could, like communicate with a list of 250,000 people.
• Receive Real-Time Reports – Instant access to how campaigns are performing.
• Acquire More/Better Qualified Leads – Gives you the ability to interact with more leads than you could track manually.
• Tracks Website Activity – MA lets you know who visited, how long they stayed, what they did, and gives communications to them based on activity.
• Saves Time & Money – MA gives you the ability to do with one person, what might traditionally take 3 or 4.
• Deepens Relationships With Customers – Gives you the ability to understand buyer behavior and respond with synchronized campaigns.

Because MA gives you the ability to automatically manage marketing campaigns it’s a wise choice to pursue. Though a traditional team of marketers can perform these actions…it takes more time…and more money.

Relying on the intuition of a skilled marketing expert to manage your MA software allows for greater reach and the ability to scale campaigns in a shorter amount of time.

Listed below are 10 amazing MA brands to consider using.

1. Hubspot – One of the leading brands in MA, they’ve helped service more than 5,500 companies in over 34 countries. What separates them from their competitors is they have an all-in-one system that combines sales and marketing activities, along with multichannel marketing. Hubspot is easy to implement and integrate.  Competitive prices, and are overwhelmingly dedicated to the success of their customer base; substantial ROI can be had utilizing their service.
2. Infusionsoft – Entirely web based, Infusionsoft provides users with a broad range of services that support sales and marketing including lead management, e-mail marketing, and e-commerce modules. For small businesses they focus on behavior-based campaign rerouting. They also have built in sales automation and don’t charge implementation fees to set up these programs.
3. Etriguqe – Designed as a salesforce.com add-on…their system has been designed for e-mail and online marketing. Their system is lightweight, requiring no IT assistance for setup. They’ve designed their system to give real-time lead alerts for sales reps and they have flexible reporting that can focus on any variable needing to be tracked. Their straightforward system can be easily installed and brought to functionality with minimal training.
4. Eloqua– Eloqua is a veteran of the MA space, as they’ve been providing solutions for B2B and B2C companies for nearly ten years now. Their software processes are designed to automate lead capture, lead scoring, list segmentation, e-mail marketing and sales reporting. They also have “One-click” integration with Salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM and Oracle/siebel CRM, proving they’re adaptable for many business applications.  Finally they offer “sandbox” applications for testing and training purposes as well as having proprietary microsite builder and full integration with most social media platforms.
5. Genius – Especially popular with companies that have longer, more complex sales cycles, Genius is trusted by companies whose annual revenues fall between $10M and $100M. Their focus rests primarily on e-mail marketing, lead nurturing, and tracking website visitor’s behavior. They stand out from other MAs by having integrated website chat features, and are able to build out visitor-specific promos. Lastly, they have tool-sets for custom, shortened URL building and provide out-of-the-box Salesforce CRM integration.
6. Marketo– Operating on the idea that to close leads, you need to “warm them up over time,” Marketo helps sales and marketing pros automate the marketing process and stay more involved throughout the marketing cycle.Primary features include lead-nurturing, lead-scoring, lead management and they boast about providing enhanced scalability.  Being able to provide revenue cycle analytics and having process driven automated campaign builders has helped Marketo become one of the fastest growing MA vendors on the scene since their foundation in 2006.
7. Pardot– Pardot boasts one of the highest customer retention rates in the MA industry with 96% of their customers continuing to use their service without a contract. Because they excel at long, multi-step sales processes and provide a powerful lead-scoring engine, Pardot is great for mid-size businesses. They provide unlimited numbers of users and contacts in your database as well as APIs for custom CRM system integration. They are also one of the only companies to offer desktop applications that provide real-time alerts to sales and marketing reps as well as providing customers with a FREE Iphone App.
8. Silverpop– Powering companies like Mint.com and Fossil, Silverpop is a completely on-demand marketing platform for e-mail marketing and marketing automation. Silverpop has exploded in popularity because they don’t require IT assistance for setup, are 100% web- based, provide social media marketing tracking, and provide optimized landing pages, microsites, and forms. They even have drag-and-drop campaign planning as well as comprehensive mobile SMS campaign capabilities, which truly separates them from their competitors.
9. Marketing Pilot – Recently acquired by Microsoft, Marketing Pilot’s system offers tools to help marketers organize marketing workflow, planning, campaign management, digital asset management as well as budgeting. What separates them from the rest is they have full Marketing Resource Management (MRM) and Marketing Automation in a single system.They also have customizable reports and analytics to help customer’s track performance and results as well as being able to provide a web portal for organizations with multiple branches, or product divisions.  Their flexible functionality is why they are able to maintain a consistent 85% renewal rate with current customers.
10. Alsamarketing – Popular because they offer multi-language support, this 100% web based MA platform offers a wide range of functionality. Their system offers lead management, lead-nurturing, lead-scoring, automated campaign management along with PPC management and smart lead capture forms.

Another benefit to using their product is they offer multivariate landing page testing, as well as having a dedicated customer experience manager for every single customer.

Remember, It’s Not Just About Getting New Leads.

Companies that sell to consumers need software that helps them track, interact with, and convert their prospects.

Consider investing in Lead Management software to help accomplish this.

It’s one thing to bring in large numbers of leads, it’s another thing altogether to know where the leads are going, how well they’re being closed…and exactly what your ROI is at the end of the day.

Below are listed 5 of the more popular Lead Management software systems available to you today.

1.  Leads360 – The single most popular lead management service, Leads360 currently manages 14,000,000 leads and offers unparalleled return on investment. One of the best technologies available, they’ve got a highly responsive support team available to you when you need help implementing their system.
2. LeadsROI – The industries 1^st Turnkey lead generation system. They’ve been able to improve sales efficiency and boost call productivity by 4x. There’s no equipment needed and they claim to help you increase contact rates by 40%.
3. LeadsMailbox – Leadsmailbox has been in business since 2003, longer than most of their competitors. They don’t charge per-use, and allow lead tracking from multiple channels of lead generation. They offer one of the best combinations of user-friendly features and cost-effective pricing.
4. BnTouch – A state of the art contact management automation solution, Bntouch combines an easy to use web-based system which allows you to automate client and partner communication. Their tool is specific for the mortgage industry and helps to increase close ratios.
5. Gravity – An inexpensive option specifically designed for the mortgage industry. Easy to use interface, no IT requirements, single day set up, Gravity is one of the most user friendly lead management tools available to mortgage professionals.

Also…You Need To E-mail…And You Need To E-mail Often.

An E-mail Service Provider (ESP) is a non-negotiable in the world of Internet marketing.

E-mail marketing systems are important because they offer a plethora of flexible delivery systems, and are able to run large-scale e-mail marketing campaigns at attractive prices.

Plus, e-mail marketing allows you to continue nurturing leads as well as offering promotions as opportunities for up-sells.

When selecting an e-mail marketing system take time to consider the following services.

1. Exact Target  - Aimed at the sophisticated user who wants powerful features. One of their key strengths is the ability to integrate with a variety of online marketing services. A bit pricier, the trade off comes in increased maneuverability and diverse features.
2. A-weber – One of the most popular e-mail service providers on the web. Provides for a wealth of different types of e-mails, allows you to manage e-mail marketing campaigns for six figure e-mail marketing lists. Full featured dashboard and wonderful customer service.
3. Mailchimp – Known for its ability to combine e-mail marketing with humor, they’re a full featured e-mail marketing system that allows functional flexibility for e-mail marketing. Also gives you access to a variety of reports to analyze your e-mail marketing strategy.
4. iContact – Helps give you the tools to run effective e-marketing even if you’re not a code happy network geek. Integrates with Salesforce for report analytics. Full featured marketing tools help elevate iContact to one of the most valued and most preferred e-mail marketing tools around.
5. Constant Contact – One of the more flexible e-mail marketing systems. Provides hundreds of templates and even incorporates a designer mode where XHTML is an open option. One downside is that Constant Contact doesn’t have a robust reporting system and charges extra to send surveys.

Do You Know What Steps To Take To Get From Here To There?

1. Get everything in order – There’s no sense in trying to take the world on at once. Determine what’s most important for you right now and get to work on that. Do you need more traffic? Or, do you have good traffic and need better conversion? Focus on the first step before moving to the second. The most important thing is to never take on more than you can handle. Delegate or outsource when you’re loaded up and there’s something you need to get done now.
2. Be specific with goals– Identify the number of leads you want to generate per month and per loan officer. Figure out what area of lead generation you want to focus on, then, stay focused. Think through a complete campaign and learn to master it. Don’t try to juggle 7 at a time. There is no magic bullet to marketing. Only mastery.
3. Blog – Blogging is another beautiful way to capture leads. 57% of businesses with a blog generate a lead from it. Blogging is one of the greatest ways to practice great content marketing and to help answer people’s questions about why they should do business with you. Tight on time? Go to problogger to post and hire a blogger. You can have competent writers begin posting blogs for .06 – .10 cents a word that will get you traffic and engage users looking for mortgages.
4. Don’t get frustrated – Some of the things you’ll try to implement will fail, some won’t. The important thing is to put in place systems that reward your success and help you look at failure in a different light. Want a quick kick-start? Start A/B testing landing pages today!  Go to unbounce, sign up for an account, and get to work by setting up 2 landing pages without ANY tech help. See if they generate more leads that what you currently have. If they do, reward yourself, and if not, reward yourself anyways because you did more than most people would have.
5. Use your existing resources for future success –Want to feel good about yourself? Take all your hard work from the past, and use it to make money in the future. Here’s a practical example to bring in new leads. Take your old contacts that were generated over the web and head to elance or odesk. Take these contacts, pay $40.00 – $60.00 to put them in one list and then begin calling and emailing them all again.
6. Rely on robots –Why do more work than you need to? Especially when there are a ton of tools that are designed to make your life easier and less stressful. The tools I’ve listed in here are designed to make your life easier, just like a good robot should.
7. Use a ladder – If you need help reaching something, you’ll find something to help you finally get a hold of it. Find someone you know in the business, go to conferences and talk to leaders.  Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with a successful person in your industry, offer to take them out to dinner so you can pick their brain and apply their experience to your decisions.
8. Turn off all distractions – If you’re attempting to implement a new strategy for your website, turn off the TV, log out of Facebook (unless you’re setting up a business page.) You can’t afford to be distracted if success is your goal. Live a life now that no one else is willing to live, so you can live a life later that no one else is able to have.
9. Continue learning  - Learn from successful people, read case studies, read about other industries, partner with people in other niches. The more you learn, the more information you have access to. Remember, you cannot fail…you can only get results. And, what you do with those results is based on what you’ve learned along the way.

“Gurus” To Follow For Inspiration And Advice.

If you’re ever overwhelmed with the amount of information available, or just want some of the best advice on what you can do to make more revenue, I recommend turning to the following individuals for advice.

• Neil Patel – Always creating amazing content. One of the top 100 bloggers, his sites crazyegg, kissmetrics and quicksprout deliver amazing products and content on how to increase website conversion across the board.
• Oli Gardner – Creative director at unbounce. Loves to get under the hood and see what’s working and why, delivers infographics and timely reports on the state of optimization.
• Tim Ash – Website testing expert who constantly delivers fresh insight on how to optimize landing pages. His twitter feed teems with great, actionable advice.
• Perry Marshall – PayPerclick marketing expert who gives away tons of FREE advice on how to use Google adwords and how to use Facebook to its utmost capacity.
• HubSpot – Marketing Automation company that constantly releases state of the art marketing reports for FREE.
• Brian Clark – Founder of Copyblogger. Has amazing, FREE web series on how to write better copy and better content.
• Marketing Sherpa – Email marketing specialists that have amazing resources of free case studies, blog posts, and other lead generation reports.

And there you have it.  65 resources on how to get new leads and close them better. 65 resources on what will bring you more revenue.  65 resources where using only a handful is going to bring you killer results.

Did you find there was a product or service missing from this list?

What advice would you add to generate great leads?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

• Bio
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Wade Schlosser

CEO at Forward Leap Marketing

I'm the CEO of Forward Leap Marketing. I love creating and contributing to companies' strategies to invoke raving fan customers that ultimately drive significant bottom line results through targeted web traffic, value-added partnerships, and must have products. Please connect with me on Twitter, Google +, and Linkedin.

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