The company has already written about $50m in settlements through Facebook and LinkedIn this year
Unlike most brokers, Louisa Sanghera of Zippy Financial doesn’t rely on a network of lead referrals. Instead, all her business comes from social media – a feat that saw Zippy awarded Best Digital Strategy at last year’s AMAs.
MPA spoke with the award-winning business owner about what an effective digital strategy looks like and how brokers can use social media to their advantage.
Sanghera stands out from the crowd
By generating her leads through digital marketing, the Sydney-based owner of Zippy has established herself as a force to be reckoned with.
This year alone, the company has already written about $50m in settlements through Facebook and LinkedIn.
She says while digital marketing can be an effective way to bring in business, it’s important to invest time and money into building a strategy that works.
“It does take a lot of time and money, and if you’re not prepared to spend the money, there’s no point you doing anything,” Sanghera says.
“You might as well just spend the time trying to network and build connections.”
How Zippy’s strategy was born
When it came to creating Zippy’s strategy, Sanghera soon discovered an external marketing company was the way to go.
“If you are not going to have the skill set within the business, and unless you want to pay to train people, it’s a little bit difficult to put in a good digital strategy yourself,” she says.
After sending a staff member to a six-month course on social media, she realised this amount of training wasn’t enough – even though it was quite expensive. Each platform was going through so many changes it was near impossible to keep up with them.
The marketing company she chose devised a strategy based on a mixed bag approach of videos, image-based advertising and social media posts – all aimed towards a targeted audience.
“They wanted everything to reflect my personality and the Zippy brand,” she says, explaining that her 30 years’ experience meant she could be positioned as a key person within the industry.
“I share a lot of knowledge, we give a lot of tips – obviously we can’t give advice, but we give a lot of information online to show ourselves as key players.”
While the marketing company takes care of the content, Zippy has an offshore staff member who takes care of the posting.
“The difference with us is that we do it daily.”
“You’re never going to attract people by doing it once a week.”
Where brokers go wrong
Sanghera says a lot of brokers don’t want to spend money on social media – but this is to their detriment.
“You’ve got to be prepared to spend,” she says.
Posting irrelevant or random content is another mistake brokers often make. She says everything you post should work to engage the audience.
How brokers can execute a winning strategy
Sanghera says a good digital strategy is one that sets your brand apart from the crowd and shows your involvement in the community.
“I think making it about your clients and your community as well as your business is a good strategy,” she adds.
“Show your personality, show the difference of your business to everybody else.”
“They know you’re a mortgage broker, they know you’re good at what you do, but they don’t know your key point of difference.”
She says to always get permission from clients first if you want to post about their achievements.
Using social media to drive traffic to your website is a central part of an effective strategy, enabling you to create a good online presence while capturing clients in the process.
“Try and capture the clients on your website. If you’ve got a form on there, try and engage them to complete the form so that you can get in touch with them,” she says.
Writing a weekly blog and posting it on Facebook and LinkedIn gives you credibility as a key person in the industry and brings people to your website.
Understanding that each social media platform should be utilised in different ways is also crucial.
“There’s a different strategy for each one and it’s about implementing those strategies over each platform.”
