The quest for the Holy Grail of any business – increasing the bottom line – can take several paths. You could take a long hard look at the business and attempt to do what you already do better by eliminating waste to make your operation function in a more effective manner.
This could mean making hard decisions about staff numbers. Following a review, you may feel by some re-training or upskilling you can get the same function carried out by fewer members of staff and so save money and boost your bottom line.
Or business could be improved by employing better use of technology. This might mean an initial capital outlay but, long-term, will provide real benefits. Alternatively, the best way to grow a business and maximise returns is by generating new business streams.
Effective marketing channels
No business should be reliant on just one source of potential income so the challenge is to identify which marketing channels are most effective for you. This could range from direct mail to networking, or from online lead generation to display stands at consumer mortgage exhibition or events.
The challenge is to generate a predictable and consistent amount of new prospects if you want to not only survive in the business, but also earn a great income as well. Today you have great tool at your disposal to help make this happen – the internet.
The key here is to develop a professional and effective website. This is a specialist area that needs to handled by online mortgage marketing experts. If you do opt for your own site, again, ensure that the designers are experts in search engine optimisation too, otherwise you could end up with a great looking site but no leads.
Brokers with an existing site need to start by asking themselves why is it there? Is it achieving what it was designed to? Indeed, was there any strategy behind the internet presence, or was it put in place simply because it was what our competitors were doing?
Using the right words
A good website should contain benefit-driven copy. Everything within your site should have one purpose that gets your visitor to take action. Words are the most powerful marketing tool you have. The right words will turn visitors into customers. The wrong words will result in them clicking away to never return.
Online marketing is sometimes confused with the act of putting up a website and waiting for people to come by. This thinking will always result in disappointment unless your website is followed up with a full online and offline marketing effort.
In order to succeed, you must develop and implement a strategic plan that includes a website specifically designed to sell, coupled with an appropriate marketing strategy.
Each visitor to your site brings with them vital information that is crucial to growing your business. By getting your target audience to subscribe to services you can capture vital data such as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, etc, that can ultimately be used to sell something once a relationship has been established. High audience impact is transformed into qualified sales leads with integrated web-forms that capture whatever customer information is needed. The result is more sales, because the web forms are quick and easy to fill-in, entries are validated to maintain quality, and staff are alerted of new leads in real-time.
Business and marketing research has repeatedly shown that it costs companies in the region of five times more to sell to a new prospect than to sell the same product or service to an existing customer. Building customer loyalty will stimulate repeat sales – sharing customer information records with other businesses can help sales processes and campaigns become not just compatible, but fully inter-operable.
Great websites are the ones that create and maintain ongoing relationships with the target audience. It is also a much easier way of reaching customers compared to sitting at a trade show table for hours on end, or setting up a display in the hope that consumers will notice you, stop, and complete a form. Now you can have leads generated and sent to you.
The traditional route
When talking about marketing activity, many people automatically think that that must include traditional advertising. However, this isn’t the case. While it works for some organisations, it’s often an expensive route to market.
For the typical smaller broker, brand advertising is simply a non-starter because it costs too much. A solution could be ‘direct response public relations’ which is far more cost-effective. There are several national newspapers that run regular columns centred around brokers offering advice to consumers or which provide product reviews. An additional benefit is that you will be positioned as an expert providing advice and insight. This provides a great reputation and brand-building opportunity.
The key to an effective marketing strategy is to closely monitor which tools work best for you. Approach lead generation like you would any other marketing endeavour. Set aside a budget to test it and see if it works. However, don’t approach any method without the ability to follow through and close the sale. This will only lead to reputational damage, which will see business drain away instead of flourish.
