At the recent Mortgage Expo in Manchester I was approached by an intermediary, who asked me for some marketing advice.
Having spent the past 10 years working for a large financial firm, he and a colleague had decided the time was right to go it alone and set-up their own mortgage broking business. They had a lot of experience of mortgage broking but virtually no experience of marketing, because marketing support had previously been provided by their corporate paymaster.
Looking enviously at the Mortgages plc stand, the broker asked how he should go about building his brand in his local community, bearing in mind that he had very little money to do it with. A challenge that I’m sure a large number of intermediaries will relate to.
I gave the issue some thought and, for what it’s worth, here’s the advice I gave:
The first challenge for any new business is to develop a brand identity. You can do it on the cheap yourself, either using standard software packages such as Word or by going to a local print shop who will happily come up with a few design ideas for you.
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However, I recommend blowing some of your limited budget getting a design professionally produced by an expert. You logo will be with you forever and it therefore makes sense to get it right from the outset. There will be a number of design agencies who can help you in your local area. To find one you can start by looking in local directories, but I would put more weight on recommendations from other local companies whose brand and design you admire.
Have a chat with about 3 agencies. Make sure you give them a precise brief as to what you want and ask for a fixed price quote. Consider not just the obvious materials you need such as letterhead, business card and logo for the office, but also a design layout for your website and any promotional literature you may need producing. Not only will it be more cost effective for the agency to produce everything as a job lot, but it will also ensure that the design proposal is consistent across all of your marketing materials.
You now have a professional looking logo; what next? The most important thing you can do now is some planning. As a small business with limited resources (both financial and personnel) you have to be realistic about what you can and cannot achieve in your first year. Consider how you intend generating your new business. Will it be by buying leads, or word of mouth via existing contacts, or advertising and promotional activity? Whichever route you choose, think about what marketing support you need to convert leads into sales.
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For example, if you anticipate most of your business coming from recommendations, you may want to consider producing a brochure which explains the services you offer, which can be given to existing customers to hand on to friends and family. If, on the other hand, you intend using a lead generation company or advertising, you may want to develop a website which you can refer prospective clients to.
Plan carefully what you intend doing to ensure you make the most of the opportunity. Consider resource requirements, timing, costs and cashflow. Also consider how you can reduce any risks. For example, you may know from previous experience what conversion rate you can expect from leads you buy. You can therefore build a meaningful cashflow forecast and marketing budget around this activity. If, however, you have never done any advertising before, you will have no idea how much you need to spend in order to generate a worthwhile flow of new business. Its good to be optimistic, but it’s even better to be realistic!
Having done your planning (and I cannot emphasise enough how important this is) you can then set about sorting out the details; producing the ad campaign, leaflets, website etc. This article doesn’t provide me with the opportunity to explain how to go about each of these tasks, but there is a key principle you need to keep in mind whichever option you take.
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That principle is to ensure your marketing message is as focussed and single-minded as it can possibly be. A common mistake made by many who are new to marketing is to fall prey to the temptation to cram an advert or brochure full of information – after all, if the space is available why not use it? Unfortunately, this approach leads to promotional items which are cluttered, difficult to understand and unfocussed.
A better approach is to consider what you want the advert to achieve and then create a message which achieves that goal as efficiently as possible. For example, it’s not realistic to expect an advert to directly result in people buying a mortgage from you. So don’t cram adverts full of unnecessary product details. However, it is realistic to expect an advert to result in a prospective client picking up the phone and talking to you, or going online and visiting your website for further information – or both. So, the advert may simply focus on the fact that you are an expert on all issues to do with buy to let and then invite people to phone you for a free consultation meeting. It can also direct them to your website for product information, if they want it.
In summary, therefore, small or young businesses need to be focussed in everything they do. Focus on those marketing activities which stand the best chance of generating a return and focus on doing them as well as your budget will permit. And remember, having a limited budget doesn’t mean everything needs to have that homemade look to it. If you get professional help to put the basic building blocks in place, everything else will look much smarter thereafter.
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