If you would have asked me a year ago, when the real estate market was super strong and many mortgage brokers could make a living with little or no marketing, few mortgage brokers would have even found this article because hardly any would have been looking. The climate has changed. Loan guidelines change multiple times a day (or so it seems) and qualified clients that are actually going to buy a house this month are rarer than ever before.
Having a great website that can be found in search engines and having other, quality content, related topic websites linking to your website is almost a requirement to all but a few 100% word-of-mouth businesses (which is a misnomer that I will certainly address in future articles).
So, how can a mortgage broker get links coming to their websites which will bring direct traffic from the links and make their website much more likely to be found via search engines in the ultra competitive fight for mortgage business? Well, let's discuss some of the basic strategies and an advanced variation.
First, let's get the basics out of the way. Ask the real estate agents and clients that have websites that have done loans with you to recommend you on their websites. I am going to assume you know that, are doing it and you don't need help with that.
Second, put your website out there in directory websites and on classified ad websites the
Link building Services can help you find some of the best agencies for this. These are easy to do, often free and will help both short term and long term.
Next, let's take a look at a more advanced strategy. If you're like most mortgage brokers I know, you're willing to spend some money on marketing, but you often find that advertising directly for loans highly ineffective. Having a buyer come with a house in mind from a real estate agent is one of the highest closing rates you have, so focus on that and use it to also build links to your website which will affect the profitability and effectiveness of your website. Here's just one idea.
Find a real estate agent with an open house. Offer to pay to have someone put out flyers around the open house to promote the open house, a specific page on the real estate agent's website (I'll get to this in a second) and you. You help the agent, who will feel obligated to assist you. You help their clients get a great loan. You help the seller get their house sold and who will hopefully have you do the loan for the house they buy if you mail them a copy with a thank you note (get the agent's permission to do this first).
I mentioned above that you should have the flyer link to a specific page on the agent's website. Here's what that page should have: information about that particular house, information about the agent and a link to YOUR website.
To get 100 flyers printed and delivered should cost you less than $25. For about $250, you can have 10 new links coming to your website, some excellent good-will with 10 different agents and sellers plus some great prospects from the open house traffic.
