Online Marketing Made Simple ^TM

Generating leads from the Internet with your own site can be fun and rewarding.  Profitable "online" marketing starts much closer to home than you think.

We're going to discuss 3 methods of attracting INTERESTED visitors and 1 method of trying to INTEREST Internet viewers.

Get In The Game

First, do you have a web site, now?  If not, get one.  They are like business cards and are an expected part of a business presentation.

You can get one from LoanProz.com Tools for Mortgage Professionals for under $20 per month.   If you are already a member, upgrade to PREMIER status and your site is available instantly. Login to upgrade your account.  If you are not a member not, Create a New Account.  These inexpensive sites are perfect starter sites.  They are more than enough "muscle" until you are originating more than 8-12 loans per month from the Internet.  At that time, contact us about a custom site OR get our recommendation for a third party site.  We exist to help mortgage brokers solve problems. 

Do you have your own Domain name?   Having your own domain name is very important to make your site truly portable.  If you do not own your own domain, you may later lose your traffic you build up, if you change providers.  Own your own domain and protect your marketing efforts.

If you have a site, do you have a landing or SPLASH page for your offer.  This page should not be a company or personal tribute page, but should be a simple, to the point explanation of the benefits of getting a FREE written home loan quote from you and a call to action to take advantage of the level of service you offer. 

If you do not have such a page, now is the time to create one or have one created.  

Remember, clean, simple and to the point about the visitor's benefits derived from working with you.  

All company info and privacy issues are low key links OFF the main view of the message.   Be sure you have the HUD equal housing logo and any other required symbols or disclosure links displayed prominently as required.  If you do not know the requirements, now is the time to learn.

Starting at Home

What do we mean by starting at home? 

Its simple.  Now that you have a web site, do you have your website URL on your business card, letterhead, signage and advertising you are using in your local market?  

Do you consistently use your web site as an additional "window" of introduction just like a business card?

If not, you are losing a major competitive edge owning a site has to offer. 

Further, people often want details at odd hours or they want to learn more about your services, but are not ready or do not have the time to get involved in a conversation.  

YOUR WEB SITE will be the 24/7 passive salesman ready to reinforce your existing message and capture the inquiring party's contact and needs details.

DO NOT try to drive a prospect to an online application or online 1003.  

You will lose 90% of interested parties this way.   Why?  Just ask yourself:

Would you want to pay someone $3000 -$15,000 "mortgage broker fee" for self service? 

Would you want to fill out your own 1003 without assistance on one of the most important asset decisions you will ever have?   When you respond or reply to an advertisement or business card, do you go get all your paper work you may need before you make the initial call or visit to an online resource?

 OR

do you call or visit a site to get additional information, service and assistance?

Think of what dumping consumers to an online 1003 says about your services?   Not much.  

Drive all your response traffic to a short "benefit and reasoning" page calling them to "Act Now".    Use short lead forms with the promise of personal review, full service and other reasonable "rewards" for them giving you, the opportunity to serve them. 

Use your site to capture the information to easily contact them and to capture other information they are able and willing to share online.  Then, prepare yourself a reasonable response to their needs AND anticipate their questions.

A web site is simply a tool, like a business card.  If you leave your cards in the drawer, then where is your benefit?  

Hundreds of mortgage professionals contact me and say, "My web site is not generating any business.  What is wrong with it?"

Our response is: "What is your promotion plan and budget?"  

Normally, we get long pauses, then a sheepish reply of "I don't have one." or "I'm paying $260 a month for my web site."  as though the wonderful bells and whistles will make people magically appear on their site.

They can not give a single example of how they are marketing their site.

It doesn't matter if your business cards are plain black ink on paper or full color "wonder cards" IF you leave them unused in the desk drawer.    

Web sites are NO different!

Search Engines and Directories.

AFTER you take care of your site and AFTER you take care of implementing your site into your EXISTING marketing methods, you are ready to expand your reach.

We're going to outline 4 basic methods of "getting found".   Engines, directories, Pay Per Click (PPC) and  keyword ads and text,  

The first two, engines and directories are search tools.   They index and organize the web so Internet users can be directed to areas of interest.  They make the task of locating sites and specific content much easier. 

They are the starting point for most Internet users. 

However, many changes are taking place with search engines.  Many smaller companies have been bought up by Yahoo!  and Google.  MSN is still trying to find its way and several others have found strong niche areas to wedge themselves into the search market. 

Since they are a great place to present ourselves to consumer, we need to know more about them to plan our strategy for generating leads.  There are 3 main categories of search engines:

Automatic

These search engines are based on information that is collected, sorted and analyzed by software programs, commonly referred to as "robots", "bots", or "crawlers". These bots crawl through web pages collecting information which is then analyzed and categorized into an "index". When you conduct a search using one of these search engines, you are really searching their index. The quality and depth of their index will determine your results.  Some only index by a few hundred categories.  Other use thousands of.

These engines generally have a "free" submit.  There is no guarantee that you will ever be indexed.  In fact, due to marketing companies working as "hired guns" for large mortgage companies, there are hundreds of thousands of mortgage lending sites.  There are more mortgage websites than there are originators!

So, maybe you think, why bother? 

The answer is the same as why you have a phone or business cards.  Without a web presence, you are simply less visible.  Many consumers will assume you are simply not credible without a web presence. 

The older and more useful your site, the more likely it will get listed. 

Directories:

A directory is a searchable subject guide of Web sites that have been reviewed and compiled by human editors. These editors decide which sites to list, and, in which categories.   One of the oldest is DMOZ.org.  DMOZ is run by volunteers.  Each category is manage by a real person.  In our opinion, it produces no better results than most other methods, but we think it is still very useful and ad perspective to certain categories.  DMOZ is still difficult to get into, but we think still worth it.  Many major search companies including Google and Yahoo report at least some results from the data in the DMOZ directory.  If you lend in most states, go here: http://dmoz.org/Business/Financial_Services/Mortgages/Regional/United_States/  

If you lend in just one state, select it from the states menu. 

Allow 60-90 days to see if you get in.  If not, try again and keep trying until you do.  It often takes many tries, but worth the effort.  Don not submit every day or two.  You will simply get yourself banned.  Submit, wait at least 60- days and submit again.

Another directory is Yahoo!.  The Yahoo! directory is different from the Yahoo! search results.  Many people think being in the Yahoo! directory is a waste of time and money, but we have found it to be a powerful tool to leverage other listings with other search engines.  As a commercial site, expect to pay for a Yahoo! directory listing.

Pay-per-click (PPC): A search engine that determines ranking according to the dollar amount you pay for each click from that search engine to your site. Examples of PPC search engines are Overture.com and FindWhat.com. The highest ranking goes to the highest bidder.

There are a few downfalls you should know about using PPCs:

1. The use of PPC search engines as part of your search engine optimization process will typically not improve your search engine positioning in the regular editorial search results. Instead, PPC listings will appear in a "Sponsored" or "Featured" area located at the top or side of the regular search page results. Even though your paid listing will appear at the top of the search page, many users will not click on paid listings because they look at it as an advertisement. In the past, people used to always click on banner ads, but now they are seen more of as a nuisance. The same may happen with PPC listings.
    

2. If your site is not effectively search engine optimized before you begin to submit it to a PPC, it will still be poorly advertised afterwards. The optimization of your Web site is critical to the success of your rankings.
    

3. When you stop paying for a PPC submission, your listing disappears and so does the traffic.

PPCs can be an effective solution for gaining exposure and driving immediate traffic to your Web site.  They should be part of a complete plan for maximizing lead generation.

While most everyone knows about Google and Yahoo!, here are some second tier engines where you can do some strategic targeting to generate leads.

We worked out some bonus traffic for you in return for mentioning them here.

Search 123 is a fast growing search system and their management console is pretty good.   Keep a close look at performance.  The company seems to be experimenting with compensation to their publishers (sources of traffic) as these things change the quality of performance as they are adjusted.

Text Ads are are one of the latest twists.  They are not keyword driven, but you select specific pages, site by site of where your ad appears.  

A text link on a high traffic site can add big benefits with search engines, too!  

So while we don't have enough data to say they are the next big thing, with $100 of free ads to our readers, you can't go wrong giving it a try.  We think the indirect benefits of search engine rankings are strong reasons for using this method and may outperform actual lead generation benefits.  We suggest committed to as least 3 months and measure results and see if it has a positive effect on your search engine listings.

TEXT ads work! Drive traffic, generate leads. $100 in FREE Ads.

Search feed has been around for a while.  It has some good publishers and we've experienced good returns on investment here.  Targeting to the state level really lowers response and attempting using a city in the keyword produces very little traffic at all.  This will improve as their overall traffic improves.

However, it seems when bids get too high, there is more questionable traffic generated, so like all advertising methods, its a good idea to constantly review results versus costs. 

All in all, this is traffic you should be able to do well to grow with.

Excite was once a major search property and is now considered second tier.  However, the users that stayed seem to be loyal to the engine system and they have done a great job combining forces with other engines to get your targeted message seen.  

Find What!  is an entrenched 2nd tier search.  We have had mixed results, but feel like they need to be a part of your marketing plans.  While the traffic is lower than some of the other PPC, their conversions are as good and in some cases, better.   Recently they have merged with MIVA, a well know merchant account company with huge ties to webmasters.  This should improve their positioning and put your listing in front of more eyes. $5 Bonus credit for our readers.

Also, they offer a Pay for (Phone) Call system that is definitely worth looking into. 

Enhance Interactive, like all PPC engines has had several different names.  We've had great results with some types of keyword focus and not so great with others.  They have a good management console which will help reduce your time investment and offer $25 in free targeted traffic. 

$25 in free clicks. Online advertising with Enhance Interactive Pays. Compare results!

How Do Search Engines Work?

Search engines compile their databases with the aid of spiders a.k.a. robots. These search engine spiders crawl the Internet from link to link, identifying Web pages. Once search engine spiders find a Web site, they index the content on those pages, making the URLs available to Internet users. In turn, owners of Web sites submit their URLs to search engines for crawling and, ultimately, inclusion in their databases. This is known as search engine submission.

When you use search engines to find something on the Internet, youre basically asking the search engine to scan its database and match your keywords and phrases with the content of the URLs they have on file at that time. Spiders regularly return to the URLs they index to look for changes. When changes occur, the index is updated to reflect the new information.

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Search Engines

Pro: With the vast wealth of information available on the Internet, search engines are the most effective and efficient way to find information based on your specific search requests.

Con: Because search engines index mass quantities of data, you are likely to get irrelevant responses to your search requests.

Are Search Engines All The Same

Search results vary from search engine to search engine in terms of size, speed and content. The results will also vary based on the ranking criteria the search engines use. If you aren't getting the results you need, try a different search engine. While the results may not be wildly different, you may get a few search results from one search engine that you didn't from another.

How Do Search Engines Rank Web Pages

When ranking Web pages, search engines follow specific criteria, which may vary from one search engine to another. Naturally, they want to generate the most popular or relevant pages at the top of their list. Search engines will look at keywords and phrases, content, HTML meta tags and link popularity -- just to name a few -- to determine the value of the Web page.

BULK TRAFFIC

Bulk traffic is one of the most misunderstood methods of getting traffic and leads from your web site.  Bulk traffic is traffic generated from targeted categories of sites. 

It is NOT targeted by a persons specific interest in home ownership or home loans.

This is akin to running a spot on the radio or TV.  You know most of the people seeing your advertisement will NOT be interested in your and the same is very true of bulk traffic.

Bulk traffic does something more than just show your message.  It shows your website.   So while you may not get a lead, you do get traffic.   This traffic can play a positive role in getting better listing priority with search engines.   

So to understand bulk traffic, there are two benefits.  The first consists of leads generated and the second is the spin off benefit of web traffic increase.

Benefits of Bulk Traffic:

• Real People to Your Website
• Higher Search Engine Ratings
• More Word of Mouth Referral
• More Returning Traffic
• More Loan Leads
• More Loan Closings

With bulk traffic, the visitors are exposed to your web page and your offer, not to a tiny banner or mini pop-up.  With each unique visitor, your account is charged.  A visitor will not be counted more than once per day, so, repeat traffic within the same day is FREE!   Hopefully, many will revisit your site to inquire and do business.

It's up to you to sell your product or service to them. 

Traffic targeting

The traffic delivered to your site is drawn from the US Internet users from the following type of sites. 

• Family
• News
• Travel
• Arts & Humanities
• Business
• Careers
• Health & Fitness

These type of sites typically have an audience in the age range of 22 - 55 years old. 

DO NOT choose traffic from game, music and pop culture as these sites generate traffic of predominately teens and pre-teens.

Most bulk traffic providers offer you daily statistics in your traffic manager console so that you can see your traffic.  These are updated hourly, so that you can monitor exactly how many visitors have been delivered to your site by our service.

You can also imbed third party counters in your site OR use a tracking URL with your account to track within your own server, if you desire more metrics.

Can I have other ads on my page?

Absolutely!  You can have ads as long as they do not spawn pages unless clicked.  Be careful!  You do NOT want to send visitors off your site when they MAY be interested in a Home Loan.

Conversions

First, how many states can you do business.  The fewer states you do business in, the lower return bulk traffic will have for you.

            Here is our "rule of thumb" for buying bulk traffic depending on number of states you service:               

Conversions (successful leads) vary widely with each campaign. Your success will depend solely on your offer and its presentation.

The most successful campaigns are those which use an enticing offer to acquire the visitor's contact permission for extensive direct follow up and marketing.

Companies which think ahead and are ready to respond immediately by email AND phone combined, then go on to build repore' with the visitor, have a much higher closing ratio, then companies that require the visitor to fully complete a 1003 or try to collect application fees without interfacing with the potential client.

We have found using a special offer page is the best way to get visitors attention and generates more leads.

Finally, for our readers, we have worked out a special offer for bulk traffic.  $30 rebate on any traffic order of 20,000 or more.  Order and upon receiving your receipt, request your rebate by contacting support@EZdesk.com and sending them your request for $30 "LOSMS Rebate" .