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Mortgage Marketing: Content Strategies for Keeping in Touch

So you've just returned to your office from a successful meeting with a Realtor®. At the end of it they expressed optimism in your services, and told you some famous last words, "I'll be sure to send you my next deal..."

...a week goes by, no deal...

...two weeks go by, no deal...

...a month later, still no deal.

To make things even more painful...you're chatting with a title rep about business and they mention the agent's name. You probe deeper and uncover that the agent has done 3 transactions in the past 30 days. Before we jump to conclusions, it's possible they were the listing agent. Or they could have been the buyer's agent, but the buyer came to them pre-approved. We just don't know.

You re-trace your steps backwards and look for clues. You've left messages regularly and had one or two quick, really quick conversations, more like, "Hi, how are you," and that's it kinda conversation. But nothing appears out of the ordinary. Why didn't they send you a deal as promised?

We may never know that answer, but we do know that in the process of initiating a relationship, you have to continue sending messages that deliver content. Content that powerfully refreshes their memory why they want and should send you their next piece of business.

Content Strategies

How do you effectively keep your information in front of prospects and clients without becoming a pest? Studies consistently demonstrate that it takes 7 to 12 impressions before people act on their intentions, which means when it comes to initiating relationships with agents, you have to find ways to keep your message in front of them on a regular basis, otherwise you're invisible.

Here are some Content Strategies that can work for you:

Tips & Ideas Insider Information Information From Other Sources Success Stories Innovation in Progress Leisure News

Tips & Ideas

If you've positioned yourself as a specialist and want to become recognized as an expert, this is your best strategy. Helping prospects to solve their problems quickly transfigures you from a stranger to becoming their friend.

Whatever is your niche specialty, than sharing your ideas will come in that form. It only makes sense that if you're in the information business, the business of helping agents solve a particular problem, than you share your knowledge. It gives them a sample of what you know and demonstrates your expertise.

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Insider Information

This strategy is excellent for agents who want to know everything, and I mean everything. Particularly, they want to know mortgage related information, so they can articulate their viewpoints with peers, other agents, to show their level of competency, which is a nice way of saying, "It feeds their ego."

If you are apprised of current market conditions or new and niche loan programs and communicate by email with prospects and clients, some agents are like messengers, they must be the first ones to know so they can pass it along before anyone else does.

Information from other Sources

Do you have a network of relationships with other professionals who serve the real estate community, i.e. interior decorators, home improvement specialists, landscapers, etc.? They can supply you with valuable content, especially if you like using the newsletter format. Having a network of other sources clearly tells an agent that you understand the bigger picture.

Success Stories

If you're the type who doesn't like to toot your own horn, this strategy is for you. Using a story format, you can creatively describe the quality of your service supported by actual documentation, without it being perceived as boasting. Think of it as a press release with a touch of flair.

Innovation in Progress

Are you always tinkering with your business, searching for new ways to improve it? Are you the type to purchase the latest gadgets? Agents who innovate constantly in their business will appeal to this strategy. Even without buying every gadget known to mankind, usually you can find research online, like product and tech reviews, and compile the information and forward as a message. Two excellent resources include, zdnet.com & cnet.com.

Leisure News

This content strategy exhibits caring and thoughtfulness. It compliments loan officers who want to develop rapport on a personal level. You can apply this on a per prospect basis, for instance, if you meet someone who enjoys a hobby, you could give them subscription or a complimentary copy of a leisure magazine.

Please check RESPA laws prior to awarding gifts considered of monetary value.

Learn from Others

Sometimes you'll learn your best content strategies from watching what others do. If you work in an office with other loan officers, at your next sales meeting request that everyone bring their materials to share with each other.

Look at every newsletter and mailing you receive, notice which writers get and keep your attention. Notice what bores you and what you end up reading and responding to. Always take the best things you like, adapt it to your style and leave the rest.

Related: Content Supply - Content Freshness

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Go to www.loan-officer-marketing.com to get a free copy of Jeff Nelson's Marketing Planning Guide, a 20-page workbook designed to help you outline a strategy to become an Agent Magnet.

13 Tips what you can do with Private Label Content

1. If you have a article site, you can create Articles For Your Web Site. Add your resource box/byline to the articles and publish them on your web site. You could allow your visitors to republish the articles if they also publish your resource box. This way you spread your ad all over the Internet and enlarge your link popularity for free.

2. Create articles for your ezine - Add your resource box/byline to the articles and publish them in your ezine. You could allow your subscribers to republish the articles if they also publish your resource box. This also will spread your ad all over the internet and enlarge your link popularity for free. This is also good for your PageRank.

3. Create free bonuses for your products - They will increase the perceived value of your product and give them extra incentives to buy it. Examples are free ebooks, reports, ecourses, etc. They will enlarge the value of your product and give them extra incentives to buy it.

4. Create free bonuses for your free ezine/opt-in list - It could be free ebooks, reports, ecourses, etc. They will give people extra incentives to subscribe to your free ezine or opt-in list.

5. Create a free Viral eBook - You could allow other people to give away the ebook for free or as a bonus product. They will multiply your ad like a virus. You also could submit it to some free ebook directories.

6. Create "For Sale" info-products - You could use any or all of the tips to create brand new information products to sell. I'll allow you to re-write, re-edit, add to, subtract from, add your name as the author or pretty much anything you want to create your own the original information products.

7. Create articles for other ezine publishers - Add your resource box/byline to the articles and submit them to e-zine publishers. There are a lot of e-zine publishers who are looking for free content.

8. Create and submit articles to ezine article directories - Add your resource box/byline to the articles and submit them to some free article directories. People visit these directories looking for free content to use on their web site or in their ezine. This will spread your ad all over the Internet and enlarge your link popularity.

9. Create and trade content with other web sites - Add your resource box/byline to the articles and trade content with high traffic web sites. Offer a content exchange. They publish your content in exchange for publishing theirs. It's a free way to get your ad on high traffic web sites.

10. Create and trade articles with other ezine publishers - Add your resource box/byline to the articles and trade content with high circulation e-zine publishers. You could offer to publish your article in their ezine in exchange for publishing their article in your ezine. It's a free way to get your ad in high circulation e-zines.

11. Create articles and promote other people's products - Add your resource box/byline to the articles. Your resource box/byline could be promoting an affiliate program or mlm that you have joined. Allow or find other web sites and e-zines to publish the articles.

12. Create promotional articles for your affiliates - Add your resource box/byline to the articles and allow your affiliates to add their affiliate link to the articles or create a brandable free ebook they could use. They will have plenty of powerful affiliate tools to promote your product.

13. Create info-products and sell resale rights - You could use the tips to create brand new information products. You could re-write, re-edit, add to, subtract from, add your name as the author or pretty much anything you want to create your own original information products. You could also sell the resale rights or master resale rights to the info-products you create.

There are lots of possibilities with PLR content. I hope this gives you some ideas of the possibilities.

Related: Content Management - Good Content

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Rob Lamper http://www.internet-bizz.net

Creating content for Articles or Ezines Effortlessly

The benefits of writing as a marketing strategy have been well documented. Articles build credibility, provide lots of links back to your web site, and can generate business for you. All good stuff. This is all well and good as long as you have something to write about - right?

Finding content ideas can be one of the dilemmas that stops us from making the most of writing as a marketing opportunity. But I can assure you that each on you has enough content already on hand to write dozens of articles. You just need to know where to look.

Here are 5 areas you can look

Client questions
Any client who has ever asked you: "How would I ......" is giving you the basis for an article. Answering "how to" questions provides real world solutions to real situations, exactly what the reading public want to know about.

To turn a short answer into a longer article, simply:
* Begin with the background or context to the situation
* describe when and how the situation occurs
* how to address the problem (your 'how to' response)
* how to make ensure the issue doesn't recur

The problems you solve
Write a list of the 5 to 10 key problems that you solve for your clients. Every one of these can for the basis of one or more articles. If the problem is a complex one, break it down into it's components, and use each component as the basis for an article. Often the process for resolving one complex problem can become a series of related articles that you can publish over a series of weeks or months.

Workshops or seminars
If you are running workshops or seminars then you have enough article content to last you a long time. Break your seminar down into manageable pieces and create one or more articles for each piece.

Processes you follow:
Do you use a proprietary process in your business? Or a clearly established series of steps that you follow? Again, use these as the basis for an article on how to approach a problem.

Industry trends
Keeping abreast of the latest happenings in your industry is more than a good idea for you. Why not demonstrate your expertise and share this knowledge in an article. Keep people updated with the latest news or innovations, and discuss how these might affect your clients.

Case studies and success stories
Probably one of the easiest ways to identify content for articles is by using case studies from your own experience. Share with readers:
* the background of the situation
* the problem the client was having
* what the problem was costing (in terms of lost productivity, dollars etc)
* what you or the client did to resolve the problem
* the benefits the client experienced after the problem was solved

Top 10's and Tips
People love abbreviated and to the point information, which makes Top 10 lists and Tips perfect content for articles. There are numerous ways of creating Top 10 Lists or Tip Lists. Here are a few ideas:
* Ten ways to avoid ....(experiencing a certain problem)
* Ten things to do to ensure ....(success at something)
* Ten ways to improve your...(hit rate, leadership skills, writing skills, productivity etc)
* Ten tips for ...(becoming healthier or wealthier, designing a better extension, getting better results from your accountant, choosing a solicitor etc).

Hope you are now confident of creating months of content for articles without having to research any new information, just by accessing what you already know. So, no excuses now. It's time to get that article marketing strategy off the ground!

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Content Layering :: Using Site Architecture To Improve SEO

Many times, a site gets very large and its ability to rank well in competitive markets decreases in part because of the size of the site. While we in the business know that content is king, more often than not it is a combination of content and effective site structure which will ultimately help your pages rank.

In this article I look at how to most effectively structure your site to take advantage of this.

I read this great article on layering on the SEOmoz Blog http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=789 and while it does a good job of explaining what content layering is, I feel it could be improved just a little bit.

I'm not saying it is wrong in any way. In fact the tactic outlined will be very effective for a small to medium sized site, however I have also found another way to organize your site which can be more effective if done properly.

In the article, it explains how you use layers to organize your site. Now we're not talking about CSS layering or anything like that. It's more of a site structure issue than anything.

According to the article, one can layer their site through the use of sub-folders. By creating layers of sub-folders and then placing all related content within that sub-folder you can layer your site to help specific sections of it rank higher.

This is a great way to organize a smaller site because it allows you to place topical pages together, and promote links within the pages to help improve overall positioning of these sections.

Further, it helps reduce the dilution factor often felt by sites that attempt to cover multiple topics in a flat file structure.

For example, if you sell widgets you could organize the sections by some common element, such as color. That way your site could be: http://widgetts.com/blue/page1.html and all blue widget pages would go into this sub-folder. You'd then organize all other sub-folders in a similar style.

Like I said, I think this is a very effective strategy for a smaller or medium site. There would be a much greater chance of blue widgets ranking highly in a structure like this.

However, I feel that for larger sites there's an even more effective way to organize your content.

Through the use of sub-domains one could further organize this content. This would make it even more relevant to search queries and more likely to rank. If one sold a larger variety of widgets yet still wanted to organize them by color then the structure of the site would be: http://blue.widgetts.com and all site content relating to blue widgets would appear within this sub-domain.

The reason I say sub-domains would be more effective is because search engines tend to treat a sub-domain as its own site. In other words, a search engine sees http://blue.widgetts.com and http://widgetts.com as essentially 2 different sites.

Keep in mind that such a strategy is of the most benefit to larger sites. If you don't have a large site, or don't foresee your site growing to become a large site then I wouldn't recommend the sub-domain layering tactic.

This is because, as I've said, the search engines will treat your sub-domain as a unique site. So if you've only got 10 or 15 or even 50 pages in your sub-domain, chances are it won't rank as competitively as it would have as a sub-folder of a larger site.

Now, to make your content even more competitive, why not combine these two strategies - use a sub-domain and sub-folders to provide you even more control in site organization as well as an even greater chance of ranking.

This is because the broader sub-domain can rank competitively for the broader terms while the sub-folder content can rank competitively for the less broad, more specific terms.

What you are doing by combining the two strategies is getting more bang for your buck. This is because you are covering more area on the web, allowing your site to rank for both broad and specific terms.

Then, with some good strategic interlinking you will be able to even further promote the broad areas of your site by linking all your internal pages to the pages above it.

While I'm not entirely dismissing the layered content theory presented above, I am saying consider your situation. If your site is a smaller site, by all means use the layered content approach. If it's larger then use the sub-domain approach.

Also remember that there could be multiple ways to organize the same content.

For example, in addition to organizing your sub-domains or sub-folders by color in the widget example, also consider organizing them by features. This way, a chosen widget could be linked to from multiple related categories.

Not only that but you've now bulked up your site with a bunch of additional pages. These new pages are required to help create the sub-domains and navigation required to drive visitors to the individual widget pages.

This type of multi-category linking is common among many large sites. One good example is Ebay. It organizes its top auctions into sub-domains like antiques, art, autos and clothing. Then, within the categories the sub-folder structure is used to further segment the site.

In conclusion, if you've been looking for a way to most effectively organize your site while helping to improve rankings, consider these options. Through the use of sub-folders, sub-domains or a combination of both you can effectively organize your site, segment your products and target searchers more effectively.

Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for http://www.textlinkbrokers.com. Textlinkbrokers is a link building company. Please provide a link directly to Textlinkbrokers when syndicating this article.

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