Video Lighting Tips for Your Mortgage Marketing Materials

Video marketing is growing in popularity and successful businesses are realizing that they need to take advantage of this marketing media. In fact, Invideo reports that 9 out of 10 viewers report they want to see more videos from brands and businesses. However, this means you may need to up your game when it comes to creating marketing videos, beginning with the best lighting for video recording. But how do you get the right lighting for your videos? Here we take a closer look at lighting and how to set up lighting for video marketing.

Importance of good lighting for videos

Lighting can be just as important for your video as the message you are sharing. A dark video can hide important information while a video with too much light can be difficult to watch and stay engaged with. Finding the correct lighting helps to ensure that your video content is sharp and professional. This allows you to clearly convey your message and appear professional. The good news is, to achieve good lighting you don’t need to hire a professional or invest in expensive equipment. Understanding basic lighting techniques allow you to get it right the first time.

How to set up lighting for video

When creating a video and setting up lighting, you first need to take a look at your environment so you know what you will need. Determine where you are creating your video and what natural light is available. Is it a sunny day with sunshine coming in the windows? Are you in a dark room with no natural light? Take notice of shadows and be prepared for potential changes, such as a storm moving in that takes away the natural sunshine. When creating a video, the best location is one where you have as much control over lighting as possible.

1. Choosing the lighting type

Your location will help determine the best lighting type in order to achieve a high-quality video. Your options can include taking advantage of natural light to higher-end lighting options.

Budget option

For a tight budget, taking advantage of natural light is your best option. However, when using natural light, you must make sure that the light illuminates the face and does not cast shadows over important areas.
If you are unable to take advantage of natural lights, there are some low-cost lighting options you can use. Cheap clamp lights allow you to clamp lights wherever you need additional illumination. However, they do not offer the ability to dim or reduce the brightness of the light, and standard bulbs can be too bright and harsh and also cast deep shadows. To counteract this, you can mute the light with diffusion paper or a soft material over the light source.

Mid-range lighting options

If you have a slighting higher budget, you can consider studio lights designed to create a well-balanced studio appearance, with the correct amount of light for your video recording. However, these lights can be large and bulky and are often too big for a small office. Another option is a small desk-top light that allows for adjustable brightness and color temperature, giving you the perfect light for filming videos at your desk.

High-end lighting options

If you plan to video marketing material regularly or want to include video webinars as well, investing in high-end lighting options may be something to consider. These higher-end lighting options offer features such as the ability to change the lighting on the fly, create high-quality diffusion, provide full-range dimmers, and offer stronger output, good for larger offices or presentations. Investing in high-end lighting options is a good idea if you are creating a regular studio for video production, otherwise, you can save money by choosing lower-cost options.

2. Setting up the lights

Once you have lighting options available, the next step is setting up the lights to provide the best lighting solutions. The most common method used is three-point lighting. This requires three lights, known as a key light, a fill light, and a backlight.

To best understand this setup, consider a clock. For your video, you will be sitting or standing in the center of this clock. Your key light should be positioned at the four of the clock and is your brightest light, designed to illuminate you. The fill light goes at the eighth position and is designed to eliminate shadows caused by the key light. The fill light should be about half the brightness of the key light. The backlight goes in between the one and two clock positions and is designed to help create depth.

3. Choosing the light temperature

Not all lights are created equal. Chances are you have seen how some lights provide a bluer or whiter tone (such as fluorescent lights) or a more yellow tone. This change in tone is considered light temperature, with the bluer and whiter tones being cool while the yellower tones are warm. Temperature is measured on the kelvin scale and some examples can include daylight with a blue sky measuring around 10K (cool) while an early sunrise measures 3K (warm). Choosing your color temperature will depend on preference, however, all of your lights must offer the same color temperature. For a good balance, look for daylight bulbs that offer a temperature of 5K.

4. Fixing the glare

Glare, especially on glasses, can be a big distraction in videos. In order to reduce the risk of glare, you can consider lifting your lighting higher or moving your key and filling lights farther away from the subject.

Other tips to get better lighting for videos

While creating a video recording station is great for regular videos, it isn’t always an option. Sometimes you might want to create a quick video at your desk or maybe an outdoor video is necessary. Here we offer a few more tips for different video scenarios.

1. Shooting a video at your desk

If you have the room around your desk, setting up the three-point lighting mentioned above is the best option. However, not all workspaces are set up to allow for this. If this is the case, you want to make sure that you either have a window near your desk that provides adequate natural light or an LED lamp on your desk that you can move to provide the right lighting. Play around with lighting options to see which setup provides the best light and minimal shadowing for your video recording.

2. Filming outdoor videos

Whether you are filming during the day or at night, outdoor video recording provides unique challenges. Obviously, you can’t carry around lighting while you record, but you can take advantage of your natural surroundings. If filming during the day in the sun, look for areas in the shade that will help avoid the harshness of the natural sunlight. Avoid direct sunlight that can cast shadows on your face or cause you to squint while speaking.

If filming in the evening, look for areas near a streetlamp that will provide subtle lighting. Do not go too close to the streetlamp, however, as this can cause long shadows on your face that block your eyes.

3. Avoid mixed video lighting

As we mentioned above, when choosing your video lighting options, it is important to have all your lighting at the same color temperature. So, if your office has large fluorescent lights overhead, you don’t want to use warmer tone lights in your three-point setup. In this scenario, you are best to turn off the overhead lights and simply use your three-point light system to illuminate the setting for your video.

The correct lighting allows you to put your best face forward

With video marketing becoming an essential tool for all businesses, putting your best face forward in your videos will help you better connect with your target audience. Following these lighting tips can help you create the high-quality videos you need to connect with your audience and increase your lead generation.

At Good Vibe Squad, we understand the importance of quality lead generation and our Unfair Advantage™ program can help give your business the boost it needs. Schedule a call today to learn how Good Vibe Squad can help your business reach its goals.

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Funny Mortgage Memes for Your Social Media

If you have a social media account, chances are you have seen a wide variety of memes shared by friends and family. These memes are cultural shorthand or sorts designed to emphasize a story or point in an often humorous way. Because of their popularity and the fact that many users are eager to share them with their followers, companies are utilizing memes in their marketing strategies. But can funny mortgage memes really make a difference? The fact is, if you choose or create the right loan officer meme or real estate meme, it could go viral, and you could have hundreds or thousands of potential new followers in no time at all.

What are mortgage memes?

Memes typically contain a culturally relevant image with the addition of text designed to convey the desired message. When creating a meme, you want an image that your target market will identify with immediately and then include relevant text that both fits the image and your desired marketing message.

Should loan officers use memes?

In the mortgage industry, meme marketing is an essential element if you want to engage in social media and boost your followers. Memes can be a powerful tool that can help mortgage lenders:

• Generate leads through referrals and new followers
• Increase your social media audience engagement
• Introduce your business to new followers with a creative and unique message that shows your personality
• Educate borrowers in the mortgage industry in a format that is more fun, engaging, and memorable

Types of memes for mortgage marketing

When creating memes for mortgage marketing, there are three main types of memes to consider. It is important to create a mixture of these different meme types as part of your mortgage marketing strategy as they will appeal to different audiences and draw in different followers.

Educational Memes

The loan process can be confusing and overwhelming for borrowers. By using a meme, you can address mortgage-specific terms or processes in a fun, yet educational manner that social media followers are more likely to engage with, understand, and remember than a blog post or educational post that is simply text. Here are some examples of educational memes.

Clear to close memes

In the mortgage industry, when a borrower is clear to close, it is time for celebration! It is time for your borrower to get the keys and move into their new dream home. Clear to close memes focus on this celebration and the positive moment this is for all homebuyers. You can even take advantage of this opportunity and use a phot-op of the buyers in front of their new home, turn the image into a congratulatory meme and post it to them as a thank you. Here are some examples of clear-to-close memes.

Asking for referrals

Whether you are looking for new leads or referrals to new industry partners, like realtors, memes can be a fun way to ask for referrals and partnerships. It is a way for you to share your personality and connect with buyers and real estate partners that you will connect with and work well with. Here are some examples of referral memes.

How to effectively use memes

Once you have created your memes, how do you effectively add them to your social media marketing strategy? Here we offer some basic tips to help you effectively use memes online to boost sales, engagement, and referrals.

1. Know your audience

Before creating and posting memes, it is important that you understand your target audience. If you are targeting primarily older homeowners for refinancing, then your memes should contain visual references and test that they will find humorous or engaging. In contrast, if you are targeting first-time homebuyers, you will likely have a little more creative freedom. No matter who your target audience is, you want to make sure your memes are not offensive in any way.

2. Take advantage of humor

In today’s stressful world, we can all use a laugh, and sharing a funny meme may be just what it takes to connect with that potential client or new lead. Delivering a meme that shows your humor and gives them a laugh is likely to be more memorable than a simple snippet of text in a social media post.

3. Don’t go overboard

While your personal social media feed may be filled with memes, as a mortgage lender, you don’t want to post too many memes. Adding memes in with other social media posts, such as blogs, market information, educational webinars, etc. provides a wide range of marketing opportunities and appeals to a wider audience.

4. Stay compliant

As with any of your marketing strategies, you must make sure any memes you create follow state and federal regulations, and you remain in compliance.

5. Add your contact information

When creating a meme, you want to make sure that you include your brand information, such as your name and contact information. This can be added to the image below the meme and can include your agency logo or other important contact information. This way, when your followers share the meme, new contacts know how to find you.

Leveraging memes to boost your bottom line

Staying on top of trends and what appeals to your target audience is essential for any marketing strategy. In today’s social media world, memes play a vital role. Including memes in your marketing strategy is a great way to target new followers and increase brand awareness. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand just how important leads can be to business success. Our Unfair Advantage™ program delivers a boost to your lead generation. To learn more about how we can help you grow your business, schedule a call today.

Funny Mortgage Memes for Your Social Media is republished from: www.goodvibesquad.com

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Guide on How to Do Mortgage Advertising in Social Media

As a mortgage professional, you know that your industry must comply with a long list of state and federal regulations. This is especially true when it comes to both traditional forms of advertising, as well as advertising on social media. Mortgage loan ads must follow specific guidelines and any form of mortgage loan advertising is subject to lender audits to ensure compliance. These mortgage advertising tips for social media can help ensure you remain compliant while reaching your target audience.

State and Federal Guidelines

When it comes to mortgage advertising, federal advertising rules apply to consumer mortgages while state regulations apply to both consumer and business mortgages. While federal regulations apply to all mortgage lenders, you will need to consult with the regulations of your state in order to ensure compliance. Here we look at some of the federal rules governed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

First-point-of-contact information rules

First-point-of-contact refers to marketing materials designed to make initial contact with a prospective client in order to establish a relationship. This type of marketing can include everything from business cards and stationery to emails, websites, and social media profiles. Any first-point-of-contact material you create must include the broker’s name and the licensing number of each broker.

Availability of advertised mortgages

If you advertise specific mortgage terms, these terms must actually be available to a borrower. The misrepresentation of a consumer’s likelihood of mortgage approval violates Regulation N, which we will explain in-depth below.

Misleading terms

Any form of advertising, including social media, must not include any false or misleading terms that can mislead the borrower. This includes interest rates, fees, costs, taxes, insurance, and any potential aspects of an advertised mortgage.

Triggering terms

The FTC defines any words or phrases that advertise specific terms of a credit agreement as triggering terms. When these terms are used in social media marketing, disclosures are required. Triggering terms can include the amount of a finance charge, the number of payments, and a down payment amount expressed as a percentage or a whole dollar amount. Examples would be “For as little as 3.5% down” or “30-year mortgage.”

Other prohibitions

In addition to previously mentioned guidelines, mortgage advertising is also prohibited from advertising that includes the simulation of a check, as they can mislead borrowers into thinking they are guaranteed money that is not actually available to them. In addition, no form of mortgage marketing can discriminate based on ancestry, color, disability, marital status, natural origin, race, religion, or sex.

Mortgage advertising on Facebook

Many social media platforms, such as Facebook, are designed to help advertisers remain compliant with their governing bodies when it comes to selecting target audiences. For example, when creating Facebook marketing campaigns, Facebook requires the use of Special Ad Audiences for certain advertisers to choose a broad target audience that is seen as more inclusive and non-discriminatory.

Rules about interest rates

Current interest rates can be used in mortgage advertising with conditions. To start, any interest rate you advertise must be the actual rate that your company is currently offering. This means that should your offering rate change, you need to immediately change your ad to reflect the new rate or pull the ad completely. In addition, you must display the annual percentage rate, or APR, conspicuously.

Addressing mortgage compliance

When it comes to mortgage advertising, there are several specific regulations that mortgage lenders must follow in order to remain compliant. The three main regulations when it comes to advertising include regulations B, N, and Z.

1. Regulation B

Regulation B is the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and is designed to ensure that all creditworthy consumers have access to mortgage loans. While this regulation does not provide specific advertising requirements, it does prohibit lenders from practices, including advertising, that discriminate against consumers based on age, ethnicity, gender, marital status, and nationality.

2. Regulation N

Regulation N was established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the FTC in the Mortgage Acts and Practices in Advertising law. This regulation includes all the basic advertising rules for commercial marketing materials. The goal of this regulation is to prohibit deceptive mortgage advertising, including things such as mortgage type misrepresentation, not providing the variability of interest rates, not indicating potential consumer fees, and not explaining how a fixed-rate mortgage can change over the long term.

3. Regulation Z

Regulation Z is the Truth in Lending Law. The goal of this regulation is to provide consumers with the actual cost of the loan and allows for better credit term and rate comparisons between lenders. This regulation requires that all mortgage loan advertising provides the truth to consumers and does not include anything misleading. It requires the disclosure of interest rates, both nominal and APR.

Ensuring Facebook Marketing is Compliant

With the popularity of social media, social media marketing is essential for business success and the generation of new leads. However, because every mortgage lender is subject to audits, it is essential to make sure all of your marketing efforts, including social media marketing, follow the regulations and remain compliant in order to avoid fines or, in a worst-case scenario, a lockdown. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand how important lead generation is to a successful business. Our Unfair Advantage program can help you boost your lead generation and bottom line. Schedule a call today to learn more about how the team at Good Vibe Squad can give your business the boost it needs.

Guide on How to Do Mortgage Advertising in Social Media is available on: https://www.goodvibesquad.com/

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Inbox Zero: How to Organize Gmail

According to the Harvard Business Review, the average business professional spends 28% of the workday reading and answering emails. Much of that time is spent sifting through your inbox determining which emails require immediate attention and which emails are nothing more than spam. But is there a way to reduce the amount of time spent going through emails? Can organizing and managing Gmail accounts make a difference?

Here we show you how the ‘Inbox Zero’ method and organizing your Gmail inbox can help to improve productivity and reduce time lost to your inbox.

Importance of managing your Gmail

According to statistics, the average worker sends or receives around 140 business emails a day. And that doesn’t even take into account personal emails or spam in your inbox. Sifting through all of these emails throughout the day can seriously reduce your productivity and ability to reach your business goals. In addition, with so many emails passing through your inbox, you risk missing important emails that need immediate attention. Implementing an email inbox organization strategy helps you create an organized Gmail inbox that reduces distractions and helps you stay on top of important emails that need immediate attention.

What is ‘Inbox Zero’?

Inbox Zero is an approach to inbox management that aims to keep your Gmail inbox as close to empty as possible. Developed by Merlin Mann, the Inbox Zero method involves different strategies and techniques that help professionals triage emails that are coming in to provide organization, maintain necessary email communication, and improve productivity, all while keeping your inbox as close to empty as possible.

How to organize emails in Gmail

Achieving an empty, or nearly empty, inbox and organizing your Gmail account may seem like an impossible task, but in the long run, it will be well worth it to implement these techniques into your Gmail account.

1. Prioritize your emails

The first step when organizing your Gmail account begins with the preferred layout. When you open your Gmail inbox, click on the gear symbol in the upper right corner and choose “Settings” and the “inbox” tab. Here you can choose from five different layout options that affect how emails come into your inbox. Choosing which layout you prefer is the first step in your Gmail organization process.

• Default: This setting organizes your emails by the date and time an email is delivered into your inbox. This setting allows for different category tabs at the top which work to filter emails as well.
• Important First: This layout allows Gmail to predict which emails it deems most important and displays them in a top inbox. Those emails deemed less important are placed into a bottom inbox.
• Unread First: Similar to the Important First option, the Unread First option includes a top and bottom inbox. Unread messages are placed in the top inbox while the bottom inbox includes all emails that have already been opened.
• Starred First: The Starred First option breaks your inbox into two boxes, with the top inbox featuring only emails that you have starred and everything else appearing in the bottom inbox.
• Priority Inbox: This layout brings together a combination of the other options. Here, Gmail uses predictive analysis to determine which emails you are most likely to interact with and place those emails into your top view.

2. Use Labels

Labels are an effective tool to help you keep your inbox empty while also organizing your emails into specific categories. When you open your inbox, you will see a list of labels on the left side. By default, these labels include Inbox, Starred, Snoozed, Sent, and a variety of others. Every email in your inbox can be assigned one of these labels to better organize your inbox.

How to create labels

While there are the default labels, you are not limited to these labels and can instead create your own organization folders and labels. In addition, when creating labels, you can also nest sub-labels in each category. To do this, you simply click on the label tab and select “Create New” and create your label of choice. When creating labels, you also have the option of color-coding your labels to further distinguish them from others. Once you create a label, you will notice a new folder appear in the column to the left of the inbox.

How to apply labels

By selecting an email in your inbox and then clicking on the “labels” tab at the top, you can choose which label an email will receive. Then, the label will automatically attach to the email subject area, giving you a way to organize your inbox. You can take this one step further and transfer messages into their label folder in order to keep your inbox at zero or when a message is archived, it will automatically transfer to the labeled folder. If an email fits into multiple categories, you can assign them multiple labels.

3. Use filters

Once you have created custom labels, you can apply filters to emails that will cause similar incoming messages to automatically filter into their designated label folder. For instance, if you know that every Monday you receive an internal company bulletin email that is not something that needs immediate attention, you can apply a filter that will automatically deliver that into a bulletin folder that you can open when you have time to address the email. Doing this will help keep your inbox clutter-free and leave room for more important emails.

To apply filters, simply select an email you wish to filter and click on the “more” button at the top of the inbox. Select “Filter messages like this” from the drop-down menu that appears. Here you can choose how to filter the messages, such as by keywords, subject lines, specific senders, attachments, or additional criteria. Once you select the criteria, you click “Create filter with this search” and decide on the specific action the filter will take, such as moving messages to the custom folder and not into the inbox.

When finished, simply click “Create filter” and your messages will bypass your inbox and go directly to where you want them to.

4. Eliminate unnecessary tabs

The Gmail default layout comes with five default tab categories: Primary, Social, Updates, Forums, and Promotions. These tabs allow Gmail to filter emails into these different categories. However, not everyone will need all these categories available and there is always the risk of emails being incorrectly filtered. This means you need to periodically check every tab for potential important emails. Eliminating unnecessary tabs helps to keep your inbox more streamlined and easier to check. To eliminate unnecessary tabs, click on your settings at the top of your inbox and choose to customize your inbox type. Here you will have the option to choose which tabs to enable. This is not necessary when you choose the other Gmail layout options.

5. Utilize the Send and Archive Features

Now that you have created multiple labels and filters, you can further organize and empty your Gmail inbox by automatically archiving certain emails into your custom folders. To activate this feature, click on the gear icon at the top of your inbox and choose “settings” from the drop-down menu. Scroll down and select the “Show Send & Archive button in reply” option and then save your changes. With this activated, you will now have two options when you send a reply to an email. One is a traditional send, and the other is an option that will automatically send the reply and then archive the message into its designated label folder.

6. Mute email threads

If you constantly receive group messages between customers and/or co-workers that don’t necessarily involve you, you can choose to mute the conversations until you have time to go back and read them. Instead of the new messages coming into your inbox, they will automatically be archived where you can access new conversations when you desire. To mute a Gmail conversation thread, open the email and click “more” in the drop-down menu. Here you can simply choose “mute” from the list and the conversation is archived.

Boost productivity with Gmail management

By taking control of your Gmail account and staying on top of inbox management, you can greatly reduce your time spent struggling to stay on top of emails throughout the day, leaving you with more time to focus on other areas of your business and, in turn, boost productivity. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand the importance of customer and business relationships and how emails play a vital role in maintaining and nurturing those relationships to boost your business and we are here to help. Our Unfair Advantage™ can help you target your ideal clients and automate many of your email processes, helping to further boost productivity. To learn more, schedule a call with our team today.

The article Inbox Zero: How to Organize Gmail was originally published to: https://goodvibesquad.com

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