How to Embed Video in Email

If you haven’t already considered adding video to your email marketing strategy, now is the time to do so. Research shows that adding the word “video” to an email subject can boost open rates by 19%, clickthrough rates by 65%, and a drop in unsubscribe rates by 26%! As you can see, adding video has huge benefits for your business but, unfortunately, embedding video in email can be a challenge.

How do you add a content-rich video to your emails? Here we offer step-by-step instructions that show you how to embed videos in emails, including on platforms such as Outlook and Gmail, as well as how to embed YouTube videos in emails.

A step-by-step guide to embedding videos into your email

While adding video to your email marketing can offer an effective boost in your marketing strategy, it can be a tricky process. Unfortunately, many of the major email clients, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, do not support embedded videos and, when sent to your subscribers, they are often unable to watch the videos or the emails themselves end up in the spam folder where they never even see them. The good news is there are ways that you can embed part of your video into an email and encourage the reader to click through to watch the video in its entirety. Here we walk you through the different steps to embedding video into your emails.

1. Create and upload your video file

If you are creating your own video, you must upload it to your website or a video platform, such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, or Facebook. When creating your video, you must ask yourself what the goal of your video is. This helps you determine what you are going to say and what your exact goals are. When creating your video, keep it short and simple and under 1MB.

If you are wanting to include a previously recorded video already online, you will need to find the video URL and have that available to create the next steps and embed the video into your marketing email. You can choose to use either step 2 or step 3 next.

2. Choose an image for your video thumbnail

Creating an image of the video you want to share in your email marketing campaign allows you to give the reader a visual representation of the video with a play button that, when clicked, will send the reader directly to the video on the website platform hosting it. The easiest way to do this is to go to the video, start the video, and, when there is an image you like, pause the video. This will create an automatic “Play” icon on top of the image.

You can then screenshot the image and crop the image to fit your email marketing campaign. Once you add the cropped image to your email, you can directly link the image to the video. To do this, simply highlight the image and select “Insert Link.” Here you add the URL of the video you are using and complete the rest of the email. When the reader clicks on the image, they will automatically be redirected to the video.

3. Create GIF

Creating a GIF allows you to embed part of the video to spark an interest by the reader to click through to the complete video. To do this, you need to create a GIF directly from the video you want to use. You can do this at igmflip.com, an online tool designed to convert video images to a GIF. To do this, you download the video into the tool (this can be done using the URL of the video you intend to use).

Here you choose where in the video you want the GIF to start and where you want it to end, for a total of 20 seconds with a free account. Once you create the clip timeframe, you generate the GIF. You then download the GIF, and it is ready to drop into your marketing email. Once you add it to your email platform, you can then create a CTA that goes directly below that includes a message asking the reader to click on the full video. For example, “Click to view the full video here.”

4. Embed video in an email

If you are determined to directly embed a video into your email marketing campaign, you can do this through HTML5 code. However, because so many major email platforms do not support this direct video embed, many of your readers are likely to see a static image that links to another page instead of your intended video. And that’s if they receive the email at all because chances are it will be rerouted to your reader’s spam folder. Instead, you will have better success choosing one of the alternatives above that work around the fact that email providers do not support embedded videos but still provide a video experience for your readers.

How to get the reader to click “Play”

Once you have a targeted video created and embedded into your email marketing campaign, your goal is to make sure that the reader clicks play, and watches the video. But how do you do that? Here are some important tips to help ensure your reader sees the email and opens the video.

Subject line

When a reader gets your email, all they see is the subject line. They will have no idea what amazing video content awaits them unless you tell them. Consider creating a subject that includes the word “video” as this is proven to increase the open rate.

Avoid using spam trigger words

While you have no doubt seen emails with keywords or phrases such as “Act Now” or “Click Here,” the fact is these phrases, along with hundreds of others, are considered email spam trigger words that can get your email sent directly to spam folders, meaning your reader may never even see it. In fact, as many as 14.7% of emails end up being caught by spam filters. This site provides a comprehensive list of common spam trigger words and phrases.

Keep your video short

In today’s busy world, most people do not have unlimited time to devote to watching email videos. Keeping your videos under 30 seconds or less allows you to address your topic and provide the answers they are looking for while still showing that you respect their time.

Provide value to the reader

The idea of adding video to your email marketing is to provide additional value to the reader. Chances are they do not want to watch a simple commercial, but they will take notice if you are answering the questions they may have or providing a solution to a problem they may be experiencing. Make sure that all your video and text content provides the reader with value.

Don’t just depend on the video

While you want your reader to click and watch the video, they may not be able to watch the video right away, so you want to make sure your email also includes text both before and after the video. This text should tease the content they will find in the video as well as include a CTA that you want them to do after they watch the video.

Using Video Can Help You Boost Your Email Marketing Strategy

A video is a powerful tool that can make a real difference in your marketing strategy. By following these tips, you can effectively add powerful videos directly into your email marketing campaigns, significantly boosting your open and clickthrough rates.

To learn more about effective marketing strategies that can help boost your business, check out Good Vibe Squad’s Unfair Advantage and schedule a call with the Good Vibe Squad today.

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Benefits of Influencer Marketing in the Mortgage Industry

Influencer marketing is quickly becoming the best way to build and grow your brand online. In fact, Forbes reports that influencer marketing is growing faster than digital ads and providing much greater benefits for companies around the world. But what is an influencer and how is influencer marketing really able to benefit your mortgage business?

What is an influencer?

An influencer is a person that has the ability to influence potential consumers by promoting and recommending a specific product or service through their social media channel. They typically have a large following with a specific target audience that follows them for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. Top influencers are often celebrities. According to Visual Capitalist, the top five social media influencers online based on their number of followers include Cristiano Ronaldo, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift.

While those influencers are unlikely to benefit the mortgage industry, sharing your expert knowledge of the industry through social media platforms may quickly gain you followers and offer an influencer status. In fact, LinkedIn reports that 2022 is bringing the rise of the mortgage influencer.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing strategy that uses endorsements from influencers. This marketing concept takes advantage of the large following or consumers that influencers have, allowing them to reach a greater audience. When you partner with an influencer, you typically pay a flat rate for them to create a promotional post or product endorsement. As you build a relationship, it may be beneficial for them and for you to become a brand ambassador or an influencer that regularly promotes or endorses your services.

Benefits of using influencer marketing

The biggest benefit of influencer marketing is the influencer already has an established audience that follows them, giving your brand access to those followers. But that is only the beginning. Influencer marketing offers a wide range of benefits that can provide a substantial boost to your business when you partner with the right influencer or become a mortgage-industry influencer yourself.

Improve brand awareness

Influencer marketing allows you to expand your reach. As an influencer shares your business product or services, their social users will begin to learn more about who you are and what you have to offer. The key to successful influencer marketing partnerships is that the influencer’s audience fits your target market and that you offer a benefit to the influencer’s current social media presence.

Builds trust and credibility

The key to an influencer’s success is that they build trust with their followers. When an influencer shares your information, their followers respect their recommendations and are more likely to trust the product or services you offer. When an influencer shares your brand, it creates a sense of instant credibility and trust that may otherwise be difficult to achieve.

Builds authority

If you can garner the attention of a mortgage industry authority influencer, it shows the influencer’s followers that your business aligns with industry leaders and that you too are an industry authority. In a time when building online trust is critical, influencer marketing can truly make a difference.

Effectively reach the target audience and beyond

Influencers depend on building a large following and when they mention your brand, this large following knows about it. Finding the right influencer within your industry or with an audience that fits your target market is essential. When partnered with the right influencer, you can reach your target market on a much greater level and boost your sales potential.

Builds winning partnership

Regularly working with an influencer and building a partnership can greatly benefit both you and the influencer. Eventually, the influencer may be interested in becoming a long-term brand advocate, or someone who will regularly promote your services to their followers.

Reduce your advertising budget

Traditional advertising, such as ads through social media, can be expensive. In many cases, you pay every time someone clicks on an ad, and you are not guaranteed a conversion. With influencer marketing, you typically pay an influencer a flat rate for each post or mention they provide. This post reaches a large audience with no additional cost to you and, given the fact that these followers are seeing a promotion by someone they respect, the chances of conversion are often higher.

Provides fresh and unique content

While you may create blogs and videos through your own social media platforms, finding fresh and new content can often be time-consuming. Partnering with industry-specific influencers and sharing their content allows you to both appeal to your followers as well as put your brand in front of the influencer’s followers.

Generates leads

The more your brand is talked about, the higher your lead generation prospects become. Social media and influencers provide a simple way for consumers to express interest in the services you offer. These platforms are quickly becoming one of the best ways to help generate web traffic and boost lead generation.

Drives conversion

When an influencer recommends a product or service, they have the ability to lead their followers towards these services. In fact, as many as 50% of online consumers depend on recommendations from influencers and as many as 40% of online consumers end up using new companies or products that they see promoted by social media influencers.

Use influencer marketing to your advantage

Taking advantage of social media and influencer marketing in today’s competitive online world can make a big difference to your brand awareness and provide a significant boost to your overall lead generation and sales. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand how important it is to make your brand stand out and generate qualified leads on a regular basis in order to achieve success and our Unfair Advantage™ can help you do just that. To learn more, schedule a call with us today. 

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AI Chatbot for Mortgage Industry

In today’s technology-based world, everyone has access to information whenever they need it, including outside of traditional business hours. People want answers to their questions immediately and if they can’t find what they are looking for, they move on to a competitor that will offer the answers they need.

Unfortunately, as a mortgage loan officer, you can’t be available to answer questions 24/7, but there is a way that your website can! Adding a mortgage chatbot can provide potential clients with the answers they need when they are looking. But how effective are chatbots in the mortgage industry?

What is an AI chatbot?

AI chatbots are artificial intelligence bots that interact with online users, simulating a conversation. Through conversation, these chatbots can answer basic mortgage questions, provide information about the lender, information about loan processing, and much more. This allows potential clients to get the information they need at any time of day or night and allow you to follow up with them during business hours.

Benefits of an AI chatbot

The average person between the ages of 16 and 64 spends just under 7 hours a day online. These users are often performing internet searches and looking for answers to questions, shopping online, and visiting social media platforms. If they can’t find the answers they are looking for, statistics show that nearly 40% of internet users prefer to interact with chatbots online to find the answers they are looking for. Having a chatbot that works through your website or social media platform offers many benefits that can help boost your business.

Available 24/7

No one wants to work 24/7 but you do want to be available for your clients and potential leads. Adding a chatbot allows you to offer services and answers to potential clients no matter what time of day or night.

Human-like interaction

Chatbots are programmed to interact with users in the same manner as you would through natural conversation. They can decode even the simplest of terms and provide answers to the mortgage industry questions users have.

Provides answers instantly

Online users want answers to their questions immediately and, when they have to wait to contact you during business hours or respond to their email inquiry, they are often more likely to move on to a competitor that can provide the answers they are looking for. With an AI chatbot, these users can receive the answers and information they are looking for instantly and, if needed, follow up with you during normal business hours.

Increases lead generation possibilities

A chatbot is a valuable tool to add to your lead generation strategy. It allows you to increase the conversational experience of your website visitors. Through conversation, the chatbot can evaluate prospects and provide them with the information they request. When the chatbot determines the prospect is a qualified lead, they can directly connect the lead to you for further follow-up.

Generates engagement reports

AI chatbots not only provide information to potential borrowers, but they also provide an insight to you on the visitors to your site, what they are looking for, and how you can better provide the information they are looking for. In addition, these engagement reports evaluate chatbot users and identify qualified leads for additional follow-up.

Cost-effective

Answering online visitors’ questions and concerns is important and you want to be able to do this immediately. However, hiring customer service agents that can be available 24/7 can be expensive. AI chatbots solve this problem, enabling you to provide the customer service that will boost your business without the traditional costs of a customer service team.

Types of AI chatbots

Not all chatbots are the same and how they work depends on their algorithms and how they are programmed. There are three common types: support, skilled, and assistant.

Support

Support chatbots are programmed to be automated customer service agents that can answer any potential questions a user may have about a specific topic. In the mortgage industry, these chatbots have an in-depth knowledge of the lending process and can provide quality information to the user.

Skilled

Skilled chatbots are programmed to provide a specific skill. For example, Alexa is a skilled chatbot that users can ask to turn on their music or provide a Google search. In the mortgage industry, a skilled chatbot can include a mortgage calculator.

Assistant

Assistant chatbots are essentially a combination of the two previous chatbots. They offer both the ability to converse with users as well as provide tasks and tools for users to interact with.

AI chatbots benefiting the mortgage industry

Quality customer service and building relationships with leads and clients are essential for every successful mortgage lender. However, technology and the internet have changed the way many potential clients look for information and short of hiring a customer service team or working 24/7, there is no way you can be available to answer questions every hour of the day. This is where an AI chatbot becomes a valuable tool for your business, allowing you to provide the answers consumers are looking for when they are looking.

At Good Vibe Squad, we understand the importance of customer service and quality leads and work to boost mortgage production. To learn more about our Unfair Advantage™ program, book a call with us today.

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Using LinkedIn Video Messaging to Connect with Your Mortgage Prospects

LinkedIn is a social media platform designed for business professionals as a way to find and build professional relationships. Unfortunately, with so many professionals on LinkedIn, it can be difficult to actually make connections, with many traditional messages simply filling up already filled email inboxes. Video messaging, however, gives you the ability to stand out and create a more personal connection. What is video messaging on LinkedIn, and how do you send videos through LinkedIn messaging?

Why use video messaging?

On a platform such as LinkedIn, it is necessary to create a way to stand out above your competitors. You want your messages to potential connections to be seen and heard. But how can you create a message that does just that? The answer is video messaging. While you can still create a powerfully written message, embedding videos into your LinkedIn messages allows you to humanize the content and create a more personal connection.

When to use LinkedIn video message

Any time you are looking to set yourself apart from your competition in messages to potential referral partners or customers on LinkedIn, a personalized video message is the best option. While everyone’s LinkedIn inbox is filled with messages, a video stands out above the rest and offers a way to create a personalized connection.

How to send video in LinkedIn message

When you decide to add a video to your LinkedIn messages, the steps are fairly easy. Creating a video message doesn’t take much time at all. Here we offer a step-by-step guide on creating your video message.

1. Open your LinkedIn messenger

Begin by opening your LinkedIn Messenger. Find the prospect that you want to send a video message to and click the video form button. Once there, you can choose how you want to record your video.

2. Record a video

Within LinkedIn, you can create a video message simply using your camera, or you can choose to add audio or screen options. Once you choose your format, you are ready to start recording by clicking the “start recording” button.

3. Edit and save the video

Once your video message is complete, you can click to stop the recording. At this point, you can save the video or click the “X” to rerecord another video.

4. Edit thumbnail and add a CTA

Once your video is recorded and saved, LinkedIn provides you with the option to edit the video thumbnail and add video effects to help make the thumbnail stand out more. This is a great time to add a CTA to your message in order to prompt your viewer to take action on your message. Once you complete these steps, you will receive a menu prompt to copy the thumbnail and the link.

5. Paste video preview into LinkedIn messenger

At this time, open the prospect's messenger and paste the video link into the message section. You can add any additional text you would like, and then your message is ready to send.

Tips on how to make an effective video message

Now that you know how to send a message, the focus turns to create the perfect message to send. While many may decide just to wing it, we believe you will find greater success when you take the time to think about and create a specific message. Here we offer some tips for creating effective videos for your LinkedIn messaging.

Write a script

When creating a video message, you likely have a specific objective you want the video to achieve. This can be a simple introduction, a follow-up from previous meetings or connections, or something educational, such as mortgage industry news. Creating a script can help ensure you meet these goals and stay on track while recording.

Customize the message

While you are likely to send similar messages to many different prospects, whether through email or LinkedIn messages, it is recommended that you personalize and customize each message for each prospect. For example, while you may use a similar script for multiple contacts, you should personalize your prospects name or business, as well as the date in each individual video.

Be natural

When creating a video message, the idea is to connect with a prospect and highlight who you are and what you offer. When creating a video, the idea is to highlight who you are and who they would be dealing with directly. This means you want to be your natural self. There is no need for studio lights and stage backgrounds. Simply find a good, quiet location with some natural light, dress in your normal business attire, and just be yourself.

Video messaging offers a personal connection

Video messaging through LinkedIn is a great way to help you stand out above your competition and get noticed by the prospects you hope to connect with. Making these connections is a vital part of your marketing strategy and the key to your business success. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand how important it is to build professional relationships. Through our Unfair Advantage™, we can help you double your mortgage production. To learn more, contact us today.

The article Using LinkedIn Video Messaging to Connect with Your Mortgage Prospects was first published on: www.goodvibesquad.com

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Mortgage Video Marketing Using Social Media

In a world where content is king and just about everyone has some sort of social media profile, mortgage marketing has never been so important. While making regular text posts on social media can be effective, social media video marketing offers you a way to stand out above your competition. Why is video important in social media marketing, and how can it really make a difference in your marketing strategy?

What is mortgage marketing?

Mortgage marketing is a way to educate and motivate potential borrowers to choose your mortgage services over others. Your mortgage marketing strategy can include corporate brand management, generating referral partner relationships, and maintaining an active social media presence. While the written text has always been a major component of every marketing strategy, the world of social media allows you to take your marketing to a different level. Video marketing allows you to leave a stronger impression on potential borrowers while also helping to generate an emotional connection.

Benefits of using videos in mortgage marketing

As we mentioned, the use of videos in mortgage marketing helps create a connection with potential borrowers in a way that written text cannot do. In fact, the use of video marketing, when combined with social media, offers many different benefits for your business, including:

• Potential borrowers have a 75% greater understanding of information in videos as opposed to reading the same information
• Videos on a landing page can increase your conversion rate by as much as 82%
• Emails with videos generate higher click through rates
• Video marketing can grow your revenue 49% faster than text-based marketing
• Marketing videos can increase your website traffic by 41%
  52% of marketing specialists confirm that video marketing has the highest ROI of any marketing content

Different video marketing options

When you decide to add videos to your marketing strategy, the next step is determining what content to include in your videos and what type of videos will bring you the best results. Here we take a look at some of the video options that work best for the mortgage industry.

Introductory messages

When you meet a new lead or referral in person, you first introduce yourself and the services you offer. Video marketing allows you to introduce yourself to potential borrowers and referrals long before you meet in person. Creating a powerful introduction video allows you to connect with leads and referrals through social media and gives you the opportunity to showcase your valuable services.

Thank you for the referral message

When realtors send borrowers your way, chances are you will drop them a quick thank you email. Instead of just a simple thank you, why not create a personalized thank you video? Adding a personalized video response helps create a personalized connection and build better relationships.

Meeting follow ups

After a meeting with a potential borrower, customer, or a referral partner, it is always beneficial to send some sort of follow-up. Creating a personalized video allows you to thank them for their time and provide a recap of what was discussed during your meeting.

Loan anniversary videos

Staying in touch with previous clients is an important way to maintain a connection and a loan anniversary is a perfect opportunity to make this connection. Creating a personalized video allows you to connect with your client, thank them again for their business, and let them know that you are there for them should they ever need your services in the future.

Birthday videos

Sending out birthday emails is a great way to stay connected with leads, clients, and referral partners. While everyone loves a birthday message, a personalized birthday video delivers a much more personal touch. While singing happy birthday would be an added bonus, a cheerful birthday wish is just as perfect.

Holiday videos

The holidays are a great way to connect with leads, clients, and referral partners. Creating a festive holiday video that you can post to your social media and email to your contact list allows you to connect and helps to nurture your business relationships.

Mortgage news

Mortgage news updates videos are a great way to educate your social media followers and website visitors. Sharing regular industry news updates offers high value to both borrowers and referral partners. Summarizing industry news in easy-to-digest language makes it easier for those without industry knowledge to understand and see the impact the information can make on them.

Loan process updates

One of the most exciting things for a home mortgage borrower is learning that their loan has been approved for closing. Instead of a simple email or a phone call, a loan process update video is a personalized option that allows you to better connect with your client.

Take advantage of video marketing

Adding video marketing, whether through educational videos or direct messages to your followers, can help nurture relationships with your contacts and provide a much more personal presence on your social media platforms. At Good Vibe Squad, we understand the importance of building relationships, increasing your leads, and boosting your business and are here to help. Our Unfair Advantage™ can help boost and fastrack your lead generation and, ultimately, your business. To learn more, book a call with us today.

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How To Improve Your Mortgage Lead Conversion

Converting a mortgage lead into a sale or closing requires a strategic plan and a lot of work. Earning the trust of new leads is never easy and everything you do and how you do it plays a significant role in whether you close on a deal or your lead moves to the competition. But how do you know if your strategy is working? What is a good lead conversion rate and how can you improve your mortgage lead conversion rate?

What is lead conversion?

Lead conversion is a process that involves converting your leads into customers. It involves a nurturing strategy that works to build trust with your leads. While every business has a different method when it comes to lead conversion, the goal is to build trust in your services and/or products through quick follow-up and continued contact. The higher your lead conversion rate is, the more successful your business will be.

What is the average mortgage lead conversion rate?

In general, the average mortgage lead conversion rates are between 2-3%. However, with the right strategy in place, a good loan officer may be able to boost that number to 4-5%.

How to calculate the lead conversion rate?

Calculating your lead conversion rate can help you see exactly where you may need to make some improvements. To find your individual conversion rate, simply divide your number of closings by the total number of leads. This will give you your lead conversion rate at any given time.

How to improve your lead conversion

The goal of every successful loan officer is to improve their lead conversion rate. If your rates are low, it may be time to examine exactly how you are communicating with your leads in order to start building trust and nurturing a relationship right from the start.

Here we offer some tips that can help you boost your lead conversion.

Maintain an up-to-date lead database.

Lead conversion is all about building trust and relationships with your leads. This nurturing must begin immediately and requires regular follow-up to build this trust. It can become a very time-consuming part of your marketing strategy, and, without the right tools, it is very easy to forget tasks, which allows leads to fall through the cracks. A solid lead database or customer relationship management (CRM) program allows you to organize leads, assign specific tasks for lead follow-up, and even automate many of these different tasks, ensuring that you provide the information your leads need and maintain regular lead contact.

Improve your speed to lead.

So, what is your speed to lead? This is a metric that allows you to evaluate the amount of time between receiving a lead and your initial response to the lead. For example, a lead provides information to your website’s contact form and submits their information at 10 a.m. on Monday, hoping to hear from someone on time. However, they do not receive contact from you until noon on Tuesday. This means your speed to lead rate is 26 hours. In this timeframe, your lead has already moved on to the competition which responded to their inquiry in less than six hours. Improving your speed to lead time is essential.

Maximize your speed to lead rate.

To maximize your speed to lead rate, you need to look at exactly what is keeping you from providing a faster response time. Do you have your website form connected to a CRM that immediately adds new leads into a database? Does that new addition trigger a task alert? If not, this is something you need to consider to maximize your response time. In addition, you can often use your CRM to completely automate your initial response by sending out a personalized email based on certain qualifying markers on your contact form.

Use personalized messages.

With email boxes being overwhelmed every day, the time of cookie-cutter email responses is over. A standard template response email is likely to go straight into the recycle bin without ever being read. All email correspondence should include a personal touch, introduce you and your personality, and work to connect with the lead you are connecting with. With an overly saturated market, it is more important than ever that you make an emotional connection right from the start.

Follow up in a timely manner and stay connected.

The key to conversion is timing. Leaving a lead waiting to hear from you will likely force them to move on to the competition. Generally, it takes six to eight contacts to qualify and convert a lead. Following up and connecting with leads regularly is essential. This can include simple emails, educational content, and quick phone calls just to connect.

Add value to gain trust.

The mortgage industry can be overwhelming to the average buyer, and, in many cases, they put all of their trust in their loan officer when it comes to closing a deal. This is why building trust is so essential when it comes to your lead conversion rate. Offering valuable information can help build additional trust with your leads. This can include adding a mortgage calculator tool to your website, hosting an educational blog that helps explain the mortgage industry and highlights your expertise, and sending our regular newsletters that answer common questions and provides information.

Obtain and respond to customer reviews

Reviews can greatly influence a consumer’s decision to work with you. Hearing or reading about a satisfied customer’s experience also helps build your credibility and gain leads' trust. Statistics show that 9 out of 10 consumers read customer reviews before making a purchase or working with a company, and 79% trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member. Don’t be afraid to ask satisfied customers if they can leave a review and, when they do, make sure to respond to the review, even if there is negative information.

Lead conversion is necessary for success.

Maximizing your lead conversion is essential for business success. Implementing these tips into your marketing strategy can help ensure that no potential lead falls through the cracks and that you have the tools to build and nurture quality lead relationships.

The team at Good Vibe Squad understands the importance of quality lead generation to boost the potential for lead conversion. Our Unfair Advantage program help provides you with quality leads that help to boost your lead conversion once these methods are in place. Schedule a call with us to learn more. 

How To Improve Your Mortgage Lead Conversion was first published on: https://www.goodvibesquad.com/

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YouTube Ads for Loan Officers

As a loan officer, your goal is to connect with potential clients and work to establish a relationship with them and possible referral partners. Adding video to your mortgage marketing, such as YouTube, is a great way to do so. While YouTube may be known as a source of entertainment content, YouTube marketing is quickly becoming a must-have tool that can make a substantial difference to your lead generation success.

What are YouTube ads?

In our technology-based world, everyone is looking for the next viral video. The average person now spends more time watching online than watching major television networks. YouTube offers videos to watch at no charge, attracting more than 122 million people every day!

YouTube ads are video or graphic advertisements that play or display before a video starts or in-steam during a video a user is watching. These are managed through Google AdWords, where you can upload your marketing material, choose the targeting audience and video type, and decide on your marketing budget.

How do YouTube ads help your mortgage business?

YouTube videos are in front of millions of people every day, meaning you have a large potential audience to target. YouTube ads boost traffic to your site, bring potential customers into your sales funnel, and retarget past clients with new and exciting information.

Build brand awareness

Using YouTube ads allows you to personally introduce yourself and your mortgage company, letting potential clients get to know you and the services you offer. Through Google AdWords, you can use these ads to target potential clients based on your geographical area. By promoting your business personally, such as through video marketing, you allow yourself to stand out above the competition.

Attract them into your sales funnel

People are often more likely to engage with a business after hearing testimonials from clients in similar situations. Making a personal mortgage video with a satisfied customer testimonial, for instance, showcases you and your business and is more likely to draw in potential new clients.

Retargeting

Because YouTube Ads go through Google AdWords, you can take advantage of your current retargeting of email subscribers through your AdWords campaign. In addition, you can add the AdWords pixel to your website, allowing you to target your YouTube ads to those users that have previously visited your website.

Types of YouTube Ads

YouTube ads offer a wide array of different ad opportunities. These can include videos that stream before an entertainment video, play in-between videos that can be skipped, and display ad banners. Before you consider which ad will work best for you, let’s take a closer look at what is available.

1. TrueView In-Stream Ads

TrueView In-Steam Ads play before, during, or after the video plays. These can be a maximum of three minutes long, but the viewer can skip the ad after about five seconds. They appear on YouTube watch pages, videos from partner sites, and the Google Display Network. These are often used to create buying intent.

2. TrueView Video Discovery Ads

These ads appear as a thumbnail image and description in the YouTube search results, similar to other video content. This is a great option for brand awareness.

3. Non-Skippable In-Stream Ads

While this is the least popular option of marketing among YouTube viewers, this video marketing option allows for a 15-20 second video advertisement that plays before a video can be viewed. Users are not able to skip past the video. This is beneficial if you want to ensure that a user watches your ad from beginning to end.

4. Bumper Ads

Bumper ads are short, six-second or less, ads that the viewer cannot skip. These ads play before, during, or after the intended video on YouTube videos, partner site videos, and on the Display Network. This is another marketing option that is great for brand awareness.

5. Display Ads

If video ads are not your thing, YouTube offers other options. Display ads allow you to place an image and text in the search results to the right of the video. Users can read your ad and click directly on your website. This method is great for driving traffic to your site and boosting lead generation.

6. Overlay Ads

This is another non-video advertisement option. With overlay ads, you create a banner that can include simple text or images, such as a logo, that will display across the bottom of the screen during video play. The user then can close the banner or click to be directed to your website. Again, this is another good option to drive traffic to your site.

7. Sponsored Card Ads

Similar to overlay banner ads, sponsored cards subtly display while users watch their chosen video. These cards are smaller and serve as a call-to-action button that the user can click to find out more information.

Adding YouTube Ads to Your Marketing Strategy

With a huge audience, it makes sense to include YouTube ads in your marketing strategy to help boost lead generation and help to build relationships with clients. Lead generation is essential to the success of any loan officer, and YouTube offers one more tool for your marketing strategy.

At Good Vibes Squad, we understand how important good lead generation is to your business success, and our goal is to help you achieve your goals. Our Unfair Advantage system can help give you a boost over your competition. To learn more, schedule a call with us today.

YouTube Ads for Loan Officers was originally seen on: https://goodvibesquad.com

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Mortgage Marketing Tips: Facebook Video Ads Best Practice

When it comes to mortgage marketing, you often share the same home pictures or finance rates as the other mortgage loan officers in your area, making it difficult to stand out against the competition. Facebook ad videos may be the solution. Creating unique and inviting video ads is often the perfect way to set yourself apart from the competition. Here are some of the best practices for video ads on Facebook.

What are Facebook video ads?

Facebook video ads are advertisements that utilize a video format. These ads do not require technical video knowledge. If you have a phone with a camera, good lighting, and a message to share with the public, you can create a video ad.

Facebook has also learned that users engage with video content much more than traditional advertising. In fact, the Sprout Social Index 2020 reported that 50% of consumers are likely to engage with video advertising while on social media platforms, such as Facebook.

How can Facebook video ads help your mortgage business?

Adding video ads to your marketing strategy allows you and your business to stand out in an overly crowded market. In an industry like the mortgage, much of your information is the same as the lender next door. The goal of your marketing campaign should be to find a way to share that information while still standing out, and Facebook video ads allow you to do just that.

10 best practices for video ads on Facebook

When you decide to add Facebook video ads to your marketing arsenal, you must consider a few things first. Let’s take a look at some best practices for video ad creation.

1. Capture attention right away

Let’s be honest, when it comes to scrolling through Facebook, our attention span is limited. Facebook reports that the average attention span of the average human is about 8.25 seconds. When it comes to your video ad, you need to capture the attention of your video audience within the first few seconds to help ensure they will listen to your complete message.

2. Tell the story without sound

How many of you scroll through Facebook without your sound on? Statistics show that 85% of Facebook ads are watched without sound. So, it is important that your audience can understand your video message in silence. You can use captions, text overlay, or simple yet powerful imagery.

3. Make people feel

A good video ad makes those watching feel and connects to the business. When creating content or a story for your video, you want to provide information or a story that will invoke emotions from the person watching to connect.

4. Retarget your email list

When you publish a video ad, do not just blindly set it loose to everyone in the hopes of conversion. Targeting your ad to your current list of followers or email subscribers is the best place to start and the most likely audience to offer conversion.

5. Write compelling copy

Along with a great video is a great written copy. With this, you will have a short headline and description that should align with your video, spark a sense of urgency, and include a call to action.

6. Customize a thumbnail image

A thumbnail image is the image that displays in the video listing, shows before your video starts, and again displays when the video ends. When displayed in the video ad listing, a play button is displayed over this image. When setting up your ad, Facebook gives you the option of dynamically adding three thumbnail images that can be altered based on where they are displayed to. When choosing these images, you want something that will catch the attention of users and match your video copy and content.

7. Choose the right campaign objective

When creating your Facebook video ad, your first step focuses on ensuring you are choosing the right marketing objective. Facebook offers 11 different objectives, such as brand awareness, app installs, or traffic.

8. Keep it short

As we mentioned above, the average attention span is about 8.25 seconds. While a compelling video can capture a viewer for much longer than that, your video should get directly to the point and not drag out too long, as the longer it runs, the more likely a viewer is to move on and not convert.

9. Split test your video ads

Facebook video ads offer the ability to split test your video ads. Split testing is a process that allows you to adjust variables to see which version better connects with an audience. Different variables can include the audience, creativity, placements, and delivery options.

10. Monitor performance

As with any portion of your marketing strategy, it is important to monitor the performance of your video ads. Facebook offers a wide range of tracking information that includes everything from a view-through rate to click-throughs. Monitoring your video performance can give you an idea of what is working and what is not.

Let videos boost your business

In today’s technology-based world, the possible marketing platforms are endless. As a loan officer, your goal is to try and stand out above the competition in all your marketing efforts. Adding good video ads is a great way to connect with potential leads and uniquely offer information. A steady stream of leads is essential to business success.

The team at Good Vibe Squad understands just how time-consuming that task can be. Our Unfair Advantage system is a great way to boost your lead generation and conversions, helping you to soar above your competition. To learn more, schedule a call with us today.

The article Mortgage Marketing Tips: Facebook Video Ads Best Practice is courtesy of: goodvibesquad.com

Original post here: Mortgage Marketing Tips: Facebook Video Ads Best Practice

Marketing to Realtors as a Loan Officer

As a loan officer, you understand the importance of a strong realtor relationship. If they don’t know who you are or have not actively worked to create a relationship, they are unlikely to send clients your way. Building a loan officer and real estate agent relationship is essential and should be a major component of your mortgage marketing strategy. Here we offer tips for mortgage loan officer marketing to realtors.

Loan officer and real estate relationship

The goal of loan officers and real estate agents is to help homebuyers secure the new home of their dreams. As a loan officer, you need real estate agents to find properties for your buyers. Real estate agents need loan officers to help their buyers secure their listed properties. It only makes sense to work together to accomplish your mutual goals.

Marketing to realtors should be a major component of any loan officer's marketing strategy. It is essential to nurture this relationship by providing regular beneficial services. An example of this is a joint marketing material that attracts buyers in need of financing and, at the same time, helps promote the realtors’ properties, creating a win-win situation for you both.

How loan officers can market to realtors

Because all loan officers understand the benefits of creating a relationship with local realtors, they are often bombarded by marketing efforts. To establish and build a strong relationship, you need to create a marketing strategy that stands out above the rest and constantly work to nurture it.

Here are some marketing strategies that can help you forge a real relationship without coming across as simply offering pushy sales pitches.

Emails

We all receive hundreds of emails a week, if not more, and realtors are no different. Unfortunately, many of these emails are standard canned messages that often go unread and are sent to the trash. Instead, provide personalized messages that offer information that will help them grow their business, such as information that can help educate them and can share with their clients.

Social Media

One of the best ways to build a realtor relationship is social media. Social media platforms allow you to interact with realtors in a low-pressure atmosphere. For example, you can start building a connection with a new realtor by liking, commenting, and sharing their social media posts. By doing this, you are showing them that you are taking an active interest in their content and providing content for your potential buyers.

Another way social media marketing can help you build a realtor relationship is through your own posts. Share or create information that will benefit their clients as well as yours. If you have a blog, share your knowledge on your social media platforms and send the links in direct messages.

Videos and live streaming

With the growing technology world and sites such as TikTok, the world of marketing is opening up to many different opportunities, including video and live streaming. Prerecorded videos or a quick TikTok snap allow you to share information with realtors while also providing a more personal connection than you get with email or printed material.

Co-branded marketing

When you have an established relationship with a realtor, co-branded marketing is a great way for you to work together, promote each other, and share in marketing efforts. For example, creating new listing flyers or open house informational flyers containing your business information and the realtor’s information. Co-branded marketing can also include emails, social media posts, home listing sites, business websites, and much more.

Co-hosting events

Like co-branded marketing, co-hosting events, such as open houses, allow you and the realtor to work together and gain exposure to many potential clients. You can offer your services to help answer any questions interested buyers may have. This helps the realtor with the sale and delivers a new buyer to your doorstep.

Host events tailored to realtors

Hosting events, such as Lunch and Learn sessions, is a great way to offer a beneficial service to realtors while also providing a relaxing atmosphere where you can connect. Sponsoring or contributing to events, such as a local realtor conference, is also a great way to connect with potential realtors in your area.

Be a CE (Continuous Education) provider

All realtors are required to attend regular CE classes to maintain their license. One great way to connect with local realtors is to become a continuous education (CE) provider in your area. By teaching classes to an audience of real estate agents, you have the opportunity to connect and build relationships.

Open houses

Open houses are a great way to meet local realtors face-to-face and introduce yourself. This is a great opportunity to ask them questions about their typical clients and how you and your business can help them achieve homeownership. It is also a great time to schedule a one-on-one meeting with them or at least get the contact information to connect with later.

Personal visits

Sometimes there is nothing like simply stopping into your local realtor’s office and asking how you can help make their job easier and how you might be able to work together. These personal visits can help nurture your relationship. Bringing in a nice box of doughnuts for the office can’t hurt either.

Building your realtor relationship can boost your business.

Building and growing a relationship with realtors is a great way to boost your business and theirs. As you work together, you will find that qualified leads are actually hunting you down instead of having to work to gain their attention.

At Good Vibe Squad, we understand the importance of qualified leads and work to help loan officers attract and find the qualified leads they need to be successful. To learn more, check out our Unfair Advantage program or book a call with us today.

Marketing to Realtors as a Loan Officer was originally published on: Good Vibe Squad

Original post here: Marketing to Realtors as a Loan Officer

Using Excel for Mortgage Pipeline Spreadsheet

If you are just getting started or do not consider yourself tech-savvy, you may consider managing your mortgage loan pipeline with Excel software. Excel mortgage management offers powerful capabilities. Are there better alternatives for mortgage loan pipeline management?

What is Excel?

Excel is a Microsoft software program that you may already have on your computer system if you use Microsoft Office. It is software designed to create spreadsheets containing data in rows and columns that offer the ability to track any data manually.

Using Excel for your mortgage business

Making the decision to use Excel for your mortgage business is because it is easily accessible as it is already on your computer. Once you open the software, you will see that it has a fairly low learning curve, meaning even those without a lot of technical knowledge can use it to meet their goals. Excel offers many different options to track your business from a mortgage business perspective.

1. Contact database

Managing contacts is essential for any successful business, and the mortgage business is no different. When you receive a contact's information, you need a way to store this data in a centralized location. An Excel allows you to create a workbook that stores and organizes contacts based on name, contact information, and any other pertinent information you choose to collect.

2. Track marketing efforts

Once you have your contacts organized, you can begin your marketing efforts and track those efforts. You can create a duplicate contact data spreadsheet with additional fields for all of your marketing campaigns, such as “welcome email,” “marketing campaign 1,” etc. When you manually send a marketing email, you can check off the spot for each contact listing, helping to ensure that each contact receives the correct emails and no one receives a duplicate email.

3. Manage loan pipeline

Tracking a prospect's progress through your loan pipeline is another way that Excel can help. Similar to the above, you create a duplicate contact spreadsheet with additional columns for each stage of your pipeline, such as “started,” “application completed,” “loan in process,” etc. As a client moves through the pipeline, you can check off each segment.

4. Track borrower’s documents

Documents are a necessary part of the loan application process, and ensuring you have all the necessary documents is essential. Creating another spreadsheet with all your contact information and additional columns with each of the necessary loan documents allows you to mark them off as received, making it easier to keep track and ensure you have all the necessary documents.

Disadvantages

While Excel offers many benefits for organizing your contacts and managing your business pipeline, there are some major downsides to using this program. These disadvantages can include:

1. Time-consuming

As you can see from the above discussion, everything must be entered manually when it comes to using an Excel sheet for information management. This can be a very time-consuming process and takes away valuable time throughout the day.

2. Prone to errors

Unfortunately, we are all human, and errors happen. Whether you make a simple typo or become distracted while entering information, it is common to have errors when entering data into an Excel spreadsheet. These human errors can, unfortunately, cause you to lose potential clients.

3. No automation

Because Excel cannot automate any of these explained processes, this means that for everything you want to track, you must enter all necessary information manually. For example, if you are doing a marketing campaign, you would open your marketing Excel spreadsheet. Then you would manually send out an email to each contact, making sure to check off each contact when the email is sent. This can mean a day full of work and a higher risk of human error. Performing all these potentially automated tasks reduces your efficiency and productivity.

An alternative solution to Excel

An alternative exists that can take all the powerful tools of Excel and automate them for you. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software helps you manage your database, track your pipelines, and perform the above tasks, freeing up time for you and your teams to focus on other business areas.

How can a CRM make a difference? Let’s look at the same tasks as above and how moving from Excel into a CRM would improve your productivity and efficiency.

1. Contact database

With a CRM, you can say goodbye to manual data entry. In fact, you can integrate your CRM with all your existing forms of lead collection, such as your website, and when you receive a new lead contact, it will automatically add to your database. It also allows you to pull leads automatically from sites such as Zillow, Trulia, and more.

As your leads are entered automatically, you also have access to those leads immediately, meaning you can start your marketing efforts right away. And if you can respond to leads within five minutes, statistics show you are nine times more likely to engage with your business successfully.

2. Track marketing efforts

While Excel allows you to track marketing efforts, it does not allow for automation. This means every time you want to send an email and check it off for a contact, every step of the process must be done manually. With a CRM, you can assign tasks based on certain time frames or dates, and email marketing campaigns can be sent automatically. For example, when a new lead is added to the database, it can trigger an action that automatically sends a welcome email to the contact. This frees up your time to focus on other areas of the business.

3. Manage loan pipeline

Managing the loan pipeline also becomes much easier. When a client’s loan status changes, it automatically changes in the CRM. This change can automatically trigger a new task for a team member based on the specific change.

4. Track borrower’s documents

With an integrated CRM, document collection and management become easier for you and your borrower. They can scan their documents and upload them directly to you. Once received, they are automatically entered into the CRM and checked off the checklist. If your borrower is missing certain documents, it will trigger a reminder email pointing out the documents that are still required. This means the borrower knows what you need.

Adding a CRM can improve productivity and efficiency.

While using Excel can be a great tool for small businesses, it can become overwhelming and time-consuming as your business grows. You lose valuable time to repetitive tasks that automation can fix during the day, leaving you more time to focus on your clients and other business areas. The addition of a CRM can help boost productivity and efficiency throughout your business.

Using Excel for Mortgage Pipeline Spreadsheet was first published on: Good Vibe Squad

Original post here: Using Excel for Mortgage Pipeline Spreadsheet

Facebook Ad Alternatives for Mortgage Officers

When most business owners think of social media marketing, Facebook is the typical go-to platform. As of January 2022, statistics show that Facebook is the most active social media platform and has over 2.91 billion active monthly users. While advertising is often necessary, there are Facebook alternatives that make more sense to you as a mortgage officer. What are these social media alternatives, and how can they help boost your business?

Why consider alternative platforms?

With the comprehensive reach Facebook offers and the most advanced audience targeting options in their advertising platform, why would you consider looking for alternative social media advertising options?

Facebook advertising costs continue to climb.

As the Facebook platform has grown, so has the demand for advertising space by businesses worldwide. In fact, 87.1% of businesses use Facebook as part of their digital marketing plan. This high demand for space has ultimately increased the cost of reaching your target audience. In addition, if you are new to Facebook advertising, it can be an expensive marketing option when you are still working to determine your specific target audience.

Facebook advertising bans are becoming more common.

Unfortunately, Facebook has a reputation for blocking and disabling advertising accounts on its platform despite following all its policies and rules. If you have all your social media marketing budget locked into Facebook alone, this random account suspension can eliminate your marketing completely.

Ability to leverage more platforms

With the help of Facebook’s advanced targeting options, you have identified your target audience and have a deeper understanding of the content they are looking for and what makes them click through a link. Taking advantage of this knowledge allows you to venture out to other social media platforms and boost your online visibility.

Not all clients use Facebook.

While Facebook does boast the most users of any social media platform, that doesn’t mean that your target audience is a daily Facebook user. Putting all your eggs in the Facebook basket may leave many potential leads out of your marketing plan. Adding additional platforms that target different users allows you to diversify your marketing plan and reach more potential leads.

Facebook advertisement alternatives

You have decided to expand your digital marketing strategy to add additional platforms, but how do you know which platforms best match your target audience and business needs?

Here we take a look at some of the top platforms that work well for the mortgage industry.

LinkedIn Ads

The LinkedIn platform is a social media network designed for business professionals. This platform is a great way for mortgage officers to make referral connections with other professionals and real estate agents. As you network with other professionals, it can also help bring in new leads, given that most LinkedIn users are likely to fit with your target audience.

Pros

• Ads are easy to create on the LinkedIn platform and go live immediately
• Multiple ad units are available
• LinkedIn focuses on messaging and interacting
• Ability to target users based on employer, job titles, education level, industry, professional certifications, and more

Cons

• Minimum daily advertising budget required
• No custom reporting or tracking
• Limited additional audience customization
• The advertising interface is missing some key features, such as a media library or the ability to duplicate ads.

Instagram Ads

While Instagram and Facebook are both owned by the same parent company, they do offer different demographics when it comes to advertising. When creating advertising through Facebook Ad Manager, you can also create a campaign for Instagram. Considering this, your available ad types are the same as those found on Facebook.

Pros

• Detailed audience targeting through the Facebook Ad Manager
• An eye-catching platform that does well with photo and video advertising options

Cons

• Limited audience with most users being between 18-34 years of age
• It takes time to manage and update ads

TikTok Ads

With around 800 million active users and growing every day, TikTok offers a new social media platform that may very well meet your marketing needs. While originally a platform that targeted teens and young adults, the platform is widely diverse now, with almost 50% of users between the age of 25-44. TikTok offers five different brand solution advertising options on their platform that are highly engaging.

Pros

• Can increase and widen your audience base
• The audience can engage in multiple ways
• Easily trackable ad performance metrics

Cons

• Limited content formats
• Time-consuming ad creation
• Can be expensive for both video creation and advertising cost

Twitter Ads

As of 2022, Twitter has over 330 million active users and growing. Twitter appeals to both business and personal use, similar to Facebook, so you can promote a wider variety of different advertisements. Promoted tweets, promoted accounts, and promoted trends allow for different advertising options and prices can be based on per-click actions (including likes, retweets, etc.), monthly costs, or costs based on the number of followers your account has.

Pros

• Able to target the audience that sees your ad
• Multiple advertisement options

Cons

• Analytics is lacking
• Because of Twitter’s rapid stream of information, getting lost in the shuffle of tweets is common
• Hard to track ROI

YouTube Ads

Video content can be a powerful marketing option that delivers content in a much more personal format. With over 230 million active users, this platform allows you to reach a wide range of targets. However, to advertise on this platform, you will actually go through Google Ads. There are two types of ads available on YouTube. Ads played before a video can be long or short but can be skipped after five seconds. In-video ads play during a break in the video and must be watched in their entirety.

Pros

• Large audience with YouTube being the second largest online search engine next to Google
• Google AdWords allows for targeted advertising

Cons

• Unable to control which videos your ads appear in
• Skip feature allows users to skip your ad

Reddit Ads

With over 480 million active users each month, Reddit is another social media platform that can be beneficial if you can find relevant subreddit topics to target. Reddit advertising can start for as little as $5 and is a great option for those just starting out in digital advertising and on a small budget. Reddit offers both promoted posts and display ads.

Pros

• Simple format and easy to create an account
• Ability to target your audience
• Reddit is very effective at driving traffic
• Extremely diverse audience offering a wide potential of advertising opportunities
• Quality ad tracking

Cons

• Overflowing with content and easy to get lost in the shuffle
• Fresh content is needed regularly
• It can require a lot of work to find the best-targeted areas

Social media advertising is not limited to Facebook.

Digital marketing is essential to reach your audience and generate new leads. By diversifying your digital marketing between social media platforms, you allow more exposure. Good Vibe Squad understands the importance of social media to boost your business.

Contact us to learn more about our services.

The post Facebook Ad Alternatives for Mortgage Officers is republished from: https://goodvibesquad.com

Original post here: Facebook Ad Alternatives for Mortgage Officers

Testimonial Marketing: Using Client Testimonials for Lead Generation

As a mortgage professional, your business depends on quality lead generation to achieve success. One tool is often overlooked, despite being a valuable lead generation tool. Satisfied clients often offer reviews, and these can be powerful in the world of lead generation. Why are testimonials important when targeting new leads?

What is testimonial marketing?

Testimonial marketing is nothing new and has been around for years. This advertising method involves using positive comments about a product or brand being shared by others. This type of advertising aims to help create and strengthen your business’s credibility.
For example, think about some of your favorite commercials that highlight famous celebrities or sports icons talking about how great a product or service is. While you may not have access to a celebrity spokesperson, everyday client testimonials can work in exactly the same way.

Why are testimonials important and effective?

While you may simply think of reviews as a nice touch to your website, they play a bigger role than you may expect regarding how a potential client views your business. A report on customer review trends for 2022 shows that 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses. In fact, 78% of people use the internet more than once a week to find out information about their local businesses.

This shows that these reviews and testimonials are being read. But what difference is it really making? How could it affect your mortgage business? Reports show that online reviews are important to very important for 76% of consumers when choosing a business.

Strategies for testimonial marketing

Testimonials can be used throughout your marketing strategy, in various ways, and on different platforms. Here are a few different ways a well-placed testimonial can help boost your lead generation.

Include testimonials in email marketing

Adding quality testimonials to your email marketing drip campaigns can help you tell a story, introduce prospects to your business, promote cross-sells and upsells, boost engagement, and help convert leads into customers.

Add testimonials to your website.

Testimonials are essential on every webpage as this is often how new prospects will find your business. It is a good idea to offer a wide range of different types of testimonials (we cover this below) and sprinkle them throughout the pages of your website. If a testimonial is service-specific, include it on the service page. Consider adding a testimonial page on your website that features all your testimonials, making it easy for a prospect to find the information they want.

Add testimonials to your blog posts.

For mortgage businesses, blog posts are a great way to educate your potential clients, but they can also be a great way to highlight the services you offer and how your previous clients rate your service. Adding testimonials to your blog posts can help tell the story within the blog or highlight specific services you are covering within the blog.

Use testimonials on social media platforms.

Social media is a great way to engage with followers, making it the perfect place to share testimonials. Social media platforms are also a great place to ask your satisfied clients to leave testimonials regarding your services.

Create video testimonials

While written testimonials are a great addition to your marketing efforts, they can be vague and leave a lot to be desired. Adding video testimonials allows your clients to answer scripted questions that really provide information to potential clients. In addition, seeing a live person adds more of a personal touch.

Tips on how to request client testimonials

While some may volunteer a testimonial, you will have to ask for a testimonial in most cases. Here are some do’s and don’ts when requesting a testimonial.

Do’s

• Wait to ask until your client has provided positive feedback to you
• Ask for reviews through email
• Always get testimonials in writing to avoid any legal or privacy issues
• Ask if they would be interested in creating a video testimonial – this can be as simple as a selfie video answering scripted questions you create
• Provide examples of testimonials so your clients understand what you are looking for
• Ask them to simply talk about their experiences or answer questions such as “what problems were solved with our services,” “what made our service stand out,” and “what made you happiest about working with our team?”
• Ask them to post testimonials on your Google My Business account or other similar accounts

Don’ts

• Do not ask too early – wait until you receive feedback from your client
• Do not pester your client – if you do not receive a testimonial when asked

Testimonials Offer a Business Boost

While all your marketing efforts target lead generation, adding testimonials is a great way to boost these efforts and deliver a more personal appearance. With statistics showing how many potential clients put heavy stock into testimonials, it is essential that you add this beneficial tool to your arsenal.

The Team at Good Vibe Squad is all about helping businesses boost their lead generation, and we know the importance of testimonials. Contact us today to learn how to get the Unfair Advantage to boost your lead generation.

Testimonial Marketing: Using Client Testimonials for Lead Generation is courtesy of: https://www.goodvibesquad.com/

Original post here: Testimonial Marketing: Using Client Testimonials for Lead Generation

Adding Live Chat Box for Mortgage Websites

In today’s world, people are used to being able to access information and what they need at the touch of a button. When it comes to your mortgage website, potential clients want access to fast responses, quality customer service, and easy-to-use tools to obtain the information they need at any time of day or night. But how can you provide this? How can clients ask mortgage questions online and receive answers in real-time? The answer may be as simple as adding a live chat box to your website.

What is a live chat tool?

A live chat tool is a software medium that allows your clients to engage with your mortgage business in real-time via messaging. Customers visiting your website can ask questions and engage with your business at the touch of a button, day or night, helping to promote a personalized customer experience, quality brand interaction, and an edge over your competitors.

Live chat boxes can offer direct messaging directly to a customer support team through Facebook messaging or even SMS so your live agents can receive communication directly. With the advancement of bots and artificial intelligence, you do not even need to have live representatives available at all times. These bots can directly answer many of the customer's questions.

How does a live chat for a mortgage website help drive new business?

By offering immediate solutions to your customers, you can help to nurture and build positive customer relationships. The addition of live chatbots offers many different benefits for your business. Here we take a look at some of the top advantages.

Improve customer service

Attracting customers to your website is essential. However, if there is nothing to engage customers on your website, they will likely move on to your competition. The addition of a chatbox allows for instant engagement with your business and gives them the answers they need when they are looking for it.

Customer convenience

People aren’t constantly searching for information about mortgages during your traditional business hours. Whether they work during the day or simply decided midnight was the time to find information, being able to address their questions and concerns when they are looking for answers is essential, and a live chat provides just that.

In addition, many people cannot access the phone during your business hours as they themselves work. Offering a live chatbot enables them to have a constantly open line of communication with you even when a phone call is not an option.

Answer common questions

Even if you cannot offer a live conversation with a human, chatbots allow you to offer quick and simple answers to many of the common questions your mortgage customers are likely to ask.

Build a reputation for fast responses

When potential clients find your website, they look for answers to their questions. Before adding live chat boxes, clients looking for information after hours had to wait for the next day, or they moved on to a competitor’s website. With the addition of a chatbox, you can now engage with clients in real-time and provide the answers they are looking for. This helps your business build a reputation for fast responses and providing the information clients are looking for when they need it.

Adding a live chat with immediate responses allows potential clients looking for a mortgage to receive answers right away, meaning they are less likely to search out a competitor. Gone are the days when they need to wait for your office hours to receive a return call and answer their inquiries.

Helps mortgage professionals provide value

Adding a chatbot can add value to your mortgage business and customers. Using a chatbox can lower your operational costs and minimize human resources. For customers, you can offer improved customer service with the ability to be with them 24/7.

Things to look for when choosing a chatbox tool

With so many chatbox tools available on the market, how do you know what to look for when choosing the right platform for your mortgage business?

The following must-have features are essential to helping your chat box feature succeed:

• Support for multiple conversation platforms, such as Facebook Messenger and SMS
  Artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities
• The ability to convert from bot technology to a live person for more complicated issues
• Complete integration with your CRM
• Ability to embed forms into the chat, allowing you to provide loan application forms

Why live chat works

If you are still questioning whether your business can benefit from adding a chatbox, you are not alone. Statistics show that only 35% of businesses think their potential customers desire a live chat function. However, that number is far lower than the 69% of customers demanding live features and the 73% of customers that find live chat the most satisfactory form of communication.

To further show the benefits of adding live chats to your website, let’s look at a few more statistics:

• Live chat is the #1 service choice for shoppers between 18-49 years old
• Millennials are 20% more likely to use chat
• 60% of people want a quick reaction from support to their inquiry
• Customers who use live chat spend up to 60% more per purchase
• Live chat improves conversion rates by 3.84%
• Live chat reduces costs by 15-33% compared to the use of traditional phone support
• By 2022, 85% of businesses are expected to offer live chat support

Adding a chatbox can boost your business.

In today’s technology-based environment, clients want instant access to the information and services that you offer. Adding a chat box to your website allows for this instant interaction and can give your business the edge over your competitors. The team at Good Vibe Squad knows the importance of creating an edge over your competitors to help you boost your business. Contact us today.

The following post Adding Live Chat Box for Mortgage Websites was first published to: https://goodvibesquad.com

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What Is a 1003 Mortgage Application?

Today, more and more borrowers are looking to begin their loan process completely online. So, if you do not have a digital 1003 mortgage application form accessible on your website, chances are you may be losing potential clients. As borrower demographics shift toward a younger profile, the demand for online interaction grows. But what is a 1003 application for a mortgage, and how can you put this form to use as a lead generation tool?

What is the 1003 mortgage application?

The 1003 mortgage application form, also known as the Uniform Residential Loan Application, is the standard form used by all mortgage lenders in the United States. Borrowers complete this form when applying to purchase or refinance a home with a conventional loan, Fannie Mae, FHA, USDA, or VA loan. For a Freddie Mac loan, they will use Form 65. Both forms are based on the Uniform Loan Application Dataset and require the same consumer information for all borrowers.

1003 loan application form

Created by the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae, the 1003 mortgage application form was first used in August of 2016. However, it has undergone numerous updates since then. It is important that you use the most current update when providing access to the form for your borrowers.

This form collects information from the borrower that includes:

• Borrower and co-borrower information: This includes names, social security numbers, marital status, address, phone number, and date of birth.
• Employment information: Employer names and addresses, years of employment, position, and employer phone number
• Income and assets: Monthly income, rental income, child support, alimony, and additional income, as well as banking information, IRAs, 401(k)s, retirement accounts, and additional assets
• Current expenses: This can include monthly rent or mortgages, insurance premiums, real estate taxes, credit card balances, car loan balances, and additional monthly expenses.
• Loan information: type of desired loan, amount, and terms
• Property information: address of the desired property, years built, intended property use, and purchase price

Using the 1003 mortgage application as a lead generation tool

In today’s technology-driven environment, chances are your lending business has a wide array of online marketing avenues, such as websites and social media profiles. When a borrower visits one of these marketing avenues, the goal is to capture their information to follow up on the potential lead. While basic contact forms are one option, they often slow down the mortgage process, requiring potential borrowers to wait to hear back from you and then resubmit information further down the road.

Instead of the standard contact form, you can benefit from integrating a short-form or full 1003 mortgage application directly into your site, allowing potential borrowers to fill out the information immediately. But what happens when they fill out the form?

Automating 1003 mortgage loan action with your CRM

When a potential borrower fills out the 1003 application online, the application software delivers it directly through integration with your CRM and immediately creates a new lead contact. This creation can trigger a notification to follow up with this new lead immediately.

Things to consider when adding a 1003 application form online

As we mentioned above, when adding this lead generation tool, you may choose to add a full 1003 loan application or a short-form application instead. While adding a complete 1003 form gathers all the necessary information you need, it can be long and cumbersome for someone simply looking to start a conversation and see if they are eligible for a mortgage loan. In addition, if you have a full 1003, you are required to deliver a loan estimate to every application, even if they are not a good fit for your business.

When considering which option to choose, the goal is to find a balance between the important information you need to qualify if the prospect is a good fit while not being too long for a prospect to fill out. In addition, the short form eliminates the need to provide a loan estimate to those borrowers that are not a good fit with your business.

Taking advantage of lead generation tools

Adding a 1003 loan application in a short form and integrating it with your current CRM is a great way to help boost your lead generation while also allowing you to qualify potential buyers and quickly boost your business.

If you are looking for other ways to boost your lead generation, Good Vibe Squad can help. Fastrack your marketing with our Unfair Advantages today and let us help take your lead generation to a new level.

 

What Is a 1003 Mortgage Application? was first published to: https://goodvibesquad.com

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Mass Email Marketing for Mortgage Business

The key to being a successful loan officer is communication. This includes everything from engagement with potential prospects, regularly connecting and educating borrowers throughout the loan process, and staying connected with previous clients to earn repeat business and potential referrals. As a busy loan officer, you don’t have the time to spend every day writing personalized emails to every contact, so how do you maintain that personal connection regularly? Mass email marketing that you can automate is the solution. With mass email marketing tools, you can create personalized emails for every occasion that can be sent automatically, leaving you time to focus on other aspects of your business.

What is mass email marketing?

Sending out personalized emails to contacts takes time and is often the same message you want to send to multiple ones. This is where mass email marketing can allow you to offer a personalized email to multiple clients at once. With mass email marketing, you can create a single email for a specific action or topic and send it out to a group of contacts at the touch of a button. However, when your contact receives this email, it will appear as if it was personalized and sent only to them.

What types of mass email marketing can you send?

Think about what type of emails you send on a regular basis. If these emails are going out to multiple contacts, then they may be a good candidate for mass email marketing. In fact, just about any email can be sent to your database through mass email marketing. Here are a few of the common email options used regularly with mass email marketing.

Industry news

Any time there is major news in the mortgage industry, such as changes to mortgage rates, your leads and borrowers will want to know what this means for them. Creating an industry news mass email will inform and educate your contacts and give them a way to contact you if they have any questions. Be sure to explain this industry news in terminology that the average reader (non-mortgage professional) can understand. Sending this type of email out to your contacts helps to educate them on the mortgage industry and show that you are thinking of them and their lending journey.

Marketing campaign emails

When you create a unique marketing campaign email, mass email marketing allows you to quickly send that email out to targeted areas of your contact database. For example, if you create a campaign focusing on mortgage refinance, you can automatically have it sent out to all your previous mortgage clients. In contrast, a campaign that covers credit repair and the journey to homeownership can be sent out to all the leads in your database.

Event invitations

Events are a great way to connect with customers and leads and help you nurture existing relationships. If you are planning a community event, such as a seminar on mortgage refinancing or credit repair, creating a mass email allows you to invite those contacts in your database that fit each category with one simple email. Don’t forget to include a way for them to RSVP and you are good to go.

Holiday emails

The holidays are a great time to acknowledge and thank your contacts for their business throughout the year and to wish them and their families well. Creating a short and sweet holiday message will deliver a personal touch and help nurture your relationship. Just remember, this is a holiday greeting and not a marketing campaign. This is not the time or the email to include a sales pitch, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include your contact information.

Community news emails

Most loan officers work within a single community or neighboring communities. Creating community newsletter emails is a great way to inform your contacts about upcoming community events and community news. In addition, you can consider including community business profiles where you can showcase business partners, such as real estate agents.

Tips for effective mass email marketing

When it comes to mass email marketing, there are a few things that you need to consider when creating an effective email. The following points are a great place to start.

Keep it short

When you send a mass email out to your database, you want to do everything you can to capture your reader’s attention as quickly and to the point as possible. When creating your email, you want to keep the word “short” in mind. While this does refer to the length of your email, it also encompasses other areas.

First, think about your words. There is no reason to use industry vocabulary, as it may be confusing to your reader. You want to use the simplest forms of words possible. It is recommended that you write emails at the reading level of a 3rd grader. In addition, keep your paragraphs short. Break up your ideas into smaller chunks and make it easier for the reader to focus on the writing and the ideas you are conveying.

Make it personal

When creating your emails, you must remember that these are designed to be personal conversations with your contacts. You want the email to sound as though you are speaking directly with your contact and not creating some formal correspondence. For many, it is difficult to write in the same manner they speak, and creating emails with a personal aspect can be difficult. To be successful at this, you must forget everything you learned in school about writing and simply create an email as if you were talking to the person.

If you struggle with writing but have no problem connecting with your clients in person, consider trying this. Pick an industry topic and write an email explaining the topic to a potential client. Now, record yourself explaining that same information to a colleague and see how different the two come across. You want your emails to come across as personal, so you want your writing to match your speech.

Include your branding

An email is the digital version of a letter, and you wouldn’t send a letter on a black piece of paper, would you? Chances are you would use your business letterhead. Emails are no different. You want to make sure that every email campaign you create includes your company information and branding.

Target the appropriate audience

Just because they are called mass emails, you don’t necessarily want to send every email out to everyone in your database. As we mentioned above, if you are focusing on mortgage refinance, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to send the email out to those working on building their credit to buy their first home. Before you send out any emails, it is a good idea to segment your database based on specific categories, such as leads, previous clients, current clients, etc.

Always include a CTA

Once you have captured the readers’ attention with your content, you should finish every email with a call to action (CTA). This can be anything from asking them to call with any questions to asking them to send referrals. Your CTA should match or complement the content within your email.

Effective mass email marketing can really boost your business

The goal of mass email marketing is to engage your leads and clients regularly to help nurture relationships, which can in turn help generate referrals, increase customer loyalty, and boost revenue. If your business is looking to generate leads and increase your mass email database, the Good Vibe Squad offers a great way to attract and amplify your lead generation and boost business. Check out our Unfair Advantage System program today to learn more.

Mass Email Marketing for Mortgage Business was originally published to: Good Vibe Squad

Original post here: Mass Email Marketing for Mortgage Business