I’m a big believer in investing money in marketing for mortgages when my target audience is likely in that hot to trot group. In fact, you can do the same to completely separate yourself from your competition.
Let me speak first to the competition. Their marketing strategy centers itself around a guy on a phone. That works and it is cheap, but if that guy is you it gets old really quick and it does nothing to set you apart from the others. If you have a strong direct mail strategy you’re automatically doing something your competition is not.
When I speak to investing money into direct mail to market at a hot to trot crowd I’m referring to follow up after the lead comes in. If they are a lead, they’re likely pretty interested. The problem is other companies know that too, and if you have nothing else going you are all fighting for the same business over the phone.
Since you know they are reasonably hot, now is the time to thrill them with something unique which makes you different. Now, because you know how profitable a deal is in your marketplace you know a few extra bucks per lead isn’t that much to invest.
You could send them a letter or postcard, but that is playing it safe. A fairly famous direct marker just sent me a direct mail piece that was stuck in a tube and had his advertisement in the tube along with a real bullet. And it was a really big bullet.
It was a very expensive direct mail piece, but compared to the results for someone who takes him up on his offer, it really isn’t. And think of the impact that had. If he just sent some lame letter, I would have tossed it and wouldn’t be commenting right now.
Think through mail like this. It can have a massive impact. It is expensive, but what if it increased conversions of mortgage leads into actual customers by 1 to 2 percent. Is it still expensive or is it really cheap?