What kind of robot will you become?

I’ve been preaching Share Yourself – Share Your Knowledge – Become Family for what seems like forever. I help Loan Officers and Real Estate Agents with messaging on their direct mortgage marketing materials and, in that process, I keep my ear to the ground on what’s going on in marketing and advertising along with all the trends, whether it be marketing automation, behavioral lead nurturing, you name it. I can’t help myself in that I have to dissect both television and radio commercials for things that are either filler or disingenuous in the messaging.

So the question above is, what type of robot will you become?

Bill Gates, as well as The Economist, among others, have cited that due to automation, many low-skilled jobs will become obsolete; jobs like telemarketing, accounting, customer service, and retail, to name just a few.

The process of automating jobs or creating robots is now spilling into marketing. This offers benefits for those with their eyes open and continues the trend of creating robots by leaving out the most important element that marketing needs to be successful. You’d be surprised how often this element is left out.

What distinguishes a good marketing campaign from a bad one is the messaging or the communication. The quickest way to become a robot is to employ robot tactics with no life, a gimmick with no substance, or, better put, a marketing campaign with no real communication. It doesn’t really matter which medium you employ whether it’s television, radio, newspaper, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Without the right messaging, no medium will work successfully.

In many cases, when someone says the word MESSAGING it conjures up the idea of secret content that will magically turn the reader, listener, or watcher into a buying machine. However, this isn’t what messaging is about. When it comes to mortgage marketing, there’s no hypnotism, no secret mystical Svengali process of tying words together to control the buying behavior of others. The communication you have with your sphere of influence needs to have value. Robots can’t determine that value, they can only act on pre-programmed commands to deliver mundane results.

We can grab any mortgage marketing printed piece, email, Facebook post or Twitter feed that a Loan Officer or their competitor have invested time, money and energy into, and I can show you what’s missing in almost all of them. It’s always a messaging or communication issue that disconnects the marketer from their sphere. Robots can’t detect this problem.

You might ask, “Well Keith, what should I be saying to avoid being robotic or disingenuous?” The answer depends on a few different factors, which is why we offer a free Marketing Needs Assessment. These factors involve, in part, worldview, past marketing efforts, your perceived value of your sphere, and your willingness to communicate, along with a few others. Everyone is different and this is why there isn’t a “one size fits all” marketing program that works for everyone. We cover this in our free Marketing Assessment, so if you haven’t had the assessment done, be sure you schedule one; it’s free and enlightening.

For example, what separates one LO from another equally qualified LO if they both have the same loan options, nice offices, great support staff, etc.? Let’s also assume that intellect, passion, and skillset are also equal between the two Loan Officers. Is it really the number of emails you send? The amount of Facebook or blogs you post? The specific font or words do you use? Of course not! Strategies aren’t the secret sauce; the messaging is the secret sauce. The recipe for the sauce isn’t as difficult as you may think, but robots don’t make sauce!

The point is, that robots don’t care and they don’t reason. They exist for the automation process to make repetitive jobs easier. When you take the human element out of the equation, you have a robot. So the answer to the question is, don’t become a robot at all!

I’d never say “jobs are lost to kiosks at airports or ATM machines at banks,” however, there is something to be said for the way many rushed into online marketing with the expectation of rewards with little involvement. As I always say, “You MUST be personally involved with your marketing AND your message.” Not everyone knows how to create good messaging and often look for the easiest option to just get it out there. This is how robots are created. What we do here at Exodus is the polar opposite of robot building. It’s not that important to understand all marketing for all industries, but what works for you, the Loan Officer, and the Real Estate Agent in the real world.

I can assure you that many of our clients openly admit that they don’t know what to write when they personalize their newsletters and that’s where the Content Help service comes into play. Be sure you check it out because of the main reason you aren’t doing a monthly newsletter is you aren’t sure what to say, we have the fix for that. The Content Help service is not only completely effective, it’s completely free!

You don’t want to become a robot. The world is filled with ‘set it and forget it’ marketing schemes that don’t really make your client base feel as though you care at all. Maybe you don’t but those who Share Themselves – Share Their Knowledge – Become Family do infinitely better than those who don’t.

Don’t be a robot!

— Keith Shapiro