The Three Magic Words: Here’s a mortgage marketing tip:

Spend some time with a real estate agent and ask them questions about their specific field of expertise. Sooner or later someone will invariably utter the three words that are often used to sum up what’s needed to understand the world of real estate: location, location, location. This got me thinking: Does the world of mortgage brokers and loan officers also have its own magic three words that sum up what’s needed to understand mortgage marketing?

I’m here to tell you that it does, and I recently discovered those three secret words while speaking with one of Exodus Marketing’s longest and most successful customers.

Meet Dennis. Dennis is a mortgage guy who lives in central California. He has been with us for over seven years now. Dennis changes his personalized message on his mortgage marketing newsletters every single month and has done so since the beginning. His approach is to fill the first two-thirds or more of the space available for personalization (starting on page one and continuing to page 4, about 400 words total) sharing with his reader’s stories about his grandchildren, his life living on a small farm, which includes planting an annual garden, cleaning out his barn and doing his best to manage large puddles of water that run onto his land after it rains. Dennis also writes about how he and his wife compete in long-distance, endurance horseback riding events. He writes about traveling to Mexico once a year with his church to help build and repair housing for the poor. Dennis sometimes laments some of the changes in modern life and shares his views on the world his grandchildren will hopefully inherit. After sharing stories from his life, which almost always includes a small dose of countrified humor, Dennis fills the last third of the space available on his mortgage marketing newsletters with something about, well, mortgages. He may talk briefly about the low-interest rates and how now might be a good time to refinance, or he may write briefly about a new state or federal program and how this program might help those who are looking to sell or buy.

Dennis may have not intended to do this from the start (or maybe he did), but his clients see him as family. They trust him like family. They seek his advice. Why? …Because they know him on a personal level just like they do family. They know what Dennis does when he’s not doing mortgages and they know his opinions on certain subjects. Whether they agree with him or not, they know where he stands and for that reason they trust him. Will his clients refer him to friends and neighbors? Absolutely. Why wouldn’t they? I called Dennis recently and expressed to him personally how I have come to really enjoy his personal mortgage marketing messages month after month. I feel like I know him as well as I know my own personal friends, and I just spell-check and do his layout for his newsletters. It’s odd. I’ve never actually met him, but I feel like I know him. Dennis thanked me for my positive comments and then said, “You know, there are a lot of mortgage people out there who never figure it out. They spend their careers talking about percentages and terms like quantitative easing to people who they desperately hope to retain as clients. When, in fact, the secret to this business, any business for that matter, is building real relationships. …It’s all about building and maintaining personal relationships with people. That’s why people come back; that’s why people refer you. …That’s the big secret that no one seems to get.” So there you have it. The three magic words that sum up the world of real estate are “location, location, location.” And the three magic words that sum up the world of mortgage marketing are “relationships, relationships, relationships.”

Lastly, a mortgage or real estate marketing newsletter is the foundation upon which those crucial relationships are built, maintained, and nurtured. Remember, whether you like it, realize it or planned on it, a relationship is created with everyone you work with. Squander that and the likelihood of referrals drops significantly.

To learn more about how we can help you with your mortgage marketing strategy, call us today.