Generating leads is a key part of any mortgage advisor’s role.
Some advisers’ set up is to handle the leads given to them by their employer or umbrella firm. It has it’s pros and cons.
These leads are a great way to get started and gain experience. They are also great to keep the pipeline flowing.
However, usually with leads that are handed over, means you have to split a rather large proportion of the proc fee and broker fee with the employer/umbrella firm.
When you generate your own leads as well as receiving leads and referrals by other means, you control the destiny of your own business success.
There are many benefits to generating your own leads:
- You can keep a bigger portion of the fee earned
- You will sooner find independence instead of relying on someone else to provide you with leads
- You build stronger bonds and relationships with the people you find
- The leads belong to you and you don’t have to share them
- You can find better quality leads because you’re in control of qualifying them.
Self generated leads can be a challenging process in what is a highly competitive landscape of brokers.
Nowadays, most leads are generated online so it is essential to invest energy into online marketing to engage your target audience.
Most of your clients will start their search for an advisor through their search engine.
This is not to say you should avoid more traditional approaches such as word of mouth and networking, but having an effective online strategy will enable you to build a relationship with generations Y and Z who live their lives via their phones and tablets.
It is also a very sensible tactic given the huge shift to online in our post-covid world.
Here are some of our most effective ways to help you generate leads both on- and offline.
1. Create great content tailored to your audience
Great content will help you drive traffic to your site, as well as generating leads.
Your content should help you manifest your business niche and online personality. It’s important to be strategic, rather than adopting a scattergun approach.
Producing regular engaging content which is tailored to your audience will help you build a compelling online presence and open up new marketing channels, increasing your traffic and, ultimately, new leads.
If you’re new to content creation, written content is probably the easiest to produce by way of a blog.
Don’t worry if you’re not an experienced writer. Simply create informative and engaging blogs on topics you know will interest your clients. Use your knowledge and expertise to create punchy content with a minimum word count of 500.
Lengthier blogs of 1000-1500 words can really make an impact on lead generation and organic website traffic. Ensure your blog is spell checked and proofread.
Post your blogs to your social media accounts and Linkedin, ideally on the same day of the week or month.
To ensure you always have regular content to post, get in the habit of dedicating a portion of time every week to produce new content and keep it current and relevant to your audience’s needs and interests.
Top Tip: Research shows that the most engaging content is fast content such as videos, images and infographics. Use editing tools such as Canva to keep your posts looking slick and professional.
P.s if you want to establish and niche so that your content can be tailored to your ideal customer, check out this article here, where we help you discover your niche.
2. Get Social
Love it or loathe it, social media can be an excellent business tool as it allows you to engage and connect with people who are looking for your services.
Social media advertising goes one step further and allows you to specifically target leads, but we will discuss that in the next point!
When it comes to social media, consistency is key, as is developing a clear tone and specific niche.
Done well, it can be your most profitable marketing channel as it is an excellent means of building brand awareness, connecting with existing customers and generating new leads.
Once you have enough content, you can start an online conversation via social media.
Decide on your preferred platform. There are currently over 65 social media platforms in existence. It’s much better to do one or two really well, rather than many badly.
Luckily, it’s easier than ever to link accounts and post consistent content through multiple platforms (Facebook/Instagram/twitter for example).
It’s important to appreciate that social media isn’t about the hard sell. Rather, it’s about developing a relationship with potential clients, hence the word SOCIAL.
Use your platform to inform, engage, and attract new clients to you and your business.
Be aware of how successful users and businesses create content and maximise their social media – but remember to create your own personal voice and tone. Each social media platform has a slightly different approach and tone as well as its own strengths and weaknesses in terms of user experience.
If you’re not sure what to post, simply start a conversation with your audience via a poll, for example, to help curate your content for maximum engagement. A simple question such as ‘What do you want to see more of? X OR Y’ can be a great place to start.
Try to get familiar with the different platforms and their strengths and styles even if you don’t use them all for business.
Your goal should be to do one platform really well. Aim to post between 1-2 times a day.
Top Tip: Despite its often bad press, Facebook is arguably the best platform for business currently, with over 1 billion active users a day.
Instagram is an excellent tool for lead generation and has expanded its photo sharing capacity to include stories and now reels. This makes it easier than ever to convey your personality though your page.
However, Instagram is extremely oversubscribed and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to grow a large following.
Tik Tok is the new kid on the social media block and users love its fast-paced content. Especially in the financial services industry…
A few mortgage and protection advisers in the UK have taken to TIk Tok rather comfortably by the looks of things, but the majority are still very apprehensive about joining this craze.
Shout out to Glen Russell who has been consistently and diligently been growing his social media brand.
LinkedIn is the most popular business-centric platform. Even if you choose Facebook as your go to platform but you still have a LinkedIn profile that you signed up to 10 years ago, here is the number one reason why you should still optimize your profile no matter what:
When a client searches your name on Google, your LinkedIn profile will naturally rank high up on page one and therefore it is more likely to be the first thing the client clicks on.
Is your profile going to turn then on or OFF?
If you’re interested in mastering LinkedIn, remember to sign up to the freebie on our website which gives you a free LinkedIn MOT with Rosalia.
3. Utilise Your Existing Contacts
If you already have a database of clients, sending out a new communication can be an effective source of new business leads, especially when it comes to re-mortgages.
You can schedule a follow-up with previous clients when their deal is ending.
Offering a refer-a-friend incentive to your past clients can also be an effective and organic way to drive new leads.
Just like your social media posts, email marketing should be informative in tone rather than hard sell. Keep your emails short and snappy and ensure you direct people back to your website.
Mailchimp is an effective tool which is free for less than 200 emails addresses. Active Campaign is also slick and fairly user-friendly.
The beauty of using these kinds of tools is that you can measure campaign results and modify your future content based on engagement, helping you hone your campaigns.
4. Social Media Advertising
Advertising is more accessible and affordable than ever, due mainly to social media campaigns which have transformed how businesses can access their audience.
We have already mentioned how effective social media is for brand building, but did you know that Facebook and Instagram ads allow you to target a specific audience and find people who are interested in financial services and mortgage brokers, based on their location, demographic and profile? This can eliminate a lot of the legwork associated with generating leads.
If you have a small budget Facebook ads can be affective for driving brand awareness. For just £1 a day your content will reach an impressive number of people in your local area.
On Google ads you will need to spend around 30 times that amount as a minimum. Your advertising should drive awareness, consideration and conversation. Having said that, Google ads do tend to drive more quality leads.
The most popular platforms for brand development and marketing are:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok, You Tube
Google Ads can be extremely effective in lead generation with excellent customization and targeting options. However, there can be a conflict of interests using this platform, as Google’s desire for clicks can negatively impact your desire for sales.
If you’re unsure about what type of online advertising is right for you, we suggest you do your research before investing any budget or, better still, seek support from a professional.
5. Networking
People buy from those they like, know and trust. You are your own personal brand. In a vastly competitive business landscape, brokers can forget this and focus on the hard sell.
Networking should still be a key part of your lead generation. There is nothing quite like the personal touch in business, so meeting people in real life can lead to some really effective long-term working relationships and lead generation. Make sure you can communicate succinctly what you do and your niche which will spark interest in what you do. If you are struggling to do this, it’s worth honing your ‘elevator pitch’.
As with many of these approaches, consistency is essential. Ensuring you have dedicated time to regular networking (even if it’s just once a month) will enable you to forge relationships and stay fresh in people’s minds. Every time you meet someone through marketing, be sure to follow their social media and LinkedIn. This will help create a multi-channel dialogue.
As a result of Covid-19, networking now happens on and offline. For maximum results, aim to attend a mixture of both. Ask colleagues and peers which they recommend.
Networking Tips
With over 800 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is a fantastic online business networking tool. As well as posting daily in order to engage with your network, spend time commenting on and communicating with your peers, too. This combination of efforts will ensure you create really effective working relationships.
Aim to go to key industry trade shows and events as much as your diary allows. Again, ask for recommendations about the really worthwhile ones.
Don’t undersell yourself as an asset to others. Offer to give talks, demos or podcasts. This is a great way to shine and raise your profile within your industry. Most people hate public speaking and being in the limelight so if you show confidence here you will reap the rewards within your network.
Start Building Today
There are many other lead generation top tips we discuss in this article here. The key is to pick your top 3 or 4 favourite methods rather than just relying on ONE single lead-gen method. This is too risky to have one strategy only.
Make sure you have a mixture of reactive and proactive lead generation strategies. For example: Reactive – word of mouth. Proactive – content marketing. Reactive- walk-ins. Proactive – networking.
You can start working independently on this or perhaps teaming up with a colleague before looking to outsource. Outsourcing is available to those who have the budget and little time.
We’re here to help advisers who are ready to take their social media business to the next level and need to grow their brand.
Our secret sauce is to show advisers how they can make £100k from social media leads in 12 months!
To find out how we can help you do this, simply reach out to rosalia@content-hive.co.uk
