5 Tips to Improve the Success of your Direct Mail Campaigns

Are your direct mail pieces getting lackluster results?  If so, you’ll want to take advantage of the time-honored tips         below for achieving greater direct mail success:

•  Offer Something for Free. Getting things for free is a great motivator.  Say that you’re sending out a direct mail piece
•  to likely first-time home buyers.  Offer something for free that they’ll find appealing—for example, you might
•  consider   giving them a neighborhood coupon book if they come in for a consultation.

•   Include a PS. Statistics show that the PS on your direct mail piece has the greatest likelihood of being read.  Take
•   advantage of this by making sure to include one on any direct mail piece that you send.  Focus on creating a PS that
•  offers a compelling sales message.

• Use a Post-It. This provides the ultimate in giving your mailing a personal touch.  If you choose to send out a letter for your direct mail piece, affix a Post-It note to it with a message.  Write something on the Post-It like, “I look forward to hearing from you.”  The Post-It will generate greater attention and personalize the mailer.

• Use Graphics and Color. A professionally done mailer is far more attractive than one that has been hastily put together.  Create a mailer that is graphically appealing.  You can hire the services of a graphic designer or do it yourself—just make sure to get a second opinion before mailing it out.  Put your best foot forward by sending out well-designed direct mail pieces.

• Don’t Forget a Call-To-Action. Most importantly, include a call-to-action (CTA) in your mailer.  Your CTA should be very prominent and easily identifiable.  Some typical CTAs are “schedule your free consultation today,” and “act now, supplies are limited,” if you’re offering a free gift.  This not only will guide your prospect on which action to take, but it will also create a sense of urgency, an important feature in a direct mail piece.

Mortgage Marketing: Ideas for Lead Generation

In the mortgage broker business, the name of the game is lead generation.  If you’re looking to devise new strategies for attracting clients, we have ideas to help make the process easier.  Consider trying some of the following:
Generate a List
Think of the people who you come into contact with over the course of a year.  These people could include friends, family members, acquaintances, service professionals like your mechanic, and past co-workers.  On an annual basis, send out a letter highlighting your services suggesting that they request a consultation with you to learn more.
Be a Do-Gooder
Most people have charities that are close to their hearts.  Get involved with one that you feel strongly about and use it not only as an opportunity to help others, but also as a chance to network.  When you meet new people, hand them your business card.  Rather than go for an immediate hard sell, allow people to ask you about what you do and use those moments to casually highlight your services.
Join a Networking Organization
If there’s a professional networking organization in your community, become a member.  If one doesn’t exist, consider creating your own with people who work in complementary industries.  For example, you might want to start a small networking organization that includes a real estate attorney, a realtor, and a builder.  Socializing with other networkers gives you the opportunity to share leads, as well as acquire new leads of your own.
Ask for Referrals
It’s always a good idea to ask your existing satisfied clients for referrals.  After closing a deal for them, find out if they can provide you with names of people who might be interested in your services.  This not only will give you more leads, but it will also provide you with a testimonial of sorts from the individual who made the referral.
Offer Presentations
If there’s a topic that you are well-versed on, consider giving a presentation on it. You can present at local civic groups, your library, or your community’s recreation center.  This will give you a chance to show off your expertise while also giving you the opportunity to pass out business cards to attendees.   This can also include other people who are interested in getting into your field. For example if you are well versed in mortgage marketing and can share helpful information to others it usually will stay in their minds and they would be more likely to even refer people or clients to you.
When following these strategies, remember to be friendly, rather than the stereotypical pushy salesperson.  No one wants to inadvertently subject themselves to an aggressive sales pitch.  Instead, focus on meeting new people and when the conversation drifts to your line of work, use that as an opportunity to answer questions others have about your business.  You’ll find that these casual exchanges will ultimately help you to generate more leads and grow your business.

Emerging from a Sales Slump

Every salesperson experiences a sales slump at one point in his career.  While upsetting, sales slumps can be a great time for evaluating your sales process and making improvements.  To help you do that, we’ve compiled a list of suggestions for how you can break out of your slump and reinvigorate your sales:

Return to the Basics.

Once you’ve been successful in sales, it can be easy to stop practicing the basic things that got you there in the first place.  For instance, did you do more prospecting when you were just starting out?  Sales slumps typically occur because there aren’t enough prospects in the pipeline.  Reflect on the actions that you undertook during times when sales were strong and implement them during your slump.

Watch a Leader.

You can learn a lot from watching other successful salespeople. Spend time with a high-performing salesperson and watch how he engages with prospects.  While viewing someone in your industry is helpful, it can also be instructive to watch a salesperson who works in a different one.

Prepare for Sales Calls.

Preparing for a meeting with a prospect is important but can be time-consuming.  Simplify the process by using Refresh, a free app available at the iTunes store.  Refresh combs through your calendar and offers up insights on people you’re meeting with based on the updates that they’ve made to their social media accounts.  These insights will give you a better idea of what’s going on in your prospect’s life and it can help you find common ground.

Don’t Catastrophize.

During a sales slump, it can be tempting to dwell on worst-case scenarios i.e. “If this continues, I won’t be able to pay my mortgage this month.”  Instead, remind yourself that slumps are a natural occurrence in sales and they often are a precursor to a significant period of sales growth.

Think Outside the Box.

Sometimes a slump can shake us out of our complacency.  Try to vary the way that you approach your work.  For example, you could prepare a new way to deal with a prospect’s objections or decide to be more diligent about following with a prospect.  This period of low sales can spark just the insight that you need to shake things up in a good way.

Celebrating 15 years in Business!

Titan List is a full service Advertising and Design agency specializing in Direct Mail, Mortgage Marketing, Graphic Design. Titan List has been around since 1998, and has a team of highly qualified individuals with experience in the marketing trends that fit your business. Unlike other agencies that source their work out, Titan List & Mailing handles the entire campaign in-house. Looking for a special list of data for your business? We can customize any data list for your company.

Social Media Headaches: What to Do When Great Content Doesn’t Deliver

Many small businesses feel that they’re not seeing the value that they would like in their social media efforts.  They may be regularly posting on Twitter, but their comments aren’t being retweeted.  It could be that they’re generating great content on Facebook, but they don’t have very many followers.  If this is something that you’ve experienced yourself, you know the frustration of devoting time to your social media efforts and feeling like you’re getting little in return.  To counteract this problem, we suggest that rather than abandoning your efforts to create quality content, you concentrate on delivering it via email.

 Email marketing can be an excellent investment of your time and money.   In fact, the Direct Marketing Association reports that for every dollar spent on email marketing, there is a $40.56 return.  Additionally, 92% of people use email.  Compare that to the percentage of people who have social media profiles—only 56%—and it’s easy to see why email marketing is so effective.

Email marketing can appear overwhelming when you’re just getting started.  To simplify the process, we recommend that you consider the following:

• Marketing Automation (MA) Software – According to Forrester Research, businesses that use lead nurturing programs—like MA software—generate 50% more sales.  There are a number of free and low-cost MA programs available that make email marketing, lead management, and A/B testing far easier.  Check out this VentureBeat article for some great recommendations.
• Practice Consistency – Once you’ve found a good email marketing system, communicate with your leads regularly.  Don’t allow months to lapse between emails.
• Continue to Create Great Content.  Don’t get lax on creating interesting, relevant content.  The same great stuff that you were generating for your social media platforms should now be used in your email marketing efforts.
• Remember to Use a Call-To-Action (CTA) – A CTA refers to an explicit action that you would like a customer to take after receiving your email.  For instance, perhaps you could instruct email recipients to call to set up a consultation to learn more about the benefits of refinancing.
• Evaluate.  As with any marketing effort, you’re going to want to evaluate your results.  Do some email subject lines garner substantially higher email open rates than others?  Is there a certain type of content that your users forward more frequently?  When you start to get a feel for what works—and what doesn’t—modify your email marketing accordingly.

Mortgage Marketing: Nurturing Your Leads

Let’s say that you have a number of promising leads in the pipeline but none of them seem ready to use your services just yet.  Naturally, you don’t want to throw in the towel and write them off.  So, how can you engage with your leads in a manner that  will increase the likelihood that they will work with you in the future?  You do this by nurturing your leads.  This process  involves keeping in regular contact with your leads as you build trust and credibility.  Then when they are in need of the  services you provide, they’ll choose to do business with you.  To improve your lead nurturing efforts, we offer up the following  pointers:

•  Opt In – Get permission from your lead to stay in touch by asking him to opt-in to receive future communications  from you.
•  Regularly Communicate – An important part of the lead nurturing process is staying in regular communication.  Rather  than throwing together a hastily constructed email every several months, instead strive to contact your lead on a regular basis with useful information.
• Be Responsive – If a lead does get in touch with you or submits an inquiry on your website, respond quickly.  The more responsive you are to your leads, the more you will establish yourself as a trustworthy professional in their minds.
• Create Quality Content – You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Content is king.”  That’s a good thing to remember when you are creating content for lead nurturing.  Try to focus on addressing things that your leads will find relevant or interesting.  If they are considering refinancing, for example, you might want to send them an article about the latest trends in home improvement, something that people often do after they refinance their homes.  Or, if you find an article indicating that interest rates are expected to rise, you may want to forward that along.  Most people don’t mind receiving emails from salespeople if they find the content useful.
• Provide Value – While it may be tempting to send out emails where you remind leads over and over again about your qualifications, this can be counterproductive.  Rather than go on at length about yourself, focus on your leads’ needs and concerns.  Great mortgage marketers know that communications should be customer-focused rather than egocentric in nature.  Also, avoid inundating your leads with emails that are heavily sales-oriented but light on content.  Only about 20% of your emails should be sales-oriented in nature; the remaining 80% should be more customer-focused for maximum effectiveness.

5 Tips to Get a Prospect to Return Your Call

It can be very frustrating when you fail to get a prospect on the phone.  Worse still is when your prospect doesn’t return your call after you leave a voice mail.  Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to increase the likelihood that you’ll get a response from your prospect.  Below we list out top 5 tips:

Use Multiple Mediums.  

Everyone has a preferred method of communication—some people enjoy talking on the phone while others prefer email.  Your job  as a salesperson is to accommodate your prospect’s preference.  When you’re leaving a voice mail, indicate that you will get in  touch with your prospect via email, in case that works better.  There are a number of people who are more likely to respond to an  email—that can be replied to at any time of day—than a phone call during certain hours.

 Send a Written Note.

While it sounds old-fashioned, everyone enjoys getting personal mail.  Send your prospects a handwritten note after meeting with  them.  This will increase your likability and make prospects more likely to respond to your efforts to get in touch further down the road.

Use Referrals.

If someone referred a prospect to you, make sure to name-drop when you leave a message.  Knowing that you have the person who made the referral in common can motivate the prospect to return your call.

Schedule It.

Let your prospect know the best time to contact you.  For example, you might say in your message, “You can reach me between 4 and 7pm Wednesday evening.”  One reason people are reluctant to return calls is because they don’t want to get into a time-consuming game of phone tag.  By letting the prospect know when you will be available to answer your phone, you are eliminating this concern.

Be Reassuring.

It’s a good idea to let a prospect know in your voice mail that if he’s decided to go with someone else’s services, that’s fine because you don’t want to pester him with follow-ups.  Usually, he’ll return your call and either let you know that he has gone with someone else or tell you that he hasn’t made a decision yet.  Either way, it’s to your benefit to have this information so that if he has retained someone else’s services, you can devote your time to likelier prospects.

Growing Strong! Celebrating 15 years in Business!

Titan List is a full service Advertising and Design agency specializing in Direct Mail, Mortgage Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Website / Graphic Design. Titan List has been around since 1998, and has a team of highly qualified individuals with experience in the marketing trends that fit your business. Unlike other agencies that source their work out, Titan List & Mailing handles the entire campaign in-house. Looking for a special list of data for your business? We can customize any data list for your company.

Social Selling: A Primer

More and more, social selling is becoming increasingly important.  For one thing, your prospects are likely to be using the 3 main social media platforms(Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) and having a presence on these sites gives you the opportunity to engage with them.  For another, your competitors are most likely already using social selling.  Finally, consumers today expect that anyone that they do business with has active social media accounts that they can follow.

If you’ve already opened up a Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter account, you’re on the right path.  If you haven’t, we recommend that you do so.  Once you have your accounts open, one of your primary focuses is going to be on building connections.  Send a friendly email to contacts in your CRM database and ask them to “Like” your Facebook page or to follow you on Twitter.  Update your website with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter buttons so that prospects can easily find and follow you on social media.

Once your presence has been established, focus on offering engaging and relevant content to your followers. For instance, you might want to let them know that interest rates are dropping or share with them bad business practices that they may encounter if they work with an unscrupulous broker.  When creating your content, remember the 80/20 rule—80% of your content should be related to your prospects’ interests and only 20% should be sales-oriented in nature.

Social selling—as with any marketing initiative—takes time to see results. But if you consistently make an effort in this regard, you will not only grow your prospects but you’ll also increase your sales opportunities.

Celebrating 15 years in Business!

Titan List is a full service Advertising and Design agency specializing in Direct Mail, Mortgage Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and Website / Graphic Design. Titan List has been around since 1998, and has a team of highly qualified individuals with experience in the marketing trends that fit your business. Unlike other agencies that source their work out, Titan List & Mailing handles the entire campaign in-house. Looking for a special list of data for your business? We can customize any data list for your company.