With online real estate marketing dominating the industry, agents have forgotten how powerful and effective offline marketing can be! Here are the tried-and-true offline marketing strategies that help you engage with your community and prospective clients in a unique, personal way.

Offline Real Estate Marketing Strategy 101 is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark

LinkedIn is a great place to make professional connections. It’s also a great place to find new mortgage leads. If you’re a loan broker or mortgage loan officer, you can use this networking website to connect to potential clients. Here are some ways you can use LinkedIn to generate new mortgage leads:

Join Multiple Groups

If you’re familiar with LinkedIn, you already know that you can join groups of other professionals. But if you only join groups of other loan officers, you’re unlikely to generate any meaningful mortgage leads.

Branch out by joining the right groups. Look for groups that contain other industry professionals, such as real estate agents, divorce attorneys, CPAs, and insurance providers. Or, look for groups whose members match your industry niche. For example, if you specialize in offering VA loans, you might find veterans’ groups.

Post Quality Content

As with any social media marketing strategy, content is king. You might already be posting content on your website or your other social accounts. But LinkedIn carries a lot of weight regarding search engine optimization (SEO). 

Posting blogs, videos, and other content on your LinkedIn page can help you build credibility. It can also ensure that potential clients can easily find you when searching for mortgage lenders.

Of course, make sure your content is aimed at generating new mortgage leads. Always include a “call to action” that directs viewers to contact you or provide their information for a future follow-up.

Use a Recent Photo

Profiles with photos are more likely to be taken seriously on LinkedIn, as the image will give you an added layer of credibility. Additionally, including a photograph can help potentially put a name to a face (literally!) and lay the foundation for a future working relationship.

Just make sure to keep your profile updated. Outdated profiles and old photos can make it appear as if your business has stagnated or disappeared entirely.

Leverage Endorsements and Recommendations

LinkedIn users can provide one another endorsements and recommendations. An endorsement is a professional affirmation that your skills are credible.

A recommendation is a bit different. In a recommendation, a connection offers a written testimonial about your abilities or shares what it’s like to work with you. These recommendations endorse you to others, including potential clients.

Go Premium

The free version of LinkedIn is fairly limited. Investing in the premium version gives you access to such features as:

•     Unlimited connections
•     No limit on recommendations
•     Send as many messages as you want
•     A more detailed profile

These features won’t generate leads, but they can help expand your reach and influence on this popular networking site.

How to Manage Your Mortgage Leads

With mortgage leads coming in from multiple sources, you’ll need a solution to manage your content and follow up with prospective customers. 

Consider using customer relationship management (CRM) software such as the BNTouch platform. This all-in-one solution can make it easier to develop a sales pipeline and stay organized through every step of the process.

To see these features in action, sign up for a demo today!

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It’s time for you to take a break. Here’s how to get away this summer without making a mess of your real estate business.

Break time: How Real Estate Agents Take Vacations Without Losing Business is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark

To have success in the real estate industry, self-confidence is vital. Without confidence, agents won’t develop the resilience, belief, and optimistic assumptions that lead to a fantastic career. Here are 9 ways to boost your confidence as a real estate agent.

9 Ways to Build Confidence as a Real Estate Agent is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark

You may consider buying mortgage leads from an outside agency. Before you do, check to see what type of leads you’re buying. Mortgage leads are sold to only one loan officer, but nonexclusive leads can be sold many times, reducing their value. Naturally, lenders prefer exclusive mortgage leads. Here are three reasons why:

1. Exclusive Leads Mean Less Competition

When you use exclusive mortgage leads, you won’t have to worry about competing with other loan officers. Otherwise, you risk contacting the same lead as several of your competitors, thus reducing your chances of converting that lead into a client.

Think about what this means for the client. Many home buyers are in the process of shopping for a home loan. These individuals may not respond well when contacted by multiple loan officers. You could inadvertently make the client feel pressured, damaging your public reputation. 

On the other hand, exclusive leads connect you directly to the client without having to elbow your peers out of the way. This approach allows you to proceed at your own pace and put your clients’ needs first.

2. Exclusive Leads Offer More Control

Your relationship with your clients is driven by the competition in many cases. You spend your time keeping the client happy, fearing that otherwise, the client may abandon your services for one of your many competitors. 

As a result, you might get “stuck” with a client who consumes your time and always seems to expect more than you’d prefer to offer. 

Exclusive mortgage leads put you in the driver’s seat of the relationship. Since you don’t have to share the lead with multiple other lenders, you get to set the terms of the client relationship. 

You define the expectations based on your own experience or unique industry niche. Therefore, exclusive leads mean more control, less stress, and total command over your business relationships.

3. Exclusive Leads Ensure a Better Relationship

You’ve probably had the experience of playing second fiddle to the client’s real estate agent. Once the sale is complete, the client doesn’t remember you. If they do, it’s only as “the lender that our real estate agent recommended.” 

When helping clients with their mortgages, there will always be a triangular set of relationships: the client, the realtor, and you. But exclusive mortgage leads allow you to be the leader in this set of relationships. This positioning is important because when the client has a potential referral, they’ll contact you and not their former realtor.

Make the Most of Your Mortgage Leads

Managing your mortgage leads can sometimes feel like a full-time job in itself. But it doesn’t have to be. Many industry professionals are using customer relationship management (CRM) software to stay organized and on top of their core processes. 

The BNTouch platform offers an all-in-one solution, ensuring that you stay in control of your business and match your clients to the services you provide.

Request a demo today, and see how BNTouch can change how you serve your clients.

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Real estate agents have lots to gain from working with real estate investors. But to be an investment-friendly agent, you’ll need these new skills first.

Become (and market yourself as) an Investor-Friendly Real Estate Agent is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark