202200321 SEL Brief
The post 202200321 SEL Brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.
ADA Compliance: How an Inaccessible Real Estate Website Could Cost You Thousands
An ADA-compliant real estate website is crucial for great UX and to avoid expensive discrimination lawsuits. Find out how you can protect yourself and your clients with improved website accessibility.
ADA Compliance: How an Inaccessible Real Estate Website Could Cost You Thousands is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark
The Secret Behind a High Converting Real Estate Marketing Funnel
Without a proper real estate marketing funnel, it can be difficult for agents to generate leads, upkeep multiple properties, and manage prospective clients.
The Secret Behind a High Converting Real Estate Marketing Funnel is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark
Virtual Real Estate in the Metaverse
Virtual real estate in the metaverse is changing the way we buy and sell property. Here’s what real estate agents need to know to make lucrative deals in this virtual space.
Virtual Real Estate in the Metaverse is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark
Real Estate TikTok Ideas that Will Get You Deals (Live Examples)
Here’s how real estate agents are using TikTok to score hundreds of inquiries on each property listing and gain local recognition.
Real Estate TikTok Ideas that Will Get You Deals (Live Examples) is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark
Social Media Marketing For Real Estate in 2022: The Definitive Guide
We put together the ultimate 2022 guide for real estate social media. Check it out and take your social media game to the next level today.
Social Media Marketing For Real Estate in 2022: The Definitive Guide is just one of many great real estate strategies on The Spark
Stay Ahead of Marketing Compliance Issues with a Mortgage CRM
As a mortgage broker or loan officer, you want to make sure that you share current deals with your clients. You need to be on the hunt to grow your customer base. What better way to do that than using marketing designed to attract new clients? When setting up new advertisements, also meet local laws and regulations. The best way to do this is to invest in customer relationship management (CRM) software.
What Is a Mortgage CRM?
A mortgage CRM helps mortgage brokers and loan officers run their front-end operations. It also allows companies to manage relationships with their prospective and existing customers. A CRM helps manage and grow customer relationships across the entire client lifecycle. It’s an opportunity to build brand equity, improve satisfaction, and make more sales.
Why Is a Mortgage CRM Important?
Mortgage professionals must understand the risks associated with breaking regional and federal laws. A powerful mortgage CRM can help professionals stay within regulations. Managing the customer relationship life cycle is essential for staying ahead of competitors. A mortgage CRM helps mortgage professionals protect their business while increasing clients.
While compliance is substantial, so is understanding sales productivity. CRMs can notify you when to send a follow-up email. They allow you to track deals through the sales pipeline. A CRM can also identify new sales opportunities. Once you have started a sale, the CRM can provide you with reporting tools. These tools show where your leads come from and how much you have sold.
A mortgage CRM can increase your standard of service and support. You can build distinct customer profiles that include preferences and location information.
The CRM will notify you of churn risk and customer sentiment. This way, you can build up your customer relationships. The CRM can offer survey features for keeping track of how satisfied customers are. Mortgage brokers can also check ratings and show professionals the patterns.
What Are Some of the Regulations a Mortgage CRM Should Manage?
Privacy and data protection are essential to customers, and regulators recognize that. Thus, many laws are in place to limit the types of contact that marketers can use. Some regulations only apply to the mortgage lending industry. Specific compliance measures that a mortgage CRM software solution should include are:
1. Respect for Consumer Preferences and Privacy
A robust mortgage CRM software should include options to manage consumer preferences. There should be options to manage data privacy. Several laws give customers the right to limit spam and notifications. A few of these laws include:
- CAN-SPAM Act: Requires ability for customers to opt-out of email notifications
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): Customers can ask not to receive phone calls
- California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA): Personal informational and is not saved
Each one of these regulations gives consumers more control over advertisements. A robust mortgage CRM solution can ensure that clients’ requests are well-managed, allowing mortgage professionals to respect relationships with customers.
2. Approval Process for Marketing Materials
Some workers may be in charge of making marketing materials for potential customers. A specific person approves the roll-out of the advertisement. The official should have an understanding of the regulations related to marketing materials. They should only support those items that follow the rules.
A CRM can help the process by allowing for custom rules related to marketing materials. Professionals send finished advertisements to a designated approver in the mortgage company. Once approved, the company releases them for distribution.
3. Track and Audit Communications
Any mortgage CRM software should let marketing managers track the performance of ads. This ensures messaging remains on topic. The CRM can also watch the effectiveness of the communications sent. If a marketer sees that an advertisement doesn’t have the right effect, they can make adjustments. The marketer can adjust the poor-performing marketing communication or create a new one.
People who oversee compliance with regulations may audit companies. These regulators can ask to see evidence of communications a company sent. This may occur if a customer complains or by chance.
Regulators encourage companies to follow current laws through their audits. If a company is not following those laws, it may receive fines or other penalties. Having a mortgage CRM that tracks marketing communication can be helpful, and this is especially true if regulators audit the company.
4. Standardization of Disclosures and Legal Statements
Mortgage companies must include disclosures, NMLS numbers, and other licensing information in advertisements. A mortgage CRM can ensure that ads have legal disclosures and licensing information. Once a program includes disclosures, brokers and lenders can apply it to messaging.
Some larger companies operate in many areas with different laws. Such companies may need information about each of their locations. Marketing professionals can work with their lawyers to follow laws and regulations. They can then insert disclosures into all communications in these locations. This is especially important for automated messages sent to potential and existing clients.
5. Meet Equal Credit Opportunity Act Requirements
Mortgage brokers and lenders are not allowed to send marketing materials that discriminate. Discrimination can occur between those who have good credit and those who don’t. Marketing materials must be available to anyone who wants to know about a new home, and this should happen regardless of their credit.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) keeps lenders from discriminating against credit applicants. No lender can deny a borrower based on discriminating factors. A CRM solution can send alerts if materials don’t follow the rules.
6. Meet Fair Housing Act Rules
The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination by providers of housing. This includes landlords, real estate companies, and lenders. Under the FHA, providers can’t deny housing based on prejudice. Discrimination includes race, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.
If the Justice Department becomes aware of potential discrimination, they may file suit. Such a suit can have terrible results for the mortgage broker or lender. Having a powerful mortgage CRM software solution can help. The CRM can maintain a fair balance in marketing communications. It can suggest images that prove a company’s commitment to diversity.
7. Compliance with Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)
Any mortgage broker or lender must follow RESPA. This act prohibits the use of kickbacks for referrals of business. It prohibits loan officers and real estate agents from compensating one another. Yet, in reality, most lenders and agents depend on each other for the company. A mortgage CRM that meets RESPA can help ensure effective compliance. It can do this by balancing the needs between marketers and customers.
Under RESPA, loan originators must give borrowers a good-faith estimate of loan terms. This estimate must also include closing costs. Compliance with RESPA is mandatory for mortgage brokers and loan officers.
8. Adhere to APR Requirements
Whenever interest rates are in an ad, the annual percentage rate (APR) is, as well. APR requirements help protect consumers from any misleading interest rate quotes, and quoted interest rates must include an APR.
A mortgage CRM can help mortgage lenders and brokers meet the APR requirements. Marketing materials that go through the CRM must contain an APR in the same size and format as the quoted rates. These rules include matching the size, style, and location of the APR and quoted rates. While most CRMs will calculate the APR, users should be able to reconfigure it if it does not appear to be correct.
How Can Using a Mortgage CRM Benefit Real Estate Professionals?
A mortgage CRM software application can do a lot for professional mortgage brokers. These software solutions can help mortgage brokers, and lenders save time. They increase efficiency and help companies follow regulations that govern the industry. They can boost lead generation, allowing a company to grow its clientele.
The analytics and reporting modules allow users to review marketing performance. Users can make adjustments to engage more customers. The CRM helps real estate professionals stay in line with the laws and regulations.
A mortgage CRM allows you to store and organize your client data. In turn, this makes it easier to stay in touch with clients. You can give them quick updates on the loan process. You can also update them about new mortgage rates and housing trends.
A CRM software solution helps your company be more efficient. It can manage regular tasks like employee scheduling and managing contracts. There are a lot of great features included in a CRM.
How Can BNTouch Help Mortgage Brokers and Lenders?
BNTouch is a mortgage CRM designed for real estate professionals. It gives users the ability to automate their marketing and convert more leads. Professionals can also stay top of mind with borrowers and recruit new partners. The CRM includes a digital loan platform designed to improve the borrower experience. This platform provides digital document management and in-processing updates.
Reach out to BNTouch today for a free demo of our mortgage CRM software!
The post Stay Ahead of Marketing Compliance Issues with a Mortgage CRM appeared first on .
Google Business Profiles new emergency help attributes for Ukraine support
Google Business Profiles is rolling out a new business attribute under a new category called “emergency help” where you can say if your business or organization accepts donations, employs refugees, needs volunteers or offers free products or services.
What it looks like. Here is a screenshot from Krystal Taing on Twitter of the new attributes:
How to access it. You may be able to access these new attributes by logging into your Google Business Profile account, clicking on the “Info” tab and then scrolling down to edit your “Attributes.” All you need to do it click on the pencil icon to open up the available attributes to your business.
Don’t see it? If you do not see it, you are not alone. I personally do not see this in for my business listing and I suspect many of you don’t either. It might be a slow rollout of this attribute or it may be only available to certain types of businesses or organizations or to certain businesses or organizations in specific regions.
Partoo noted that these attributes are not available for all industries, plus more of this is noted on the Google blog post here. Ben Fisher told me this is restricted to Ukraine and surrounding regions and shared this hotel specific help document from Google.
Hotel accommodations. This week, Google also released new attributes for hotel listings in Google Hotel search to define if they have free or discounted rooms available for those displaced from Ukraine. Here is a screenshot of that:
Why we care. This may be an excellent way for you to highlight how your business or organization can help refugees and in general with the Ukraine crisis. In addition, your business or organization may see special icons in their business listings in Google Maps and Search when these attributes are added. I have yet to see how these attributes are reflected to searchers on the frontend.
The post Google Business Profiles new emergency help attributes for Ukraine support appeared first on Search Engine Land.
3 SEO tools to build for your clients in Google Data Studio
With the wide variety of clients out there, you’re bound to run into the occasional DIY marketer. These marketers prefer that you teach them how to be self-sufficient rather than rely on you for every little question.
These clients can be a blessing but can also be dangerous. The challenging aspect of client management is finding the balance between empowering them to get the data they want without feeling like they don’t need you.
That’s where Google Data Studio tools come into play.
Data Studio is typically used for general reporting. The real beauty of Data Studio is that it can be used for so much more.
By creating tools for clients, you enable them to do the actual research it takes to accomplish SEO while still providing that much-needed maintenance and guidance that comes with experience.
This article illustrates free dashboard templates you can use with your clients.
How to change the branding
Before we dive into the specifics, you may want to update the branding and logo of your dashboard. This process could not be easier.
Right-click on your logo, and you will see a menu appear. Near the bottom, select “Extract theme from image.” You will then be presented with three different color scheme options. Select whichever one you feel best represents your brand.
This will automatically change most of the colors and get you most of the way to the finish line of designing in your Data Studio tool. However, there may still be a few charts or texts you’ll need to update.
1. Technical SEO auditing
Tracking technical SEO efforts can be difficult to visualize. Sure, you can track it in a spreadsheet, but that isn’t client-friendly.
For years, SEOs have attempted to make dashboard trackers to help show improvements in site health over time.
Luckily, our friends at Screaming Frog have finally cracked the case of the perfect technical SEO dashboard. The best part? The template is free. You can see it here.
How to copy the dashboard
To copy the dashboard:
- Click on the three dots in the top right
- Select make a copy
- Select your data source (don’t worry, you can update later)
How to set up the technical SEO tracker tool
Screaming Frog has published a helpful guide on setting up this Data Studio tool. What they will walk you through includes:
- Setting up a scheduled crawl
- Configuring the export to a Google Sheet
- Connecting that Google Sheet to the Data Studio dashboard
You can find the full tutorial here.
2. Keyword research
The presentation of keyword research takes many forms. Most recognizable is the simple spreadsheet. Some people create keyword maps for each page or topic, while others with smaller clients have a short list of keywords.
However, Data Studio can be a powerful analysis tool for larger sites with tens of thousands or millions of keywords.
If you are working with millions of keywords, do not use Google Sheets like this example. I recommend using BigQuery to handle your keywords.
Here’s the link to the dashboard.
Step One: Setting up your source data
The first step involves importing your keyword research into a Google Sheet. To use the free template I created, you will need to include the following dimensions and metrics in your Google Sheet:
- Keyword
- Position
- Previous position
- Search Volume
- Keyword Difficulty
- CPC
- URL
- Keyword Intents
Here’s the original data source for the dashboard that you can use as an example. All data is from Semrush.
Step Two: Copy the dashboard
As we learned in the previous dashboard, you’ll want to make a copy of this dashboard and connect your data source, whether it be Google Sheets or BigQuery.
Important features of this Data Studio tool
This tool has many unique features that can be used to help drive your on-page SEO strategy. Depending on your strategy, these features can be customized to display different types of data and categories.
Boolean Buttons
The three buttons in this tool are based on custom boolean formulas, meaning they work on true/false statements. Let’s take a look at one of them.
We’re creating a function only to display long-tail queries that start with a question word in the formula above. This formula relies on regex, with two very important symbols:
- The circumflex (^) is a regex function that essentially means, “if the keyword starts with this.”
- The pipe (|) symbol is another regex function that means “or.”
Using this formula, you can create any number of different kinds of checkboxes. I added a few keywords separated by pipes (|) to help display keywords in those categories for the SEO and PPC checkboxes.
Custom search box
The custom search box is a pretty simple but powerful feature of this tool. Not only can it quickly help you narrow down your search to identify keyword opportunities, but it can also use the power of regex to customize your search.
Intent dropdown
The keyword intent dropdown can help you filter by the intent of each keyword within the search funnel. Pretty simple, right?
Well, this filter can be easily swapped out by any dimension in Data Studio. So if you want to swap it out for other keyword categories, this can be the perfect filter for you.
Funnel
This funnel helps visualize the true search funnel by intent. When applying other filters in this tool, the funnel and metrics above automatically update with the intents.
3. Link building tracking tool
Link building is one of the tensest topics SEOs like to avoid with clients. Links are challenging to earn and often the hardest thing to control.
The best way to earn trust with clients and stakeholders is through transparency. Instead of dodging the data around link building, hand over the keys and let them explore the data for themselves.
This is one of the more straightforward Data Studio tools we can create. You can pair any number of dimensions and metrics to help illustrate your point.
Here is a link to the free template.
The supporting Google Sheet I’m using is a simple backlinks analytics report from SEMrush. However, you can use your own link-building tracker to feed the report. Just make sure you add the acquisition date for the date range.
You can view the Google Sheet that’s feeding the tool here.
Conclusion
Data Studio is one of the fastest reporting tools to stand up while still having some seriously robust features. The fact that it’s also free makes it an easy platform of choice.
But that begs the question, why go through all that trouble for clients and other stakeholders?
These tools help create a better sense of transparency, which can help improve trust. Thus, creating a better partnership between you and your stakeholders.
One of the most challenging parts of SEO isn’t the work itself but the communication of value. So from now on, think of new creative ways to demonstrate value to your clients, even if it’s just making a simple tool in Data Studio.
The post 3 SEO tools to build for your clients in Google Data Studio appeared first on Search Engine Land.