Increase Repeat Business and Referrals with Direct Mail
So you have been writing mortgages like crazy now for the last few years. You have a pretty big database of customers and hopefully you have been getting and keeping full contact information for them. An organized database is the first key to customer retention. The next step is to put together a direct mail campaign to keep these customers thinking about you when they think about mortgages. It is often years between times when each customer needs a mortgage professional, and it takes far less than that for them to forget your name.
As well as fighting time, you are fighting indifference. Customers who get great service are often reluctant to pass that information along, while customers who feel they have gotten poor service will tell everyone. Most of the time good customers need to be reminded of their experience. By following up with each customer on a regular basis you will not only stay in the front of their mind but you will also start to build a reputation as a solid and responsible business. So how do you get started? Below are a couple of the most frequently asked questions when starting a campaign to keep in touch with past clients.
What Type of Direct Mail Piece Works Best? There is a great debate amongst Mortgage Professionals about what type of direct mail will work best for getting new business. Many swear by letters for their appearance of professionalism, while others like the low cost and high visibility of postcards. Overall, both seem to work adequately for bringing in new business. You just need to find which works best for you personally. For keeping in contact with past customers, however, the way to go is postcards.
This is due to the fact that if your customers are not currently looking for a mortgage for themselves, they are far less likely to take the time to open a letter. That causes most of your "keep in touch" promo that is in envelopes to get thrown out before it ever gets read. Since the goal is recognition and not direct action you only need to get them to read the message. Postcards have the message visible when mailed, which means that while your customers are deciding what to read and what to throw out, they are already being exposed to your message. How Often Should I Send Promo? You will want to mail a piece to your database every 30-60 days.
Any longer than that and they may have already forgotten you when their friends are looking for a mortgage. Since you will want to send promo out often, you will need to keep your costs down. With postcards there are no envelope costs, no assembly costs and the postage is 30% less than letters. When using a mail house to send your postcards you can often get postage rates as low as 18? per piece. What Should Be On My Brand Recognition Pieces? There are some basic rules for the design of a brand recognition direct mail piece.
Rule #1: Keep color consistent. Many times people fall into the trap of changing the look of their promo for the seasons or for the holidays. The thought is that people are thinking about Christmas or St. Patrick's Day so they will respond better to promo with those colors. The truth is exactly opposite.
Their senses are so flooded by those images that they actually start to skip right over them. Pick a color for your company and stick with it. You will do much better in building recognition. Rule #2: Make a logo and use it on every piece. Having a clean, professional logo is best.
It may be a little pricey to have designed but in the end it is well worth the money. Experienced designers can often charge up to $2000 for a corporate identity package including logo, letterhead and business cards. If you aren't looking to make that type of investment simply pick a type style for your company name and use it every time. Consistency is key because your logo is your main identification point. Rule #3: Make it Informative.
Every piece should have something useful for your customers. Whether it is new information about the mortgage industry or even possible investment properties in their area, it can even be completely unrelated to the mortgage industry. A calendar or list of emergency numbers, even the old recipe card trick still works pretty well. Anything that is likely to be kept around will help to build recognition in the minds of your past customers. The mortgage industry has experienced a huge amount of growth over the past few years.
Unfortunately this growth cannot last forever. At some point it is going slow down and the only way to keep your income in the range that you have become accustomed to is to ensure that you retain as many past customers as you possibly can. A direct mail campaign is the best way to do this, but remember, this type of program is a long term process. Don't get discouraged if you can't directly calculate the amount of money that you bring in right off the bat. What you are doing is burning your name into the minds of your customers.
Eventually it will work out to you seeing less attrition and far more referrals..
Joe Niewierski, the VP of Marketing & Promotion at PostcardMania, became a published writer after graduating with a BA in Advertising from the University of South Florida. Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she?s sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com.The Bucky Challenge: Former Ad Exec Offers $23 for Reading His Book and Not Seeing The Matrix for 30 Days
Atlanta
(ContentDesk) September 2, 2005 -- eXe Active Media, a distributor of quality arts and letters via new mediums, announced today Poker Without Cards' author Ben Mack has offered a challenge: Read his book and if you don't see The Matrix for 30 days the author will mail you $23.If you read "Poker Without Cards" from beginning to end and don't see The Matrix for 30 days, Ben Mack will mail you $23. This is not a gag. There isn't an image of The Matrix in his book. Similarly, while the author does reference the movie twice, that's not this deal.
The only trick is that by "The Matrix" he's not talking about the movie, The Matrix; he's talking about seeing THE MATRIX.
Reading "Poker Without Cards" will make you see THE MATRIX, define "THE MATRIX" however you want.
If reading "Poker Without Cards" doesn't fundamentally alter the way you see the world, Ben Mack will pay $23 for wasting your time. Readers must have read the book, either the $3.23 download...
Business cards > The Bucky Challenge: Former Ad Exec Offers $23 for Reading His Book and Not Seeing The Matrix for 30 Days
Is An Online Business Degree Right For You?
Deciding if an online business degree is right for you is an easy task. With the wide selection of programs, flexibility and personalized formatting, an online business degree is a great choice for any one new to the business world or those that are very experienced but looking to learn more.These degrees can be obtained in many fields of business, for examples, accounting, general business, leadership and marketing. Many colleges offer these business degree, but three well know, accredited online colleges are Ashworth College, Kaplan University and Walden University.To decide which online business degree is right for you, it is best to decide what your career goals are or what your current job calls for. For instance, if you want to start your own small business, then a degree in marketing may be your best bet. But, if you are currently a manager at your place of business then a leadership degree may get you the skills you need to get a promotion and a raise in your current career....
Is An Online Business Degree Right For You?
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Increase Repeat Business and Referrals with Direct Mail
So you have been writing mortgages like crazy now for the last few years. You have a pretty big database of customers and hopefully you have been getting and keeping full contact information for them. An organized database is the first key to customer retention. The next step is to put together a direct mail campaign to keep these customers thinking about you when they think about mortgages. It is often years between times when each customer needs a mortgage professional, and it takes far less than that for them to forget your name.
As well as fighting time, you are fighting indifference. Customers who get great service are often reluctant to pass that information along, while customers who feel they have gotten poor service will tell everyone. Most of the time good customers need to be reminded of their experience. By following up with each customer on a regular basis you will not only stay in the front of their mind but you will also start to build a reputation as a solid and...
Increase Repeat Business and Referrals with Direct Mail
Business cards > Increase Repeat Business and Referrals with Direct Mail
Liquidity or Liquidation
Large parts of the world today suffer from a severe liquidity crisis. The famed globalization of the capital markets seems to confine itself, ever more, to the richer parts, the more liquid exchanges, the more affluent geopolitical neighbourhoods. The fad of "emerging economies" has all but died out. Try telling the Macedonians about global capital markets: last year, the whole world invested 8 million USD in their poor country. Breadwinners earn 300 DM a month on average.
Officially, in excess of one third of the workforce is unemployed. Small wonder that people do not pay their bills, employers do not pay salaries, the banking system has a marked tendency to crash every now and then and the average real default rate is 50%.
Illiquidity erodes the trust between the economic players. Such trust is a precondition to the existence of a thriving, modern economy. We all postpone the gratification of our desires: we save now and consume later, for instance or we sell goods...
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0% Credit Cards
These days, credit cards (http://www.credit-cards-uk.eu.com) in the UK are competing with each other on two very attractive offers with a headline rate of 0%. These 0% credit cards will be either balance transfers; introductory purchases offers or a combination of the two. This article looks at how to get the best out these types of card and the things to that the credit card companies want you to do and therefore the things to avoid. There is a school of thought that believes that these types of card will soon be a thing of the past as they cost the credit card companies too much profit, as consumers get wiser to the pitfalls.A balance transfer credit card (http://www.credit-cards-uk.eu.com/BalanceTransfers.html) is basically an offer of either a zero interest rate or very low interest rate for a set period. The typical period is 6 months although...
0% Credit Cards
Business cards > 0% Credit Cards
Liquidity or Liquidation
Large parts of the world today suffer from a severe liquidity crisis. The famed globalization of the capital markets seems to confine itself, ever more, to the richer parts, the more liquid exchanges, the more affluent geopolitical neighbourhoods. The fad of "emerging economies" has all but died out. Try telling the Macedonians about global capital markets: last year, the whole world invested 8 million USD in their poor country. Breadwinners earn 300 DM a month on average.
Officially, in excess of one third of the workforce is unemployed. Small wonder that people do not pay their bills, employers do not pay salaries, the banking system has a marked tendency to crash every now and then and the average real default rate is 50%.
Illiquidity erodes the trust between the economic players. Such trust is a precondition to the existence of a thriving, modern economy. We all postpone the gratification of our desires: we save now and consume later, for instance or we sell goods...
Business cards > Liquidity or Liquidation
Ashes to Ashes, Bytes to Bytes
She didn't have to die. She was young, she was beautiful, and, yes, she was exciting. Now she's gone, and it was all so unnecessary - so, so senseless!Dare I say what he did to her? Do I "point the finger" at him? Someone has to, I guess. Actually, it was a case of what he didn't do. You see, she was a charming new website and he - well, he was an inexperienced owner who thought all he had to do was open a well-done website and the world would zero-in on her and make him scads of cash.
He even called her "Carly Cash". The poor, misguided fool.If only he had known, there are a great many things he could have done to save her, indeed to help her thrive and fulfill her exciting promise. He could have:
- used business cards to promote his website. Probably the cheapest, most effective form of dirtside advertising is an attractive business card. He could carry them everywhere (alright, smartie, not in the shower).
Post them on supermarket, community and college bulletin...
Business cards > Ashes to Ashes, Bytes to Bytes
Spanish Speaking Construction Workers Have Someone In Their Corner for Safety
The high accident rate among U.S. Hispanic Construction Workers is beginning to change thanks to the actions of Maria Isabel O'Connell, of SAFETRAN, LLC. The well known Bilingual safety consultant and workplace activist will ensure Latinos arrive home safely everyday. You'll often find Maria out on the jobsite with her workers on bridge, highway, pipeline and general construction projects throughout the Bay Area and Central California. Originally from Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico, this hardworking...
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Business cards > Spanish Speaking Construction Workers Have Someone In Their Corner for Safety
Business cards Increase Repeat Business and Referrals with Direct Mail
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