Mortgage Marketing

Mortgage brokers and loan originators get their websites for many different reasons and therefore choose to market their mortgage websites in different ways. Today many in the general public believe that any viable company, mortgage brokers included, must have a website if not a presence in the internet's top search engines. It's for this reason that today there are so many mortgage broker websites covering every town, county and state in the union.

There are many ways to promote your new mortgage web site. Both offline and online. Through traditional marketing channels and through todays internet marketing channels. Below you'll find a list of the most common promotion methods.

Internet Methods

1. Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing For Mortgage Websites

Many of the search engines offer an advertising program they call Pay Per Click (PPC). PPC advertising is the quick way to have your website found for search terms relevant to your target mortgage market. You'll setup an account for your mortgage website with one (or many) of the search engines. Once your account is setup you can setup a daily budget for the amount you want to spend and then place bids for the search terms (phrases) you want searchers to find your website for. If you are the top bidder your ad will appear at the top of the listings in the "Sponsored Results" section when search results are returned to searchers.

The up side of PPC advertising is that you can generate traffic immediately and your traffic will be only for the specific search phrases you bid on. The down side is that you will pay for every visitor who clicks on your add whether they spend 5 seconds on your website or 5 hours.

Read more about mortgage Pay Per Click advertising here.

2. Organic Search Engine Optimization For Mortgage Websites

Mortgage search engine optimization is the act of customizing a mortgage website so that it performs well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines. Organic search listings are the free results reported when a surfer searches in a search engine. They are often considered the primary results as apposed to PPC results which are often considered secondary. They are considered primary because many experienced surfers do not click on the advertised PPC listings and many novice searchers don't click on PPC ads because they don't know what they are.

The search engines use an algorithm (read - complicated equation) to evaluate many (over 120) factors of a website in order to determine how relevant each website is for a given search and how it should rank in their search results.

Search engine optimization involves both "on page" factors like mortgage website content, page titles, meta tags and website architecture and off page factors like listings in directories like Yahoo and DMOZ and also a websites link popularity.

The up side of using mortgage search engine optimization is lower long term cost than PPC advertising. The down side of mortgage search engine optimization is the time it takes to get results. For example at the time of this writing it takes 3-4 months to begin to see results form MSN search and 6 months or more to see results from Google and Yahoo search. Read more about mortgage search engine optimization here.

Read a Newsweek article about SEO from their December 19th, 2005 edition here.

3. Listings in directories both local and national

Listings in national and international internet directories will help your web site get the authority needed to rank highly in the organic search results of search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. At a minimum we recommend a listing in Yahoo's directory and in DMOZ (Open Directory Project). While Yahoo charges a fee for express review of your web site there is no fee for DMOZ but also no guarantee how quickly your web site will be reviewed and potentially included. There are many other directories where you may submit your site both for free and fee based you can find a list of directories here.

4. Banner ads on other websites

Over the life of the internet and today many web sites offer the possibility to advertise on there web sites using banner ads. Banners display your company name and product offerings and even your contact information if you choose. They also normally link to your home page or a landing page of your choice. At a minimum you should create a banner and request real estate agents that you frequently do business with post your banner on the mortgage related page of their web sites.

5. Drip Mortgage Email campaigns

Referrals and repeat mortgage borrowers are a large part of any successful mortgage brokers pipeline. You should be communicating frequently with all of your past and future prospective clients. Email is a cost effective way for you do stay in touch. Start collecting email addresses if you haven't already (have an opt in email subscription form on your web site), build a database of all your past and prospective borrowers. With your list in hand monthly send everyone an email with news regarding the state of mortgage rates and programs in your area. Provide helpful information about refinancing special programs that some borrowers may take advantage of... You'll be surprised that after a year of running your Drip Mortgage Email Campaign that your pipe line will contain many of the prospects you began emailing over the previous 12 months.

Traditional Methods

1. Print Marketing For Mortgage Websites

The simplest form of mortgage website marketing is the inclusion of your mortgage websites domain name in all your printed media. Your web address can be included on business cards, letter heads, newspaper advertisements, real estate magazines, billboards and your listing in the phone book.

2. Radio Marketing For Mortgage Websites

If you advertise your mortgage brokerage on the radio include your domain name in all your ads. Your website can be the stepping stone for those that may be reluctant to pickup the phone and call you to find out about how you're service is better than the next.

3. Television Marketing For Mortgage Websites

If you advertise your mortgage brokerage on television include your domain name in all your ads. As with radio advertising your website can be the stepping stone for those that may be reluctant to pickup the phone and call you to find out about how you're service is better than the competition.

Contact Oppenhemier Group® with your questions about mortgage website search engine optimization