MySMARTblog.com

Do you ever wonder, “How can I get my business card to generate leads?”

Or, “Why do I even pass these business cards out?  They don’t seem to ever get me any calls?”

Well, I was looking through a group of business cards that I’ve collected at recent events and saw one that caught my attention.  And I’m pretty sure it would catch a potential clients attention too!

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This business card was even more interesting because I happen to know that the loan officer, Eric Mitchell, has been a very successful mortgage loan originator for nearly 15 years.

Now, you might think I’m talking about his photo, or his logo, or about his personal branding.  That’s not it at all!

Here’s a photo of the BACK of his business card:

Eric Mitchell, First Priority Financial, uses a Benefit Based Call To Action on the backside of his business card.

Here’s why this is important.

Just having your name and phone number on your business card doesn’t inspire anyone to pick up the phone and call you.

Now, I believe in personal branding and having a high quality image.  That’s why we market a done-for-you service to make sure you look like a million bucks online.

But that only works after a prospect has a reason to look you up, or place a call to get their questions answered.

When you add a specific call-to-action on your card it inspires the specific prospect you’re looking for to pick up the phone because they think you can answer their question.  Specifically.

And that’s what being an expert in your field is all about.

It’s a lot easier to convert your prospect into a loan application and raving fan if they feel like you are the perfect fit even before they pick up the phone.

Do this on your next business card order!

What is the loan program or product that you most like to do?

What is the single most important benefit that you provide for someone looking for that product?

How can you convey that message in the fewest words and boldest type within a 3.5 x 2 inch billboard that you can hand out all over town?

Enter your business card call-to-action or question in the comments section below and I’ll respond personally!

 Here are 3 ways to use this How To Buy A Home infographic in your marketing right now.

1. Add it to your blog.  

1. Just Click Here and scroll to the bottom of the original post on The Mortgage Reports.

2. Then choose the size that you want to use (this one is the 550 pixel version.)

3. Copy and paste into your blog post text editor.

4. Add your personal comments and publish.

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2. Share it on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ accounts.

Here’s where you get a lot of street cred for offering great information.  Understand this important point.

You DON’T have to be the creator of the content for people to see you as the expert.

In fact, most great communicators and experts are not the content creators themselves.

Think about Oprah.  She’s made her life’s fortune and a huge impact by interviewing others and sharing the information with the world!

And don’t just share it and stop there.  Make a comment about what you like in the piece.  

Let people know that the market is heating up for purchases this spring.  

Tell people a funny story about your real estate experience helping someone buy a home.  Anything really.  

Just make an attempt to have a conversation and encourage people to pass the information along.

Check out this great infographic from our friend, Dan Green, at The Mortgage Reports!

We think he did a great job putting this together.

Click Here if you’d like to add this to your website or blog as well!

Homebuyer assistance via The Mortgage Reports.

3. And lastly, email an informative piece like this out to your database.

Just like I did.

It doesn’t need to be fancy to be helpful. Make it short and to the point and link it back to your blog post so you get traffic to your site.

Make it easy for the people on your list to share it as well.  That’s the way you get viral exposure.

If you don’t have an email list or a system set up, go get one at MailChimp for free (http://www.mailchimp.com)

Would you like to be able to easily use this type of content marketing to generate more repeat and referral business?

If you’d like to have a top-quality blog website set up 100% for you and working right away, check out our current offer here.

Watch this great video on business networking!

I took the opportunity to attend a full day workshop with the team at Sixth Division in Gilbert, Arizona today.

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They shared some really focused and powerful strategies on how you can improve your business to make more money faster and easier while having fun.

Here’s a great takeaway shared at the Sixth Division Marketing Bootcamp.

This is a great way to help people understand what you do and how they can help you!

Watch this short video:

More on the Tornado Technique:

The Tornado Technique is the basis for everything: Realize most people don’t care about what you do,
or don’t understand it.

1- What is the emotional value of what you do?
(what are your benefits, how do you help)
2- What is the industry, genre, or type of customer?
3- Names of companies you are trying to meet- Be Specific!
4- Ask for the person who are you trying to get to- be specific in terms of title.
5- Research and find the name of EXACTLY who you want to meet.
Be Specific and don’t be shy.

Example: My WetRock, Inc.

1- We’ve have an environmental focused company that helps consumers save water, plastic, power, and money.

We’ve created an employee engagement program where big companies buy the product from us and give it away to employees as a way to promote their environmental initiatives.

2- We’re dealing with companies from all industries like automotive, retail, hotels, etc.

3- Some companies were in discussion with are Starbucks, McDonalds, Shell, UPS, Dell, CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) and others.

4-Within those organizations, we deal with the Sustainability Director CSR (corporate social responsibility) or other Senior Executives.

5- Directly I’d like to meet Mike Duke, Vinod Khosla, Jeff Skull, Michael Eisner and people like that.

So, hope this helps you transform and reposition your company.

For more Videos- www.IsolationIsAGoodThing.com

How many times have you had a client who would love to buy a home or get a mortgage loan and they just couldn’t qualify because of their credit history?

Isn’t it frustrating for you and them both?

And with the way the economy and real estate market has been over the last few years, a huge number of previously qualified home buyers have been pushed out of the market simply due to the credit challenges that they faced during the Great Recession!

The good news is that there are reputable credit repair firms who have become experts at helping people in this frustrating situation.

I recently had the pleasure of doing a short online presentation with Edie Webber of Clean Slate Credit Services.

Watch this video to learn more:

Here’s what some of their clients are saying:

Meet Karen and Emily

 Before and After

 Clean Slate Testimonial Video

Click Here for Your FREE

Credit Restoration Guide!

Welcome to our quick and easy way to share content in your social media networks!

We’ll be providing these every few days so bookmark this page and come back often!  And please share it with others if you like the service!

Just copy and paste the links for any of the items we’ve curated and share them to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts.

Just right-click on the link, select “Copy Link Address” in Chrome, “Copy Shortcut” in IE, or  ”Copy Link Location” in Firefox, and paste it into your status update.

Make sure you make a personal comment or ask a question.

That’s what gets engagement and causes your content to go viral!

The idea behind social media connections is to interact with people and get their attention. Tweeting and posting messages becomes wasted effort when your message goes unnoticed. Interaction generates the interest you desire. These principles can be applied to create interactive blogging.

Passive and Active Blogging

A passive blog merely relates information without any real expectations for a response. In the mortgage industry, a passive blog may simply alert readers that interest rates are falling. A real estate agent might offer information on locating a qualified home inspection service. A passive blog provides information but does not command attention.

Interactive blogging can provide the same information while encouraging a response. Your active blog does not require any extra work, it asks readers to think about the subject and comment or share ideas. The subject does not need to be complex, just something that makes people want to engage in a discussion.

Ideas for Interactive Blogging

In the same blog written by a mortgage lender, an interactive blog would question readers about their current interest rates. It asks them how they feel about their interest rates. You might ask what they understand about Private Mortgage Insurance. Ask your readers what they consider a good reason to take out a second mortgage.

A real estate agent discussing home inspection can also encourage responses. Ask your readers about personal experiences with home inspectors and if they benefited by learning more about their new home. Let readers provide a series of questions that a new homebuyer should ask an inspector. Think about your topics and what would encourage you to interact with what you are discussing.

Ways to Interact

Your reputation and business should be seen in a positive light. Controversy is not needed to create interaction. You can provide a comment section with a request for responses, or ideas and advice, depending on the nature of your article. You can ask readers to reply on your Facebook page, with hash tagged Tweets or by using the @ symbol and your user name.

As an example, what ideas do you have to compel readers to interact with you?

Make Sure You’re Not Missing Your Closest Referral Opportunities

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Many business owners, including real estate agents and mortgage lenders, neglect to factor their circle of friends into the picture when looking to build their business. Real estate is a business of intimate relationships; home buying is a personal process that necessitates a great deal of trust.

The endorsement by people who know you and have experienced your work performance is one of the most overlooked referral marketing tools available. Social media makes starting and fostering these high power referral relationships even easier.

Happy customers won’t mind “liking” your Facebook page or re-tweeting a tip from you. Once you get the ball rolling, the process will continue and you’ll get free word-of-mouth marketing.

Getting Referrals In The Real Estate and Mortgage Businesses

Success in the real estate business depends on repeat business and referrals. Since most home buyers settle in for at least a few years before needing your services again, referrals are a great way to take advantage of the excellent care you provided and the time you spent with past clients.

In a follow-up email after the closing papers, include a short paragraph asking for recommendations. This can be created and saved in advance, then simply pasted into the applicable emails.  Letting your customers know that you work by referral and appreciate their feedback makes it much more likely that they will actually give you the endorsement that you want.

Ask Your Happy Customers To Show Their Appreciation On Social Networks

You should thank them for their business, ask them to give your contact information (included for their convenience) to any friends who need advice or a new home, and ask that they consider providing a recommendation on a customer service site like Angie’s List or Yelp  .

This will take only moments of their time, so you can feel free to ask without fear of being seen as pushy. Include an icon to “Like” your business on Facebook in your signature for another hassle-free reminder that boosts your online presence.

People You Should Contact For Your Referral Marketing Social Media Networks

Whether you revamped the website or just got a Facebook page, consider shooting a brief message to anyone who may be interested in keeping up with you, including:

• Family (Don’t overlook the people closest to you.  They need you to tell them that you appreciate their referrals too!)
• Friends and neighbors
• LinkedIn contacts
• Any former clients
• Contractors (plumbers, electricians, inspectors) you have a relationship with
• Potential home buyers who fell through the cracks

Large Social Networks Make It Quick And Easy To Create Top Of Mind Awareness

Aim toward growing as large a network as possible through your social media networks.  Each one of these online communities are an additional marketing list that, once connected with you, is very quick and easy to stay in touch with.

Something as simple as one quick email gives these people the option to engage in a conversation with your business. They can receive blog posts, Tweets, information about the market — any marketing material can be instantly shared with interested readers. You just have to make the connection.

You have worked hard for most of your adult life and the day has come that you will retire and enjoy the freedom of your golden years. You might take up a hobby, volunteer, or just enjoy working in your garden and socializing with your friends.

If you have been planning ahead and contributing to your retirement fund, you will likely have a nest egg built up which will help you support yourself once you leave your job. You also may have built up a large amount of savings, or equity, in your home. There are some really good strategies to release this equity to support your retirement while staying in your home.

However, it is important to keep your expenses down when you are retired so that your spending won’t outgrow your savings. If you can reduce your outgoing costs during your retirement years, you can stretch out your savings fund for longer and not have to worry about running out of money. Here are a few ways that you can reduce your expenses during your retirement:

Downsize Your Home

Now that your children are grown up and have homes of their own, do you really need a large three bedroom house? Most retirees find that it is advantageous to sell their property and downsize to a smaller and less expensive house or a condo. This will free up a large chunk of your equity, as well as reducing your living expenses such as heating, electricity and property taxes.

You may also want to consider an equity release program if you’d like to stay in your home while accessing your built-up equity in order to supplement your retirement income.

Take Care of Yourself

Health care related costs are one of the biggest expenses in retirement and you cannot completely avoid the eventual health problems which will arise as you grow older. However, there are many ways that you can reduce your health problems by taking care of your body and maintaining your health as much as possible. Get at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day, drink plenty of water, eat fruits and vegetables and whole foods and get a good sleep every night. To avoid stress, do things which relax you such as enjoying favorite hobbies and spending time with friends. The more you take care of your body, the less likely you are to develop serious and expensive health problems in your old age.

Get Rid of One Vehicle

While most working couples will have two vehicles to get them to their respective offices, when they retire they will not need this anymore. Sell one of your vehicles and simply share the one. This will give you some cash right away, as well as cutting your insurance and car maintenance bills.

These are just a few ways that you can reduce your expenses during your retirement years and enjoy the good life for less!

I took the opportunity to attend Steven Marshall’s Mastermind 2012 conference in Las Vegas earlier this year.   Not only
does Steven put on some of the best conferences that I’ve ever been to, the lineup of speakers and presenters was phenomenal.

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One of my long term favorites is Joe Stumpf with By Referral Only.  He had some exceptionally good information, as always, but the attendance in his breakout room was pretty sparse.  That’s understandable, because Joe is better known in the Real Estate world than the Mortgage Industry and this was a very mortgage-specific event.

What was cool, though, was that Joe set up a live-stream and had hundreds – or maybe thousands – of people from all over the world attending via webcast.  Now that’s a great use of technology.  Plus, as he was presenting he would address the webcast crowd and have them communicate via social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

What a great example of using social media to get your advocates spreading the word.  I learned a lot just taking in how he and his team put it all together, let alone the nuggets I was writing down.

I would have needed a recorder to get all the details, but here a few gems I picked up.  Enjoy!

Notes from Joe Stumpf presentation in Las Vegas 2012 

Appointment Setting Words

Maybe you aren’t feeling like you would get enough value from our meeting…..

What if you knew there was $1,000 that you would get by simply meeting with me?

Many of my clients have experienced many thousands of dollars in extra (savings, commissions, etc.) by using the strategies I am willing to give you during our meeting.

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Hot Words – The most important words of the person you’re talking to.

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7 Questions to Get Their Hot Words

1. What is important about _____________ to you?
2. Could you say more about ______________?
3. What do you mean when you say __________________?
4. Personally, what does ____________________ mean to you?
5. Because _________________?
6. What is the drive behind ___________________?
7. Based on what you’ve told me, (NAME), your next best step would be ______________.

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Resonate – Words that connect at a deep, emotional level

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People will present their situation as fact.  You must change their facts into their beliefs.

Objection: “I want to think about it.”

Response: What I hear you saying is you believe you can’t make a decision now because….

Use 3^rd party voice to describe or overcome objections

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Three ideas to increase prospect to customer:

• Evidence of Success Postcards
• Letters from the Heart
• Newsletters

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