We all hear about the importance of blogging for driving our mortgage business and enhancing our competitive positioning. This is true. Blogging is important for many reasons ...
►Positions you as an expert in your industry in the communities you serve
►Builds trust with your prospective borrowers, referrers and current referral base
►Unlocks hidden ideas in your own mind that drive further lending insights which can help stir up your audience and drive more traffic
►Drives search traffic
There are many more reasons, but I think you get the idea. Suffice it to say blogging is not going away anytime soon and is currently an excellent communications tool.
Accordingly, I’d like to share some hints with you to help you make your blog powerful:
1. Don’t stray past your niche: Some will still say that people want to know about the “real you.” They don’t. Unless you’re in the entertainment business, i.e. Justin Bieber, a Real Housewife of (fill in the blank) or a Kardashian…nobody cares. You’re in the mortgage business. Your readers want to know they can count on you for great content about the industry, trends, etc. Stay within your area of expertise. Stay focused.
2. Not a good writer? That’s ok: If you really don’t feel like you’re a good writer or don’t have the time to write, it’s easy to find someone to take on this task for you. This could be an intern or a freelance writer. For kicks, I just conducted a search for a blogger on Craigslist and found many instantly in Los Angeles ... first one that showed up charges $10 per hour That was easy!
3. Content by itself is not "king:" Quality is king. It’s not about getting as many posts out there as you can, rather focus on the quality of each post. Put yourself in the shoes of your readers and decide if your content is worthy of attention or if it’s just a big “who cares.” Ask yourself if the information you shared is thought provoking and can be immediately leveraged to your audiences benefit. If it can, then it’s a good post.
4. Don’t be afraid to curate: Once you have some followers it can be good to engage your audience with other points of view and voices. Post another’s blog or an excerpt of another’s blog and be the first to comment on it and drive the conversation.
5. Promote: Promoting your blog is everything and way too many people I talk to write it but don’t distribute it. Be sure you distribute your blog for others to see by using social media venues like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn updates, LinkedIn Groups and Google+ for example. In addition, you may wish to send it out to prospective borrowers and referrers via email and even through snail mail to certain high-value prospects with a sticky note letting them know you thought of them.
6. Engage your audience: This is the goal of your blog ... to engage your audience. Make sure that when people comment, you pay attention and help drive the conversation as appropriate by commenting back.
Was this helpful? Let me know what you think and e-mail me at
[email protected] with any feedback you may have.
Patrick H. Seroka is president and chief executive officer of Seroka, the only Certified Brand Strategists in North America specializing in the mortgage industry. With Seroka, you'll experience unique, second-to-none client service and benefit from compelling marketing communications. Plus, we guarantee your growth. For more information, call (262) 523-3740 or e-mail
[email protected].
