Selling Mortgages Is Not Rocket ScienceDave Hershmantestimonials, guarantees, advertising
Making Maximum Use of Advertising Dollars: Part
Two
Advertising is certainly an important factor in the majority of
today's business plans. Successful strategic advertising can help a
business achieve its goals. Poor use of advertising dollars can
impede the results of an organization by draining important capital
resources and diverting the human capital necessary to support
misguided advertising efforts. This month, we continue our lesson
in helping businesses achieve the most from their advertising
efforts, specifically through the use of advanced marketing synergy
techniques.
Use testimonials. How many salespeople or
businesses purposely sell themselves as mediocre? Every advertising
piece and sales pitch is designed to indicate how good the
advertiser is, whether the campaign is featuring price, service or
added value. In reality, our targets know from experience that not
everyone they deal with has an excellent reputation. If you want to
tell the world how great you are and remain credible at the same
time, have a previous customer say it for you. A testimonial or
third-party endorsement has more impact than a self-serving
statement. The impact is even more profound if the entity offering
the testimonial has a relationship with or is known by the target
group.
Use guarantees. If a guarantee is a significant
aspect of your business or marketing plan, feature it in your
advertising. Make sure that you can back your guarantee and that
the message differentiates you from the competition.
Achieve more than one objective through your
advertising. A very important synergy rule is to achieve
two or more objectives through one action. Advertising uses our two
most precious resources--time and money. We need to achieve as many
results as possible every time we expend scarce resources. For
example, if our call to action is broad enough, we can build our
long-term prospect database as a result of our advertising efforts.
This can be accomplished in addition to achieving short-term sales
objectives.
Timing is important. The best advertising in
the world will not work if the timing is not right. On the other
hand, the right timing can significantly increase your advertising
effectiveness. The correct timing to initiate advertising
activities may depend on a variety of cycles, including seasons,
economic cycles, monthly cycles and purchase cycles. To determine
your best timing, you must know the purchase habits of your targets
in the context of your product or service. Information concerning
the timing of advertising of your competitors will be very
important as well. You may have to vary the timing of your
advertising to determine the best combination for success.
Don't forget to sell. Advertising may make the
phone ring, but asking for the business and following up will make
sales and revenue happen. You are wasting your money if you
advertise without allowing time to answer the phone effectively or
call people back.
Evaluation. The true definition of insanity is
often described as repeating the same thing over and over and
expecting a different result. You must make adjustments in copy,
offers, targets and timing. How many businesses constantly run the
same advertisements because they don't have the time to make a
change?
It is better not to advertise at all than to continue a campaign
that will not assist in achieving long-term goals. Ineffective
actions rob us of our resources and create a false sense of
accomplishment. The cost of advertising seems to grow every year.
Now, more than ever, it pays to make sure our efforts are
effective.
Dave Hershman is a leading author and speaker for the
mortgage industry, and is a partner of LendingProfessional.com. His
newsletters are read by Mortgage Brokers to provide value to
previous customers, financial planners and real estate agents. For
newsletter samples, call (800) 581-5678 or visit
www.hershmangroup.com.
