Mortgage Lead Generation Online - Defined
by Brandon Cornett
Mortgage lead generation is a key component of the mortgage professional's marketing program. Or at least, it should be! Without a steady stream of leads, you have no hope of growing your business.
Elsewhere on this website, you will find plenty of specific techniques you can use to generate more leads online. But before we go any further into the subject, we should establish a clear definition of what mortgage lead generation is and how it works.
More specifically, I'd like to offer my explanation of website lead generation. Because most of the lessons on this website have to do with online marketing, using your website and/or blog.
So in this context, mortgage lead generation is the act of generating online inquiries from customer or potential customer, via your website. Through this process, you are essentially collecting the names and contact info of people who may need your services.
As you would imagine, this subject comes up a lot in mortgage industry circles. Regardless of where they come from or how they are produced, mortgage leads are the life's blood of your business — they are the first step to acquiring new customers.
Let's keep our lead generation focus on Internet-based topics, as this is the future of mortgage marketing. When it comes to your website, leads may come in several different forms. Let's way, for example, that a person visits your website and fills out some type of form — perhaps to request quotes or other information. This is a form of web lead.
Likewise, if a person leaves a comment on your mortgage blog (and they include their contact information in the process), then another form of website lead generation has taken place.
Converting Web Traffic Into Mortgage Leads
In both of the lead generation examples above, some kind of conversion has taken place. The person has gone from being a casual website visitors to something else, such as subscriber or a lead.
Within Internet marketing circles, this is known as a website conversion. You have converted a casual visitor into something more useful — a lead that you can follow up on. In the many articles and tutorials on this website, you will often hear me use the phrases "website lead generation" and "website conversion" interchangeably. They essentially mean the same thing, for our purposes.
The Lead Generation Challenge
Let's be honest about all of this. Generating mortgage leads through a website is hard work. This has always been the case, but even more so today in the wake of the subprime mess (and all the distrust it has fueled among consumers). In my experience, creating a mortgage website and driving traffic to that site is the easier part of the process. Converting those visitors into leads is the tougher part.
It's worth noting I said "tougher" but not impossible. Yes, it takes time and effort on your part. Yes, you need to put proven strategies in place across your website. Yes, you need to constantly experiment with new techniques to see what works. But it can be done. I speak from experience!
Now that we have a clear definition of mortgage lead generation online, let's move on to some of the specific techniques you can use on your website. Click here for more topics.
About the Author - Brandon Cornett is the publisher of this Mortgage Marketing website. He also provides a variety of Internet marketing services to mortgage professionals, such as search engine optimization and the creation of website content.
