Jester Marketing
Business and Marketing Information

Mortgage leads generated on the Internet are a great way to build up a customer base and find new potential clients that are in need of a mortgage. Traditionally individuals have purchased leads in the past from mortgage brokers.

However this can be a lot of money and there are other ways to get leads without having to spend large sums of cash. There is a lot of competition for getting mortgage customers so you need to follow every lead that you can get.

The internet is a great way to get clients as you can access anyone at anyplace on the globe. However before you go contacting people willy nilly it is important that the place you get their information is legitimate as privacy can be a big issue in specific countries, specifically the US. You need to be able to relate where you got their information if they should ask.

When contacting or calling a client it is important that you make a connection with them very early on. This helps to ensure that they will keep listening to you and have some interest in working with you. If you don’t have a connection then you will not get any further than a hello as they will quickly hang up. After introducing yourself you should try to get them talking as you will not get very far if you are the one doing all the talking.

It can be very difficult to get a commitment from individuals in the form of document retrieval, application or a meeting. You want to set this up as soon as possible and generally those that are close to you geographically will be more inclined to meet in person.

There are several companies that can help set you up with leads for your mortgage marketing efforts, and can give out your name to those that may need a mortgage. You should take every opportunity that you can.

A lot of people are searching for a way to make money online these days. Many of those people find out about the Wealthy Affiliates program, and wonder if they should join. But one of the things that holds a lot of these people back is that they don’t really know what they will be doing to make money. You see, a lot of the members of the program forget that when you’re new there are a lot of things you don’t know yet, and that it’s important to spell it out to a new person very carefully.

So here is the Wealthy Affiliates program in a nutshell:

Basically, you learn how to do affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing, you ask? Affiliate marketing is basically when you make money by sending customers to merchants. For example, lets say Susan McGee is looking for a new diet. She’ll do some searching online and come to your website about the top diet programs online. In your review, you’ll talk about what the pros and cons are for each of the different diets out there, and which diet would be right for which type of person. She’ll find one that looks and sounds good for her, and click on the link you provide to the merchant.

That link will have a tracking code embedded in it. So when she gets to the merchant’s site and signs up to join this diet program, you’ll get credit for this purchase, and you’ll make a commission.

It’s a pretty straightforward system, but it does require some training. For one, you’ll need to learn how to make a website (it’s not as difficult as you think!) and also, you’ll need to learn how to write up a good affiliate review, and then get visitors to your site. Those are all things you’ll learn at Wealthy Affiliate.

If you are new to the internet marketing world or you are just looking to expand upon your current marketing efforts, this idea of guest posting or being a guest author is a great idea.  The basic concept is that as an independent business owner, you have a somewhat limited way of being able to attract people to your site.  You can either do some traditional print marketing, which can get expensive, utilize cost per click (CPC) advertising (also expensive when it adds up) or go for something more ‘viral’.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the benefits of viral marketing.  This is really nothing more than getting a little buzz for your site.  If you sell a product or service, this would be the equivalent to getting some good PR from the local newspaper or television station in your area.  Even better would be something like national television or the crème de la crème Oprah.  Viral marketing is a mostly social phenomenon.  People reading about you and then passing it on to friends or coworkers by way of email.

Something that is considered not necessarily viral, but is even more productive long-term for your web-based business is building up a strong profile of links back to your site.  This is really what makes your site get stronger in terms of searching rank in the search engines online.  And, if you want to rank high for the terms that you associate with your niche site, then this is the way to go.  You can get this type of linking and exposure by writing an article for an article directory.  Therefore, this is often called article marketing.  It is a completely legitimate way to inform other people about your site with an author resource link back to your site.

Some sites that you might consider would be websites related to yours where you could be a guest author and post an article to their site for them.  Usually, with an exchange like this, you get a link back to your site and they get more content for ‘free’ on their site.  More content will help their site rank in the search engines as well, so everybody wins.  This type of niche site marketing is very commonplace and works well in almost any field.  There are even sites dedicated strictly for authors to post their content on and gain exposure for their sites.  You may also find more general or topic-specific sites that will allow you to post your own articles there.

Organic rankings are the main section of results that are returned when you do a search in any of the major engines. Though they now quite often sit below paid advertising space and local map results they are still the most coveted spot for any business that wants to rank for a given keyword phrase.

Why? Because the majority of people that search for products and services on the internet skip right over the paid listings and map results, preferring instead to click on the first link in the main section. I think it’s because most people view this area as the more “legitimate” results that will provide a better, more qualified solution to their problem or need. Organic rankings equal a certain level of trust on the part of the consumer. They assume that if Google sees that page as the most relevant for their keyword phrase then it must be, in fact, the most relevant.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s still important to get listed in the local map results for Google and Yahoo, and paying up to be included in the Google Adwords system can often be a good way to supplement your overall local market exposure. But the fact of the matter is that the #1 listing in the organic results still gets the greatest piece of the pie in terms of overall click rates. Dominate your market for a series of keyword phrases and you should see a substantial uptick in leads and business.

Website marketing is a wide-ranging topic which would require days of instruction to fully grasp in all its nuances, however there are some basic concepts that can be generalized and outlined.  Let’s use an example.  Let’s say you wanted to market a website about San Diego carpet cleaning.

Now, the real beginners out there might assume that when we’re talking about web marketing that it involves nothing more than figuring out how to build a website and then having all sorts of materials printed up with the url like flyers, business cards, and the like.  Now it’s true that this sort of traditional marketing should be a component of your overall plan, but it’s not really web marketing.  If this was you sole method of getting the word out about your business then you’d be missing out on the huge advantage of leverage that proper website internet marketing can offer.

Others out there who are further along the learning curve might assume that true web marketing involves getting lots of traffic to your website, no matter where it comes from.  You might be obsessed with getting traffic from social media (like Digg and Stumbleupon), or by doing link exchanges with unrelated sites, or by spamming blog comments (don’t do this) that have nothing to do with your business.  If you have this mentality then you’re on the path to getting it, but you’re still not there yet.

Now if you really understand what website marketing is all about then you will know that it involves getting as much targeted traffic as possible, because these are the kinds of visitors that convert into paying customers.  You can have millions of hits on your website about carpet cleaning in San Diego, but if only 1% of them are actually interested in San Diego carpet cleaning then what’s the point of all that traffic?  You must be laser-focused on aquiring visitors that are already pre-qualified, because this will be a better use of your web marketing time.  This boils down to using search engine PPC programs which only show your ads to truly interested parties, and it also means that you need to learn a little about organic search engine optimization.  Organic rankings are the best because once they are achieved they provide free leads and are more-often clicked on than PPC ads, and so you’d be wise to educate yourself in this area.

Sure, you might think that you have one of those great business ideas that will make you rich and famous, but I’m here to tell you that no matter how inventive or brilliant your idea, it quite simply will not take off unless it is also marketed smartly and heavily, and usually this involves internet marketing to some degree.

“Oh, but my idea is so revolutionary and needed that it will only require word-of-mouth to spread virally like wildfire.”  If that’s what you’re thinking then, I hate to burst your bubble, but you’re just dead wrong.  Sure, in the later stages of your business you’ll have enough momentum to capitalize on word-of-mouth (though you’ll always need to spend money on advertising), but when you’re just getting started the numbers of happy customers will not be enough to scale up the business in an appropriate way.  Yes, in time you’ll reach a tipping point where the buzz truly explodes your product or service, but it takes time to get there.

So if you have that next great business idea, just be sure to have enough money in the budget to account for massive marketing spending up front.  In my opinion you’d be best served spending a good portion of this on web marketing, of course.  This means hiring a web designer who also understand search engine optimization.  I then means hiring a web marketing firm to help your site find more exposure on the web, because a site is worthless if it is not seen.

I can’t stress this enough: in almost all cases if you truly want to make a lot of money with your small business, even if your service has nothing to do with the internet, you absolutely must have a web presence, and you must learn to leverage that presence.

It’s especially important right now to get the ball rolling with your internet marketing efforts because it will quickly set you head and shoulders above your competitors, and it will help you to make more money.  This is the case with most local service businesses, I have found.  Small service businesses and contractors are seemingly just now waking up to the notion that people might actually be looking for their services on the internet.   Here’s a newsflash:  the internet is the next wave of promotion, and soon the yellow pages will be dead!  The sooner you can grasp this notion and get on board the better, because it won’t be long before everybody’s crowding in.  Get your foot in the door first and stake your claim.

For example, I do a lot of research and am always stunned by the lack of competing websites for local terms such as “Cleveland Remodeling” or “Houston Painting”.  With just a little effort almost anyone right now can get a top ranking for their website in their local market, and there’s simply no telling how beneficial this can be for your bottom line.  I’ve seen some cases where a #1 ranking for a local term has propelled a small business owner’s profits to heights that he never dreamed possible.  And on top of that it’s probably the most cost-effective marketing you could ever hope for.  If you’re really serious about trying to make lots of money with your local business you’ll heed my advice and get on the internet-train.

The first step in setting up your business website is one of the most important – getting some descriptive keywords in your domain name.  This not only helps describe your business in offline marketing, but it also helps the search engines to understand what your business is about.  The easier you make it for the engines to grasp your site’s content, the more quickly you’ll be indexed and the better your search engine rankings will be.

For example, let’s say there are two plumbing companies in Boston that are each ready to build a business website.  Business A buys a cutesy domain name like perfectpipecleaners.com, while business B buys the domain name Bostonplumbingpros.com.  In this theoretical example Business B clearly has chosen a better domain name because it has the keywords in it that potential customers would actually use in a search, so the search engines will, all else being equal, deliver a higher organic ranking for it.  Business A’s domain name has neither “Boston” nor “plumbing” in it, so the search engines will have a more difficult time understanding what the site is about, and therefore won’t give it a very good ranking (this can be overcome but that’s for another lesson).

The same could be said if you sell a product.  Let’s say that you sell roof cleaning products and chemicals on the internet.  It would make sense to find a domain name that has the keywords “roof cleaning products” in it.  If you’re coming from a branding standpoint, the argument could be made for a more unique domain name, just know that if your main keywords are not in the URL ( in this case roof cleaning related terms) you will have a more difficult time getting ranked (and selling stuff).  Help the search engines to understand what your site is about and you will be rewarded.

Becoming a web marketing expert is not nearly as straight-forward as, say, learning how to become a contractor, because instead of having several clearly defined steps to follow, you have to just dive in and experiment to see what works, and it can be very time-consuming.

Some online marketing methods will work for your particular business, and some will seem pointless.  Every situation is different, and factors like the size of your city and the determination of your competitors will play a role in your success.  For example, in some smaller cities you might be the only painting company in town that bothers to post ads on Craigslist, meaning that you’ll capture all leads available through that channel, while in most larger cities you’ll have to experiment with the ad to make it perfect because ten other local painting companies will have the same idea.

Likewise, you could find that your local business listing in Google just isn’t delivering many visitors to your site because you’re stuck on page two, but that YouTube video you reluctantly created to build buzz around your business is taking off and coming up near the top of the search engine rankings for key terms in your market.  The bottom line is that you just never know what will and will not work with small business and local marketing and you just have to go through a lot of trial and error to get to that pot of gold.  Most people won’t have the patience for this, but if you can stick it out the rewards will be well worth the effort.