Marketing small mortgage broking businesses

Marketing for a small broking business is all about getting up close and personal. We investigate the ins and outs to help you get started.

Although marketing conjures up notions of complicated reports, strategies and boardrooms with impressive power-point presentations, according to the experts there's little to fear for brokers who want to get their business noticed (and growing).

When we spoke with marketing specialists Carolyn Stafford, Jane Toohey and Robert Gerrish, they were unanimous: good marketing is simple - all it takes is knowing your business, the sort of client you'd like to attract and being clever about integrating them.

Ask not what your client can do for you, but what you can do for your client Any marketing guru will tell you that the way to start is by figuring out your customer value proposition and your point of difference or, as Carolyn Stafford, director of Connect Marketing Professionals, puts it, "really understanding and answering the questions of who, what, why, where, when and how".

Drawing on her experience as a small business marketing expert, Stafford advises small brokerages to look at the market and think about how they position themselves. Are they the fastest? The best? Do they have the fastest turnaround times? Are they affiliated with a charity or sporting event?

Robert Gerrish, who is a business coach as well as the founder of Flying Solo, points out: "What mortgage brokers tend to do is say 'I'm a mortgage broker', which is fair enough but not terribly memorable." According to Gerrish, if a broker is more specific - for example says, "I'm a mortgage broker who helps young professionals in their 30s get onto the investment property ladder," - they can use that niche as a powerful tool to access specific markets, and it will make them stand out.

Right on target

"There isn't a tactic that will work across the board, and that's the problem with, say, advertising. People think 'I'll do some advertising', well it might not actually get to the people you want to talk to," Jane Toohey of Marketing Angels explains.

She suggests that to avoid squandering hard-earned pennies, smaller players need to do a bit of target practice and define the profile of the customer they want - and be specific.

"Ask: what do they read? Where do they go? What do they do for entertainment? Where do they work, etc?" she explains. Once those questions are answered, you can access the avenues that will best reach the most desirable clients - the ones who will best complement the products and skills you offer. It will allow you to see where you should concentrate your attention and strategies that are likely to get the most frequency and effect.

Getting personal

Mortgage broking has a very distinct quality: it is personal! As Gerrish explains, "It's all about: do I like this person? Do I trust this person? And do I believe this person is going to put in the right kind of care and sensitivity into the biggest purchase of my life? It's absolutely personal marketing."

A successful strategy relies on speaking to people and getting them to trust you. The easiest way to do that is by starting with contacts you already have. "Tell everybody that you know, everybody around you, exactly what it is you're doing, who you're doing it for, why you're doing it and actually start to enrol people as supporters of your business," he says.

Networking, meeting people, looking at existing clients and building relationships with other businesses in complementary industries are all avenues that have the potential to build a strong foundation for sustainability and success.

"You'll get far more done with a pocket full of business cards at a networking meeting than you will sitting back in your office with four boxes of very lavish brochures that are doing nothing," Gerrish explains. "In the mortgage business people are buying you and they need to meet you. So get out and see them."

Stafford adds that to be successful you also need to think local. "There's more business than you'll ever need within 5km of where you live and work," she explains. "So being an active supporter of the local community is absolutely critical - whether that's through sponsorship, through eating and being seen locally and going to the local coffee shops, or being involved in local rotary."

March to a different beat

The way you approach what you do will set you apart and get you noticed. "Be a bit bold, and a bit daring and a bit unusual," Stafford says. If you're in a position to rework your name, make it quirky; be creative with your logo and your message.

"As a mortgage broker you're perfectly placed to do more than what people are expecting," Gerrish explains. Small broker businesses should therefore build their reputation by taking advantage of this fact. A good approach, according to Gerrish, is to "under-promise and over-deliver". Do what you promise faster and better than expected - and be creative!

Gerrish urges brokers to remember that every conversation and point of contact has the potential to work as referral or repeat business, so you need to think about the impression you leave during the deal, as well as after it is closed.

"[Do] little gestures that will absolutely have you spoken about. It might be sending a card once your clients have moved into their home that says, 'I've done a little bit of research for you. I thought you'd like to know here's your nearest shop, here's your nearest school, this place apparently does a really great coffee, rubbish day is on Wednesday'," he says.

Repeat business

The frequency of exposure is essential if you want to succeed, according to Toohey. So, while networking and creating an impression with the quality of your service will help to secure referred and repeat business, you should also focus on maintaining a presence within the memory of potential clients.

"Property isn't something that clients buy on a regular basis. So, when the opportunity for them to buy does come up, they need to be able to recall who you are, so they need to have had a touch point with you three or four times over the last year at least," Toohey advises.

To achieve this, she suggests that small businesses mix and combine tactics. "Maybe letterbox drops, some local advertising, some one-on-one communication or sponsorship with a local sports team," she suggests. The tactics you elect should be specific to your defined target client; however, the key is to reinforce your business with a constant presence.

Just spending time

The old clich' rings true: time is money. However, when it comes to planning either your time or your money in view of your marketing, there are no set figures or answers - the key is to get the focus right.

As a rough guide, Toohey suggests that small brokerages invest at least $15,000-20,000, while Stafford's rule of thumb is to invest 10% of the estimated or expected annual turnover. However, all three marketing experts agree that it is the approach - how you use your time and money - that is imperative to success.

"In the outset, the marketing budget should go into initially making sure that your corporate identity is professional, that you have well-printed, well-designed business cards and letterheads, and if you intend to have a website, that it's clean and professional," says Gerrish.

Once this is done, he advises that your budget and time should be focused on "sewing a seed every day".

"If a business absolutely gets into the notion of doing something every day and regularly focusing on marketing, then you'll basically be creating a sustainable business," Gerrish says. "So initially just plot down all the things that you think you can be doing, all the actions you'd like to be doing, certainly work out some targets - how many steps and how many actions you can take during each and every week - and just start doing it.

"As you start getting some runs on the board you'll get an idea of what you need to do more of and what you need to do less of."