Have you ever driven to the store looking for the perfect shoe? You go from store to store looking at what they have to offer until you find just the right one. But when you go to the sales person and ask for one in your size they tell you that they are sold out of your size. The more this happens, the more enticing online shopping becomes. Some of the bigger traditional stores have tried online stores and come to the conclusion that they don't work. If you check out their stores you can buy anything they could not sell in the store but not every item the store sells.
The traditional Brick and Mortar edge. For store owners who depend on foot traffic to make sales the growth of online retailers is a serious threat. The local store now has to focus on its strength and hope that remains enough to win the consumer.
Privacy and Security. Preying on the fear that your private information will be out there for anyone to grab and abuse is a favorite of the traditional store. However as more americans get used to online banking, booking travel arrangements, buying movie tickets and using secure websites this perceived advantage is loosing its punch. These days you are more likely to loose your privacy to a person you actually hand your credit card to than online.
Interaction. The internet is said to be an interactive medium. By having a person available to greet you the local store may seem to have an advantage. The problem is that anyone who has ever gone to the internet before they went shopping tends to know more about what they are looking for than the sales people.
A well thought out website anticipates your questions and answers them with knowledge and experience. When you go in to a store you rarely get to talk with the owner. The owner simply can not be available to every customer that walks through the front door of the store. But online, the owner can be involved. Experience has taught them the questions you are going to ask about every product and they know the answer. You can be half way around the world, shopping while the store owner sleeps and he can still be answering your question because he has anticipated it.
Selection. In the past, a traditional store could boast selection as a key advantage over the online store. That is far from true now. By going to web sites that specialize in the product you are looking for you can usually find what you seek.
Shipping. The local store might not appear to charge any shipping. However that depends on your point of view. You still pay for shipping when you buy from the local store, it just comes in the form of a higher price. If the item is not in stock you pay for your gas to go to and from the store to find that out. Then when the item is at the store you pay for your gas back and forth again. Finding something online and paying to have it delivered in most cases is still less than you would pay to drive all over until you find it locally. After driving to and from work the last thing most people want to do is get back in the car and drive more.
The internet can be a cost effective way to save money as a consumer. By cutting out the need for a store, the middle man between the manufacturer and the consumer one can get a higher quality product for the same price as a similar one from your local store.
Direct Mail & Telemarketing
Direct mail campaigns can be expensive with all the printing and postage costs, so use a combination on-line / offline promotion with these.
Begin by fine-tuning your postal mailing lists, then use targeted mailings to borrowers for special promotions over mass mailing everyone general reminders; smaller mailing can reduce your costs. Then for your larger mass mailing, use postcards, black/white printing or other less expensive means. While you are designing your direct mail, make sure to add your web site's address (URL) so your prospects can go on-line for even more marketing and sales opportunities.
Then on-line, market with interactive devices like forums or blogs, asking for comments/feedback from your readers. Offer downloads: reports, ebooks, etc to build relationships with your potential mortgage customers. These can either both be free to entice visitors to your site, or carry price tag and develop additional revenue beyond the mortgage transaction.
Establish telemarketers to get more leads for your on-line and offline marketing. Don't' worry about "getting the application" necessarily. Just get lead information for follow up, then put the prospects in a system where they will receive regular mailings.
Websites and Email Marketing
Websites today cannot be static HTML sites. The days to set it and forget it are over for all practical purposes. Sites that are gaining readership and converting to leads are ones that are interactive and constantly changing, like blogs.
Whatever you have, make sure to set up an auto-responder form to capture leads for an on-line mailing list. (This form can do double duty and ask for postal mailing addresses, too). Then conduct regular email marketing campaigns targeting particular mortgage needs in conjunction with your offline promotions.
Benefits and Disadvantages
Benefits of on-line marketing - Get more for your marketing $$! Ability to update your content instantly and change your target market overnight.
Disadvantages of on-line marketing - Email spamming is not allowed & many forget they sign up and report you as a spammer; keeping up with SEO (search engine optimization) is an art, as the search engines change their algorithms and requirements daily at times; technology - what work today may not tomorrow, so you need to keep up - not always easy time-wise or money-wise with software and learning systems.
Benefits of offline marketing - People get to "keep" something and often do, refer to it years later and showing their friends, etc.
Disadvantages of offline marketing - Higher printing and postage costs.
So the next time you are debating whether to market your origination business on-line or off, ask yourself which marketing methods and strategies would work best on-line, and which would work best offline for your particular items for sale. Then nix and match accordingly.
Both Jeff Sliger & Doug Frye are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jeff Sliger has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Spa and Internet Marketing. The Author is a business owner with more than 20 years experience. A former Police Sgt, Pilot, Heavy Equipment Operator, Trained Mechanic, he enjoys riding the back roads of Washington on his Road King, Police Edition. Please visit his website SpaCap.com. Jeff Sliger's top article generates over 8100 views. Bookmark Jeff Sliger to your Favourites.
Doug Frye has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Plan, Internet Marketing and Telemarketing. Ideas on developing your mortgage marketing strategy either online or offline.. Doug Frye's top article generates over 6600 views. Bookmark Doug Frye to your Favourites.