How to Use Social Media for Marketing in 2014

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reverse mortgage newsSocial media has come of age. If you’re promoting your reverse mortgage business through traditional methods only, you’re missing out on important connections. Your target audience may not be active on Twitter or Pinterest, true. But their children or other relatives likely are — and in any case, it makes good business sense to have a presence on diverse platforms in order to enhance public awareness of the reverse mortgage field, inform people about the benefits of a HECM, and correct misperceptions.

Here are a few tips to help you generate the publicity your business deserves in 2014, courtesy of this eBook from Publicity Hound, which you are welcome to re-gift. 

  • Press Release 2.0. New media needs to be integral to your public relations efforts. In 2014, a release must include preconfigured sharing tools (such as “Tweet this”, which will automatically Tweet content of the proper length when clicked), short, mobile-friendly headlines, and, ideally, a link to a YouTube video. (YouTube is the platform of choice if something is share-worthy, and is fully compatible on many different platforms and devices.) A photo gallery and integrated social commenting are also de rigueur. Most important of all, however, is a network to distribute your content, so take time to build your social community, both online and off.
  • LinkedIn Company Page. Unlike other social sites where self promotion is often considered bad form, LinkedIn provides the ideal platform for this purpose: Company Pages. One of the advantages of Company Pages is that anyone can subscribe to your updates, even if they’re not connected to you, making it a great vehicle for potential clients, bloggers, and those in complementary fields (such as financial planners or elder law attorneys) to learn about HECMs and get in touch.
  • Blogging By the Numbers. One of the best ways to get people to read your blog or Facebook post is to start it with a number: 7 Ways Your House Can Save You Money, or 5 Steps Smart Seniors Take Every Winter. These “tip sheets” are popular with readers and the media alike. Make sure the information is meaty but short, and share the link widely, depending on which social sites you have the strongest presence. With luck and perseverance, your posts may even go “viral” and spread like virtual wildfire.
  • Promote Real-time Events Online. If you’re planning a year of fun and unusual holiday celebrations (Ho-Hum January), this is a fabulous, ready-made social media item for the entire year. Each time you prepare for a “holiday” gig, post an engaging notice about the upcoming event on all your social outlets: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Even if the people who read it live too far away to participate, they can help network the information — which can lead to new leads and potential business for you.

***Remember: always check with your compliance department before deploying any social media campaign***

Looking for more reverse mortgage tools, training & technology? Visit ReverseFocus.com today!

How to Be a Top Resolver

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New Year’s resolutions can be boring when they’re all about you: perhaps that’s why people seldom stick with them after the initial momentum wears off. Making resolutions that involve your business, however, is another story.

Reverse Mortgage News

Here are six ways to be a top “resolver” for your prospects, clients, staff and colleagues this year:

  1. Share the wealth. We’re talking about knowledge capital here. Instead of issuing an edict, suggest, “Here’s what I’m thinking,” which allows your people to respond. You can phrase this idea differently depending on your audience. For senior clients and prospects, you may want to say something more along the lines of, “Here are a few suggestions,” or “Have you considered…?”
  2. Creatively connect. How are you meeting new reverse mortgage prospects? Have you considered (see above if this phrase sounds familiar!) asking people you know to introduce you to likely prospects? If you aren’t asking your connections to make new connections for you, you’re missing out on a potential goldmine.
  3. Don’t sell, add. Nobody wants to be “sold” to right out of the gate — even seniors who may contact you to learn about a reverse mortgage. Instead, choose to make “value deposits” in your future relationships vault by sharing helpful, insightful information first.
  4. Lend a hand — or an ear. It may be literal; perhaps your employee is struggling to understand the new HECM changes. Or it may be emotional: maybe what the senior who made an appointment really needs from you is non-judgmental listening as she struggles to share what’s happening in their lives and how to manage a sudden turn in their finances.
  5. Speak their language. Communication styles differ across generations, genders, cultures, and businesses. While some seniors love to email and text, others may still cling to rotary-dial phones. There are twenty-somethings who eschew technology in favor of gardening. So toss out assumptions like worn out sock, and discover how your client/prospect/business associate prefers to communicate. Then adapt. You may be pleasantly surprised to step away from the electronic soup for a face-to-face café meeting. Or chuckle at how adept your 82-year-old reverse mortgage client is with texting. Communicating across diverse channels can be a refreshing exercise for all involved.
  6. Complete the transaction. We all know the importance of saying “Please”, “Thank you”, and “I’m sorry.” But do you always remember to say, “You’re welcome”? This completes an energy circuit. A senior who thanks you for your time and information will appreciate your humility in making eye contact and saying, “You’re welcome. I’m happy to be of service.” The same is true for an employee to whom you lent that needed assistance. It says you’re really paying attention — and that you care.

Ho-Hum January? Smart Marketing For All Seasons

With a little ingenuity, you and your reverse mortgage prospects and clients can find ways to celebrate all year long. For instance: did you know January is National Oatmeal Month, as well as National Soup Month and Hot Tea Month? What a perfect lead-in for a lunch ‘n’ learn, where (depending on the venue and menu available) seniors could be served tea and soup along with a heaping helping of housing wisdom.

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Protecting Seniors From Financial Fraud

With the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, it’s especially important to be aware of schemes to defraud seniors of their savings, which are sometimes cloaked as medical assistance. Scam artists have become more creative: seniors may receive mailings for “medical treatments” that appear to be endorsed by actual physicians.

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Your Local Online Business Presence

Establishing The Local Presence Of Your Reverse Mortgage Business Online

Wouldn’t it be great if prospective reverse mortgage borrowers would seek you out? Well they may just be doing that, and you may be missing out.

Google Places

Your Reverse Mortgage Business Online

In this day and age we all know that “Google” is widely accepted as a legitimate verb… at some point we have either told someone to, or had someone tell us to “Google it”. So when a potential borrower is considering a reverse mortgage, one of the first things they will likely do is “Google it” in the hopes of finding information on a trustworthy and well established reverse mortgage lender in their area.

The question is… will they find you? Have you established your Google Places listing? These listings are the first results to appear in Google searches related to local businesses. They are what you see in the map results, and what a large number of people use when seeking out a business in their area.

Why are the Google Places results so appealing to “searchers”?

  • This is obvious, but they are the top. People want the information they are seeking as quickly as possible.
  • They immediately provide people with contact information – phone number, location, directions.
  • They lead people to your website. A Google Places listing has the option to add a link to your business website, so even if your business website is not on page 1 in Google, this map listing that is at the top of the results will lead them directly to your website where they can gather more information about you.
  • They can include reviews. People can learn about the reputation of your business, which often gives them that extra motivation to make that call to you.
  • They provide an established third party summary of your business. A business must verify to establish it’s Google Places listing, so it gives people an extra bit of comfort that you are who you say you are.
  • Also, these listings can include images, summaries, categories, links, and give people an overall picture of your business.

Establishing Your Google Places Listing

Establishing Your Google Places Listing

As daunting as internet marketing can be, getting yourself listed in Google Places is something you can do yourself.

  • Create Your Account – First you need to create your Google Places account.
  • Follow The Prompts – Once you have created your account, you will be guided through a series of steps that take you through the process of establishing your listing.
  • Locate Or Create Your Listing – You will be asked to search for your business. If your listing exists, you will be asked to verify it right away. If it is not yet established, you will be asked to create the listing, and then verify it.
  • Verification – You will be given the option to verify by phone or by post card. The phone verification is immediate, but you must be able to accept a call at that moment at the phone number of your place of business that will be on the listing. The verification post cards come within 2 weeks of you prompting a request for one, but some people prefer these if the phone verification is difficult – for example, if your business has an automated phone system, the automated Google verification call cannot get through it, so you will need to select the post card option.
  • Develop Your Listing – Once your listing is created and you have verified it, you will be able to edit it and add information, categories, and images. Adding these items is important to give your listing credibility and to attract interest.

Maintaining Your Google Places Listing

Once your listing is established, it will serve as a significant part of your local business presence in Google and online in general.

  • Keep Your Information Current – It will be important to always make sure your listing has your current contact info, website address, etc., as this will be a highly visible representation of your business. People calling the wrong number or looking for your business at an outdated address could turn them off to working with you. Keeping the information current establishes reliability.
  • Respond To Reviews – You cannot control the reviews people will leave you but you can take time to respond – to positive and negative reviews. If reviews are positive, thank people for their kind words and for using your services. Other searchers will view this as you having a good rapport with your clients. If there are negative reviews, take the high road and leave a cordial response. Apologize for their negative experience and offer the person the option to contact you to discuss their issue more. This often shifts the negativity off of your business because people see that you are concerned about your service, and that you are willing to work with people.
  • Encourage Positive Reviews – Whether it be through your website, Facebook page, or in person, encourage your happy clients to leave you reviews on Google. When a list of results comes up, those positive reviews can be the difference between someone choosing your business over another listing right next to it.

Taking this small step today can have long term positive benefits for your business, so establish your listing, and when people are told to “Google it” for a great reverse mortgage business in your area, they’ll be likely to find you!