How hard is it to build your list and get other professionals in your “funnel”?

One of the most frustrating things when you’re a professional is to get other professionals and people you meet to sign up for your stuff!

List building can be one of the toughest and most arduous tasks in business building.

Let’s say you’re at a function and you meet some great prospects. You know that they are perfect candidates for your stuff, even if it’s not right now, but when they are ready you want them to think of you first. Right!

You also know that unless they are hearing from you on a regular basis then you’re not “positioning” yourself how you could or even should. And to charge that premium rate that you deserve, you need to be in that “prime position”! Do I hear an “Amen” to that?

How many times have we heard that the money is in the “list” so we design our website to do that, have all the name capture stuff, the right double-opt in form protocols. Have to abide by the Spam rules and regulations right?

That’s great for your online visitors but what if you’re out networking?

Having the right opt in forms, auto-responders and email newsletter is a must for every serious professional and their website but how do you get these networking contacts into the same email list building stuff when you’re out and about? How do you overcome this issue?

I have tried it all when I’m at a function or even meetings like BNI (Business Network International) and the like.

You hand them your business card and say something like “Oh, go to my site and click on the big blue button and I’ll send you my Free Report.” And they never do!

So then you try signing them up yourself and say “I’ll send you my Free Report and all you need to do is to click on the confirmation email you’ll get”. And they never do!

Yes, you can add them into ACT or Outlook and even create contact groups but you’d still prefer them in that one list where you can manage them easily without it becoming a huge CRM (Client Relationship Management) drama.

What about an email marketing system designed from the ground up with the professional in mind! Awesome!

Solution! – Smart Email Marketing! Why is it awesome?

Because you can over ride the double opt in process is why! Do I recommend that for your online stuff? Absolutely not, you’d have to have rocks in your head.

BUT IMAGINE THIS! You can now say “Look, I have some info that will address that exact issue plus I have some other stuff coming out soon which I really don’t want you to miss out on. I’ll get that to you this afternoon. Is that soon enough?” and you grab their business card … or everyone in the group’s business cards!

You get back to your office, open up your Smart Email System and enter all their details and hit “send” and the auto-responder sequence begins, plus now they’re automatically in your newsletter list too. But this is where it gets even sexier – no other email marketing software will let you “log an event” so you can actually record that you met them in person and they said yes to your stuff and you did a manual entry.

Talk about guard your butt in these contentious times. It really doesn’t get any better than this. Here’s a short list of just some of the other sexy features:

• Completely browser based (You manage it from wherever you are)
• No per email fees
• No list size limits or fees
• Dozens of built-in templates
• Step-by-step campaign wizard
• Custom fields for personalization
• Unlimited autoresponders
• Split test email campaigns
• Powerful, automated triggers
• Full campaign statistics
• Google Analytics integration
• Automated bounced email processing
• Full WYSIWYG campaign editing
• Easily import/export contacts
• Pause and resume sending
• Automatic event logging
• Built-in CRM functionality
• Google Calendar integration
• RSS email campaign archive

Here’s what Josh Williams of www.AdsOnVids.com.au fame said only last week…

“I have been helping businesses with online marketing for the last 6 years and have never seen a better email marketing and CRM system to recommend to my clients. When Peter first told me about this I thought it would be like most of the ones I’ve seen before, but I was blown away within the first few minutes of using the system. This is a truly phenomenal product. SmartEmail is very easy to use and offers amazing value. I recommend this to all of my clients – if you haven’t signed up yet for a free trial, do it now! I’m sure like me, you’ll find investing in Smart Email one of the easiest decisions you could make in online marketing today.”

So what’s holding you back on getting serious about building your business? You know the money is in the list and with a Free Trial valued at $49.50 plus a coaching call with me it’s a no brainer really!

I’m only offering 3 Free Trails for September so call NOW To Reserve Your Spot! Like Right NOW! (Why only 3 Free Trials?  – because I will actually guide you through how to get started, as in me personally and I’m very busy – I’m writing this at 9.10 on a Monday night!)

You can either call me on 0413 733 272 or Book My Smart Email Trial NOW!

Or you can wait until October! And only then if you’re lucky and quick! Don’t miss out!

Have You Neglected YOUR Cash Flow? I mean… Clients!

When was the last time you got an email, letter or postcard from your retail therapy centre – as in your favourite store, restaurant, or the last shop you visited?

My guess is probably never. You might get the occasional flyer, but nothing personal or even interesting. The best you can hope for is boring cut-price offers.

There’s a big lesson here for all of us.

As business owners, we can never be good enough at following up with our customers. In the past I’ve been guilty of this as much as the next person.

But now I refuse to let a business owner moan to me about the Recession until they have a multi step follow up sequence of 7-30 touches or contacts (email, mail, postcard, telephone etc.) with everyone who comes into contact with their business as a potential or paying customer or client.

Funnily enough, when people do this, they tend to make so much money from increased sales, they just shrug off the Recession and stop talking about it.

As business owners, we can’t afford to make the big, costly mistake of not following up, because one way or another we pay good money to get leads, and if we let them disappear without them becoming customers, then it’s money we’ve wasted.

And just in case you have any doubts about how important this is, here are some scary statistics:

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect

25% of sales people make a second contact and stop

12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop

It’s staggering, but only 10 % of businesses make more than three contacts. This means they’re losing a small fortune.

Because…

2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

So if you’re like almost half of all businesses and make no more than one follow-up to your prospects… you’re leaving 98% of your income on the table for someone else to come along and pick up.

If that wasn’t bad enough, here’s why it’s even worse.

Here’s Why People Stop Buying From Businesses:

1% die.
3% move away.
5% follow a friend’s or relative’s recommendation.
9% find an alternative they perceive to be better quality or value.
14% are dissatisfied with the products or services.

And a massive 68% of people leave a business because of… indifference.

They take their business elsewhere simply because they do not feel valued.

Since you spend a lot of time, money, and effort to get a visitor to your business, if you let them leave because of indifference, you might as well be flushing $20 notes away.

They take their business elsewhere simply because they do not feel valued.

So, how often should you follow up? Most business owners I speak to follow up maybe once a month, if they use follow up at all. This is a mistake. You can quite safely send something once or twice a week.

See, it’s not the quantity of stuff that annoys people. What annoys them is if it’s boring, and nothing but requests that they buy something from you. As long as your follow up is friendly, personal, full of personality and fun, then you’ll be fine.

There’s a golden rule in Marketing that will make you wealthy. Once you have someone’s details keep on following up until they either buy, die, or tell you to stop!

To get your Free Report “7 Points To a Profitable Website” and Bonus “How To Generate Fresh Qualified Leads on Auto Pilot” Go Here NOW!

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Money,

Peter B Butler

“7 Points To a Profitable Website” and “How To Generate Fresh Qualified Leads on Auto Pilot”

Finally: An Automated Marketing System & Website Platform That…

* Systematically Generates Fresh Leads.
* Automatically Qualifies Leads and Prospects into Clients.
* Predictably & Easily Makes You Much More Money!

… All On Auto Pilot? All Those In Favour Of That Say ‘AYE’!

Get Your FREE Marketing and Website HEALTH & PROSPERITY Check! valued at $350 Here.

Lead Generation on Auto Pilot by Peter Butler of Smarter Websites

James was absolutely rapt that already he’s generated 2 leads from his new “Smarter Websites” System and one of those ‘qualified’ leads has converted into a client already.

You need to understand that James hasn’t actually done any active offline marketing yet!!!

What does that mean in MONEY TERMS? Well, I’m not at liberty of disclosing James’ numbers but let’s use a nominal average client spend of say… $1500 to you over a set time frame. Is that a figure that you can relate to?

So even if you only pulled 4 leads a month (with no actual active marketing as such). Do the math! With only a 25% conversion, which is easy to achieve ’cause they’re ‘qualified’ leads that would be $18,000. Not bad when you’ve not done any active offline marketing yet and you haven’t yet got your sales pipeline finished. Gee, I think the recession is only affecting those who don’t do active direct response lead generation marketing.

Imagine when you’re up and running with this automated system you are pulling say, only 100 leads a month of which only half are warm leads. Of those only half again are what I call  “qualified” (actual shoppers) which is 25. Let’s halve that again to 12 that are what I call “highly qualified” (spend money soon). What if you only convert half again to actual clients -- that’s 6 @ our nominal figure of $1500 = $9,000.

Who Wants $9,000 a Month From Effortless Auto Pilot Marketing?

You can see how much of a happy chappy James is with Peter Butler’s “Smarter Websites” (Yes, we are in a pub but it was work, dear. We really were in a ‘mastermind’ session at JB O’Reilly’s pub -- great people the Irish)

Anyway, watch the video.

To get your Free Report “7 Points To a Profitable Website” and Bonus “How To Generate Fresh Qualified Leads on Auto Pilot” Go Here NOW!

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Money,

Peter B Butler

“7 Points To a Profitable Website” and “How To Generate Fresh Qualified Leads on Auto Pilot”

Finally: An Automated Marketing System & Website Platform That…

* Systematically Generates Fresh Leads.
* Automatically Qualifies Leads and Prospects into Clients.
* Predictably & Easily Makes You Much More Money!

… All On Auto Pilot? All Those In Favour Of That Say ‘AYE’!

Get Your FREE Marketing and Website HEALTH & PROSPERITY Check! valued at $350 Here.

Dumb Marketing and Smart Lead Generation!

Last week I raved about how much money business owners are throwing away on dumb cinema ads. Here’s a classic dumb ad you’ve probably seen on TV already.

The heartburn advert! Opens with a guy shovelling into a wheelbarrow, then goes to him clutching his chest with a face shot of discomfort. It then pans to the roadwork’s sign and a stick figure bashing away at the pile of dirt which then erupts like a volcano. The dialogue running with all of this captures this guy’s pain very well.

“Getting People’s Attention Is Successful Advertising!”

By using all the right emotional triggers they’ve engaged the viewer with shots of the guy clutching his chest, another shot of belching, the volcano erupting to depict the burning sensation and using the sounds of gasses gurgling from inside.

Then the orator uses words that sufferers will relate to and starts to aggravate the problem with – “if left unchecked it can lead to other medical problems” and “with proper treatment it may end your discomfort for good”. The last shot is a bulldozer clearing the pile and a shot of the worker smiling and looking relieved getting back to shovelling.

Very emotive and engaging… especially if you’re a heartburn sufferer!

The ad finished with the orator directing people to “Talk to your doctor” or visit “www.heartburn.com.au”

This is a better than average ad model. They got my attention, held my interest and told me what they want me to do – Go see my doctor or go to the website. Those elements they got right. Very clear steps.

OK, I’ll go to the website – easy! Nice looking site, lots of good information but here’s the thing.

Why would you spend all that money on a TV ad, direct me to your site and not want to get my details? (Apart from a lame newsletter signup that was hard to find.) Why not have a compelling offer of free information that people get when they submit their details. If you have my details you can then market to me… forever!

“Successful Marketing Is What You Do With Them After!”

Flawed thinking! It’s a classic case of what I call a library site – lots of information and the business owner lives in the ‘hope’ that the prospect will call the business or maybe opt-in to the lamely named newsletter… maybe in your dreams.

I found the company name in tiny print in the footer and it turns out it’s a huge pharmaceutical company. It’s the classic branding style ad process. They spend truckloads of money on ads and strategies that are not directly measurable. Dumb or dumber? They are not leveraging off their website as they could. This is the marketing cancer of the big boys.

“YOU Have the Edge!”

This is how smart small to medium business owners can get the edge over the big boys. Here’s the ironic thing – people actually want to do business with people, that’s you! The trouble is that you are not making it easy for your new prospects to become clients.

You might not be running TV ads but why would you have a sexy website, then bust your gut getting people to go there without an offer of information in exchange for their details?

This is how the average business owner can take toll position and run rings around the big boys.

Here’s my number 1 question to all business owners!

Out of 100 visitors to your website how many are you now able to market to?

The answer should scare you!

If you want to know how to make a compelling offer for prospects details and generate fresh leads and actually convert your website from a glossy online corporate brochure that sits out there as internet flotsam then click here NOW!

I am offering a FREE Marketing and Website Audit valued at $350.00 for the first three, that’s 3 as in 1, 2, 3 ONLY! Why 3? – because they take a heap of time and frankly, that’s all I have time for.

So, has your website paid for itself yet? Find out what’s holding it back and how to jump start your automated lead generation – Easily! Click Here NOW to be the 1 of 3 ONLY Free Marketing and Website Audit valued at $350.00.

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Money,

Peter B Butler

“Discover the 5 Things You Can Do in the Next 17 Days To Generate More Clients & More Money!”

Finally: An Automated Marketing System & Website Platform That…

* Systematically Generates Fresh Leads.
* Automatically Qualifies Prospects into Clients.
* Predictably Makes You Much More Money!

… All On Auto Pilot? All Those In Favour Of That Say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

Lead Generation with the Free Report Model

Saw the new Jim Carey movie “Yes Man” with my teenage son a couple of weeks back.

I wasn’t a Jim Carey fan at all until I saw him in an interview with Oprah a couple of years ago. In fact I was what I would call a ‘non’ fan – I didn’t like the ‘Mask’ movies and I had no time at all for anything he was in. In this interview Jim was sharing some stuff from his life and I got to see the ‘real’ Jim. I really related to what he was sharing and my view of him changed just like that.

So my son and I really enjoyed the movie, and as usual Jim, with all his extreme mannerism’s pulled off the role really well. A nice light hearted look at life, great to zone out for a bit.

What was really sad was the ads before the movie. What an absolute waste of money!

This was the most severe case of “advertising victim’s” I have ever encountered.

These were graphically gorgeous and very sexy and stylish ads and I have never seen so much money thrown away in one sitting that I can pretty well guarantee will make NO money for the business owners. Zilch, nix, nothing!

And what will be the response when they don’t get a result? “You need to keep running it, its subliminal advertising” the advertising guru’s will say!

What a crock of crap! That is the single biggest lie about advertising that has ever been told. If an ad doesn’t work – don’t run it again. It’s not rocket science.

The second issue is being able to have a clear and distinct way to measure the results. Every ad should always be measurable. (not that they’ll ever tell you that because they don’t want to be accountable)

Throwing serious money away they are – good old Val Morgan Advertising are making a fortune and those crap ads will kill what could be an absolute gold mine for building qualified leads.

Think about it – you have a captive audience, sitting there comfortably – who are actually in a position to grab a pen and paper and write down a web address or phone number.

But most businesses don’t even make a compelling offer. Why not make an offer for a free report in exchange for the prospects details?

One of the ads was such a perfect model for this. The company did truck and heavy equipment driver licence training. The existing ad had some hunky trucks and forklifts, all looking good if you’re into that sort of thing – cute little background jingle thing (maybe that’s supposed to tap into my subconscious to do)

Great… so what! 3 weeks later I have no idea who they were and not sure even where.

Now if they’d run our style of ad with a very clear and compelling offer of a Free Report called, say… “7 Things You Must Know Before You Even Apply For Your Heavy License” – valued at $47 and Available for a Short Time Only – then I would have made a note of that website or phone number. Then at home I would have given my details to get that report.

Can you see what’s happened?

The smarter company using the model we advocate can now market to me, forever… or at least till I buy or die.

And the even funnier and frustrating thing here is. I will actually be in the market for those services, so I pick on this company legitimately – I’ll be in the market for a BIG Winnebago Touring Van for a family trip around Oz and will most likely need to upgrade my license. I like BIG.

Doesn’t it make a lot more sense to be able to capture people’s details so you can not only market to them when they are ready but you’re also pre-qualifying them? Depending on your business this gives you the opportunity to ‘drill down’ with qualifying so you can make another contact with them. The follow up procedure needs to be tailored to suit your business of course.

To expect people to remember you and your ad after they’ve just watched a movie and been ‘zoned out’ is dumb, or at least naïve.

The other sad thing was how annoyed my son gets with me doing my usual “Gee, if only they’d added a Free report model” or “Did you see that son, all graphic with no compelling offer and no call to action… pathetic… lame”.

At 15 my son is easily embarrassed by ‘Dear Dad’ and has put up with my frustrations and ranting on sad and bad marketing for a long time now. Sorry son, but it’s hard with all this bad marketing, I know it’s not their fault and all but…

I don’t know of many businesses where this model can’t be adapted. It really is the Auto Pilot gem in direct marketing. To find out how the Free Report model and 2 step marketing can be plugged into your business you can do one of two things.

Click on the blue button on my website – you can’t miss it… it’s big, it’s blue and it’s here www.smartmortgagemarketing.com.au

Or

Phone me on 0413 733 272 and we’ll set up a time to talk you through it.

I have an online PowerPoint presentation and I can actually walk you through it step by step.

I also talk with so many people who love the idea but just don’t know where to start. Or they get started but don’t understand all the pieces in the process. It can be overwhelming if you’re trying to do it all yourself but auto pilot lead generation is a beautiful thing. Well worth the effort.

Here’s what a recent client said… actually, like so recent… like yesterday.

Hi Peter,

I’ve just received the free report you helped me create. Wow, awesome. Although I had written what I think is a good informational article, I see what you mean about how the opening and closing of the report makes or breaks how well this system works. I really ‘get’ how this lead generation model will work so well.

By powerfully taking our prospects on a journey of building a relationship with them – I can see that we’re building excellent rapport even before we meet them. That term “being pre disposed to do business with you” means a lot more to me now as all the pieces to the jigsaw puzzle come together. I’m really impressed by how quickly you did it too!

Thanks again.

Kind Regards, James Bryden

and NO… I’m not going to send you there… yet – We’re still testing and optimizing and we don’t want unqualified traffic.

Find out how you can plug the same model into your business right now!

Click on the blue button on my website – you can’t miss it… it’s big, it’s blue and it’s here www.smartmortgagemarketing.com.au

Or

Phone me on 0413 733 272 and we’ll set up a time to talk you through it. You will be amazed…

PS: Out of  the last 100 visitors to your website how many are you now able to market to?

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Money,

Peter B Butler

“Discover the 5 Things You Can Do in the Next 17 Days To Generate More Clients & More Money!”

Finally: An Automated Marketing System & Website Platform That…

* Systematically Generates Fresh Leads.
* Automatically Qualifies Prospects into Clients.
* Predictably Makes You Much More Money!

… All On Auto Pilot? All Those In Favour Of That Say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

What! You Didn’t Read My Money Making Mortgage Broker Lead Generating Stuff!

Yippee, I got the loan!

Friday nights with good friends and a good wine is a great way to end a busy week.

And as you do with like minded entrepreneurial friends we were bouncing around our “take over the world ideas, million dollar breakthroughs and world changing ideological schemes”.

By the end of the night I’m sure we’d pulled at least 17 million dollars and solved all the worlds problems, it was hard work but obviously worth it.

The particular friend we were visiting is in real estate and although he’s not been in the industry that long he’s pulling good listings and sales and carving out a healthy career even against all the odds of the market being slow. A man of action and a quick learner and certainly open to innovative marketing stuff.

It turns out that he subscribes to my e-marketing newsletter so I started talking about my recent post on testimonials. He hesitantly confessed he hadn’t read the recent post knowing full well that I would get on my pedestal and rant… “What, you didn’t read my stuff?”

Even when I wrote the post I had visions of real estate agents with photos of ecstatic home owners putting ‘Sold’ stickers on the ‘For Sale’ sign out the front of their house with a big ‘thumbs up’. What a better way to show prospects that you get results… right!

(What, you didn’t read my previous post too?)

Or a photo of the buyers… with the agent, beaming smiles, keys in hand at of the front door of their new dream home.

Why would you go to all this bother? People look at pictures, hello!

Don’t you think an ‘imagery’ style testimonial is a lot more powerful than a whole heap of text? I’d like to think everyone reads my stuff but the reality is we’re all busy and you know the old adage ‘a picture tells a thousand words’.

Why do you think I place a picture in my posts? To try and get them read.

I heard a fellow marketer coin the expression – ‘results in advance’. Using picture testimonials in this way is exactly that. Use the right pictures and you are showing your prospects the outcome they will achieve by doing business with you.

With any transaction there is the process but it’s the outcome that people want – focus on the outcome. Get a mix of testimonials and photo’s.

Another point that needs to be made is that of ANY marketing idea you read or hear about the question should never be “Can I make that work for me?” but rather the question should ALWAYS be “How can I make that work for me?” Most ideas can be adapted so use your imagination.

If you add a twist to any marketing idea it is sure to make you stand out over all the other brokers… and isn’t that what marketing is all about? Standing out! Differentiating you from the ‘pack’!

So to subscribers… be warned… I will find out if you don’t read my stuff. We have ways…

Seriously, we all want the one idea that will bring us 100 new clients but the reality is… it’s probably going to be 20 ideas that pull 5 clients each time… but we still end up with 100 clients.

A side note… the marketing stuff we do and advocate can be systemised meaning that once it’s set up… it’s an auto-pilot lead generating prospect converting money making marketing machine… works for me!

PS: A colleague and friend made a comment on my last post… you can too. I’ll tell you why it good for you in my next post. Click on the blue headline in the post or right here to have your say now.

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Commissions,

Peter B Butler.

Finally: A lead generation and marketing system that runs alongside even the best referral systems and generates an independent stream of “highly qualified” clients for brokers that’s self managed so they ‘own’ it and positions them as the experts in their area and ends all those lame, frustrating and sometimes costly prospecting methods.

All those in favour of that say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

Mortgage Broker Testimonials That Actually Make You Money…

Last week I raved about “What others say about you is ‘infinitely more believable’ than what you say”.

I also challenged those who already use testimonials that there is a powerful way to get them and use them and the lame way.

• What should your testimonials say?
• How to double the power and readership of yours!
• When is the best time to get your testimonial?
• How should they be signed?
• How and where should you use them?

What if you don’t have any testimonials?

It’s not that difficult. Start at the beginning, first talk to clients you know just love you.

Ask them outright. Tell them you need their help and just be up front of them. Let them know you’re going to make it easy for them and you don’t expect them to write a novel about you. Most people are willing to give a testimonial but some people have difficulty putting pen to paper and that’s pretty well the only reason they might resist.

Once they have agreed there are two ways to handle this:

• Simply tell them you have 2, 3 or 6 drafts for them to choose from so whatever they feel comfortable with is great… or
• You can have a questionnaire, quick and simple, for them to tick a few boxes and make a comment if they choose. You can make your testimonial from this…

Obviously you need to prepare some drafts or the questionnaires with some compelling emotional copy. Doing it this way can avoid all those ordinary legalistic testimonials. I have a few of those in my testimonial arsenal and appreciate the spiel but if I’d done it a little different in the early days some of my testimonials would be a lot more powerful. Here’s an example, great guy too.

Hi Peter, I am writing this email to thank you for the wonderful job you have done in putting together our Website for LoanEasy. Not only are we extremely happy with the look and functionality of the site but we are appreciative of the guidance regarding the marketing side of promoting our business.  Whilst putting our marketing plan together with you we have found you to be helpful, courteous and patient as well as open to our ideas whilst adding your experience to the marketing mix.

We look forward to an ongoing relationship with you as we go forward.

Kind regards,

Mark Coonan – Managing Director

P: 1300 883 453 F: 08 9330 8750 WA FINANCE BROKERS LICENSE 4509

A point to remember is to ask them to sign whatever they choose giving their permission for you to use their comments and testimonial. Even if you have a great relationship with them this is still a wise protocol to follow. If they email it to you that is implied permission so you’re good to go.

So when is the best time to get your testimonial?

Straight away of course! Emotional testimonials are so powerful. When people are emotional they speak with passion and power and that’s exactly what you want. Capture that from now on, always.

So what should your testimonials say?

They need to support your Unique Selling Position and your claim to fame. The more specific they are the more powerful they are. People relate to specifics and this is a relationship building tool… right?

That’s a point… why haven’t I got more specific testimonials?

Wish me luck trying to get any testimonial out of a broker. You people make it hard for me, playing everything so close to the chest – all guarding your territory so fervently it seems. I have more testimonials coming but I’ve had to make an offer with extra coaching in the deal at no charge as the bait for “Actually tell us some real numbers in your results” testimonial. It’s a legal and ethical bribe, the numbers don’t lie. This is what I’m driven to working with brokers, things are grim hey

Back to “what your testimonials should say”.

Make sure they are varied. In drawing up the drafts or questionnaire make sure you have a range of testimonial responses. Obviously they need to be positive statements and need to address the benefits of using you. For every benefit you should have at least one testimonial. Try and build a testimonial base giving you many testimonials for every benefit. Know this, you can never have too many testimonials.

How should your testimonials be signed?

Remember, the whole essence of having testimonials is to provide credibility. To help with credibility it is important to include as much information about the client as possible. It shows people they’re real.

You should include their name, occupation, suburb and city… and even a phone number if they’re courageous. Having that preponderance of proof elevates your credibility exponentially…

How do I make sure that people read my testimonials?

By giving it a headline… BUT… there is a golden rule that you have to abide by. The headline text has to come from the testimonial itself, otherwise it’s not legitimate. That’s my take. Apart from it being unethical to edit or alter if you only use excerpts from the testimonial  for the headline then you know that you’re saying exactly what your client DID say and not what you think they would say. Make sense?

How can you make your testimonials stand out over every other broker?

Having a photo shifts the reality factor like no other but you can even take this to the next level.

Surely you’ve heard of Joe Girard, the World’s Greatest Salesman. A car salesman even, quite a remarkable man and the point here without going into his full story is he leveraged off and pioneered using photographic proof like no other. Every car he sold he had a photo taken of himself handing over the keys to his client with their new car.

Why is that so powerful? Not only is he showing evidence of happy clients but he’s tied them to himself in the photo. The other factor is showing the fruit of the deal, the car, that new toy. It paints the picture of the end transaction of doing business with me, you.

Maybe there’s something I’m missing but why aren’t brokers showing the world their clients being handed a set of keys at the front door of their new house, all with beaming smiles. Those smiles will capture the hearts of your prospects like you wouldn’t believe and strip away any resistance to do business with you.

If you financed a client into a car, or a boat… why are those photos’ not on your office wall, or on your website?

We’ve all got happy clients right? If we don’t show off the joy when we get the deal done then who will?

Stop being a slow learner and start shouting how good you are in any way you can. Tell the world! This is only one of the many tips and tricks in our Mortgage Broking $$$ Millions Marketing System. To find out how you can access this go here NOW!

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Commissions,

Peter B Butler.

Finally: A lead generation and marketing system that runs alongside even the best referral systems and generates an independent stream of “highly qualified” clients for brokers that’s self managed so they ‘own’ it and positions them as the experts in their area and ends all those lame, frustrating and sometimes costly prospecting methods.

All those in favour of that say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

Lead Generation Strategies to get the Best Quality Clients.

The last couple of “Lead Generating Web Site and Marketing Machines” we’ve set up for clients have been missing some specific content I needed.

And it shouldn’t have been!

So I want to give you the heads up on what you should be doing right now, whether you ever use us or not… and this is an absolute must for all brokers.

What others say about you is “infinitely more believable” than what you say about you…

… think about it.

How much more likely are you to try a new store or go to a restaurant if a friend or family member told you about it?

A lot more likely!

… imagine you then saw an ad in your local newspaper for this business.

You could almost speak with authority and recommend it to others even if you hadn’t been there yet. If someone you know and trust is making a recommendation it invariably means you are going to trust their judgement.

This is a very powerful marketing strategy that you need to embrace fully and use to its full extent.

You’ve probably heard me rave previously about what I call “gush factor” service. Forget the wow factor… we should all move our service to the gush factor level but that’s another rave.

My point is this. What is the value of creating gush factor service and great client rapport if nobody shares it with the world?

No value!!! It’s great to give good service and have happy clients but you really are leaving a lot of money on the table if you ‘don’t get this right’.

… a high gush factor with someone singing your praises is a really powerful tool.

Testimonials provide credibility as well as proof.

Not sure about you but I’m a bit of a gadget freak and I need reasonable amounts of retail therapy. Hey, we all have a vice or three. When I’m out with friends and family I use their recommendations and experiences a lot so I to know where to get the best value for my retail therapy sessions.

So why is this all so powerful? Like most brokers you rely on referrals for new business… a lot!

But you always need to be preparing for the possibility you’ll lose some of those referral centres at some point. We all need to maintain or build our own independent new client streams.

Isn’t that why you’re an independent broker in the first place?

By using testimonials to provide this credibility and proof of what you say about you is true you’re also switching the psychology of your prospect or new client. They’re already pre-disposed to do business with you. The trust factor is high which means they’re like a direct referred client.

Using the Direct Response Marketing and Lead Generating model of the Smart Mortgage Marketing system with testimonials is like a self generating referral centre all on its own.

That’s powerful. So what did we do about getting those missing testimonials? Got on the phone to back track what we and started a system to collect as much as we could.

Imagine your arsenal if you’d started this a year or three ago.

Some brokers already get testimonials and might be saying ‘So what, been there and done that”.

Well, get this… There is a powerful way to get them and use them and the lame way.

• What should your testimonials say?
• How to double the power and readership of yours!
• When is the best time to get your testimonial?
• How should they be signed?
• How and where should you use them?

All this and more will be covered next week…

Speak then.

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Commissions,

Peter B Butler.

Finally: A lead generation and marketing system that runs alongside even the best referral systems and generates an independent stream of “highly qualified” clients for brokers that’s self managed so they ‘own’ it and positions them as the experts in their area and ends all those lame, frustrating and sometimes costly prospecting methods.

All those in favour of that say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

You Just Have To Love Easy Web Traffic!

I know I’ve had a bit of a rant on Social Media Marketing recently but even at this early stage of sorting my own I now have evidence that it works. I’ll make this post a quickie…

I was just in checking my stat’s stuff for my sites. This is why I love our “Smart Mortgage Marketing WebSites” model.

I can quickly and easily check a whole gambit of stuff that helps me reach more people and get more people to find me but more on that later.

Not only can I tell how many visitors I’ve had, and on a daily basis, I can tell how long they stayed and which pages they went to and from.

A big thing is what keywords they used to find me in the first place – that is huge. It means that I can then tweak and refine the keywords my site is known for and increase the visitors to my site… exponentially.

Another big thing is where did they come from? Did they type my name in? That’s known as ‘direct’ traffic or did they see a link somewhere?

There are only 3 ways people are going to get to your site –

• Direct traffic
• Referring sites
• Search engines

Does that seem techy to you?

It’s not… If you can use Microsoft Word then you can do this stuff, it’s dead easy.

Actually, you don’t even have to ‘cause that’s a part of what the “Smart Mortgage Marketing WebSite” package does. We not only optimize your site but we monitor it ongoing… test and measure… and refine what gives results.

And that’s what our members enjoy… results!

This is the exciting news. I’ve been talking about setting up your profiles more effectively on ‘Facebook’ and LinkedIn’.

After checking my ‘Stat’s stuff’ this morning I found that I’m getting checked out via both Facebook and LinkedIn. Yup, the stat’s tell me exactly where and how many. I’ve had 9.8% of traffic through Facebook and a bit less through LinkedIn. Not bad considering I’ve only refined my profiles recently.

What is most interesting for me is the mix between the 3 primary sources of traffic – direct, referring and search engines. You don’t think I’m going to tell you the rest of my stats do you?

Our clients love the fact that they now understand it all – or is it the fact that they don’t have to understand it is what they love? Hmmm, I’ll have to ponder that one… you can enjoy it too – go to Smart Mortgage Marketing to find out more.

Have I made any money or picked up any clients as a result of this already?

No, give me a break… its early days yet but the extra traffic and exposure is always a good thing. All this will increase your favour and standing with the ‘Google Gods’. It’s also increasing the ‘authority’ of your site along with increasing the chance of other people picking up my content and referring people to us.

You’ll be amazed who and where other traffic will come from, but that’s another post… If you want to enjoy this lap of luxury in website world go to Smart Mortgage Marketing NOW! and look for yourself.

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Commissions,

Peter B Butler.

Finally: A lead generation and marketing system that runs alongside even the best referral systems and generates an independent stream of “highly qualified” clients for brokers that’s self managed so they ‘own’ it and positions them as the experts in their area and ends all those lame, frustrating and sometimes costly prospecting methods.

All those in favour of that say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

3 Best Tips For Using LinkedIn!

I started using LinkedIn about a year ago. Probably like most people I set up my profile and did nothing with it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what else I should do.

You do need to build up your connections. Check your friends ‘connections’ too and ask for the introduction to like minded people.

It is a valid networking and lead generation tool and I’ve generated 1 hot lead through it already so I’m good with that. A friend even had a job offer last month too!

Here’s the share on a few tips and tricks that will help.

First up is your Public Profile URL… Edit it.

The default link looks something like this – http://www.linkedin.com/pub/XX/xxx/XXX which is pretty ugly and random.

What makes a lot more sense is to use the word or term you want to ‘rank’ for with the search engines. So change it to something like this http://www.linkedin.com/in/thepeterbutler but it could be your business name if you like.

It will help in Google World. Your name should still appear in the search results regardless but if the text link contains the actual words, like your name or business then that’s all the better for the search results.

Increase Your Public Profile!

I’d also recommend placing this as a link on your website. The more links on your site to other sites about you will increase your overall profile on the internet.

A point to consider, when people click on that link and they’re redirected to your LinkedIn page the sexier URL will appear in the address bar, much more professional rather than some generic random line.

It’s easy to edit. Just hit ‘edit my profile’ and click on the text. Your name might be taken already so be prepared to slip in something that sets it apart. You can use a digit or perhaps ‘the’ as a differentiator.

I have both my LinkedIn and my Facebook profiles as links under a category link ‘social media sites’. My take is this, people want to do business with people and this shows them that humanness side. You should have decent profiles set up on both Facebook and LinkedIn.

Your Own Personal Built In Website Feature!

This is huge. Click on ‘Applications’ in the left navigation bar and you have 10 applications at this point ready to ‘plug in’ to your profile.

The biggest for me was the Wordpress plug-in. This feature means as I make a post to my site it appears in my profile automatically. So my last 3 posts are sitting in there with no effort, getting more exposure and all the while telling my story and adding to my credibility. That is a very cool tool.

Yup, it has a Built In Slide Show Presentation too…

The Slide Share Presentations will be my next set up – this will be a real boon for a lot of people too. I show my wares via Power Point so this will work particularly well for me.

What plug-ins will suit you?

Depending on the nature of your business as to which other plug-ins will be most useful to you. This is the short list of other tools – Google Presentations, Blog Link, LinkedIn Polls (cool), Trip-It, Reading List by Amazon and some online collaboration tools.

It seems the issue for most people is time, to learn how it all works or committing to ‘building that network’. It’s the same for me so my take is to do this stuff in my ‘slow’ time or at least not my ‘peak’ productive time. I’ve even sat there with my laptop while I catch a TV show to get through it.

So, go to it and get LinkedIn!

While your there let’s get connected too. The more ‘connections’ we all have the better.

Here’s my public profile link:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/thepeterbutler

See you on LinkedIn!

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Commissions,

Peter B Butler.

Finally: A lead generation and marketing system that runs alongside even the best referral systems and generates an independent stream of “highly qualified” clients for brokers that’s self managed so they ‘own’ it and positions them as the experts in their area and ends all those lame, frustrating and sometimes costly prospecting methods.

All those in favour of that say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit! valued at $350.

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