CFI: News Review


Communicating through talk, text or t’internet?


by Rob Lankey, head of lending, Aldermore Commercial Mortgages


commercial mortgage brokers have always been good at deal- ing with people. Broking is a people business. it doesn’t matter if it’s clients, lenders, surveyors, valuers, lawyers, ac- countants......brokers spend their days dealing with each and every one of them, indi- vidually. no wonder, then, that bro-


kers see their most important skill as being effective com- municators. But if you look beyond verbal communica- tion, whether it’s face-to-face or over the phone, how effec- tive are brokers at utilising the plethora of other commu- nications channels available to them, especially in today’s digital world? most commercial mortgage


brokers i speak to readily confess that, although they’re proficient users of comput- ers and mobile phones, they haven’t really trodden too far down the ‘digital marketing’ path. their perception is that it’s expensive, time consuming, requires specialist skills and is only relevant to businesses selling goods and services di- rect to consumers.


Digital revolution the digital revolution has


turned traditional marketing theory on its head and modern electronic communications means that brokers are now able to market their services to potential clients on a far more personal and individual basis. in fact, this type of market-


ing has undoubtedly already happened to you. if you shop online with a leading super- market, you will almost cer- tainly have received a special promotional offer which was based on their knowledge of your personal shopping hab- its. they’ll know if you’re a parent with a young family or an older, more affluent ‘empty nester’, which determines if the offer you receive is a spe- cial deal on discounted nap- pies or chateauneuf-du-Pape. the communications are tai- lored to our individual needs. Which is all well and good for supermarkets, but how does this translates across to com- mercial mortgage brokers? exactly the same principles


apply. the challenge is to com- municate with both existing and potential clients on an individual basis, rather than treating them as if they’re all the same. the technical term for this approach is ‘micro- marketing’. if you think about it, the


needs of a professional prop- erty investor are very different to those of a small business looking for new premises, or a growing business looking for office accommodation, or


a dentist purchasing a new surgery. For the purposes of expla-


nation, imagine that dentists are a key target group for your business (it gives this article something to get its teeth into!). Your marketing may start with an advert in a dental magazine or a link on a dental professions website (supermarkets still advertise in the press, even though they’re masters of micro-marketing). the objective at this stage is to create awareness of your spe- cialist service and drive traffic to your own website. to use marketing parlance, you want your audience to start interact- ing with your brand. When a dentist visits your


website, they don’t want to see a general description of your business and little else. they want to read content that’s rel- evant to them; which educates and informs and gives them confidence to move to the next stage - engaging your services. But not all clients will want


to engage your services imme- diately, so how do you ensure they remain ‘hot’ prospects? again, the challenge is to keep your communications with them both personal and spe- cific to their needs. enable them to register for a copy of your regular e-newsletter (which, of course, addresses is- sues relevant to them); provide a link to your Facebook page (the professional one, not the personal one with pictures of


you falling into the swimming pool!); and send them copies of your latest blog, when you upload it each month to your webpage.


Challenge the challenge is not to bom- bard either prospective or ex- isting clients with irrelevant and overly-regular updates, but neither do you want them to disengage with your busi- ness simply because they don’t have an immediate need for your services. continuing the analogy,


when a dentist does eventu- ally ask for your help, it’s then up to you to do what you do best. thereafter, the challenge is not to let them drift away but to keep on communicat- ing at an appropriate frequen- cy, with relevant messages. don’t worry if dentists are


not high on your priority list, it’s the underlying principles that matter! most importantly, don’t be dissuaded from tak- ing a more personal approach to your marketing, just be- cause you feel daunted by all the digital mumbo-jumbo. the digital era in which


we now all live and work is particularly empowering for small businesses, because it enables you to compete head-to-head with far bigger players. if you’re willing to pick-up the gauntlet and give it a go, i have no doubt you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.


mortgage introducer AUGUST 2011 53


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