Scotsman Guide - February 2012 Residential Edition

Other challenges have to do with the timeline of this type of work. Smith says that there’s always uncertainty that the deal will go through and that sometimes the closing of escrows can take months. “Once the escrow closes, we like to get the work done as soon as possible, especially if the clients are not living in the home. We will try to get most of it done before they move in,” Smith says. Oftentimes this requires quick reaction time for assembling a crew.

Positioning for success

Smith and andrews believe that these
challenges can be overcome with
a little effort and the right attitude.
“a year ago, we didn’t even know what
203(k) was,” andrews says. “a repeat
customer wanted to buy an uninhabit-
able property, and we learned about
the process along the way.”
Smith and andrews both opted for
additional training and education on
this niche market. although the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) no longer ap-
proves or endorses builders or con-
tractors, there are several options for
contractors to increase their knowl-
edge of the 203(k) market.

Smith became certified as a 203(k)
contractor by 203kcontractors.com.
according to the site, the certifica-
tion process “involves education and
testing as well as verification of creden-
tials, references and work experience.”
He says that many of the mortgage
brokers contacting him have found his
name because of this certification.

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should produce 10-for-1 in dollars. for instance, if you spend $1,000, you need to see a $10,000 return; otherwise, don’t continue with the campaign in question. you have to know not only how much you’re spending, but also how much “bang” you get for your buck.

Unfortunately, this sort of careful analysis is alien to the process of many mortgage professionals. Either they work for large companies that do advertising for them and don’t believe that they have to undertake marketing of their own, or they pursue their own marketing yet don’t rigorously test the results. Everything you do as a mortgage professional needs to be considered within the context of an overall marketing strategy, one that’s tested and analyzed with discipline.

broadly, there are two kinds of testing that originators should undertake: internal and external. Internal testing refers to the client’s experience from the point-of-contact to the close; study any financial losses that may have resulted from holes in your business’ system. External testing refers to marketing with purpose; consider an individual campaign as being part of a larger overall strategy and examine each part of that strategy in order to determine the results and how they can be improved.

This seems simple enough, but it’s not necessarily easy. It takes creativity to design marketing campaigns « MARKE TING continued from page 40

that can be tracked. Tweeting about rates can be a type of campaign in itself, but how many of those tweets advance your conversations with current or potential clients? How many of them result in visits to your website? for that matter, has your website been designed so that you can tell when clients arrive from different marketing channels? How can you know if the time you dedicate to Twitter is well-spent if you’re not measuring, testing and refining your efforts?

This final question applies to every piece of communication and marketing that you do as an originator. If you’re rigorous about your metrics, you may find that you get as much as 80 percent of your business from 20 percent of your marketing. That knowledge will allow you to re-task your money and time into areas that are more profitable and will produce results superior to what you get now.

• • •
Marketing with purpose may sound
obvious, but there are many former
originators out there who didn’t do
the work of analysis or couldn’t live
with the results they got when they
did perform analysis. If your business
is going to survive in this economic
climate, you need to understand what
you’re doing with marketing and ex-
actly how it may give you an edge on
your competition. Only then will your
business truly be able to thrive. •