Are you finding lead generation for financial services challenging at the moment? You are not alone.
In this post, you will learn what to do to overcome low-quality leads and improve your conversion rates.
At the present time, there are more enquiries than ever in a mortgage world, but there are lenders who just aren’t willing to lend. The market, industry, UK and world financial economy just aren’t allowing it to happen.
So that’s going to have a knock-on effect for everyone involved in financial services. It’s going to have a knock-on impact on solicitors, estate agents, and mortgage brokers.
And I want to share with you today, a few things that we are going to be doing within my brokerage and things that I’m advising my mentees to do.
You’ll be able to take away action points to adopt in your financial services business in order to be able to generate more quality leads from your marketing efforts.
Learn how to maintain your business and make sure that you get the quality of enquiries coming in that you need, want and desire.
Mortgage Advisers, it’s Time to Change Your Lead Generation Strategy
The issue with having low-quality leads or leads that do not convert is cashflow.
Poor cashflow is the hardest thing to overcome, particularly in your first 12 months, maybe 24 months, even three years of business.
I know a lot of my mentees are getting the enquiries, but really struggling to convert.
So when it comes to generating good quality leads for your business, the main thing is always going to be marketing.
For strategies, you can start to apply TODAY grab my 30 leads in 30 days FREE e-book HERE
Focus on Marketing
When you are struggling, when your conversions aren’t matching up, you end up having to work harder to fill your bucket.
Because if you maintain the same level of marketing that you’ve always done, then you’re going to struggle. If your conversion was 30% and all of a sudden it drops to 10%, that means that you’ve got to market harder in order to bring more people into the business. You will need more leads to maintain your previous number of conversions.
Pivot your marketing message
Secondary to that, it’s also making sure that actually is your marketing message working. For example, if you’ve been marketing to first-time buyers with five to 10% deposit, looking to get 90% to 95%, mortgages, now it’s almost impossible to get those.
So the key thing is to switch and pivot your marketing based on what’s going on at the moment.
Now it doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to continue with that particular demographic or that particular niche forever and a day, but you will have to pivot.
Look at other angles in your niche
You can still maintain your first-time buyer, but you could start talking more about shared ownership and help to buy as an example because then that brings in the opportunity to overcome the hurdles around the whole smaller deposit side of things.
It keeps the economy moving. It keeps people buying houses.
If you still want to work with first-time buyers then do something different that helps them
Pivot your marketing in order to tweak the messages that you’re giving to your current audience, or you change it completely and instead of first-time buyer go to home mover and re mortgage.
Areas you could pivot into:
- Shared ownership
- Help to buy
- Home mover
- Remortgage
- Protection
So targeted marketing equals more leads, which equals more sales, which should equal more profit.
Apply New Strategies for Lead Generation
So not just using Facebook and Facebook groups, but getting yourself out on Instagram, getting yourself out on LinkedIn. Repurpose the content you are putting out to reach potential customers through many different channels.
The key to putting out content on multiple streams of marketing is having a structure and chunking your time efficiently and effectively.
Because consistency is the most important thing in building an audience, you’ll want to make sure that you’re able to do these things on a daily basis.
To learn more about how to use social media to bring in an endless stream of eager clients check out How to Use Social Media to Explode Your Sales.
That brings me on to the next point:
Get Help – Outsource Your Admin to an Apprentice or VA
I was talking to one of my mentees yesterday during our group coaching and group mastermind that we do every fortnight. I’ve been trying to get him to get an admin for almost 12 months now, if not longer. And we’re really getting to that point. The advert is out there, he’s done a couple of interviews et cetera.
But I’ve had this conversation with people and I’ll hear, “Yeah, I’m really fearful of getting an administrator”.
“Okay. Talk to me about your business.”
And I’ll ask: “Well, how you getting on with contacting all your existing clients about remortgaging?” “Well, I’m not necessarily doing that.”
There’s a job that an administrator can do.
How much time are you wasting uploading documentation to lenders, your network or, you know, sending out stuff, maintaining clients, answering the phones, etc?
You get the point.
The main thing is to look at it as an investment. You put in an investment of say £1500 pounds into an administrator. And you’re easily going to get that £1500 if not three to four grand back.
It’s about understanding that side of it, investment versus return.
If you do nothing with that time that you’ve saved, then yes, you’re wasting your money. But freeing yourself up from doing the lower value administration tasks gives you the opportunity and the capability to be able to work on the high-value tasks in your business.
Just one or two administrators can transform your mortgage business
From 2016 till 2018, it was just me, Lauren my PA and Jack, my social media guy.
Before then I didn’t do much with social media.
When Jack came on, that completely changed the game. That’s where things started to be really elevated because it became about re-purposing content. Then one video I recorded was becoming a whole week’s worth of content.
Because I wasn’t having to do that, it meant that my time was freed up.
And the increased content we were putting out was bringing more leads into the business.
This in turn gave Lauren, my PA more to do.
As soon as Lauren went and left at the end of 2018, I took on Toby as an apprentice to continue with that support.
How to find the time to train your administrator
I hear many of my mentees saying that they’ve taken on administrator and they’re really struggling with time for training.
And I can honestly say, and I think Toby would attest to this from the day he started, that he did not cost me time. He saved me time.
The key is to start with one task because that one task can save you time. Then once they get it right, build up with another.
- Start with one simple task
- Add another when the first has been mastered
- Allow time for your trainee observe you
- Keep doing your job and allow your trainee to learn on the job
I started with the simplest things. Then added another task which saved me time.
It might take a day’s worth of training to get it right, but if your admin just does that one particular task consistently every single day, like answering the phone, for example, they can learn. From there you just build up slow and steady.
When he’s not doing that task, he’s observing me and learning and asking questions and writing down.
And I think this is where so many financial services professionals in particular, or maybe business owners when they’re first starting out, cause themselves anxiety and stress and worry.
They stop doing what they’re doing to train when actually, they should continue to do what they’re doing and train on the job.
Mentors and coaches
When you’re in your business, sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees. You get so stuck in it. And this is why I’m such a big fan of mentors and coaches. I have mentors and coaches that I can ask questions of, who can push me forward.
That’s also why I am so passionate about sharing my knowledge with others.
As a self-employed mortgage adviser or small business owner there are so many aspects you need to juggle. It can be a lonely journey with many pitfalls along the path.
If you’re struggling at the moment and if your leads aren’t converting, then you’ve got to make some changes.
You can continue to struggle alone, or you can take the fast track to business success with the support of Fast Business Growth.
You will learn the lead generation strategies I used to build my business to over £1 million with minimal ad spend. Don’t leave your success to chance, learn from the winner of Mortgage Strategy’s 2019 Best Small Broker of the year.
Cashflow
If you’re at the bottom of the barrel and you’re struggling for cashflow and you really need to get some money in the business, then you’ve got to go all out in order to be able to get it.
So to recap, what can you do?
- Protection is great for cashflow. Contact all your existing friends and ask to review their policies.
- Go back to every existing client that you’ve already got and look to review their protection. There’s nothing wrong with going back to existing clients and having more conversations. 80% of your income comes from 20% of your existing clients so work smarter, not harder.
- Focus on the clients that you have got as well as fishing for new ones.
- Do a £50 cashback scheme as a means to review people’s policies. Not only do you save them money, but they also get £50.
- You’ve got to start thinking outside the box. Double down on your marketing efforts, especially in putting content out on social media.
- Now is the time to put in the effort, as what you do now is what’s going to see you through any trials and tribulations next year.
- The businesses who aren’t marketing now are the ones who are going to really struggle next year. The marketing you do today will generate you leads in one week, one month, three months, six months.
- Join the Fast Business Growth and take your business to the next level.
This is the time where we separate the wheat from the chaff.
This is the time where we see the elite grow and the rest shrivel up and die, give up or leave the industry.
And now is the time to really make sure you are super focused. You are productive, you’re energised, you’re putting in the effort and everything that you need to in order to be able to get the results that you need and want from your marketing.
I hope this has given you some strategies to apply in your business. I’m here to support you, so any questions you have, just reach out and connect.
Have a fantastic day!
