Today I had a chance to meet a local mortgage broker. She is just starting up and was seeking some advice on how to spend her marketing budget. So far she had been spending $100+ on a 1/8th Ad in the local paper. She was not happy with the response of it so far after running for 16 weeks.

Personally I don’t think that the newspaper is the ideal place for a mortgage broker to advertise. I know most people don’t flip through the paper to find a mortgage. When we brainstormed we came up with the various target markets:

• Service First Customer – Someone who does not check to see if they qualify for a mortgage and go out looking for a house first with a Realtor.
• Bank Loyal Customer - Someone who goes immediately to their own bank to see if they do qualify for a mortgage.
• Smart Shopper Customer – Someone who goes out and does research on a mortgage and look for a broker.
• Recurring Order Customer – Someone with a mortgage already who is looking to refinance.

Of these markets most mortgage brokers try to go after the Smart Shopper market. The sad thing is that is a pretty small market to build your business from. There is a large percentage of people in the Service First and Bank Loyal market who are not being marketed to.

My suggestion was to start a marketing plan that would focus on the Service First Customers. Once this type of customer finds a house they will be open to a suggestion from their trusted Realtor on who to use for a mortgage. So who do these Realtors suggest?

After asking a few Realtors they appear to recommend someone they know. My suggestion to the mortgage broker was to start a small affiliate program with the top 10 Realtors in her area. Find out what would make it worth their time to pass her the referrals and then work out an agreement with them.

After our talk her eyes were large like saucers and she was ready to begin building her business.

What would you have suggest to her for marketing?