“Show and Tell” Makes Your Mortgage Industry Brand More
Engaging!
Remember “show and tell?” Think back to when you were just a child in grade
school. It’s your first day of class after summer break…and your new teacher
asks you to “show and tell” about your vacation later that week. Maybe you went
to Disneyworld, so you bring to class pictures and objects from Epcot Center and
the 3 favorite countries you visited. Then you explain what the objects
represent and what you liked best about each of your favorite countries. Pretty
cool and engaging, right? Now, think about this…what if all you did was the
“telling” part. Would the impact on your classmates and teacher have been as
great? Of course not. Your story would have been nowhere near as dynamic and
likely would have bored them.
It’s too bad that this very simple but very important childhood lesson on the
art of engaging your audience has been lost in adulthood as we strive to build
our personal and corporate brands.
Let me explain…
Think about your company, whether you’re a mortgage company, title company,
appraisal firm
or what have you…what claims do you make on your website and in
other sales materials? Do you give any evidence to support these claims?
If you take a look at a handful of
randomly selected companies in the mortgage industry, here are some common
claims of distinction they share…
-
nationally accredited mortgage advisors
-
fast, personal service
-
exceptional service
-
among the fastest growing mortgage companies
-
reliable service
-
friendly experts
-
our strength lies in the knowledge and experience of our loan officers
-
loan officers are responsive
-
professional
-
customer service is our priority
-
remarkable customer service
-
industry leading turn-around time
-
dedicated to making your job easier
-
innovative approach
-
unmatched innovation
-
excellent rates
These are all
really nice things to say. In fact, they are so nice that several sound similar
and variations of these statements are used just about everywhere. So what level
of importance does your audience assign to ANY of these? Probably not much as
they continue to investigate, seeking out the proof of these claims that you
aren’t providing them at their fingertips. By themselves, these statements are
fairly unremarkable. It’s like the “tell” without the “show.” If you simply add
in the “show” to prove what you’re saying is true, think of what a different
experience it would be for your online visitors! Now you would be giving them a
reason to actually contact you over someone else, halting their search, pulling
them in to learn more.
One of the central tenets of conveying your corporate brand is showing proof
that what you say is based in reality. In the brand development phase, it’s
certainly legitimate to say you have “unmatched innovation” or that you have
“exceptional service.” But, if you’re going to hang your hat on such statements,
then show some proof that they are actually true. For example, if you tout
“unmatched innovation,” could you link to an article in Mortgage
Technology or an interview appearing in one of the primary mortgage industry
trade publications that backs this up…and is reasonably recent? If you can,
that’s great! Don’t hide it somewhere else on your site…just provide the link
right then and there when you state it. If you tout “exceptional service” as a
benefit to doing business with you, then you might consider providing a hot link
to several video testimonials speaking to this from both referrers and
applicants. Otherwise it’s just another “ho-hum” if there’s nothing to back it
up.
A brand is what we define as “a claim of distinction backed up by the
evidence of performance.”
Here are several ways you can consider
backing up your statements…
-
Articles
-
Interviews
-
Video testimonials
-
Pictures
-
Pictures with voice over
-
Slide show
-
Written testimonials
-
Case studies
-
Descriptive landing page(s)
Can you think of any others? If so, please
share them in the “comments” section!
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