Marketing Insights
5 Tips to Align Sales & Marketing for Better Leads in Mortgage and Real Estate
Did you know that according to a study by Marketo, sales and marketing team alignment extracts 208% more value from marketing? Better alignment means you will attract better prospects and provide them with a better experience, so they convert at a higher rate.
5 Steps to Craft a Strong Tagline for Mortgage and Real Estate Firms
By: Scott Seroka Have you ever read a tagline or slogan and wondered what it meant? For example, how about the tagline “Impossible is nothing” in the ad showcased here by adidas? It’s typically what happens when cute, clever and creative get in the way of what a...
6 Tips for Clear, Trust-Building Messaging in Mortgage and Real Estate
One of the top challenges faced by many companies in the mortgage and real estate industry is how to clearly and concisely communicate their value propositions in a way that will resonate with their audiences and provide some level of differentiation. This is especially true among mortgage lenders and real estate companies as they both compete for top-producers that drive their businesses as well as competing for the end client.
Navigating the 8 Hurdles: Ensuring Your Mortgage Marketing Strategy Hits the Mark
Your company most likely develops an updated marketing strategy every year, but you may not be getting the desired outcome. If your strategy is going to be successful, your whole team has to have full confidence in it and cohesively persevere to carry it out. 8 common obstacles stand in the way of marketing success.
Master Social Engagement in Mortgage & Real Estate: A 10-Step Strategy for Success
The buyer path is much more complex than it used to be. This is due to the sheer volume of information on the Internet and social networks that connect people all over the world that build their circles of influence. Thus, people now travel a much less linear path when making decisions as they engage on social platforms and gather insights from a variety of sources.
Effective Retargeting: Driving Results in the Mortgage and Real Estate Industry
What happens to the potential clients who visit your website but never click the CTA, call, email you or fill out the form? What about those who merely “open” your emails without taking further action? There are many reasons why people don’t take the time to pursue...
6 Ways to Evaluate Success of Your Social Media Efforts in the Mortgage and Real Estate Industries
Social media is one of the most valuable marketing tools available to marketers in the mortgage and real estate industries, as social media platforms provide you with an opportunity to reach a wider audience and engage with your current and prospective clients in real time. However, measuring the effectiveness of your efforts can be a bit more complex, especially when tracing them back to measurable objectives.
What You Should Know About Marketing Automation in 2023 in the Mortgage and Real Estate Industries
In the mortgage and real estate industries, marketing automation serves two primary purposes. First, it helps nurture prospective homebuyers and build new account relationships by guiding them down the path towards doing business. Second, it assists in keeping existing clients satisfied while simultaneously seeking cross-selling opportunities.
2023 Email Marketing Best Practices and Trends for the Mortgage and Real Estate Industry
Email marketing has always been one of the strongest channels that mortgage industry and real estate industry marketers use. In fact, it may be even more vital now than ever since companies have had to shift substantially to digital channels to stay in touch with...
Why Using a Social Media Marketing Agency is so Beneficial
It’s no secret that investing in social media marketing is critical for real estate and mortgage-related businesses seeking success. But, for many leaders, the thought of taking on a DIY approach to this task can be daunting!
Four Ways to Make Content Center Stage and Win More Website Traffic
Are you struggling to reach your target audience with your current content marketing strategy? If that is the case, you are not alone. The sheer amount of content you are competing with is staggering. However, you can succeed if you keep the critical digital marketing techniques shared here in mind. But first, let’s take a look at the overall environment and then explore how you can master digital content development. We will look at some of the various channels in detail, exploring both the why and how of each.
8 Ways to Get the Most From Your Ad Agency
Your ad agency is your most important partner in growing your business in the real estate or mortgage industry. Like your attorney or accountant, they can only provide results if you share all the details with them.
6 Critical Components of a Successful Marketing Plan
According to CoSchedule, marketers with a comprehensive plan are 331% more likely to succeed than those who don’t. Mortgage and real estate industry companies work in an incredibly competitive environment, which makes this statistic even more impactful and relevant.
6 Ways Disengaged Employees Could Hurt Your Company
It was a typical day in the neighborhood at a small community bank.
That is, until a 2016 Jeep Wrangler was dropped off in the bank’s parking lot by a repo company.
Get More Attention Now with Top Quality Content
As a licensed mortgage company you are competing with 20,000 other companies and 183,000 licensed individuals. Learn how to get more attention with top-quality content, and why it will help you outperform your competition.
Your Company’s Brand vs. Your Company’s Reputation
A brand is most popularly defined as the thoughts that come to people’s mind when they hear a company name or see its logo. However, this popular definition is overly simplistic and fails to account for how much influence brand has on the overall success of an...
7 Big Tips for a Successful Brand Launch on Social Media
Launching a new brand or re-launching an old one in the real estate or mortgage industry is a significant event that requires a lot of coordination and planning. And the social media aspect of the launch is a crucial component of the entire integrated marketing and public relations effort.
9 Proven Tips to Drive Engagement with Your Social Media Posts
Social media is part of effective marketing. If your company has a sound social media strategy, you will reap rewards for the time and money you invest.
7 Easy Tips to Boost Your Social Media Video Views
We all know that video is on fire! The key social media platforms you should focus on as a mortgage or real estate industry professional prioritize video in their algorithms because people love to watch and share videos.
7 Tips to Deploy a Successful Marketing Automation Strategy
Despite the many advantages of utilizing marketing automation technology, if it’s not done right, your efforts will fail. Without fully understanding how it works, you will make. Here are 4 common mistakes users make.
Defining company values is one hot trend. Be careful to not confuse values with expectations.
In today’s culture, it is important that your brand has a set of clearly defined values driving your team. Without a shared mindset, it will be extremely difficult for your employees to work cohesively to achieve company goals. Here are some guidelines for developing a meaningful set of values that will keep your team together and moving forward.
5 Tips to Support Your Real Estate Agent Recruiting Efforts
Recruiting high-performing real estate agents is one of the most important things you can do as a real estate brokerage to sustain your business. To do this well, however, you must set the stage and make your company look attractive to top performers. Good real estate agents need to see that you present well as a brokerage and that you’re vibrant and will support their growth and careers.
7 Timely Lead Nurturing Best Practices You Need to Master in Today’s B2B Environment
Are you challenged with converting your leads into new business? Do you feel like you try to nurture them along, but they disappear and land at the front door of your competitor?
5 Tips to Support Your Loan Officer Recruiting Efforts
Recruiting high-performing loan officers is one of the most important things you can do as a mortgage lender to sustain your company. Here are 5 tips you can use to build your team.
Dodge Ad Blockers with these 4 Great Advertising Tactics
Digital advertisers in the mortgage and real estate industries have a right to be concerned about the increasing trend of ad-blocking. According to a recent study by Statista, 33% of women and 49% of men use ad blockers.
6 Ways You Can Boost Your Google Rankings with Little Technical Know-how
Almost all mortgage and real estate industry companies see the value in their website ranking high in search engine results. In fact, the first page of Google has been reported to capture as high as 92% of traffic clicks, further reinforcing the importance of SEO (search engine optimization) of your website.
4 Steps to Update Your Brand to Recruit Top Talent and Build Market Share
The current environment is having a profound effect on mortgage loan originations and real estate sales. For lenders and real estate companies, recruiting top talent and building, or at least maintaining market share are high priorities.
7 Steps to Take Your Brand to a New Level Right Now with Incredible Staying Power
I’m going to share with you the 7 steps you can take to elevate your brand to a higher category so when people are shopping for a lender, your brand has a greater chance of being one of the first to come to mind.
7 Top Content Trends You Need to Know to Get Higher Engagement
We’ve all been leveraging the same types of core content for years because we know they’re effective. However, new trends with each have emerged as digital media and consumer preferences continue to evolve.
8 Ways You Can Start Building More Trust In Your Mortgage Industry Brand Right Now
No matter what business you’re in, the only thing you’re really selling is trust. According to Merriam-Webster, trust is defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.”
These 6 timely marketing automation launch tips will help you see higher returns on your investment quickly
Having a great marketing automation platform is only half the battle for mortgage and real estate industry marketers. The balance is your ability to leverage its full capabilities so that you can realize the intended benefits: efficiently scaling your marketing to provide a better, more personalized experience and achieve higher marketing ROI.
How A Modern PR Plan Creates the Top Level Awareness You Need to Build Your Business
Why will the PR market grow by 10% in 2021? Because it works!
PR plays an incredibly important role in your business because it develops the top-of-mind awareness you need to take on your competition. At its core, a good PR strategy earns people’s attention and creates favorable conditions for your content, marketing tactics, and social media efforts to succeed.
Marketing Lessons Learned from 2020 And The Future Of PR 2021
Adaptation is crucial – Planning is important
Companies must master digital experiences
Make communications as transparent as possible
Building relationships is, and will always be, important
7 Best Practices for Marketing in a Socially Distant Environment for Mortgage Industry Service Providers
Like many other sectors of our economy, the mortgage industry
has experienced an onslaught of cancelled conferences, though
they should start to resume slowly in the months to come. At the
same time, business travel is limited, with most meetings
happening virtually
5 Steps to Developing a Sound Crisis Communications Plan
Do you have a crisis communications plan to work in tandem with your business continuity plan? Here are 5 steps to help you create or enhance your crisis plan.
7 Ways to Make the Best Out of Working Remotely
Is it possible that some of your people are more productive (and maybe even happier) working from their home office?
When America is back to running on all cylinders at the end of this pandemic, some companies may re-evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of having some people work remotely.
Communicating Effectively in Today’s Virtual Business World
The keys to maintaining business momentum and outreach are to maintain our preparedness and vision. Our companies can take advantage of coming growth with a sound strategy. We know how and can help you prosper in the “New Normal”
Five Great Ways to Ease a Stressful Work Culture During COVID-19
Learn 5 great ways to reduce stress from COVID-19 in your office. Help your staff feel… and perform better.
4 Steps to Building a Unique Brand for Your Financial Institution
If you’re the CEO, CMO or board member of a financial institution, one of your greatest challenges is likely differentiating your brand from those of your many competitors. The financial industry is one of the most highly regulated industries in our country leaving little maneuverability when it comes to designing products and services. So, how do you distinguish your brand from the many brick and mortar as well as virtual competitors you have out there?
7 Reasons Leading Brands Lose Their Lead
There are quite a few companies out there that just seem to have everything figured out. Just look to Quicken, Amazon, Coca-Cola and Toyota, or even some smaller companies you’re personally aware of that are so successful that they can’t keep up with customer demand or are maybe even forced to turn business away.
How to Defeat the Challenge of Defining Your Bank’s Values
In the process of defining values, some banks don’t realize that the very values they are promoting would be better defined as basic customer expectations.
How is Your Financial Institution’s Brand Perceived? Do You REALLY Know?
Every financial institution or company has three perceptions. That of its customers, that of its employees, and that of its management. Learn how we can help you align those perceptions.
10 Tactics For Building a High-Performance Culture
We can provid you with a framework and strategy for building what we define as a fanatical culture of high-performance, accountability and continuous improvement.
Seroka Launches Financial Industry Brand Optimizer℠
Unique brand development process designed specifically for community banks and credit unions BROOKFIELD, Wis., January 22, 2020 – Seroka, a brand development, digital and strategic communications agency specializing in the financial industry, has launched a new brand...
Don’t Make This Mistake When Creating Your Company’s Tagline
Don’t let trying to be cute, clever, and creative get in the way of what a tagline is really meant to do – provide a succinct, memorable statement that sums up the essence of a brand. Learn how to avoide common mistakes when creating a new service or company tagline.
Everything Your Brand Must Conquer to Win a New Client
Here’s my question for you: When your ideal prospective customers are looking for a (new) banking relationship, where does your bank’s brand sit in their minds? Learn how you can effectively communicate your vision to your prospects.
5 Roadblocks Banks Face When Branding
FACT: There are too many banks pushing soft, blurry, irrelevant brands - brands that do little if anything to convince customers to consider a relationship with their banks. Perhaps you're one of them? By: Scott Seroka It's frustrating, and the reason they find...
What Motivates People to Buy?
By: Pat Seroka In one of my last blogs I encouraged all of you to consider: What do you sell? In this blog, I would like to explore: Why do people buy? The best place to seek out an answer is to look introspectively at yourself. Why do you make a purchase? When you...
MBA Technology Solutions Conference & Expo
Join us at the MBA Technology Solutions Conference & Expo JW Marriot Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA Learn more
Five Star Conference & Expo
Join us at the Five Star Conference & Expo Learn more
How Do You Define What You Sell?
By: Pat Seroka Very often, when I visit with prospects or present to a group of businesspeople, I will ask the question, “What do you sell?” Since our firm specializes in the mortgage and real estate industries I will primarily get answers related to a product or...
What is the Most Effective Form of Marketing?
By: Pat Seroka One of the most frequently asked questions I get is: What is the most effective form of marketing? I’m most often asked that from a budget standpoint, so a client knows where to put the largest share of their marketing dollars. The fact is, there is no...
The Magical Key to Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement
By: Scott Seroka In the mortgage and real estate industries, many companies are actively placing a large focus on their cultures. They strive to create cultures of continuous improvement because they realize that’s the only way forward if they’re going to win, do...
This Should Be Your Leading Brand Question…
By: Pat Seroka When we initiate talks with new prospects for our services one of the most frequent questions we ask is, “What do you expect to achieve from a business relationship with us?” The responses we typically hear include wanting to grow their business,...
Can you trust your customer survey results?
By: Scott Seroka Customer and employee surveys are one of the best ways to obtain critical feedback and measure performance in key areas. However, the way survey questions are written and presented can have a measurable impact on the quality and accuracy of responses....
How to Build a Sales-Driven Culture at Your Bank
By: Scott Seroka When Bank CEOs think of “culture,” many think about productivity, morale, communication, teamwork and performance metrics. As important as these traits are, none on their own can compete with the metric of attracting and retaining new customers and...
9 Clear Cut Ways You Can Differentiate Your Brand
By: Scott Seroka Many companies in mortgage and real estate industries struggle to differentiate their brands. The most common, yet historically ineffective strategy to differentiate away from the black hole of commoditization is to simply offer enhanced and/or...
7 Ways to Connect Millennials With Your Brand
By: Scott Seroka I know what you’re thinking. “Great! Another blog about Millennials!” Yes, it is. And the reason I wrote this blog is because many marketers are still trying to crack some kind of code to learn how to reach this elusive generation, hold their...
Does distance matter when choosing a marketing firm?
By: Pat Seroka Did you know that there are more private jet landings per capita in Rochester, Minnesota than any other airport in the world? Yes, Rochester, Minnesota has more private jet landings than anywhere else because the Mayo Clinic is located there. People...
How to Build a Sales-Driven Culture
By: Scott Seroka When mortgage and real estate industry CEOs think of “culture,” many think about morale, communication, teamwork and performance metrics. As important as these traits are, none on their own can compete with the metric of attracting and retaining new...
5 Rules for Choosing Your Brand Colors
Children assign personality traits and emotions to stuffed animals. Adults subconsciously do the same thing. For example, you wouldn’t buy your child a stuffed toy that looks like a demon, right? Of course not. That’s because you assigned personality traits and...
Top 3 Opportunities to Enhance Your Brand
By: Pat Seroka This is the most exciting time I’ve witnessed in marketing since starting my agency over 30 years ago. Long gone are the days of “spray and pray” marketing. The opportunities that abound today, particularly in the B2B world, to directly interact with...
Seroka Named Credit Plus’ Partner of the Year 2018
BROOKFIELD, Wis., January 16, 2019 – Seroka Brand Development, a brand development, digital and strategic communications agency, is pleased to announce that it was named Partner of the Year 2018 by Credit Plus, a provider of third-party verifications to mortgage...
5 Common Roadblocks to Really Building a Winning Brand
There are times when companies in the mortgage and real estate industry end up “settling” for a brand that is not compelling. Don't settle for a soft brand by getting sidetracked by the common roadblocks below. We are branding experts in your industry and can help...
What are the best ways to use marketing automation to increase revenue?
Did you know that 96% of marketers have reported using marketing automation platforms for their business?
5 Top B2B Lead Gen Tactics That Will Rock Your Pipeline!
Lead generation for B2B companies in the mortgage, private money, fintech or commercial real estate sectors can be complex. There are so many tools available and they take time to test and optimize to achieve the best result with the highest ROI. In the right...
Top 5 Criteria in Selecting a Marketing Agency
When searching for a marketing agency to work with, there are five key criteria your organization needs to consider. If the agency doesn’t score a “10” in each of these categories, continue looking, or risk making a very costly error.1. Is the agency experienced in...
What Content Marketing Metrics Really Matter?
Are you struggling to get more followers on LinkedIn? Or, do you want more of your content on Facebook to be “liked” by your friends or followers? Or how about more comments on your posts?
How do You Define Your Brand?
A brand is what people think of when they hear the name of your company. It’s made up of your reputation, strengths, weaknesses and the experiences they have with it. It’s the most valuable intangible asset your company owns.Ideally, audience perceptions of your...
FACT: Culture has NOTHING to do with touchy-feely stuff!
Mention the word “culture” to someone, and it may spark a conversation around employer branding, hiring emotionally intelligent managers, teamwork, and strategies behind building a place where people love to come to work every day. You know – all that “touchy-feely...
5 Ways to Get Ready for the Voice Search Revolution
The first big change in search came with mobile. Voice is the next big thing. Did you know that, according to ComScore, over 50% of adults will be using voice-based search by 2020? Coupled with the fact that 50% of B2B queries are made on a smartphone, where most...
This simple gesture will instantly improve your culture
You can’t swipe through inc.com; hbr.org or entrepreneur.com on your iPad without stumbling directly into an article about the significance culture plays in an organization. I think we all “get it.” Culture is as important, and some even believe more important, than...
26 Ways Your Brand Makes a First Impression
Have you ever had an unpleasant first-time encounter with a brand and wondered how the owner of the company would react if s/he knew of your experience? This tends to be more of an issue with larger companies where the owner is several titles insulated from the...
4 Hot Online Brand Building Trends
Originally published in the summer issue of California Mortgage Finance News. Every year we all read about a slew of marketing trends. This year is no different. I’ve seen many articles…some including trends that are a bit dated and others that are quickly coming of...
Using Strategic Sponsorships to Boost Awareness, Brand Credibility
Sponsorship marketing is one of the most popular and fastest growing forms of marketing! According to IEG’s 32nd annual review, sponsorship spending has been increasing year over year for the past 5 years. Great brands are fully aware of the positive benefits afforded...
The Most Important Step In The Brand Development Process
It's 5:56 am when the CEO of a mortgage company opens his email. His attention is immediately drawn to the “Urgent” message from the President of his advertising agency, time-stamped at 5:03 am, to call ASAP.When the CEO calls the President’s cell phone, it is...
Live Video: Why it’s the Latest Craze for Top Brands
Live social video has become all the rage lately as one of the most contemporary ways that mortgage industry brands can connect with their audiences on a very real level. There is literally nothing else like it! When you go live, the people watching you...
What Glassdoor Ratings Tell Customers About Your Brand
At one of my recent brand strategy retreats, I asked everyone in the room to raise their hand if they were aware of glassdoor.com. Less than half lifted their hands.For those of you who are unfamiliar, glassdoor.com is one of the fastest growing job and recruiting...
2018 Hot Marketing Trends – Lykken on Lending Podcast
In this episode of Lykken on Lending aired on January 29th, 2018, I was honored to be the Hot Topic guest speaker. Topics discussed in this episode include: Facebook is deprioritizing content from brands with their new algorithm. What does this change mean to mortgage...
Are Unique Value Propositions Overrated?
For far too long, marketers have been hung up on identifying their “unique” value propositions, believing that if they don’t own one, they wouldn’t be equipped to confront the competition head-on and win new customers. Hold that thought. The urgency and anxiety over...
National Secondary Market Conference & Expo
New York, NY — Seroka is attending the 2018 Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference & Expo in New York, May 20th through May 23rd.
National Technology In Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo
Detroit, MI — Seroka is attending the 2018 National Technology In Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo in Michigan, April 15th through April 18th.
The Mortgage Collaborative 2018 Winter Conference
San Diego, CA — Seroka is attending the 2018 The Mortgage Collaborative 2018 Winter Conference in California, February 11th through February 13th.
3 Big Ways Mobile is Changing Marketing
According to comScore, as of January of 2017, mobile had 71% share of total minutes spent online! If you are still informing your digital marketing strategy based only on clicks, mentions, likes, views and other traditional KPIs created when we lived in a...
4 Super Critical Focus Areas for Marketers Today
The role of marketing has changed dramatically over the last decade. This is primarily due to continually evolving technologies and trends that have been thrust upon modern business. As a result, marketers are being pushed to focus more on data analysis and...
How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Marketing. Quickly.
This post was originally published in California Mortgage Finance News, a California Mortgage Bankers Association publication. “I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to...
Digital Mortgage 2017 by National Mortgage News
Attending the NMN Digital Mortgage Conference in San Francisco September 28th? Seroka, a certified brand development, digital and strategic communications agency, will be there and is eager to meet with mortgage industry professionals to discuss strategic ways to...
Five Deadly Consequences of Brand Complacency
Some of us are deceived to believe that many of the larger, well-known brands have everything figured out. Many of them do. But the others? Well, read on. Below are some higher-profile brands that were, at one time, leaders in their respective industries, and today...
Why Culture Integration is Essential During the Onboarding Process
It’s Dave’s first day. He’s finally here.The Account Manager’s position has been open for more than six months and by all indications, Dave is the answer to everyone’s prayers. There is a sigh of relief now that he’s on board – Dave has a proven track record of...
The perils of not paying attention to the brand as a company scales
All startups have a brand, and it’s always representative of the personal brand of the founder. If the product or service offering is a success, the company begins to grow, sometimes at an uncomfortable pace – a pace perhaps too difficult to keep up with. The...
If you wish to bond with your customers, have a story to tell about your brand.
Everyone loves a good story. And if you happen to be an entrepreneur, you most certainly have an inspiring one to tell.Stories bond people together. Stories build trust, add credibility, they all have a message and teach us lessons. When you go to a party or an event,...
Should you update your brand logo?
Let’s begin by getting the obvious out of the way – for any logo designed in WordPerfect or purchased online at a bargain, it should probably be updated.Contrary to what some believe, the many components of a logo, such as color(s), font, shape and design/image play a...
A Strong Culture Requires Strong Leadership
Team your best salesperson with a crummy manager and what do you get? A resignation letter and loads of business going to your competitor. Team a highly trained and skilled manager with a group of average-to-slightly above-average employees and you’ll soon have...
How to attract BEST-IN-INDUSTRY employees to your brand
Nothing happens until a sale is made.Sales is the lifeblood of our company.We need to deliver best-in-class service to keep our customers.We need to keep our customers happy, or someone else will do it for us.We need to make each of our customers think they are the...
69% of employees are disengaged. How to reverse the trend.
The year was 1990, when I began working part-time as a collection agent at the second largest bank in the U.S. As a new employee, I wanted to prove my worth and impress my manager, so I always arrived to work a bit early and stayed a little later when I was able to....
The Perils of Not Controlling Your Culture
All of us are faced with judgment calls every day – hundreds of them, if not thousands. Most are insignificant, such as where to go to lunch or whether or not to wear a tie to a meeting. However, there are other judgment calls of great significance your employees make...
How you define "brand" will determine your brand’s success or failure
Before we can define our brand, we first need to come to an agreement on what the definition of ‘brand’ is. I could sense frustration in the CEO’s voice as his company has been struggling to redefine its brand for more than three years, and they were stuck in a state...
How To Build a Massive Following on your Social Media Channels
This is one of the top challenges that plagues many in the mortgage industry and is no simple task. No matter how much you post, follow others, share others content and tell the world about your personal or business pages, the favor never seems to be returned with the...
Top 3 Things to Ask Yourself Before Rebranding
VW, Chipotle, Samsung, BlackBerry, Enron…What do these companies have in common? They were, or are, brands in crisis. And, what about companies that manufacture floppy disks, fax machines, VCRs and cassette tapes? Their brands became irrelevant because competitors...