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In recent years, an increasing number of mortgage professionals have been incorporating direct mail into their mortgage marketing programs.

While referrals and networking still account for a large portion of mortgage leads, savvy marketers have begun to realize the need for diversification. Direct mail is one of the tools they've turned to.

This article will focus on two highly effective ways you can use direct mail to support your mortgage marketing program -- the seminar and the free report.

Technique #1 ' The Seminar

Type "home buying seminar" into a major search engine and analyze the results. After a while, you'll notice a trend as far as who is offering the seminars. Many of them will be mortgage companies, or mortgage professionals in concert with real estate agents.

Why So Effective?

The reason why so many mortgage companies (and individuals) put on home buying seminars is simple. Homeowners and home buyers are hungry for information and will seek it from any source made available to them. They will read magazines, visit websites, and ask friends and family for advice.

So if a free seminar were offered to them, most would jump at the chance. If the presenter does a good job and truly helps the audience, he or she has a good chance of gaining one or more clients.

Direct mail comes into play as a promotional device. With their "at a glance" impact, postcards in particular make excellent seminar announcements.

Most direct mail companies today offer some from of geographic mailing feature. In other words, they make it possible to send your direct mail postcards exactly where you want. This is perfect for promoting seminars, because you can send postcards to people who live a convenient distance from your seminar location. This narrows your mailing list to those people who are most likely to respond (from a geographical standpoint).

Best Practices

* Convey the primary benefit of your seminar through a strong headline: "Free Seminar: Direct">All Your Mortgage Questions Answered!"

* Point to a website where people can learn more about the seminar (and sign up for it).

* Create a sense of urgency: "Seats are limited, so reserve yours today."

* If possible, include a map showing the location.

* Mention a free "take away," like a printout of the presentation or a special report.

Technique #2 ' The Free Report

Direct mail can also support your mortgage marketing efforts through the use of free reports. In recent years, the free report -- a.k.a. the "white paper" -- has become an increasingly popular marketing strategy. Today, many companies use reports and white papers to educate prospects about their products and services (or about topics related to those products or services).

Make Your Report a Standout

For this to work, you have to create a "must read" that your average prospect would really want to get their hands on. Maybe it's information about a new and popular type of loan. Maybe it's "insider" mortgage information they can't get from anywhere else.

Whatever approach you take, just make sure the report is strong enough to stand on its own. Here's a technique to help with this: Imagine that the only way you can market the report is by showing the cover (with title) and a two-sentence summary of the content. Based on that glimpse, does your report stand strong? Or will it rely to heavily on your direct mail piece for support?

In other words, start with a great product before you even think of promoting it. This will directly influence your direct mail response rates. Then all you have to do is feature the report in your direct mail letter or postcard.

Best Practices

* Convey the primary benefit of your report through a strong headline: "Free Report Shows How to Review Your Credit for Costly Errors."

* Point to a website where people can learn more about the report and obtain it.

* Have a lead-capturing system in place. One easy way to do this is to use a newsletter sign-up box on the web page, and then send a link to the document via auto-responder confirmation message. The postcard points to the web page, the web page captures the lead, and the auto-responder delivers the goods!

Direct mail is like any other form of marketing in that you get out of it what you put in. So for the best possible return on your investment, have a clearly defined goal and strategy. The strategies listed above will get you off to a great start, but don't stop there. Try and improve on these strategies. Modify them to suit your needs. And of course, be sure to track everything so you can see what works the best.