From clicks to clients: making online lead generation pay

Knowing and acting on your click-through rates is crucial if your e-newsletters are to succeed.

Knowing and acting on your click-through rates is crucial if your e-newsletters are to succeed.

E-newsletters are everywhere in the mortgage industry; but are brokers doing it right?. Unlike the humble phone, an e-newsletter does not guarantee a client actually hears your well-thought out sales pitch – they need to want to engage with you first. Writing in MBN’s US sister publication, Mortgage Professional America, Loan Tek CEO Adam Stein has given some advice which is relevant to brokers the world over, and we’ve taken the best points.

Click-through rates

This term does not simply refer to recipients just opening your newsletter. Click-through refers to your recipients clicking on the links in the articles (like this one) and reaching other parts of the site. You should care about these click-through(ers); they are likely to be more engaged and actually become paid-up clients rather than passive consumers.

Timing

Again, you probably know the basics – to send a e-newsletter or email when people will be able to read it. Take it to the next level by following up on those people who clicked-through in a relevant way; Stein argues that “A properly timed phone call like ‘I noticed that you watched our video today on first time home buyers – did you have any questions I could answer for you?’ will meet with solid results”.

Crafting

To encourage likely customers to click through you need to craft your e-newsletters depending on what works. That doesn’t mean targeting maximum readership: you want meaningful interactions; otherwise you’re wasting time and money. That, of course, demands meaningful content, rather than a running commentary of your own opinions.