How Any Mortgage Broker Can Generate Extra Leads via Scientific Advertising By Scott Bywater, Leading Copywriter and Advertising Expert
Most mortgage brokers waste thousands of dollars on advertising because they don’t understand the definition of advertising.
Let me tell you a story about something that happened in 1904…
Albert Lasker was the head of the Lord & Thomas Advertising Agency, the third largest agency of its time.
One fine day, a relatively unknown copywriter by the name of John E. Kennedy sent a note to Mr. Thomas that read something like this.
I am in the saloon downstairs. I can tell you what advertising is. I know you don’t know. It will mean much to me to have you know what it is and it will mean much to you. If you wish to know what advertising is, send the word “yes” down by the bell boy.
Signed – John E. Kennedy
To cut a long story short, Lasker quickly invited Kennedy to his office where he heard the three words that have revolutionised the world of advertising ever since. These 3 words were.
Salesmanship in Print
And 100 years later, this concept is still so simple and so spot-on that nobody has been able to do any better than it since.
“Salesmanship In Print” is the secret that so many business people, including mortgage brokers, don’t abide by. Your advertising, whether via Facebook, Google, newspaper, television, radio, flyer drop, direct mail, Instagram or any other medium should pass this rule:
How many sales did it generate
and how much did it cost?
Think of spending your advertising dollars as you would hire a salesperson.
- Would you employ a salesperson and keep paying them month after month – without knowing what results they were generating for your business?
- Would you accept a flimsy excuse like, “At least I’m getting our name out there… and branding our company,”as reason enough to continue paying an unsuccessful salesperson?
- would you expect RESULTS?
I am guessing it’s the latter.
But the problem is, if you don’t measure it, you don’t know how effective it is.
I think this quote from a former retail giant sums it up the best.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
John E. Wannamaker
If somebody opened their window and threw a bag full of money out of it, you’d think they were absolutely crazy.
Yet, I’ve seen it happen with so many business people. every single day. They waste tens of thousands – sometimes hundreds of thousands – of dollars on spending which they call advertising.
For instance, I have a pest control client who invests six figures a year in advertising. After measuring where their inquiries were generated from and looking at the statistics they.
SAVED A WHOPPING $42,000 in unnecessary expenses!
“Scott measured the results we were getting from our advertising and, as a result, this confirmed my decision to eliminate over $42,000.00 in unnecessary expenses – because it wasn’t paying its way…”
Ray Milton, M & M Pest Management
This is the typical scenario I see in hundreds of businesses that I have spoken to as a copywriter.
But would you see this happen in any other area of your business except advertising?
Would you employ a salesperson, and pay them $50,000 a year for four years, without knowing what results they were generating?
Yet thousands of business owners do this with their advertising, because they simply don’t see the importance of measuring – or treat their advertising as a SCIENCE. Just take a look at a couple of things advertising legend, David Ogilvy, has to say about this in his foreword to John Caples’ fifth edition of Tested Advertising Methods:
- I have seen one advertisement sell 19^ times as much goods as another
- The key to success (maximum sales per dollar) lies in perpetual testing of all of the variables
Ok, now we’ve become clear on the importance of measurement let’s take a look at…