More and more I am seeing mortgage brokers and regional lenders generating Internet leads on their own. It is not an easy endeavor and it certainly has little synergy with working a 1003. However, if you happen to have the right technical skills, a strong interest in learning, or maybe a talented Web-savvy friend or family member willing to discover and manage your Internet mortgage lead generation, it could be an attractive additional revenue stream.
Most of the examples I see have evolved out of small efforts that have grown. The challenge and opportunity comes when several of these generated leads are borrowers that state licensing precludes the lender from working. Naturally the mortgage broker does want to ignore the client, but probably doesn’t have anyone to refer it to.
This is where the opportunity lies. Have you considered becoming an affiliate?
What is an Affiliate?
An affiliate? What is an affiliate? Wikipedia describes affiliate marketing this way:
Affiliate marketing is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.
Redirecting those leads into a network that can place them with a qualified and licensed broker is one of the best things you can do to continue enhancing the value of your personal lead generation efforts. Meeting the expectations of Web visitors will always bring more.
Am I qualified to become an affiliate?
This is the right first question. Affiliate networks and lead marketplaces are built on the quality of the leads they broker. So, a good affiliate program. One that pays well is going to run you through thegauntlet before they let you toss junk at their customers. So, Let’s discuss some expectations:
- Your current lead production is probably not sufficient to interest most affiliate managers
- Chances are much of what you don’t want, others don’t either
- A good affiliate manager will ask lots of questions (it’s a job interview)
- Your performance as an affiliate will be constantly monitored for quality
Bottom line is you are probably going to have to scale your lead generation efforts, maintain quality as you increase lead generation, and undergo regular performance evaluation. It is a new business. Expect to treat it as such.
Scaling your current lead generation program is probably necessary for 90% of you, but the topic is significant. I will tackle that in a future post and skip straight to the process of becoming an affiliate.
How do I become an Affiliate?
Finding a good mortgage affiliate program is increasingly challenging. Many large Internet mortgage originators that used to have big mortgage affiliate programs have cut their affiliate programs. However, you can still find quality, high paying programs with lead providers like ZipSearch, QuinStreet, LowerMyBills, and LendingTree.
Another attractive place to sell your leads are the lead marketplaces or lead exchanges. LeadPoint was the trailblazer in this space, closely followed on the timeline by RootMarkets. Reply!, with a strong auto leads heritage, recently strategically shifted their business model to a lead exchange offering another strong entrant.
Meanwhile, there are still a few lender programs still sprinkled about, the most notable being Quicken Loans.
I would encourage you to research each and determine what fits your type of lead generation and average lead the best. If you are generating a lot of great traffic, but are not (or don’t want to) manage your own forms and lead conversion then a lead provider or lender may be the best fit. However, if you are driving high quality customer inquiries and you want to manage that customer experience you may want to consider a lead exchange.
The Affiliate Interview Process
I call it an interview because a good affiliate program is essentially hiring you as one of their marketing managers. Likewise, you are interviewing them to see if you want to work for them and if it is the right place for your customers.
The process generally starts with your email and website URL. Remember this is an interview so make it professional. You probably won’t want to submit the website you are going to be using in the affiliate program so take some time to build out a decent personal affiliate website. The better this website and the more questions it answers will typically speed your approval as an affiliate.
From your initial inquiry you maybe directed into a Commission Junction, who manages many of these affiliate programs on behalf of other, or you will be contacted by an affiliate manager. This is when the interview and the trust begins. Here are some of the topics they will focus on:
- Your volume of traffic or leads
- Types or characteristics of the leads you are generate
- How you generate traffic?
- How you generate the lead or convert the traffic?
- The website(s) you use to generate leads
- Some example keywords you use
- Your experience in lead generation and affiliate marketing
These seem intrusive, but remember they are outsourcing some, or all of their marketing to you. Therefore, your performance becomes their performance to their clients.
Assuming all this goes well and they like you and you like them you will be off to integrate your two businesses into a nearly seamless customer experience.
Thanks to Lee Gientke, Affiliate Manager at LeadPoint, Mike Ferree; Marketing Manager at ZipSearch; Paul Knag, Marketing Manager at MortgageLoan.com; and Jessie Beaudoin at Retrove.com for providing me so much valuable insight into affiliate marketing.
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