Technology is the broker’s friend

New technology can be off-putting if you’ve never given it a thought as an alternative avenue for marketing and customer service. But, done properly, it can open up a whole new market. I’m stumped why more brokers haven’t gotten on board already when it’s there for the taking.

Online technology can make your services more convenient for your customers and help your business to work smarter. It’s also a cost-effective way to reach your customers and build a community around your business.

In Australia in February there were 13.8 million Facebook users, 13.5 million unique visits to YouTube, 3.3 million on LinkedIn and 2.8 million on Twitter. Deloitte says almost 90 per cent of Australians have a smartphone and eMarketer says Australia has the highest penetration of tablet ownership in the Asia-Pacific. That’s a whole lot of potential customers.

None of this means brokers will be left behind. What it does mean is that brokers need to step up if they are going to build on what is already a strong market position. All this technology in the palm of their hands means borrowers are better equipped to do their own home loan research than ever before. What you want them to find when they go looking for a home loan is a wealth of information from you, and about you.

Social media is both a handy tool and a dangerous weapon. It’s not hard to manage but, done badly, it can cause a lot of trouble. If you’ve never used it for business before, you are right to tread carefully.

Social media (I’m mostly talking about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+) should be treated with the same respect as any other customer communication. Think of it like a piece of direct mail. You wouldn’t fire off a badly written, ill-conceived letter to a customer, so why be cavalier about social media?

Finding the time to feed the beast can be a problem – but if social media is likely to open some new doors, maybe you could channel some of your time away from more conventional types of marketing or customer communication.

Usually, not knowing how to get started is the biggest hurdle, but it’s not really that hard. The key is to create quality content to give your customers a reason to come to your website and a way to find you through their Google searches. Written articles are good because they carry key terms to help search engines find you, and video is useful, too, because that’s what customers are most likely to share with their friends.

There is plenty of information available on social media management if you know where to look. Agencies offer social media management for a price, but you can do it yourself with some guidance to get started. Firstmac offers its Broker+ series and I’m sure other lenders also offer programs to support brokers who are ready to take some steps to build the digital side of their business.

What platforms will be the best fit for you, what content you should create and post to reach your customers, how to optimise your content for internet search, which tools will make the job easier and how to use analytics are the main things you’ll need to master. It sounds harder than it is.

You’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a go.