A few weeks ago, my younger sister, Becky Donovan passed away. There was
only 10 months difference in our age so we were as close as you can get without
being twins. Becky lost a valiant battle with breast cancer. She was only
expected to live for about a year but lived for 8 years because she did not let
the doctors "treat" her but took control of her own treatment. She did her own
research and told the doctors how they should administer her many chemo
treatments.
I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Becky because she was a
true guerrilla marketer. Her career background included bookkeeping, office
equipment sales, newspaper and magazine advertising sales and business supply
sales. All these careers came together when Becky and I founded Cornerstone
Mortgage, Inc in South Bend, Indiana in 1992. We started the company with a
$4,000 gift from our mother. We decided that this money would be allocated
strictly for "marketing and advertising." We decided that the $4,000 had to
last us for one year!
When I wanted to spend money on advertising, Becky taught me how to find just
the right newspaper, magazine, radio and TV stations to attract the types of
customers that we wanted. When it came time to print brochures, create free
reports, and in fact, generate all the printing, she was able to find us the
best copier for the job. In fact, she was able to show us how to save almost
50% on everything we ever did-and still make it look professional. (Remember,
a true guerrilla marketer has more TIME than MONEY.)
One of the things that we decided early on was that when it came time to sell
the company, the one asset worth selling would be our database of clients. Our
furniture and computers would be pretty much worthless but if we kept our
database current, it would be worth some money to someone one day. We spent
our money on maintaining our database and when we "sold" the company, we were
able to sell the databases for some pretty decent dollars.
We were in the mortgage business for almost 9 years together. During that
time, we had the best time of our lives and grew closer as sisters. I am
forever grateful to her for the vision and expertise she brought to the
partnership. We made money, had lots of fun and our clients regularly referred
their friends and family to us.
And yes, we made the $4,000 advertising budget last for a full year!
In this issue...The yearly subscription price to this E-zine in
$119.00. If you prefer to "try us out", we now have a new option of a
six-month subscription for $69.00 CLICK
HERE to subscribe.
Our "theme" for this issue is pictures. The article called "The Power of
Pictures" shares with you the effective marketing mileage you can get out
of taking pictures of clients, realtors and sellers at the closing table.
George Hanzimanolis is the President of Bankers First Mortgage. His article
on "For Sale By Owner Marketing Made Easy" shows you a unique way of
calling on FSBO owner clients, taking pictures of their homes and distributing
FSBO flyers to clients who come in to be pre-approved for a mortgage. It's an
easy system that you can implement immediately.
And finally, from Integrity Home Funding, Brian Sack's article called,
"How To Get the Attention of the Media So You Are Perceived As The Mortgage
Expert In Your Town" says that you are not a mortgage expert until you let
everyone KNOW that you are one! Establishing the all important media contacts
is the first step in getting recognized as the mortgage expert in your
community. In this article, Brian will show you how it's done. Brian's best
selling system, "How To Close More Loans, Make More Money and Have A Life" can
be purchased CLICK HERE for only $297.00.
...and one more thing!
Turn On Your Million Dollar Brain III Workshop CLICK HERE plans have been completed. The workshop theme this year is CREATIVITY and begins with a 3-hour workshop on how to jump-start your creative brain to increase your mortgage business.
It's unique because it's a workshop-not a lecture-type series-where you
actually participate in each presentation. There is also a special session
that is worth thousands of dollars because loan officers throughout the country
share their best marketing ideas with fellow attendees. And, if you are a
mortgage company owner or manager, come in a day early for our Special
Management Session called "Recruiting and Retaining Loan Officers."
Sponsors of the event are MGIC, Mortgage Coach, RightLoan, Arch Telecom,
Broker Magazine and Origination News. In addition to the other sessions, each
one of our sponsors will provide sales and marketing workshops also designed to
increase your business.
If you register by December 1, there is a special registration fee of $795.00
for the 3-day workshop. For the management session, the registration fee is
$359.00. For more information, check out mortgagespeakersbureau.com.
After each article, you have the chance to comment on its contents. I
welcome your comments and suggestions for future articles as well.
Your Guerrilla Marketing Editor,
Karen Deis
715-426-3647
Written By: Karen Deis
