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Services for Real Estate Pros |
RAINER 4,939 |
| Ali Mirdamadi | ||
| location_on La Jolla, CA — 220 Marketing Group | ||
| insert_link http://www.220marketing.com | ||
| web Ali Mirdamadi's (mirdamadi) Blog | ||
About Me
Prior to being involved in the world of Mortgage, Real Estate and Insurance Marketing; I worked as a branch manager for Wells Fargo Bank in La Jolla, CA and Minneapolis, MN. The experience there, combined with my background in Commercial and Residential Real Estate as well as my strong background in tech has really put me in a situation where I can offer concentrated guidance to industry professionals across the country.
One thing has become clear to me working here at 220 Marketing. There is an obvious disconnect and misunderstanding in the world of online marketing when it comes to business owners, and the up and coming generation of heavy Internet users. Industries such as the food/beverage, entertainment and sports industries have clearly jumped on the online bandwagon while industries like Mortgage and Insurance have been slightly left behind or slow to make adjustments. I feel that this has happened because;
1. Agents and LO's get most of their business through referrals. There is a negative perception around the term leads and lead generation. And this is a fair assessment seeing that there are numerous companies that provide exclusive, semi-exclusive and live transfer leads. Everyone has had different levels of experience and depending on what your experience has been, you'll have strong emotions on the topic one way or the other. Typically it's been negative.
2. I've spoken to many people who know they need to make adjustments in their business model to somehow cater to today's online user, but they don't know where to start. There are companies meticulously and aggressively approaching our customers and throwing terms such as SEO, SEM, PPC, Social Media Marketing around. All of this can get confusing and expensive even if you have an idea of what's going on.
3. Some agents and brokers are scared to enter the realm of online marketing because it's a territory that they're unfamiliar with. Things change fast, information goes public almost immediately and it's hard to keep up with everything happening in a dynamic environment like the world wide web. The problem with this is that although you'll continue to survive with just referral based marketing, you have a generation of up and coming decision makers that will be buying homes and purchasing insurance policies that make all of their choices through the internet. You're book of business will slowly begin to trickle away.
Why I do What I do
I get excited every time I speak to a Loan Officer or Insurance Agent and hear them say "ah hah" over the phone. There are so many companies pulling agencies and brokerages in different directions and using big phrases to confuse them. I've seen ridiculous amounts of dollars spent on trying to "figure this online thing out".
We don't expect our customers to understand web design, or the endless varieties of marketing available on the net. A mortgage professional should be good at one thing; and that's closing loans. I'm passionate about helping our customers understand that the Internet isn't just about generating leads. There are so many tools that the Internet offers that can be used to save time, increase referral business, and stay in touch with customers that you're looking to do business with or have done business with in the past. Our approach to it all is unique, but has the end consumer in mind which is what makes 220 Marketing so special.
The #1 rule for my sales team is simple. Set expectations that you can exceed or at the very minimum achieve, and if you think we'll do more harm then help, then we may not be a good fit for that particular customer. More often then not, our strategies have helped take Loan Officers and Insurance Agents to the next level. But like anything else, you need to follow the guidance and strategies that we provide, otherwise you're just paying for another cool tool.
I look forward to helping, and answering any marketing related questions anyone has. After working for one of the largest corporations in the world, I've become passioniate in helping small businesses compete with these large companies. The catch is that you need to be strategic, and focus locally to be effective.