You can’t:

• Cold call strangers and 'pitch' them your services like a traditional salesperson.
• Blast ads promising outcomes you can’t guarantee.
• Incentivise referrals with cash or gifts.

You’re working in a high stakes, highly regulated industry where the decision to work with you isn’t made in the moment – it’s made over months, even years. People need to believe you understand their world, not just your product.

That’s why the old school 'hunt and close' mentality falls flat here. In finance, your marketing needs to do three things better than anything else:

1. Educate – Show you know the terrain (and the traps) better than anyone.
2. Build familiarity – So when a money moment arrives, they already know and like you.
3. Earn trust at scale – Because your best client tomorrow probably isn’t ready to commit today.

And here’s the kicker: You can’t fake this with a couple of social posts or a random newsletter. You need a system that builds trust 365 days a year – without you chained to your laptop.

That’s where most brokers and advisers either:

• Burn out trying to do it all manually, or
• Post random 'rate updates' and wonder why the phone's not ringing.

The solution?
Stop thinking like a hunter. Start thinking like a farmer.
Plant seeds of trust. Nurture your audience. Keep showing up with valuable insights. And automate as much of that as possible so it runs while you’re doing actual client work.

Because in this industry, it’s not about the next transaction.
It’s about being the person someone thinks of when their financial moment arrives.

It'll take about 2 minutes to set up, see:)

Ok, now that you've got your LinkedIn company page, you'll need some followers. This article outlines the most effective methods for attracting people to your company page.

And just in case you weren't convinced as to why it's worth bothering, consider:

• Your company page follower count is public. The more popular you look, the more popular you'll be.
• Your followers are more likely to see the content you publish. The more you're seen, the more you'll sell.

Before we get to the most effective ways of building your following on LinkedIn – having built audiences of thousands for our businesses and for our clients – let's look at a couple of hygiene factors your need to sort out first:

• Optimise your profile. This means making sure all your contact details are up to date, you've got a compelling tagline, a meaningful About section and a good looking banner image.
• Regularly publish content. This is about giving your prospective followers a 'WIIFM'. No one wants to follow a dormant company page that offers no value.
• Make sure your team have listed your company as their workplace. This'll allow anyone who checks out your company page to easily find out more about the team that will be serving them.
• Engage with other people's content. You've probably heard this a million times before, but it's called social media for a reason – interact, contribute, support and generally show up and have a good time:)

Like most things on social media, the principles are dead simple and quite intuitive, but they do require consistency, a whole heap of grunt work and a bit of creativity – we can help, otherwise you may be able to delegate these tasks to someone in your team. If you do, make sure you clearly define what needs to be done, how often, and for how long. Otherwise, you may find your people getting lost down the rabbit hole.

Invite your connections to follow your page

1. Go to your company page admin screen
2. Select 'Invite connections' from right hand side (see below)
3. Invite all non-competitive connections to follow your page

LinkedIn will either give you 100 or 250 credits each month. On the 1st of each month these credits reset, so you'll get a fresh 100 or 250 invitations to send out. Don't be shy hitting 'invite' as the credits don't roll over into the next month, so once they're gone, they're gone!

If you find that people aren't accepting the invite to follow your company page then consider whether you're inviting the right people.

We find that for a lot of brokers, advisers and accountants, their personal networks are heavily saturated with industry associates. These aren't the people you need to have following your company page. Instead, focus on referral partners, existing clients and ideal future clients.

Add a link to your company page to your email signature

This one's pretty self explanatory. Just underneath the usual social profile icons on your email signature, you can add a text link that says 'Follow us on LinkedIn'. This method doesn't have the highest strike rate, but you may attract some of your loyal clients to your company page.

Send any questions about the ins and outs of building an audience for your LinkedIn company page to hello[at]socialbroker.com.au

And you're in good company, with the vast majority of brokers relying on their aggregator to produce a cookie-cutter website that does little to attract or win new business.

Here are three reasons why it's crucial to invest in a high-quality website that converts.

To meet customer expectations

When customers do their due diligence on you - as they invariably will - they expect to see a high-quality website.

Don't disappoint them.

A good website will communicate your credibility in an instant, showcasing your expertise and social proof.

Looks matter, and a slick website shows the world you know what you're doing. In fact it takes just 50 milliseconds to form an opinion of a website, and by extension: a business.

To be found by people when they search Google

Make it easy for your future customers to find you when they Google 'mortgage broker in [suburb]'.

A website (provided it's been setup with local SEO in mind) should improve your visibility to new audiences. 

For tips on how to improve your search rankings, check out our three quick and easy methods you can do yourself.

To keep ownership of all content and audience lists

We are big fans of social media for its potential to help brokers (and us!) attract, win and retain more business.

HOWEVER...the aim should be to add your followers to your CRM so you can keep in touch outside the social media platform.

Your website is where you can convert followers to prospects with the help of lead magnets and mailing list signup forms.

Did you know: We produce high-converting, SEO-friendly, responsive websites that are tailored to finance and legal customers - and that breathe life into your brand and help you win more business. Find out more here.

While most SEO enhancements require significant investment and expertise to get right, there are ways to improve your local SEO that don't require any technical know-how. Here, we take you through three ways to improve your online visibility to people in your local area.

We're going to assume you have a Google My Business account (and if you don't, we recommend setting one up immediately. Doing so is free of charge, but it will take a few weeks for Google to verify your address, so it pays to start now).

The key is making sure your Google My Business profile features location-specific content and that you're actively maintaining your profile.

Publish posts to Google My Business – with location-specific content

You can publish short posts (fewer than 1,500 characters), videos, gifs, and photos. Besides providing your audience with relevant information, publishing content to your Google My Business profile signals that you're actively delivering value to your audience. Google feeds this information into the algorithm, to the benefit of your search engine results.

Where you can, try to mention your geographic location, so that when people in your area search for terms related to your business, your business listing is shown to them.

Respond to reviews – with location-specific comments

Responding to reviews is simply good practice to show your customers you appreciate them taking the time to help with your marketing efforts. As a bonus, responding to your Google My Business reviews can enhance your local SEO. We recommend something like this:

Thank you for providing your feedback on our mortgage broker services in [suburb, state]. We're delighted you had such a positive experience with us and look forward to working with you again.

Best regards, [your name] and the [full business name] team.

Publish high-quality content – that's location-specific

We see a lot of websites for mortgage and finance brokers that only publish generic syndicated content, thereby missing opportunities to maximise local SEO. To let Google know that your services are targeted to people in your area, your content must mention your location. This is why our weekly article subscription service allows for customisation to your local area.

(Or we can do it for you)

Why bother with Instagram?

Instagram is still the fastest growing mainstream social media platform, with the number of monthly users in Australia increasing by 1.3 million in the last 12-months alone!

It's also the best place to build a local, targeted audience. This means when you post content and engage with accounts on Instagram, you'll be able to get noticed by the right people - referral partners and clients alike. At the very least it lets you be seen by your current client base several times a month (in an unobtrusive way), at best: it lets you widen your reach to connect with your prospects.

Before you start building your audience

Make sure your Instagram feed looks the part. You want to give people a valid reason for following your account, so they need to see relevant, good-looking content when they click on your profile.

This is a service we provide a growing number of finance and legal professionals, however it's only part of the puzzle. The old adage of 'if you build it, they will come' doesn't apply to social media as much as 'if you want something, go out and get it.'

The reciprocal follow

To build an engaged community of current and future clients and referral partners, you need to mimic how you'd act in real life. This means no bots, no sneaky tricks, no shortcuts. The most effective way to build a targeted audience on Instagram is to engage with other accounts, and give them the opportunity to engage back.

Provided you’ve got the right kind of content on your profile (professional, relevant, value adding), you’ll have about a 1 in 3 chance of the people you follow, following you back (note: this can take a few weeks). To find the people you want as followers, we suggest looking at who's engaging with these types of accounts:

• Local businesses
  • Cafes
  • Gyms
  • Car dealerships
  • Garden centres
  • Florists
  • Homewares stores
• Current and prospective referral partners
  • Accountants
  • Lawyers
  • Conveyancers
  • Finance brokers
  • Buyer's advocates
  • Real estate agents
  • Financial advisers
• Community groups
  • Parent's groups
  • Football teams
  • Social bowls clubs
  • Local NFPs

Don't forget about hashtags

While hashtags aren't quite as powerful as they were a few years ago - in terms of helping you expand your reach - they can be a great way to find followers in the areas your service. When people add hashtags to their posts it's because they want to be found - this means they're are ready to mingle with accounts just like yours! If you live in Perth, for instance, start with #perthisok #perthlife #perthstagram #perthlifestyle

What NOT to do

Don't follow private accounts

Don’t bother following accounts that are set to private. You’ll know they’re private if you follow them and it says ‘waiting for approval’. Simply select ‘unfollow’. These people are less likely to engage with a business, and may find the attention intrusive.

Don't do the old follow/unfollow trick

A lot of Instagram gurus will tell you to unfollow the accounts you're following to create a 'better' Followers:Following ratio. We think this is a bit petty and childish, really. You only want to be following relevant accounts anyway, so there's no harm in following more people than are following you. Although, best not to go higher than 4:1 ratio - not just for vanity's sake but as a measure of whether you're following relevant accounts.

Don't buy followers

Trust us, people can tell when a small business has purchased dodgy followers, and it doesn't reflect well. It also messes with your audience insights, and means your content has little chance of being seen by the right people. You know, people who'll pick up the phone to enquire about your services.

It doesn't stop there!

Bring the social to social media

Make sure you’re engaging with their content (liking and commenting). Besides being a nice nod to the business in question, it improves your visibility on the platform and keeps the Instagram algorithm happy.

And the big question...

How much time will this all take?

Time is money, and every task has an opportunity cost - so we've all got to prioritise high pay-off activities, and outsource the ones that are too time-consuming. We recommend 30 mins every day to spend growing your audience on Instagram - this doesn't include content ideation, creation and publishing. Perhaps this is a job you can pass on to your admin team? Otherwise, check out our industry-leading content subscriptions, or get in touch to find out more.

2021 Startup of the Year

Australian Digital Technology Awards

Momentum Media

The Australian Digital Technology Awards recognise

We were thrilled to be ranked 6th in amongst the industry's cream of the crop, and awarded us 2021 Startup of the Year (Mortgages).

2021 Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist

Women in Finance Awards

Momentum Media

Our Co-founder Sarah Barnett has been recognised as a finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year category of the Women in Finance Awards.

The finance industry - and entrepreneurism more broadly - has typically been male-dominated, but is gradually changing to be more reflective of the communities we serve.

Diverse experiences create diverse thinking, which can only be a good thing - and part of why here at Social Broker we've gone with a 50:50 gender split in our exec team.

A hearty congratulations to all the finalists, especially our clients across broking, advice, accounting and law.

2021 Best Industry Service Excellence Awardee

Australian Mortgage Awards

Key Media

Industry services play an extremely important role within the mortgage industry. This award recognises the service provider that adds the most value to its customers' businesses. Eligible service providers include but are not limited to software and technology, legal, compliance, training and education. Lenders and aggregators are not eligible to enter this category. Finalists will be invited to provide supporting documentation for submission to the AMA judging panel.

When judging this category, the following criteria will be considered:

• service provider’s value proposition
• industry’s need for the service
• how the service has added value
• overall commitment of the organisation to its customers

The award is a lovely pat on the back for us, especially given we only launched in 2020.

The Australian Digital Technology Awards were judged by a panel of respected industry professionals and business leaders, who considered the results of a brand performance survey (conducted between December 2020 and February 2021 to measure the usage, awareness, consideration, customer impact score and net promoter score for each company) and written submissions, which are combined to provide a “performance score”. 

Momentum Media

Social Broker was ranked 6th in the Top 10 technology providers:

1. Loan Market Group
2. BrokerEngine
3. Salestrekker
4. Mortgage Choice
5. FileInvite
6. Social Broker
7. ActivePipe
8. MSA National
9. Brokerpad
10. HashChing

The submission to the judges outlined the key reasons Social Broker's social media content subscriptions are unrivalled:

• Completely 'done-for-you'
• Customised to your brand
• Fully compliant and researched
• 1/5 of what a traditional agency charges

We're looking forward to continuing to innovate our products and keep on delivering effective content marketing solutions to Australia's finance professionals.

We'd like to thank our valued clients, industry partners and our team. You're all instrumental to our growth, and ability to do what we do best: help educate more consumers on why it's worth engaging with a finance professional.

Here are 15 content ideas for what to post on social media. The idea is to keep your feed varied and relevant to your audience. Make it less about you, and less about them.

1. Industry news

There are now 30 lenders offering cash backs...

2. Answer FAQs

What's the difference between an offset and redraw facility?

3. Explain your services

Ever wondered how much it costs to use a broker?

4. Share a review

Our client Mia was finding it hard to get help from her bank...

5. Introduce your team

Meet Michael, our fabulous parabroker. What's a parabroker, you ask?

6. Thank your customers

We've just celebrated 100 loans settled this quarter. This represents 100 clients who've trusted us to make their dreams a reality. Thank you...

7. Promote a referrer

Shout out to @trustedpartner - every time we send one of our clients their way we receive exceptional feedback on their services...

8. Witty quote

"There's more to life than losing weight and paying bills" - time to get off the treadmill, both literally and figuratively, and set yourself up to actually enjoy life.

9. Define jargon

LVR, SVR, LMI, WTH?

10. Budgeting tips

Do you have a favourite budgeting app?

Here are our picks for where to find good (non-cringeworthy) stock photography.

Rather outsource your content creation to us?

When you need stock photography

You won't always have a collection of professional photos of you and your business. Stock photos are perfect for blog posts, social media content, eBooks and newsletters.

Where to find good (free) stock photography

Unsplash

Unsplash was one of the first sites to disrupt traditional stock photo offerings (like Shutterstock and iStock). Its images are amongst the most authentic, creative, and contemporary.

Pexels

Pexels is another good all rounder that helps you avoid resorting to daggy stock photography. It also has an excellent collection of stock video, and an assortment of curated collections to browse.

Pixabay

You'll definitely find some treasures in Pixabay's photo library if you search for long enough. Where Pixabay really shines though, is for illustrations and vector files. Check it out for resources to use for DIY marketing collateral.

Negative Space

Negative Space is best for corporate and architecture shots. It also has a vast collection of typography images (think street signs, and retro and neon signage) and architecture.

Honourable mention to our favourite paid subscriptions

At Social Broker, we have tried and tested many stock photography sites (there are a good thirty or so that we've not even mentioned here). Sometimes the free offerings – as much as we all appreciate them – just don't have what we need, or perhaps we want to avoid using the usual suspects. Our favourite paid subscriptions are with these sites (in order from most loved to less so):

Twenty20

Twenty20 is our pick out of the dozens of stock photography libraries we've tried. Browse their artfully curated collections for inspiration or to create your own cohesive library of images. Subscribe through Envato for around $300/year.

Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock is handy if you're looking for something very specific, due to their robust search and filtering functions. You'll find many 'visual pun' / metaphoric images, which is a style we feel has had its day.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock has the most rigorous search capability, including being able to specify whether an image includes people and even to filter by ethnicity (helpful for ensuring representation). Plus, it's the biggest stock photo library, so it would be remiss of us to leave it off our list.

How to choose the right photo

Avoid choosing images that look overly staged, cheesy, or scream 'I'm a stock photo!' It's one of those 'you'll know it when you see it' scenarios.

If you're using images that include people, consider whether they look like real people in 2020. Bad stock photography can look dated (usually because it was shot many years ago). Good stock photography, on the other hand, will often feature 'real' unposed people in believable settings and natural lighting.

You also need to ensure the photos you choose reflect your target audience – which we're guessing aren't all as white, straight, conventionally attractive and with an early 2000s sense of style as some of the bad stock photography out there is!

To maintain a cohesive visual identity – across everywhere you publish content – you might want to consider sourcing photos in bulk. This way, you can see how they'll all work side-by-side. So rather than searching for, and choosing just one photo, download 50 at a time to create your own library of images.

Need a hand?

We offer an image curation service. What this means is that we'll spend hours scouring premium photo libraries to find the right images that showcase your brand's values and connect with your audience. Find out more here.

We've mapped out five ways to build trust on social media and build your personal brand - which is really just another way of saying 'help people get to know YOU'.

1. Be real

Communicate in an authentic, human way. Your customers are loyal to you (not head office). Show them who you are and provide a sense of what it'd be like working with you. Develop a distinct and engaging voice and stick to it.

2. Be social

Have you ever been to a BBQ and complimented the host on their salad-making prowess only to be met with radio silence? Of course not. Don't forget Manners 101. This means responding to comments and interacting with other accounts.

3. Be generous

Sharing insights without asking for anything builds trust, exemplifies your service-oriented approach and of course shows off your technical expertise. People will very quickly switch off if they see you're continually asking for something.

4. Be consistent

Consistency in your messaging, tone of voice and aesthetic builds a strong brand, which conveys stability and dependability. Don't let this stop you from refining content and allowing for variation between social media channels.

5. Be part of something

No one wants to be accused of virtue signalling, however we all have a role to play in leaving the world a better place. By raising awareness of the causes that matter to you and your community, you can help drive volunteering and donations.