Advertising directly to the public for commercial loans simply does not work ... at all. What does work is sending out a newsletter regularly to a small list of referral sources - folks who, because of their jobs, see lots of commercial loan requests coming across their desk every week.
Bankers and commercial real estate brokers are, by far, the best referral sources. The next best referral sources of commercial loans, with the better ones listed first, include property managers, residential mortgage brokers (on a name and number referral basis ONLY), residential real estate brokers, other commercial lenders, attorneys, CPA's, and financial planners (life insurance agents).
So we all now know WHAT to do to attract more commercial financing requests; but too few of you commercial mortgage brokers are regularly sending out newsletters. I think the problem is that you think you have to make your newsletters too long and fancy.
For twenty years I used snail mail to send out my newsletters. I wrote these newsletters on the front and back side of a legal-sized sheet of copy paper. I used no fancy fonts, and the newsletters contained no color. They were simply black and white. These newsletters worked just fine - better than fine, actually.
Today email is much faster and cheaper than snail mail. If you get slow, you can write a commercial mortgage newsletter in an hour and blast it out immediately to your contacts. It does not have to be fancy! You should start with a plain-text email newsletter. Just make sure that it is jammed full of fun stuff - jokes, interesting stories you've recently heard, movie reviews, book reviews, cool things that you have seen or heard recently, and stories about your family.
"But George, where am I going to get jokes for my commercial loan newsletter?" Just steal mine from here. You'll find hundreds of cute, clean jokes.
The lesson I want to drive home to you today is this: Start sending out commercial mortgage newsletter every ten to 21 days, even if it is very short and very simple. Stop making excuses, and get it done. All you are really trying to do is keep your name and contact information in front of your referral sources.
I recently wrote a commercial real estate loan newsletter to my commercial mortgage brokers of which I was very proud. Come take a peak at my recent newsletter. Yours does not have to be anywhere near this fancy. Remember, I have been writing newsletters for thirty years.
Just make SURE your commercial mortgage newsletters are jammed full of Rat Goodies. Think of your newsletter as an hour-long TV show. There are 48 minutes of the actual TV show - the cops chasing the bad guys - and every twelve minutes there is a BRIEF word from the sponsor. Therefore, most of your commercial mortgage newsletter should be devoted to entertainment. When you do mention your commercial real estate loan services, it should be done quickly and just in passing.
Be sure to review this five-slide lesson on Rat Goodies.