Marketing Aesthetics vs. Marketing Effectiveness

$12,000 WASTED ON POSTCARDS BECAUSE THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL

About ten years ago, with the help of our branding consultants, we spent $12,000 on a beautifully designed postcard for a massive marketing campaign.

We happened to be doing a loan at the time for an extremely successful marketer so we proudly showed him our stunningly beautiful postcard.

He took a look at it, and then crumpled it up and threw it in the corner, telling us it was a piece of sh**.

Our branding consultants were great at making things beautiful, but they knew nothing about actual marketing.

Our marketer/borrower, in contrast, made millions every year actually marketing products and services, and he had seen aesthetics prioritized over effectiveness far too many times.

There are data-supported techniques for maximizing a postcard’s effectiveness that focus on size, colors, wording, delivery date, etc. that make aesthetics almost irrelevant.

BEAUTIFUL WEBSITE THAT DIDN’T CONVERT

We made a similar mistake with our website when we created what we think is one of the warmest and most beautiful websites in the mortgage industry.

But, when Jonathan McGowan first came to JVM, the first thing he asked was “how well does it convert?” And we said: “convert what, water to wine?”

Anyway – we soon realized that we had to focus our website more on converting even more borrowers and agents into happy clients.

CLEVER NAMES THAT DON’T WORK

Lastly – we decided we need a new (more universal and modern) name for our consumer direct division, and we came up with a lot of really clever ideas.

But then we hired a high powered naming consultant (also a past borrower with an amazing record of success) to help us evaluate names, and he quickly explained why our clever ideas were actually stupid ideas 😊.

There is far more that goes into a name than anyone can imagine, and our consultant spent several hours explaining all the variables to us.

HIRE CONSULTANTS WITH TRACK RECORDS

My main point is this: if you are going to spend real money on any type of marketing, or if you are trying to expand a business outside of your immediate sphere, you need to get advice from consultants with a track record of success.

The “track record of success” is key too, as we have been burned all too often by marketers and advisors who can’t practice what they preach.

Finally – we are happy to provide the names of talented advisors if any of our readers are in need of them.

Jay Voorhees at (925) 855-4491
Real Estate Broker, CA Department of Real Estate, DRE# 01524255, NMLS# 335646