The Art of Time Blocking
Managing your time helps balance the urgent with the important, forces you to be realistic with time and prevents procrastination. No matter the reason, you want to start and end your day on your own terms, with clear expectations of taking time for yourself without resentment.
Time blocking is arguably one of the most efficient ways to manage time. But what is it? At its core, time blocking is just scheduling your to-do list against your calendar. You block off the time you’ll be working on a specific thing ahead of time, and then during that time, you work on the thing. By dedicating a certain number of hours to just one task, you “block off” your time (and your mind) from other projects – and the myriad of other demands on your attention.
To reap the benefits of time blocking, make sure you follow these four steps:
- Plan: Decide what needs to be done, estimate how long it will take and take into account the priority of tasks. No one can productively go from task to task to task without taking a break or having some down time, so remember to schedule breaks in your time.
- Block: set aside time for things such as calling clients, prospecting, tackling emails. Call, text & email returns should be ideally at the same time each day. Color coding your time blocks on a digital calendar will help you identify meetings and tasks at a quick glance. But more importantly, be realistic!
- Act: Your calendar will tell you what to do, and then you do it. This continues throughout the day until your day is over. Respect the blocks, and don’t do things that aren’t part of a block (like check email) during a block. It’s a good idea to identify the points of the day that you feel most productive and block tasks to channel that energy accordingly.
- Revise: Revise at the end of a block and at the end of the day. While revision at the end of a block means you estimated inaccurately, revision at the end of the day is future-facing and reflects the fact that priorities change, stuff comes up, and projects take more or less time than you expect them to.
Systems can make a huge difference in your sales and your work-life balance. Compliant, automated marketing can nurture leads and update your business partners and customers. An intelligent mortgage CDP (Customer Data Platform) will effectively use consumer data to drive every aspect of the marketing and sales cycles. Time is valuable, and your tech stack should reflect the best in class for mortgage technology without doubling up or even missing tasks.
Hire a Virtual Marketing Team
“I don’t have time.”
That’s a refrain heard from the mouths of most successful loan officers at some point.
The reason for this is simple: There are a million things to do each day. The seemingly never-ending list includes calls to make, emails to return, loans to structure, teams to coordinate, agents to meet, and so much more.
What inevitably ends up falling by the wayside is training, technology, marketing and the basic building blocks you need each day to keep your success high and your pipeline strong.
This is where we come in. At Intent, we have specialized teams that mine databases for opportunities, run your CRM or CDP platform for you, build and coordinate events, create and update websites, run social media advertising and SEO, and so much more.
Imagine that each day your social media efforts are creating relationships and leads, or that someone has a clear view of the ROI on your lead buying.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a customized campaign sent to a segment of your buyers that requires nothing more than a simple click on a phone or keyboard?
That reality is here. It’s Intent.
What is A Mortgage CDP?
One of the best ways for mortgage professionals to become a competitive force in the industry is providing their clients with exceptional service. Intent Homebuying Marketing Intelligence is a powerful digital marketing tool with the heart of a CDP that will become your most valuable asset for providing your customers and business partners with exemplary service.
What Exactly Is A CDP?
A CDP is defined as a Customer Data Platform that primarily offers automated marketing and sales force automation. However, the goal of a successful mortgage CDP is to use technology software to manage all your business relationships and interactions with current and potential customers. A CDP system is valuable to your business because it will not only help your business grow; it will help you balance and keep up with an ever-increasing number of referrals, contacts, leads and Realtors.
Why Does Your Business Need A Mortgage CDP?
Most mortgage companies that use CDP software find it very beneficial because it leads to increased awareness and outstanding customer retention. A CDP captures detailed information about your customers and their behaviors, pointing you to the right target market, product development and activities for your particular client. Your business needs a CDP to make your company more efficient and to increase revenue per loan officer. This software will allow your business to succeed in many ways and result in consistently successful closings.
Why Intent?
Here at Intent, we care about our clients and make sure they have the best support. Intent is a complete digital marketing platform with the heart of a CDP. We specialize in relationship building, sales management, email marketing, website development and shareable content. Intent carefully generates leads and is designed to make marketing easy.
The Cost Effectiveness of a CDP vs. An In-House Marketing Team
When it comes to building business and succeeding in a competitive mortgage or real estate market, content marketing is crucial. But at what cost? Content marketing requires more than a team of one to get the job done effectively. Several unique skill sets must come together to produce results that will drive lead generation. A full-fledged marketing team could cost a company more than $300,000 per year. Job and recruiting website Glassdoor estimates the following yearly salaries as the national average for these marketing team members:
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- Content Strategist: $89,698
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- Copywriter: $69,935
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- Content Editor: $61,655
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- Graphic Designer: $52,589
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- Social Media Manager: $59,965
In addition to a salary, team members must be equipped with the necessary budgets, time and resources to make the most of their efforts. Intent Home buying Marketing Intelligence — a consumer data platform — can handle a large amount of marketing automation and customer relationship management for a fraction of the aforementioned cost. With personalized email marketing campaigns, customer management catered to mortgage and real estate, and the ability to outsource a large portion of content marketing strategies, Intent is a true real estate and mortgage marketing solution. Check out Intent for yourself. Sign up here to receive information about how Intent can help you outsource content marketing, increase your business, and save you money.
