Advisers Assemble - Mortgage Leads - Lead Generation For Financial Services

Alex and Stephanie play true or false with the first results from the Mortgage AI Search Index. It tracks which websites Google's AI Overview, ChatGPT and Gemini quote when people ask mortgage questions. Alex also explains why the £800 "AI audit" pitches landing in advisers' inboxes are usually just a website pasted into Claude with a price tag added.Key takeaways:Google's AI Overview cited at least one broker website 83% of the time. Gemini cited one 88% of the time.No one dominates. The most quoted broker appeared in only 9% of answers, and 5,039 different websites were cited across 12,185 answers.Video is rising fast. Google's AI Overview included a video 47% of the time, up from 34% the week before. ChatGPT and Gemini included one less than 1% of the time.Reddit is the most quoted social site (23%, up from 17%), followed by Facebook, with TikTok bottom. It's mostly consumers sharing their own stories rather than brokers posting.Official sites such as the FCA, MoneyHelper and gov.uk were quoted 23% of the time by Google, 35% by ChatGPT and 15% by Gemini.Ask ChatGPT to recommend someone to help and it pointed to a broker 82% of the time. Brokers with specific content on the scenario get recommended.The fix is not a paid audit. Create good content that answers real questions, with a page for each scenario you help with.Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple PodcastsThe Lead [email protected] with Alex on LinkedIn Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

We asked people what they love and hate about websites. This time it's Lauren V. Davis, founder of Lauren Davis Creative. Her pet hate is a little controversial for us, because most of the leads we generate come through contact forms. Alex and Stephanie play her clips and dig into what advisers can learn from them.What we cover:Why Lauren hates contact forms: it feels like talking to no one, and she expects robocalls and a pile of emails to follow. She tells the speakers she coaches to put their email address on their website insteadWhy that doesn't mean ditching the form: show a phone number clearly for people who want to talk now, and tell people what happens next (who will contact them, from which number, and whether by call or WhatsApp)Uncertainty kills deals. People like Lauren never reach your thank you page, so set expectations before they fill the form inA new experiment idea: a message that changes with the time someone arrives, showing how many advisers are in today and how quickly people usually get a call backWhy live chat and WhatsApp buttons tend to bring in soft questions rather than people who want adviceWhat Lauren loves: clarity. Tell her what you do, how to contact you and how to book a call, and make your bio about you, not a repeat of what the business doesOur heading tests, where telling people the outcome in as few words as possible ("Get mortgage advice") wonA demo call with a broker whose website looked slick and professional but got no leads, because the wording was confusingFaces win. Showing the adviser's photo gets more leads than not, and a relaxed photo of one adviser in a field with his alpacas gave a big uplift. Next up: corporate headshots against relaxed "real people" photosSpend less time on your design and more time on clarity.Lauren helps people with personal branding, social media and public speaking. Find her at @ldaviscreative. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

Someone on LinkedIn is promising mortgage brokers they'll be in Google's AI Overview every time, as long as they pay up today. So Alex put that promise to the test. He searched "Can I get a mortgage on a visa UK" every hour for a whole day and recorded every source the AI Overview cited. In this episode he takes Stephanie through what happened.The short version is that it never showed the same answer twice.What we cover:23 checks gave 23 different line-ups of sources, and not one hour matched the hour before51 different pages from 40 different websites were cited over the day, in a box that only shows about 10 at a timeOn average, two back-to-back answers shared only around a fifth of their sources. No page appeared every time, and 9 pages were cited once and never againFewer than half (44%) of the cited pages were in the page 1 top 10, so you can be picked without ranking at the topReal conversations count. Facebook group posts and Reddit threads were quoted in 10 of the 23 answers, because people want to hear from others who've been through it as well as from expertsThe normal page 1 results moved around too, just less: 14 different line-ups over the same dayWhy nobody owns this answer, and why detailed pages on one specific scenario (like a Skilled Worker visa page) give you the best chance of staying in the rotationWhy content you wrote years ago can still be getting cited today, and why it's not too late to start nowA teaser for next time: the same test on a CCJ mortgage question behaved completely differentlyIf anyone promises you'll be in Google's AI answer every time, take it with a pinch of salt. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

This is the first episode of a new Advisers Assemble segment. We send people a link and ask them what really winds them up about websites, and what they love. Personal branding coach Bob Gentle goes first, and Alex and Stephanie talk through his answers.Bob's pet hate is "get in touch" as a call to action. You'd never invite someone to a barbecue by saying "I would like you to come to my barbecue". You'd tell them it's going to be great fun, low-key, and full of people they'll like. High value, low threat. He says your website invitations should work the same way.What we cover:• Why "get in touch" undersells the one thing you want visitors to do, and what we've seen when we test it against something more specific.• Why "book an appointment" or "book your fact find" can put people off. Lots of enquirers just have a few questions and don't want to give up their time yet.• Get a short, early conversation going. Show interest in the person and they stop looking at other advisers.• Bob's surprising like: people who openly say they're using AI. "Hi, this is Jimmy's AI assistant" got him to reply.• Why uncertainty kills more deals than anything else. Not knowing if you're talking to a person or a bot feels worse than knowing it's AI.• Being honest about using AI removes the stigma and builds trust straight away.If you want more enquiries, stop asking visitors to get in touch and start inviting them to something they'd actually want.Find Bob Gentle:Website: https://www.amplifyme.agency/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobgentle/Roadmap: https://www.amplifyme.agency/roadmapPodcast, Building Your LeaderBrand: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/building-your-leaderbrand-personal-branding-digital/id1439009077 Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

Alex and Stephanie dig into the enquiries mortgage and protection advisers are getting from ChatGPT. Most of them arrive through the homepage, yet they're niche enquiries (CIS, doctors, visas) where the AI has read a specialist page and then sent the person to the brand.Key takeaways:Your niche pages may be working harder than your stats show. AI reads them, then links to your homepage.ChatGPT enquiries are around six times longer and four times more likely to sound ready to go: offer accepted, deposit ready, DIP needed.People copy and paste a message ChatGPT wrote for them, so make sure your form has a message box.AI visibility tools ask made-up prompts. Rand Fishkin found AI gave the same list of brands less than 1% of the time.There's no Search Console for ChatGPT and no mortgage ads on it yet, so you have to earn these leads with in-depth content. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

Six people, two teams, a basketball being passed around, and a question on screen: how many passes did the players in white make? Somewhere in the middle of it a person in a gorilla suit walks straight through the group, and most viewers never see it. In this episode Alex Curtis and Stephanie watch the famous focussed attention experiment and use it to answer two objections advisers raise about their own websites.Stephanie counted 14 of the 15 passes, clocked the gorilla for a split second and assumed it was meant to be there. Watch it back knowing what's coming and it's impossible to miss. That gap is the whole point: when someone has a task, everything irrelevant to that task disappears.What we cover:The experiment itself, and why the gorilla is obvious on the second viewing and invisible on the firstObjection one: "the enquiry form at the top of every page is too pushy, it's like proposing before a first date". It's a logical argument, and logic is not what drives behaviour. Someone reading for information simply scrolls past it, no offence taken. Someone who came to make contact finds it instantlyWhy the homepage is not a shop window: plenty of people arriving there are on their second visit and are ready to get in touchObjection two: "if I build niche pages I'll look like a one-trick pony, or like I'm not an expert". Someone searching for a specific scenario lands on that page, not the homepage, and never sees your other services. They are gorillas to that visitorThe second page people actually do look at, and it isn't your other product pages, it's About Us and the teamWhy advisers overanalyse what else should be on a page. Real visitors don't audit your whole website, only compliance doesServe the thing the visitor came for, make it easy to find, and everything else is noiseIf you want more enquiries from your website, stop optimising for the objection nobody raises and start making the one thing each visitor came for impossible to miss. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

The fastest way to ruin a good idea is to ask people what they think of it. In this episode Alex Curtis and Stephanie go through the businesses that would never have existed if they had listened to their own market research, and what that means for the way advisers test their marketing.Red Bull: a smaller can, more expensive than Coke, and it tastes worse. No survey would ever have approved it, and it built a business that owns Formula One and football teams off one product.Domino's: customers said the crust tasted like cardboard, so the answer should have been the recipe. The biggest sales jump came from the 30 minute guarantee and the pizza tracker, because the real blocker was not knowing when the food would arrive. Same reason Uber worked, you can see the car coming.Apple, Dyson and Porsche get the same treatment: business people wanted a physical keyboard, nobody said they wanted to see their own dirt, and Porsche were told an SUV would ruin their heritage. The Cayenne became their best selling car.What we cover:Why asking for an opinion pushes people into slow, analytical thinking, when almost every real buying decision is instinctThe mental pairings that drive those instant decisions: if other people use it, it's safe; if it's expensive, it must be goodThe air fryer example, and why the cheapest option does not winWhy you should never ask friends or family whether they like your social post, website, logo or email signature. If they say yes it probably won't work, and if they say it's a bit weird you probably won't post itFrom coupons to analytics: direct response marketing measured with mail order coupons, and how reach, watch time, on-page engagement and leads do the same job now with better dataWhy trial and error beats opinion, and why the most bonkers tests are often the ones that workIf you want to know whether an idea is any good, stop asking and start measuring. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

Why do people copy a room full of strangers doing something with no explanation at all?In this episode Alex Curtis is joined by Stephanie to talk through a classic conformity experiment filmed in an opticians' waiting room. An unsuspecting visitor sits down with a group of actors. A beep sounds, everyone stands up and sits back down, nobody speaks. By the third beep she is standing up too, with no idea why. The actors leave, she keeps standing on her own, and every new person who walks in ends up doing the same.From there we get into what this means for mortgage brokers, protection advisers and any financial services firm trying to turn website visitors into enquiries.What we cover:The experiment, step by step, and the moment she stands up alone in an empty roomWhy the brain feels resistance to being the odd one out, and why going with the flow is easier than thinking it throughConformity vs social proof, and why social proof beats a logical argument almost every timeThe mistake to avoid: negative social proof. Don't highlight that most people skip protection, or that most people wait for rates to fall. You are showing the crowd doing the wrong thing and the crowd is what people followStaying compliant while using it. Don't invent numbers or claims, use what is genuinely trueWhy Google reviews are the strongest, cleanest form of social proof, and why we show them three or four times on a single pageConsistency beats volume: recent, steady reviews create a chain reaction, dribs and drabs don'tYou will never convert everyone. Use these principles and you convert more than averageIf you want more leads from your website and your ads, this is the mindset shift: show people what the crowd is already doing, don't try to argue them into it. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

In this episode of The Advisers Assemble Podcast, host Alex Curtis explains how behavioural science can make marketing much more effective. Just like an architect has to build with gravity in mind, marketers should use proven psychological rules instead of just guessing. Alex shares real-world examples, like how changing the words on a hotel sign or a tax letter can actually change how people act. Learn how simple tweaks to your messaging can get much better results without spending extra money.Key Topics & Timestamps[00:00:00] The Architect & Gravity Analogy: Why marketing should rely on established scientific rules of human behavior rather than guesswork.[00:02:30] Why Campaigns "Fail": Why business owners often prematurely declare advertising channels like Facebook, TikTok, or Google Ads as "dead" without analyzing the actual message or psychological triggers.[00:03:45] The Psychology of Social Proof: The restaurant analogy (empty vs. busy) and why people look to the behavior of others when making decisions.[00:05:00] Robert Cialdini's Hotel Towel Experiment: How changing standard environmental signs to social proof cards ("most people staying in this room reuse their towels") boosted compliance.[00:08:00] System 1 vs. System 2 Thinking (Daniel Kahneman):System 1 (Instinctual): Fast, automated thinking used during social media scrolling or catching a thrown ball.System 2 (Logical): Analytical, slow thinking. Why putting too much complex information (like rates tables) in front of prospects triggers System 2, causes decision fatigue, and makes them leave.[00:11:45] David Cameron's "Nudge Unit" (Behavioural Insights Team): How adding a simple, true statement ("9 out of 10 people pay their tax on time") on self-assessment letter demands recouped millions in tax revenue with zero additional cost.[00:15:00] When Social Proof Backfires: Why tailored messaging is critical, illustrated by how energy-saving letters backfired for below-average energy consumers.[00:16:30] The Default Option & Nudge Theory: How auto-enrolling employees in workplace pensions ("opt-out" instead of "opt-in") successfully got more people saving for retirement.[00:18:00] Visual Verification: How adding a photo of a citizen's actual car to vehicle tax letters skyrocketed compliance.[00:19:15] Pioneers of Scientific Advertising: References to advertising legend David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins' 1923 book Scientific Advertising, and BJ Fogg's behavior model (applied by Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger to build a billion-dollar app).[00:21:30] Six Core Behavioral Biases Explored:Anchoring: How sales prices (e.g., TK Maxx) anchor value against high original prices.Authority Bias: The influence of perceived experts/authorities (e.g., lab coats).Availability Bias: How recent news (e.g., shark attacks) distorts our statistical risk perception.Chunking: Breaking down complex tasks.Consistency: Getting prospects to agree to minor commitments first.Decoy Pricing: Creating options that make the target package look like the best value.Key Takeaways & Episode NotesScience over Speculation: Human behavior is highly predictable. Leverage proven behavioral science rules to optimize your campaigns.Reduce Cognitive Friction: Avoid overcomplicating forms and landing pages. Keep prospects in System 1 (instinctive/reactive) mode for smoother conversions.Wording Matters: The UK government's Nudge Unit proved that minor phrasing changes cost next to nothing but can deliver millions in returns. Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.

In this episode, Alex and Stephanie dive into the common challenges businesses face when trying to reach new leads. From navigating phone call screening technology to cutting down overly long outreach messages, they share practical advice and real data on how concise communication dramatically improves conversion and response rates. Key Topics Call Screening Challenges: Understanding why consumers use call screening tools and how brokers/businesses can navigate them effectively. Short vs. Long WhatsApp Messages: Why sending long-winded initial messages lowers response rates, and how simple call-to-action prompts (like asking for a thumbs-up emoji) boost engagement. The "Word Jenga" Technique: How to strip away unnecessary "fluff" and keep messages punchy without losing the core meaning, inspired by the principles in Writing for Busy Readers. Email Click-Through & Survey Data: Real-world stats showing how reducing word count in newsletters and surveys can double or triple click-through and completion rates. Leveraging AI for Concise Writing: Using custom AI prompts and tools (like Gemini gems) to perform "Word Jenga" on draft communications. Timestamps [00:00:00] - Introduction and discussion on call screening technology. [00:02:00] - Discussing lead response rates and the problem with lengthy WhatsApp messages. [00:03:00] - Example of an overly complex message vs. a simple prompt; introducing "Word Jenga". [00:06:00] - Comparison of long vs. short emails and industry click-through benchmarks. [00:09:00] - Data on email length, word count, and survey completion rates. [00:12:00] - Using AI tools and pre-loaded prompts to streamline outreach. [00:14:00] - Final takeaways on concise communication and closing thoughts. Key Takeaways Less is More: People scan text rather than reading word-for-word. Shorter messages reduce cognitive effort and increase response rates. Make Replying Frictionless: Asking a quick, direct question (e.g., "Are you free for a call now?") allows leads to reply with a simple thumbs-up emoji rather than typing out an essay. State Your Identity Clearly: When facing call screening, state clearly who you are and where you're calling from so users know it's not spam. Practice Word Jenga: Regularly review your template emails and text outreach to remove fluff. Leverage tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to auto-edit for brevity.   Brought to you by the team at The Lead Engine who specialise in generating mortgage leads.