Effective branding with your XSite
Your brand is your business' identity. Think about some of the world's most successful brands: Harley Davidson. Starbucks. iPod. All you need to do is hear the brand name and you associate with it a range of ideas, emotions and responses. A lot is packed in to one or two words.
Think of it from the inside out. You know what Harley Davidson and Staburcks sell. You know what an iPod does. But there is a difference between a motorcycle and a Harley. Getting a coffee and going to Starbucks. An MP3 player and an iPod. And the difference is positive. The idea of owning a Harley is more exciting than the more generic idea of owning a motorcycle.
The fact that you, as a customer or potential customer of these companies or products, know exactly what they are and why they're different means their brands are extremely effective and valuable.
As a mortgage originator you do something that a lot of other people in the phone book and on the Internet do. One of your most fundamental marketing goals is to develop your own brand, so that clients and potential clients know what you do well and why you're different. And will like the idea of doing business with you.
Trying to become the iPod of mortgage originators is shooting a bit high. But developing your brand is essential, and most everything you do "in public," from meeting with clients to answering the phone, contributes in one way or another to your branding.
One of the most important tools you have to develop your brand is your XSite. There are three broad elements of your brand that your XSite can affect: appearance, interface and content.
Appearance
One frequent mistake new website owners make — and this is true of sole proprietors and the biggest companies — is putting up a website that looks cool to them, instead of concentrating on how the site's user's want it to look.
Fortunately, your XSite comes with dozens upon dozens of themes you can swap in and out with ease. Do you want your brand to convey friendliness? Pick a brighter, more accessible design. Trust? A more corporate, muted theme might be in order. If you mostly market cash out refis and home equity loans, you'll want a different emotional response.
The point is to choose a look and feel for your XSite that promotes what you want clients to think of your business. XSites make it easy.
Interface
How visitors get around your XSite is an important facet of your brand. Highly organized, nested navigation with lots and lots of pages conveys expertise, a wealth of resources. Often this is what home buyers and home owners are looking for — someone who knows what they're doing and can help them through the confusing loan process. But you may prefer a more open, less dense interface to promote the idea that borrowing is easier than people think.
Content
XSites' pre-written and easily customizable content plays an important role in search engine rankings and keeping visitors on your site once they've found it. But choosing and creating site content is important to your branding effort.
If you create and emphasize targeted, relevant content for your area, you're contributing to a perception of being a valuable local resource. If you put up a veritable encyclopedia's worth of mortgage and real estate information, you're helping brand yourself as a full-service expert. 
