Empowerment Profile: Dianne Croonen

June 4th, 2018

Last month we hosted Connective Empower, our event series designed to support, educate and inspire women working in the mortgage and finance broking industry. These events provide a forum to share ideas, experiences and successes, helping women help each other to build on their careers. We took the opportunity to chat with one of our leading iConnect Financial brokers, Dianne Croonen, to find out more about some of the great local area marketing campaigns she has been running.

More about Dianne

Dianne Croonen is a successful iConnect Financial broker, based out of Beenleigh in Queensland. Dianne has over 15 years of experience in the banking and finance industry, having originally started her career in a retail banking role. Eight years ago, Dianne decided to open her own mortgage broking business. With banks continuously restructuring, Dianne was motivated to make the break and after a lot of homework researching aggregators, chose to join Connective as a Credit Rep. Then in June 2016, Dianne decided to transfer to our franchise model, iConnect Financial.

Here’s what Dianne had to say about her recent marketing efforts.

Why is local area marketing (LAM) important?

Lam is important because it lets the community know who I am and that I live in the area. I understand the local property market, can relate to what is current in local business, what works well and what doesn’t. People are becoming more aware about keeping business local and feeding back resources and benefits to their own communities.

Tell us about some of your recent local area marketing initiatives?

At the moment I am organising an Information Evening for First Homeowners (FHO). My local demographic has a large population of renters, so my niche market is first homeowners or first time ‘mum and dad’ investors.

I’ve found FHO are becoming savvier about purchasing (with the internet and social media) although I believe that a lot of the time they are not getting the most current or correct information.

Another source of information (or misinformation) comes from parents, family members and friends. Sometimes these sources may not have borrowed for some time, so the information they provided is now incorrect. Many recent policy changes have led to confusion and frustration when discussions are held with FHO, because of this.

At my Information Evenings, I intend to give current information and provide clear steps for FHO to follow to allow them a much smoother and happier transaction process when they are ready to make one of the most important decisions in their lives.

Why should a broker consider running a face to face event?

I think face to face events are a great marketing idea – you can talk with many people at once. I think they offer a more personal approach and prospective clients get to see me, and know that I’m a real person, just like them.

Too many processes these days are automated – face to face events bring back the personal touch. You can see it, you can ask questions and get answers. I believe clients will deal with people that they feel they can trust – they need to know we understand that what they want is important and unique to them.

How have you promoted your FHO Information Evenings?

I have tried various avenues, with the support of the iConnect Financial Marketing Team – they have been fantastic. With their help, we set up a Facebook event, an Event Brite Page, and event invitation email templates that I could share with my other presenters to send to their customer lists. That’s another good tip, partner up with likeminded businesses so you can all benefit from the information events.

Social media is NOT my thing, so I was very glad of the help I received from the iConnect Financial Marketing Team. I have also done the traditional things – called people and invited them, sent out an invitation and talked to my clients about the event.

The iConnect Financial Marketing Team are also helping with my presentation and have even phoned leads trying to ensure I fill the room!

What advice would you give to a broker considering investing time and energy in local area marketing?

Research the demographics in your area first –  does your area consist of mostly renters, young families, empty nesters, professionals, or retirees? Then get together a group of relevant industry professionals – for example, a Financial Planner, Solicitor, Real Estate Agent – and combine your resources/databases to make a fantastic event. For me, I have a created a team of female local professionals, and we are all doing the FHO information session together.

Dianne’s top marketing ideas and tips

Probably 2 things:

1. Technology: get social! If you don’t know how, get help (like I did with iConnect Financial). iConnect Financial are running a broker education session on social media this week to help us better understand how to engage in these platforms.

2. Be yourself: be approachable, genuine and caring! It does work!