Fidelity Title's encore act in their "Reach Out to the Consumer" strategy
Posted by Pat Kitano at 11/10/2006 10:13 AM 
Categories: New Business Models, Realty Realities, Title Insurance
Categories: New Business Models, Realty Realities, Title Insurance
Fidelity National Title has launched Mi Hogar en California, a website focused on educating the Hispanic homebuyer about the home buying process. For Fidelity, it's all part of the rollout of their pioneering (for a title insurance conglomerate) strategy to reach out to the Consumer. I discussed the concurrent launch of Fidelity's other consumer site Cyberhomes (by a different division) yesterday.
The Mi Hogar site isn't detailed, it only serves to provide basic information that can easily be gleaned from most IDX sites, Realtor.com and RealEstateABC type sites. As expected, the content is focused more towards settlement processes as opposed to the mundane mechanics of the home buying/selling process. The site is brochure-ware... it's unimaginable that a Home Buyer will check out Mi Hogar and then proffer to his/her agent "I saw this great educational site, let's use Fidelity for the escrow". That's what is missing from the content now.
I expect Fidelity to rollout this kind of site to other cultures... and they are correct in testing consumer outreach to California's unique cultural marketplace. They will learn how to micromarket to niche audiences and can apply the results to similar campaigns with their subsidiaries like Chicago and Ticor Title and to a larger or national marketing strategy.
As Fidelity and their counterparts move up the consumer marketing learning curve, they will figure out that dull, non-sticky brochure-ware is only a baby step to courting both their real clients - the Realtors - and the Consumer. Their next step for Mi Hogar and its successors will be to develop forums that allow interaction between the Consumer and Fidelity's Realtor clients - it may be in a Q&A/FAQ forum format, it may be a blog format with Realtor clients contributing fresh, localized content for consumer readership. Once the Consumer communicates and connects with Fidelity's Realtor client on a Fidelity-branded site like Mi Hogar, the choice for title insurance becomes a moot point. That's what Fidelity and their counterparts aspire to - a loyal lead that is developed right on their website... ready to plug and play into escrow... without any legwork or donuts on the title rep's part.
Related posts:
Cyberhomes.com - a Title Insurance Company now has a Consumer-facing website with a 1999 -style name
Title Insurance Exposed! An Open Letter to the Title Insurance Industry
Technorati tags title insurance Cyberhomes.com real estate real estate brokers Fidelity Title home valuation real estate technology real estate marketing Mi Hogar en Calilfornia
Pat: I really like the site even though it’s static. The explanations are easy to understand and thorough. In the absence of material directed to the consuming public in general, I think it’s odd to put up a site targeted to the Hispanic population. If someone were insanely politically sensitive they might argue that Fidelity thinks only Hispanics need help. I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s a great site for all consumers. Kudos to Fidelity National Title. It’s a warm and friendly site with a lot of useful information.
BTW – My “static” site is undergoing reconstruction. TCSCLOSING.com will be re-launched soon in a more up to date, more interesting format. Even though we’re busy doing titles, we need to stay current. We’ll be losing the flash and the little blue bird. My husband said from the beginning the site was “too chicky”.
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I agree that the site is succinct, but it's only a first step. California has a huge Hispanic population and I'll be Fidelity follows up with a Chinese, Vietnamese and others too.
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