With all the countless number of bailouts, stimuli, and economic packages being written up as a result of the irresponsibility of many in the the last five years, it seems that hardly a day goes by without some direct mention to our beloved mortgage industry.

For me, it's actually more than enough to do the trick as far as "seed planting" or "marketing" is concerned.

For example: a client of mine who was on the fence three weeks ago called me to inquire about what rate we could lock at because she saw on MSNBC that mortgage applications went down and that rates had gone up slightly over the few weeks prior.

And hence when I answered her that her findings were absolutely correct but that we still had an opportunity to lock in a low fixed rate by paying for a small origination up front, she jumped right on board, having now seen the consequences of her previous gamble.

My point simply is this: with all the gloom and doom occuring globally, before I speak to more than half my clients, the "job" is already done, and the client now already has an idea in mind of what they would like to do as far as purchasing or refinancing is concerned.

I've been speaking to numerous colleagues about the effectiveness of marketing techniques for 2009.

I know that every market varies from one to the other, but from your experience, what have you found to be the most successful in 2008, and what methods do you find you will be sticking to throughout 2009 and onwards?

What are you doing (or what have you been doing) to successfully market yourself in 2009?