Titan Lenders Corp & Depth Public Relations: Building a Brand from the Ground Up

Titan Lenders Corp (www.TitanLendersCorp.com) is one of a specialized few providers of mortgage back office fulfillment services, a not-well-understood facet of mortgage lending that includes closing, funding, and post closing services. Community banks, credit unions, mortgage bankers and brokers, and warehouse line lenders use outsource providers strategically to minimize compliance risks in a time-sensitive error-averse environment. Fluctuations in mortgage lending volume also lead some mortgage lenders to outsource their entire back office operation and secure predictable “per transaction” pricing rather than maintaining an inflexible static in house staff.

TLC is a preferred provider for some of the nation’s largest mortgage bankers and warehouse lenders.

Challenge

According to its Web site, “Titan Lenders Corp was launched amidst the most significant sea change in our nation’s mortgage economy.” As such, Titan Founder, CEO and President Mary Kladde knew it would be critical for the fledgling company to establish a strong voice and solid reputation right off the bat. Kladde had experience in working with a public relations firm prior to founding Titan Lenders Corp and saw the value PR could provide in establishing Titan’s presence and voice from its inception. However, Kladde’s business partner was more skeptical.

“Originally, I was not entirely convinced of the value of PR,” said Ruth Lee, Titan’s executive vice president. “It required shifting my thinking from business-to-consumer to business-to-business.”

Solution

In her search for PR representation, Kladde said it was important to find a firm that understood who Titan was and what the company wanted others to see in the market. A chance encounter with Depth Public Relations President Kerri Milam gave Kladde what she had been seeking.

“I was introduced to Kerri through a mutual acquaintance, and I liked her as soon as I met her,” Kladde explains. “She presented strong integrity, character, professionalism and was knowledgeable about our industry.”

Lee was equally impressed with Milam’s credentials and felt a sense of camaraderie due to the similarities between Titan and DepthPR.

“As a small, female-owned company, we felt that DepthPR would be able to empathize with what we were going through. Kerri’s entrepreneurial spirit really resonated with us, and we were confident that we wouldn’t get lost in the crowd,” said Lee. “One of the reasons we chose DepthPR was that they had a plan unique to our needs and budget, the execution of that plan was incredibly organized and disciplined, and SEO and Web visibility were built into the PR program from day one.”

Results

For Kladde, Lee and Titan, the proof is in the pudding.

“The effect PR has had on our business has been profound,” said Kladde. “PR has created the national name and industry recognition we were seeking as a start-up, and it has maintained and reinforced our presence as we’ve moved forward.”

“Mary comes up with a lot of really great ideas, and what’s wonderful is we can telegraph those to an industry that’s hungry and thirsty for knowledge. Because our ideas are so widely disseminated, it has the effect of making Titan look like a much larger company and providing us with the credibility and authority to go out into the market and achieve some pretty remarkable things,” added Lee.

For example, Lee says, she and Kladde were sitting in a prospective client’s office, surrounded by “a room full of suits.” Toward the end of the day, the prospect brought in a lender they’re thinking of purchasing, and as the ladies explaining to the lender what the group been discussing, the prospect turned to Lee and said, “I just saw an article about this very same topic.”

“Mary and I looked at each other and kind of chuckled, and we said, ‘Yeah, we wrote it.’ You couldn’t have asked for a better lead-in than that, and it immediately created a whole new level of respect for us from everyone in the room.”

However, Titan’s founders say a large portion of the credit goes to DepthPR’s Milam, who has become a trusted counselor and business partner for the firm.

“I don’t let people write behind me very often, but I feel absolutely at ease with allowing Kerri to create content on my behalf because she can do so without losing my voice. So much of the content out there from other companies sounds stale and uninspired that it’s kind of like eating sawdust,” said Lee. “Kerri brings a lot of spice to her writing, which is very similar to how Mary and I write, and she’s able to apply her skill while making the content sound like something I would write. That’s a rare gift. She’s probably one of the best writers that I’ve ever worked with. Period."

“Kerri is a strong part of our overall strategy. Whenever we have sales or strategy meetings, we involve her because she helps us focus on how to market our ideas,” said Kladde. “We’ve recommended a lot of clients to DepthPR because other companies want to know the secret to our success and visibility in the market.“

Titan’s self-proclaimed vision is to change the mortgage industry and the way that it does work, and according to Lee, ‘Without PR, we wouldn’t have the gravitas to achieve that vision on the kind of scale we’ve been able to enjoy. Mary’s message about quality loan production has had some pretty wide-ranging effects, and when the rest of the market comes to us, it’s because they see us as thought leaders and assume we know what we’re talking about. The reason for that is we’ve been published all over the place, thanks to DepthPR.”