Automation has already become an essential part of the mortgage industry, particularly in the application process. Integrated technology-based solutions can help buyers submit required paperwork, check on a loan statuses, and look at approvals and rates. Automation can mitigate menial tasks in the review process and communicate importation notifications to borrowers and agents. But that’s only a small part of the potential benefits from automation. The benefits also extend to marketing through marketing automation.
Over the past decade, marketing and sales development has grown in importance for mortgage experts. Increased lending options and the rise of mortgage application apps have made the landscape competitive. Additionally, back-end automation has made the loan process easier. However, MLOs and mortgage professionals have had to work harder to generate leads. Personal interaction has always been an essential part of the business, but outreach and retention have now become a necessary part of the job.
In short, the mortgage industry has become more about relationships against a backdrop of automation. So how can marketing automation help mortgage experts?
Lead Follow-Up
From email campaigns to text messages and phone calls, reaching out to potential customers can be a hassle on both ends of the interaction. Audiences can be inundated with ads and solicitations. They’re less likely to respond to something they feel isn’t tailored to their needs. Of course, they’re not likely to remember you if you don’t remind them of your presence, either.
For mortgage experts who may not have had training in marketing and communications, figuring out what to say and how to say it can take effort and time. Sending out individualized outreach to every single lead who might be interested in a mortgage is prohibitively time-consuming. Further, sending out a single message to every email in your address book isn’t usually terribly effective for bringing in clients.
Marketing automation bridges this gap. By providing personalization for certain values in emails and texts, and a workflow that will help identify when to send follow-ups to clients, automation keeps your services top of mind without spending hours on messaging or feeling like you’re forcing communication.
Client Retention
Borrowers who are in the process of buying a property have a multitude of to-dos. Even though they’re farther down in the sales funnel—if they’ve consulted with you in person, attended a webinar, or even received a pre-approval—they may have had meetings with multiple MLOs, brokers, and agents. Using marketing automation (i.e., Here’s what we discussed, I’m here if you have any questions, can we schedule some time to follow up?) gives potential borrowers a gentle reminder of previous discussions and your potential value to them as a resource.
In particular, a drip marketing campaign, which schedules multiple emails to be sent in sequence after initial contact, will make the process much easier. Whether it’s sending one email or four, pre-writing and then automating the personalization means you won’t have to think about actively following up. This can help clients at any stage of the mortgage process where they may need reminders, including before and during the application.
Mortgage Demystification
This can be particularly important for first-time homebuyers or for buyers who don’t often complete mortgage applications. The process is complex, and the terminology can be confusing. For a layperson without the necessary lending expertise, they may feel overwhelmed. In order to convince your audience that you have all the necessary expertise and will explain everything they need to know, marketing emails can help convey calm, authoritative expertise.
For example, a newsletter can be an important tool in the mortgage specialist’s arsenal, particularly if they have news to impart about rates, the industry as a whole, or local trends. Choosing to undertake the writing responsibilities of a newsletter can be daunting, but the content itself can be short and to the point while still being impactful. Automation takes care of the outreach, and with a few small tweaks to language, the emails can even be customized and sent to specific audiences: the pro vs. the novice, or the commercial real estate client vs. the homebuyer.
Data Collection
One underrated aspect of marketing automation is that it keeps track of information like open rate and click rate. In other words, how many people opened your emails, and how many actually engaged with the content by clicking on a link inside it. This is useful for a variety of reasons, key among them: are your marketing tactics working? If potential clients or customers aren’t reading or interacting with what you’re sending, it could be a sign that you need to switch up the content in your emails.
The same goes for unsubscribe rates. If you know who isn’t interested in your services any longer, you take their name off of your list of prospective clients and move on to prospects with more potential. They get removed from your listserv automatically, so you do not need to worry about manually going through to update anyone’s information.
Networking
Mortgage experts can improve their sales pipeline and portfolio through partnerships. But reminding potential collaborators that you exist (in a sea of potential contacts) can feel exhausting. This is particularly true when an agent may not reach out to you until they urgently need you, making it feel as though your efforts at communication just aren’t working.
Periodic communication through marketing automation is a more effective solution than direct, individual outreach. If experts know you have a newsletter that they might glean useful information from, they’ll begin to consider you an expert and expect your updates monthly. Alternately, if they receive an occasional email from you around holidays and busy times, they’ll be reminded that you’re thinking of them. And you won’t have to think about the connection until they reach out—a win-win.
Automation might sound intimidating—but in reality, it’ll help you spend more time with clients and partners, doing the actual work of mortgages instead of trying to chase business. As we mentioned in our previous post, you want to attract business rather than chase it. Marketing automation can help you do just that!
Click here to start your free trial of Aduvo, marketing automation software built exclusively for mortgage pros by mortgage pros!