Marketing in the financial sector is much more sensitive than marketing in general. After all, working in the mortgage industry, your job is to entice your customer to go through a painstaking process of gathering information and documentation for a huge loan that they will be paying off for years to come.
While a sports apparel brand can just run a PPC campaign on their latest t-shirt design and watch as purchases accumulate in the background, loan officers need to focus their efforts solely on making sure homebuyers know they are cooperative, compassionate, and well-versed in their field. The “purchase”, AKA converting a potential homebuyer to become a borrower and work with you, comes in much, much later for MLOs.
Standing out from the competition is easier said than done, but you can still utilize many traditional marketing practices to attract your target audience and already be a step ahead of other MLOs. This includes offering lead magnets.
When seeing “lead magnets”, the first things that likely come to mind are free trials and discount codes. Obviously, as a loan officer, you can’t offer a coupon or a free testing period for a mortgage origination process. So what can you give homebuyers to convince them to subscribe to your newsletter or schedule a meeting with you? Here are 4 lead generating tips you can try to increase your business this year.
A guide on the loan origination process
As newer generations are stepping into the homebuying years, the practice of offering a free consultation to introduce your customer to your niche becomes outdated. According to research, Gen Zers always make highly-informed decisions. They like to absorb knowledge online, and 65% stated that they value being in control of a situation and knowing what’s going on around them.
Instead of blindly hopping onto a consultation call and taking you at your word, young homebuyers will rather spend their time on (very) thorough research. They only book a consultation with a service provider after they already know exactly what they want and how they want it.
Create an ebook or a PDF document detailing what the loan origination process looks like, step by step. This can include information on all the documentation they may need, expectations on how long the whole process usually takes, FAQs, and even a glossary of mortgage terminology. If your guide gives them all the necessary information that they would otherwise spend hours looking up on Google, then rest assured you will become the one-stop shop they’ll circle back to once they’re ready to get a loan.
Offer this guide in exchange for a newsletter subscription in your PPC campaigns, on your social media handles, and pin it to the most visited sections of your website.
A comprehensive checklist
Just like the guide, this checklist can be in a printable PDF format, but you can also create a Google Sheet out of it, or even a Checkli template.
You’ve already been through this process multiple times so you know the drill: Does the appraisal happen before or after the loan estimate? How long will the loan estimate take? What are the documents I need to prepare?
MLOs are usually good with verbally explaining what a borrowing process looks like from beginning to end. Laying it out on paper, however, on an actionable checklist where your client can tick items off and get excited about the progress (while also reminding themselves what comes next and when) helps set expectations while lowering the number of calls you’ll get to repeat the same thing time and time again.
A timeline outlining each step of the lending process, including all action items the lender needs to complete, in chronological order, will help make their (and your) life much easier.
It’s one of those lead magnets your customer didn’t know they needed (or if it existed) before they saw it free to download.
A helpful widget on your website
What do we mean by “a helpful widget”? A tool, a quiz, or whatever you can include on your website that can automate and answer some questions potential lenders may have that they want to ask before they go from consideration to intent.
Zillow’s Mortgage Calculator is a prime example of a helpful widget for lenders. It allows users not only to enter how much their desired home is and what loan program they want, but also include PMI, taxes, insurance, as well as downpayment costs, and establish exactly what their loan rate will be without hidden costs.
Another good example is Credit Karma’s Credit Score Simulator, where you can simulate how your financial decisions will impact your credit score over time.
Numbeo offers a cost of living search tool that allows you to quickly see a breakdown of average expenses in whatever city you choose.
Security Bank’s Pre-Qualification quiz allows users to see if they qualify for a loan (and estimates the loanable amount if they do) through a short series of simple questions that take very little time to answer.
This one will need a little help from a developer, but it will be worthwhile. We’re not suggesting you become the new tech leader through innovative software. However, a simple, non-stylized, black-and-white mortgage payment calculator or a quiz on what plan would work best for the borrower is a fun, interactive way to keep your leads engaged while also giving them more insight into where they’re standing. You can then put a CTA (call-to-action) at the end of the quiz or whatever it is you will build out offering to chat further about their results.
Create a Facebook group
Recently, a lot of businesses are hopping onto the trend of creating groups rather than pages. Facebook groups for mortgage professionals are no exception.
No, we’re not talking about a networking group (we’re sure you’re already part of one), we’re talking about a Q & A group.
Facebook has a keyword-based algorithm similar to standalone search engines. So, create a group with a catchy, yet simple, name that would pop up while the users are potentially looking up posts on Facebook: Mortgage loan help, Contact a mortgage loan officer, Chat with a lender…
So why are groups becoming so popular? And why would you need one? People want to talk to people, they want to feel a sense of community and have personalized interactions. Most Facebook pages aren’t monitored 24/7, and while most pages also have chatbots, a recent survey shows that 60% of chatbot users prefer waiting to talk to an agent instead, despite the fact that the chatbot may lead them to content explaining whatever it is they need.
Start a group where you and your fellow MLOs are moderators, and have each of you hop on for 10-15 minutes a day to respond to potential borrower queries.
Advertise your group on your website, your other social media channels, and even in your newsletters. Grab users’ attention by saying they can get help from a real mortgage lender/broker on a daily basis.
It’s important to make posts in your group private, but leave your group searchable. This way, it will pop up in the recommendations for all friends of your current group members. It’s basically free Facebook advertising.
How is this a lead magnet? You’re offering something valuable (your expert answer or opinion) in exchange for their attention (a membership).
After a while, you’ll have people in your community who are all warm leads. Convert them to your customers by being there to calm down their anxieties or explain things that they don’t fully understand.
You can then share your blog posts, events, and other relevant content to your group feed. Think of your audience as if they were newsletter subscribers, only instead of a mailing list, you have a group member list to nurture.
Do you have any other ideas that we didn’t cover? Share with us in the comments or shoot us an email! marketing@aduvo.com