The most important step to increase your mortgage marketing system is finding qualified homebuyers who are ready to close a loan with you. You should at least have a great-looking website with the basics (like contact information), client education resources, and a social media presence. Discover the starting points for online mortgage marketing in 5 Mortgage Website Marketing Tools You Should Know About.
Once you’ve got your marketing game on lock, follow these three steps to make sure you’re gaining the most client traction from your marketing budget.
1. Track Your Marketing Stats
Use a tool to keep on top of the most important metrics (key performance indicators, or KPIs). There are free marketing analytics tools like Google Analytics, or you can use any number of paid marketing analytics platforms to track your KPIs. (For tips on choosing the best marketing software, check out this Forbes article by marketing expert Neil Patel.)
The KPIs marketers typically track:
- Click through rate (CTR): Number of clicks from website visitors on a webpage or an advertisement - an average CTR for Google display ads for the real estate and mortgage industry is 0.84% -- which means that out of every 10,000 people who view an ad, 84 click on it
- Email Delivery Rate, Open Rate, Bounce Rate: When it comes to email marketing, you can pay a pretty penny per 1,000 emails sent (though it’s nothing compared to what mortgage brokers dished out in the physical mailer days). Be sure that your emails are getting to the audience, and pay attention to the essential markers of email impact
- Conversion rate: This metric is the one most business owners salivate over because it tells you how many new leads came from your efforts. While this is important, don’t neglect the other KPIs in your mortgage marketing system as they pave the way to conversion
Whatever tools you use, mortgage brokers who invest in marketing should see a return on their investment. Tracking KPIs will let you know where to invest more, or less, marketing time and money.
2. Use Free Marketing Opportunities
When you invest zero dollars, your returns go up exponentially! Still, time is valuable, so use it wisely by connecting with people through these impactful ways:
- Provide community education opportunities through guest hosting on a local radio show or podcast to discuss the ins and out of getting a mortgage, paying a mortgage, home ownership, and anything else related to your target audience
- Be involved in the community in ways that are meaningful to you, and that fit your mortgage marketing strategy, such as volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or another on-brand community engagement
- Offer financial guidance: Mortgage brokers who understand how to improve credit scores build trust with clients and a reputation in the community as someone who is out there to help people reach their financial goals, not just close a loan
- Get referrals from happy clients! When you are part of the team getting a family into their dream home, most of them will be overjoyed to share in a video or written testimonial the great work you did to help them achieve that goal. Ask clients right after you’ve closed a deal so the details are still fresh and remember to maximize the impact by sharing it on your social media channels
Free marketing opportunities, like community education and referrals from happy clients, attract qualified clients who are ready to get a loan or do the work to improve their credit score so they can get a loan.
3. Create qualified leads
You’ll find a lot of information about how mortgage brokers find qualified leads, but many overlook the fact that loans that get turned down do not have to be a complete loss. There is a (mostly) untapped market of families who are just under the qualifying credit score for the home loan they deserve.
In a decade post-recession, many families are still recovering from credit card debt, job losses, and other credit damage, even after they’ve gotten back on their feet. As a mortgage broker, you may have had to turn away potential homebuyers who don’t meet your criteria because it doesn’t make good business sense. If you could turn these hard-working people into qualified leads, would you try it?
79 percent of credit reports contain errors. Removing those errors will bring up a person’s credit score and increase their chances of qualifying for a loan, or receiving a better rate on that home loan. You probably already educate clients on how to improve their scores, but do you use tools that help you highlight clients’ credit errors so they can fix them faster?
By offering expert credit education, you can double or triple your mortgage close rate and earn referrals from satisfied clients!
Click here to discover the tools Mortgage Brokers use to close more loans and have happier clients!