If you’re a lender, broker, or loan officer, particularly in the mortgage space, marketing your mortgage business is trickier now than ever. The competition is high, and thanks to increases in interest rates, people are far more likely to shop around for what they perceive to be the best value. If you really want to make an impression on your audience, a multi-pronged approach to marketing is the only way to go.

The Basic Need for a Multi-Pronged Approach

In the mortgage industry, there’s no one primary audience that you’ll want to target. In fact, you’ll want to target a wide range of demographics who consume their media in different ways. The 2020 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report from the National Association of REALTORS® Research Group found that millennials were the largest share of home buyers (and therefore borrowers) at 38%. Baby Boomers came in at 33% of the share, and Gen Xers made up 23% of the overall share of home buyers.

This data means that your marketing will need to cover a broad scope across several different digital channels and platforms. While you might be able to reach the younger generations via Instagram and Facebook, you’ll need to stick to more traditional channels for the older generations – namely your SEO, Google Ads, and email newsletters. Ultimately, the goal of any marketing campaign is to put relevant information in front of the right set of eyes exactly when it’s needed. That’s why multi-pronged marketing approaches are essential in the mortgage industry.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Example of a client’s SEO.

Search engine optimization should be central to any content or website that will live on the internet for generations to come. When you think of search engines, you probably immediately think of Google – maybe Bing and Yahoo, too. It’s important to remember that any searchable platform should be treated like a search engine. As such, YouTube, Facebook, and most other social networking sites should be search engine optimized, as well.

2. Social Media Marketing

Example of a client’s Facebook and Instagram artwork.

These days, there are very few people who aren’t using some sort of social media. According to a survey conducted by The Manifest, 35% of the population of the globe – or 2.7 billion people – used social media on a daily basis in 2019, and of these people, 30% interacted with social media more than 10 times every day by taking some sort of implicit action: liking, sharing, or posting their own content. Building a presence on social media is a good idea for all brands, but it’s especially helpful for brands that exist in saturated markets – much like the mortgage lending industry.  It helps you put your name out there and make your brand more memorable and recognizable.

3. Email Newsletters

Example of a client’s monthly newsletter.

While it’s true that you may very rarely open the email marketing newsletters you receive in your own inbox, the truth is that email marketing is still the single most relevant and best channel to reach people on – even with the rise in social media use! You can certainly send a single newsletter to everyone on your email list at a set interval, but thanks to excellent CRM technology and plenty of affordable email marketing tools, it’s possible to generate highly customized emails for different demographics. For example, you may want to send separate newsletters based on the recipients’ ages, locations, or past interactions with your company. Email newsletters are fantastic for targeting homeowners looking to refinance, as well.

4. Paid Ads

If you aren’t utilizing paid ads to reach your audience, you might be missing out on a huge chunk of revenue-generating traffic. It’s true that organic traffic is best, but paid ads can virtually guarantee that you will reach the audience you define. If you are targeting baby boomers who are looking to refinance their existing mortgages, it can be tricky to do this through traditional channels. If you are targeting first-time homebuyers, paid ads are phenomenal for that, too. Remember, though, that your paid advertising won’t be effective without an excellent organic strategy behind it, so if you’re using paid ads, make sure they are part of a multi-pronged approach.

5. A Phenomenal Website with a Top-Notch UX

Example of a client’s website we recently built.

Last, but most certainly not least, it’s important to remember that virtually all of these marketing approaches exist to bring people who need to borrow money to your website. If your website can’t deliver, then none of your marketing efforts – not email, not social media, and not paid ads – can help you recover. People expect a website that is responsive, easy to use, and informative, so it’s critical that you provide all of these things. If your website is slow, or if it is difficult for visitors to navigate to the pages they want to see, they will simply move on to your competitors.

As a lender, a multi-pronged approach to marketing your business is important for reaching your incredibly diverse audience amidst hundreds of competitors. From email and social media campaigns to paid advertising and search engine optimization, everything works together to bring people to your website, where the goal is to get those visitors to take action. When you make sure that each prong of your marketing approach is designed to work hand-in-hand with the others, you’re sure to see an increase in traffic and revenue.

Need help with your mortgage marketing? Click here to learn more.