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.

If you haven’t added geo-targeting to your content marketing mix for your mortgage company, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your audience and boost conversions or sales. This simple act of including pages that are optimized for specific locations can have a significant impact on the amount of traffic your site can generate. In fact, it’s possible to completely change your SEO game overnight! Take your mortgage marketing to the next level!

What Are Geotargeted Pages?

Geo-targeting is the act of creating content that is specific to your audience’s geographical location. When someone searches Google (and other search engines), the platform will consider that user’s IP address, Wi-Fi data, or even GPS data, then deliver content that is specific to that location. For most Google users, location is one of the most important factors in determining which results should be shown first, so if you want to remain competitive with a local audience, geo-targeted webpages are must-haves. 

For example, if a user in Indianapolis, Indiana searches for the term “get a mortgage,” Google will deliver thousands of results – some local, some national, and some global. Assuming that all other SEO criteria have been met, the relevant local mortgage brokers that have created geo-targeted web pages for the Indianapolis area are most likely to be shown first, and these will be followed by local brands that have not optimized their websites with geo-targeting. If you want your website on the first page of results, geo-targeting is a crucial step. 

Example of a Client’s Site We Did This For

For example, here a website we built for a mortgage company in Chicago, there is a tab for “service areas” in navigation with a page for each licensed state. These pages started ranking very quickly.

The Initial Results

These were all zero’s prior to the website launch. After roughly 30 days lots of pages started making their way through the search results.

Where to Apply Geo-Targeting

Geo-targeting involves including specific locations in various parts of your website. Some of the most important considerations include: 

• SEO Metadata: Including locations when optimizing your title tags and meta tag descriptions can drastically improve your search rankings in the locations you target. 

• Heading Tags: Even the headings within your copy can include locations! These will help Google properly index your pages so it can deliver relevant content to the right audiences. 

• Website Copy: You will also want to create copy that hones in on specific locations that your mortgage company serves. For example, you might choose to create location-specific landing pages and blog posts including the names of cities and states that you want to target. 

• Image Filenames and Alt Tags: Including imagery that is specific to the location being targeted helps satisfy Google’s SEO algorithm, and in turn, it can improve your overall rankings. 

• Interlinking Pages: Linking geo-targeted pages throughout your website can benefit your mortgage company by providing users with a wider range of content that is suitable for their unique needs. 

The Most Important Facets of Geo-Targeting for Your Mortgage Company

Geo-targeting is about much more than simply indicating the locations you serve. In fact, it can benefit you in several other ways that you may not have considered. For example, geo-targeting can:

• Personalize the user’s experience. In today’s highly competitive world, standing out from the crowd is more important than ever. One of the best ways to do this is to provide your website visitors with a unique experience based on their location. Google users are far more likely to click a search result if it includes information they can relate to – and that includes their specific location. 

• Make searches simpler for users. Imagine searching for the perfect mortgage broker, clicking a link, reading the information on the website, and then realizing that this particular company doesn’t serve your area. Creating geo-targeted copy for every area you serve makes the process of searching simpler and more convenient for your target audience. 

• Generate much more traffic. When you personalize your website for individual locations and provide relevant information for each of those locations, your search ranking will start to increase immediately. Again, it’s all about providing search engine users with an accurate and convenient search that leads to the information they want. 

As a mortgage company, it’s important to design your website around the locations that you serve. Not only does it satisfy Google’s SEO algorithms, but it ensures that search engines put your website in front of the right audiences whenever possible. If you incorporate geo-targeting into your copy, your heading tags, your images, and even your interlinked pages, you can boost your search rankings almost immediately and enjoy more traffic than ever before.

Click Here to Checkout Our Mortgage Marketing Services

Attaining implemented success in the mortgage brokerage niche demands a diverse marketing strategy. However, the market becomes more competitive as the economy expands, which makes it harder for brokers to find their market. If they couldn’t find their ideal clients, their organizations and revenue will evaporate, which results in bankruptcy.

With the ever-changing market preferences, mortgage brokers have to stay up to date so they can keep up with the trends. Unfortunately, you can’t rely on the accuracy of traditional market research methods. With the help of the right technological tools, your mortgage company can develop an in-depth marketing strategy.

In this article, you’ll learn how you can leverage the top digital marketing tools to help mortgage brokers generate more leads. 

Mortgage CRM Software

Mortgage Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is uniquely developed for the mortgage brokerage industry. With this tool, lending companies enable their loan officers and other employees to boost their efficiency. Also, mortgage CRM software reduces the expenses of the approval process and loan application, which improves communication between agents and borrowers.

Brokerage firms need a mortgage CRM because this digital marketing tool provides a centralized area for qualification process monitoring. For instance, mortgage brokers can use this software to generate special web pages for properties. With this advantage, these real estate agents can effectively manage text lead capturing and virtual tours inside a single software system. 

Another outstanding feature of a mortgage CRM software is its team-based texting that facilitates clear communication between stakeholders and brokers. Instead of waiting around for a response from your prospective clients, you can receive updates within several minutes, which boosts customer engagement. Additionally, the call prompts feature enables you to confidently make proactive calls to customers as you read vital contact details and scripts on your screen.

Social Media Channels

Regardless of the industry, business owners can benefit from using various social media channels to improve their marketing strategy. As a mortgage broker, you may use these platforms as networking tools for you to connect with prospects. With effective usage of these digital tools, you encourage active engagement among your audience, which drives higher lead conversion.

Many social media channels offer free features designed specifically for digital marketing. For instance, you may leverage Facebook Ads Manager for you to run and track the performance of your online mortgage brokerage ads. More so, you may use these platforms to share updates about the current state of the mortgage, which can make you the leader of the industry. 

You may also use these platforms to develop new campaigns using free templates that match the design of your mortgage brokerage firm. Once your digital marketing campaign is complete, you may track its performance through powerful analytics tools. As you review this information, you may use the insights to reuse the templates or make adjustments to your next campaign, which improves your marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Tools

Your prospective and existing mortgage clients need to be nurtured and educated so you can persuade them that your firm is the best option in the marketplace. With email communications, you can communicate clear messages with your existing property clients, which increases customer loyalty. Indeed, email marketing is an essential factor for any effective digital marketing strategy so you need to invest in the right tools.

You should consider using email marketing tools to develop fully-customized email campaigns. That said, you may highlight vital information about special loan services and programs to establish a strong connection with your clients. For instance, you can send a series of targeted emails to inform purchasers about your veteran’s affairs (VA) rates to increase the number of veterans in your clientele.

Design Tools

Ensuring the success of your digital marketing campaigns requires you to produce high-quality and authoritative content. Unfortunately, many mortgage brokers don’t have professional designing skills or they don’t have sufficient funds to hire a graphic artist. With this challenge, you may face difficulties as you try to develop social media posts, advertisements, and blogs.

With the help of design tools, you can use high-quality photos with your blogs and posts to boost public interest in your mortgage brokerage firm. As prospective clients view appealing images, they’re likely to search about your services on your website and various social media channels. More so, you may use standard online marketing tools like Canva and Photoshop if you don’t have the budget to outsource a graphic artist.

Key Takeaway

With the ever-rising competition in the mortgage brokerage industry, organizational leaders must use the right tools to stay ahead of their competitors. That said, you should consider leveraging these four digital marketing tools to ensure the success of your mortgage firm. In turn, you can nurture your relationships with your clients and invite more prospects to your services.

Back in March of 2022, the Federal Reserve announced the first benchmark interest rate hike since 2018. Though this increase is only 0.25%, experts believe that this is only the first of a series of hikes that will result in a significant cumulative increase. Consumers are flocking to lenders and mortgage brokers in an attempt to lock in low rates before these hikes occur, which means now is the time for your mortgage company to kick its digital marketing campaign into high gear. Have a read on the most important mortgage marketing services below.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most critical parts of any digital marketing campaign in the mortgage and housing industries. Above all else, it ensures that the consumers who are seeking mortgages before the rate increase find your mortgage lending company before your competitors’. In fact, websites located at the top of the Google search engine results page snag 36.4% of the traffic that websites ranked lower in the results simply miss. Now is the time to implement SEO best practices and get your company noticed. 

Google Ads

Google remains the most popular search engine around the world today. Per information reported by Statista, Google absolutely dominates the search engine market with a market share of 92.47%. As such, it is just good practice to focus most of your visibility efforts on the Google platform, and Google Ads offers a fantastic opportunity to do just that. By updating your Google Ads with relevant search terms and creating the most relevant and appealing ads possible, you can generate more traffic, which ultimately leads to higher profits. 

Social Media Marketing

More consumers than ever rely on social media for their information, and according to some experts, social media influences 71% of all consumer buying decisions in some way. People often ask local groups for recommendations, and they rely on friends and family to help them make decisions – even decisions as important as choosing a mortgage lender. It’s important for your company to enjoy a solid social media presence for this very reason. If your social media content is relatable, helpful, and shareable, it is far more likely to appear in front of the right people at the right times. 

Content Creation

Content will always be a crucial component of any good digital marketing strategy. The content you publish on your website has the power to help you become an authoritative figure in your industry. Furthermore, when your optimized content is aimed toward the people who are looking for home loans, is written in a way that they can understand, provides genuinely helpful information that can make the mortgage application process simpler, and contains well-placed calls to action, it can make a huge difference in your traffic and your conversions. 

Email Marketing 

Email has been around in some way, shape, or form for almost 40 years, and throughout that time, it’s been used both successfully and unsuccessfully as a marketing tool. Email marketing is still a very beneficial part of any digital marketing plan, but it’s important to ensure that you are reaching out to the right people with the right frequency – and with the right message at the right times. In fact, when it comes to digital marketing in today’s mortgage space, creating optimized email campaigns should be near the top of your priority list. 

If you are a lender or mortgage broker, you are in a very unique position – a position to secure more clients and more profits before the Federal Reserve hikes its interest rates throughout the year. Through professional digital marketing campaigns, you can truly appeal to potential borrowers and give your business a significant boost.

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