With 97% of consumers searching for local businesses online and 78% of marketers reporting that digital marketing significantly increases their business revenue, if you’re not leveraging digital marketing in today’s mortgage industry, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
In today's fast-paced, technology-driven world, digital marketing has become a competitive advantage for mortgage loan officers (MLOs) with the right tools. With the industry facing high interest rates and limited inventory, it's essential to reach borrowers first and stay connected with past customers and real estate partners.
current situation
According to HousingWire, the real estate market is plagued by high interest rates and limited inventory, creating a tough environment for mortgage lenders and loan officers. Current market conditions highlight the importance of staying ahead of the competition through an effective digital marketing strategy. By leveraging digital channels, MLOs can effectively target and engage with potential clients to ensure they remain visible.
Why is it complicated?
The mortgage industry has traditionally been slow to adopt new technology. Many mortgage lenders still rely on outdated marketing techniques that are ineffective and costly. Additionally, technology advances so quickly that it can be difficult for those unfamiliar with the field to stay up to date on the latest digital marketing trends, tools, and related regulations. HousingWire emphasizes that embracing digital transformation is no longer optional, but essential to survive and thrive in today's market.
Important questions to consider
- What is digital marketing and how does it benefit mortgage companies and loan managers?
- How can mortgage lenders effectively leverage paid and unpaid digital channels?
- What are the cost advantages of digital marketing compared to traditional methods?
- How can digital marketing improve referral generation from real estate agents?
- What are the benefits of automation and compliance in digital marketing?
The answers to these questions
1. What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing includes all marketing activities that leverage digital channels like your website, social media, email, and other channels to connect with existing and potential customers. The goal is to meet your customers where they spend most of their time: online. Digital marketing enables targeted, measurable, and cost-effective campaigns, helping you deliver a more personalized and engaging customer experience while increasing revenue.
2. How can mortgage lenders leverage digital channels?
Digital marketing takes place across a variety of channels and is categorized into paid and unpaid efforts.
Paid Digital Marketing:
- PPC/Paid Search: Mortgage companies can advertise on search engines like Google, targeting keywords related to their services. Each time a user clicks on these ads, the company pays a fee, driving highly engaged traffic to their website and increasing the chances of lead conversion. This way, competitive keywords can be quickly surfaced, attracting potential customers who are actively searching for mortgage solutions.
- Paid Social: By promoting posts and running ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, mortgage companies can reach a wider audience. These ads can be customized to specific demographics, ensuring that the content they deliver resonates with potential homebuyers and refinancers. This targeted approach maximizes the efficiency of advertising spend, increases engagement, and drives more qualified leads to the company's products and services.
Both paid search and paid social offer the ability to segment audiences based on a variety of factors. This includes demographics such as age, gender, and location, but also more specific criteria such as interests, online behavior, and purchase history. By utilizing these segmentation capabilities, mortgage companies can create highly targeted campaigns that reach the most relevant audiences, ensuring that their advertising efforts are efficient and effective. This precision targeting helps maximize ROI by delivering personalized messages to audiences who are most likely to convert, improving lead quality and increasing engagement rates.
Free Digital Marketing:
- Organic Search: Optimizing website content with relevant keywords and quality backlinks can help mortgage companies improve their rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Higher organic rankings increase visibility and drive traffic without the ongoing costs associated with paid advertising. This sustainable strategy builds a long-term online presence and makes it easier for potential customers to find your company organically. However, this strategy can take a fairly long time to produce meaningful results.
- Web content: Maintaining a blog, updating your website content, and participating in online reviews and affiliate marketing can help you build authority and trust. Compelling, informative content can attract potential customers, provide them with valuable information, and establish you as a thought leader in the mortgage industry. Consistently producing high-quality content can also support your optimization efforts, drive organic traffic, and increase your brand's credibility.
- Email Marketing: For mortgage companies to send personalized, targeted emails to potential and existing customers is an effective way to nurture leads and maintain relationships. Regular updates, newsletters, and promotional offers keep your audience engaged and motivate them to choose your company for their mortgage needs. Email marketing also allows for segmentation and personalization, making each message more relevant and impactful.
- Social media: Creating and sharing relevant content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allows mortgage companies to naturally interact with their audience. Regular posting, community engagement and leveraging user-generated content can build a loyal following and increase brand awareness without any direct advertising costs. Social media also provides a platform for real-time communication, allowing businesses to respond to inquiries and build stronger customer relationships.
For information on the performance difference between paid and free digital, Leads generated from paid digital have approximately 3.4x higher conversion rates compared to leads generated from non-paid digital and increase brand awareness by at least 80%. According to data from Unbounce.
3. Cost Benefits of Digital Marketing
Traditional lead generation methods often result in a high cost per lead, forcing mortgage companies to incur significant expenses to acquire new customers. Digital marketing offers a cost-effective solution by precisely targeting specific demographics and optimizing advertising spend to ensure maximum effectiveness. This approach not only reduces overall costs, but also increases the efficiency of marketing campaigns by reaching potential customers who are most likely to convert.
According to research from Evocalize, self-generated leads are at least 300% cheaper than purchased leads, providing significant savings to mortgage companies. Generating leads in-house gives companies more control over their brand and messaging, ensuring consistency and compliance with industry regulations. This strategic shift to digital marketing allows companies to allocate resources more effectively, ultimately improving financial outcomes.
4. Improve referral generation
Earning referral business from real estate agents is a common challenge for mortgage brokers, and it often requires significant time and effort to build and maintain relationships. Digital marketing bridges this gap by promoting integration with existing tools and creating co-marketing opportunities with real estate professionals. By leveraging digital channels, mortgage brokers can increase collaboration with agents, resulting in a more streamlined and efficient referral process.
This synergy not only generates quality referrals, but also strengthens partnerships with real estate agents, nurturing long-term relationships that benefit both parties. Through joint digital marketing efforts such as content sharing and co-branded campaigns, mortgage companies can expand their reach and leverage real estate agent networks, increasing the likelihood of new business and strengthening their market presence.
5. Automation and Compliance Benefits
Digital marketing is inherently more efficient than traditional methods thanks to automation tools like Evocalize that manage campaigns, track performance, and adjust strategies in real time. These tools ensure optimal results with minimal manual intervention, allowing mortgage companies to focus on strategic efforts instead of day-to-day campaign management. Automation also facilitates precise targeting and personalization, improving the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
Additionally, a platform with built-in compliance features protects campaigns from potential legal issues, a key aspect highlighted by HousingWire. Complying with industry regulations, such as the recent FCC lead generation rules, is essential to avoid costly fines and maintain consumer trust. By utilizing a digital marketing platform with built-in compliance mechanisms, mortgage companies can ensure their campaigns comply with legal standards, reducing risk and promoting a trustworthy brand image.
Digital marketing doesn’t have to be difficult, even if you’re not a marketing professional.
Digital marketing may seem daunting, especially for those who are not marketing experts. But with the right tools, it can be easy and highly effective. Here are some key features to look for in a digital marketing tool that will make the process easier and more effective:
- Powerful and flexible automation: Choose a tool that offers automation capabilities that allow you to effectively leverage your business data. Automation streamlines your marketing efforts, improving efficiency and saving you time.
- Built-in regulatory compliance: Ensuring compliance with industry regulations is important. Look for a platform with built-in compliance features to protect your campaigns from potential legal issues.
- Effective co-marketing with real estate agents: The ability to seamlessly co-market with real estate agents can greatly enhance your business, so choose tools that facilitate this collaboration with ease.
- Hyperlocal Marketing: Staying relevant within your borrower community is crucial, so choose a solution that lets you localize your marketing efforts and ensure your campaigns are customized to resonate with local audiences.
- Flexible budgets, campaign types and duration: Flexibility is key in digital marketing: choose a platform that offers a variety of budget options, campaign types, and durations, allowing you to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and business needs.
Investing in digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated or daunting. By leveraging tools like Evocalize that simplify and enhance marketing efforts, mortgage lenders and mortgage managers can stay competitive, generate leads, and grow their business efficiently.
Conclusion
The mortgage industry is becoming increasingly digital, and the need for effective digital marketing has never been greater. Brokers and loan officers must adopt these strategies to reach a wider customer base, reduce costs, improve customer experience, and stay competitive. Investing in digital marketing isn't just about keeping up with the times, it's about ensuring a thriving future for the mortgage industry even in a tough market. Embrace digital marketing today to ensure sustained growth and success well into the future.
source:
Justin Ulrich is VP of Marketing at Evocalize.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire editorial staff or its owners.
To contact this article's editor: [email protected]
