3 Step Strategy to Better Mortgage Marketing

Start with defining your differentiation

Here’s a few ideas for differentiating your financial institution:

• You’re local – banking locally has many benefits
• You’re available – you provide white-glove service the whole way through closing (and after)
• You’re safe – your bank has a long history of helping local people and businesses
• You’re the experts – you know every mortgage type and assistance program available
• You’ve got a better product – your rates and fees are amazing
• You’re trustworthy – your glowing reviews from consumers and businesses speak for themselves
• You’ve got a better process – you make it really easy to get a home mortgage loan (see below)

Make your mortgage application process really easy

According to EllieMae, 92% of borrowers did online research prior to contacting a lender this past year. As borrowers have become more familiar with digital mortgage lenders like Rocket Mortgage and LendingTree, their expectations of all lenders has evolved. Here’s what people now expect of you during the application process:

• Online application technology that is easy to use and convenient (mobile-friendly, auto-saves progress, integrates with other data sources, simple to work through, easily understood, etc.)
• In-store application process that is even better (loan officers who are available at convenient times (aka all the time), a physical application process that’s easy to work through, amazingly helpful and friendly people, etc.
• Fast turnaround time
• Communication the way I like it (text, chat, email, in-person, and phone), with timely updates and transparency

Create awareness (at all stages of the buying cycle)

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s all about using the right tools to reach your ideal audience at each stage of the buying cycle. Whether you’re trying to generate mortgage leads or grow deposit accounts, these digital marketing ideas are a perfect way to supplement your traditional marketing campaigns:

• Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – make sure you’re appearing prominently in Google and Bing maps for relevant search queries, and that your product pages appear prominently in search engine results. While there are always a certain number of people in your target market searching for products and lenders, there are a great deal more who are searching for help with related questions that you can answer with relevant educational content.
• Search Engine Ads – pay for prominent ad placement above local/organic results in search engines like Google and Bing.
• Pay per click display ads, mobile ads, and social ads allow you to cost-effectively reach specific audiences across 90% of the internet. For visitors that have already engaged with your website, you can use remarketing ads to entice them to return to your website.
• Email nurture campaigns – create and nurture leads with relevant email communications.
• Leverage the personal networks of your loan officers – get them on LinkedIn, Zillow, Facebook, LoopNet, Credio, etc., building their own personal brand with local realtors, past clients, and prospects. Don’t forget to create individual pages for each of your mortgage lenders on your website. 

As you’ve likely figured out, increasing mortgage leads for your community bank or local credit union is a team effort. You’ll need help from IT, internal and external marketing teams on the same page, participation from loan officers, and executive management’s buy-in. Getting this kind of bi-partisan support is no easy task, but once the band is back together your local financial institution will back in the mortgage business at full speed!