Starting Oct 12, 2022, Facebook will discontinue its “Special Ad Audiences” feature for ad targeting. This major announcement poses a significant hurdle for all financial institutions –including brokers and loan officers –who use Facebook ads as part of their lead generation.

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How does this affect Mortgage Ads?

The ‘special ads audiences” is a tool that allowed advertisers to define their target audience. This category only applied to ad campaigns that dealt with credit, employment, politics, and housing, and it aimed to help advertisers define their audience while minimizing possible discriminatory practices that would violate federal laws. 

Facebook ads in the above-mentioned categories were required to use the “special ads audience” tool, according to Meta ad policies. However, this tool will no longer be available beginning Oct 12.

Any ads currently using the “special ads audience” tool will also pause.

Why is Facebook changing its ad policies?

This major update is part of a settlement agreement with the DOJ where Meta (Facebook) was accused of algorithmic discrimination. It was alleged that Meta’s mortgage and housing advertising algorithm discriminated against users based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin.

The complaint also asserted that Meta’s advertising algorithms partially relied on those factors that are protected under the FHA.

Are Mortgage Ads a thing of the past?? 

(spoiler alert: No, they’re not!!)

While this change creates a significant obstacle for Facebook mortgage marketing, it does not mean mortgage ads on Facebook are dead!

Advertisers will still be allowed to run mortgage ads to their page followers and will be able to market their page to grow their following — all of which stress how critical it is to grow your digital presence and real estate partnerships. 

At LenderHomePage, we’ve long understood the power of leveraging these factors for business stability and scalability.

This is what it takes to win in all markets despite policy changes.

Join us for a special webinar this Thurs, Oct 14. Led by our the Voice of Customer champion, Kwe Parker, this not-to-be-missed live webinar will give you the insight and tools you need to leverage Facebook advertising in 2023. 

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Technology may change many aspects of the mortgage industry, but some things remain the same: reputation is everything.

Whether you’re an independent LO or part of a mortgage team, your online reputation is continuously scrutinized by potential borrowers.

Consider these recent stats on the importance of reviews and revenue:

A study in 2021 by the National Association of Realtors found that 97% of mortgage borrowers started their homebuying journey with an online search (pg 57). Regarding lender reviews, research into consumer behavior by Spiegal Research Center at Northwestern found that displaying online reviews can increase conversion rates by 270%. It also demonstrated that the more expensive the item was, the more critical the review was for influencing purchase decisions. 

Yet another study, this one by the Harvard Business School, found that every 1-star increase in Yelp reviews translated to a 5-9% increase in revenue. 

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Gauging Your Mortgage Reputation

Before we get into the strategy of using reviews for mortgage leads, let’s see how you can find out where you currently stand. Here are ways to gauge your online mortgage reputation:

• Check your current online reviews. This includes Google, Zillow, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, or any third-party platform you use to collect reviews. 
• Remember employee reviews, too! Consumers consider testimonials from various angles. So if you have team members, check out what they’ve been saying about what it’s like to work on your team. Start with Glassdoor.
• What’s the word on social media? Check out what others are saying about you by searching hashtags with your name or business name, posts that you’ve been tagged on, and comments on your posts.  
• Read comments from your current digital ads. If you’re running any paid retargeting ads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., current or past clients may see your ad and leave a comment –essentially a review.
• Industry forums and group chats. Depending on the privacy settings, this may or may not be visible to the general public. Either way, it’s a great place to gain insight into your mortgage reputation. 

How To Get More 5-Star Reviews and Generate More More Leads

Update Your Online Profile and Business Info

A study conducted by Yext of nearly 6,000 mortgage professionals found that almost half had incorrect or incomplete information on their profiles. Address the details of your profiles, including Facebook, Yelp, and Google My Business (click here to learn how mortgage pros should set up their GMB profile).

Respond to Any Bad Reviews

This one might sting a bit because no one likes to be told they did poorly. But getting a bad review and responding to it can be very good for your business! Potential borrowers value an empathetic response and appreciate you trying to make things right when a customer felt wronged. Read this previous article for tips on how to respond to bad reviews. 

Here’s another benefit of bad reviews, according to the same Speigal study mentioned above, bad reviews signify an “authenticity” about your business that increases the trust factor for consumers!

Ask For Feedback Before Asking For a Review

Sometime during the borrower’s journey, ask your client for feedback about their experience. Use open-ended questions like, “How do you feel about your mortgage experience with us so far?” If it’s anything less than enthusiastic, ask how you can improve it. If it’s all gold stars, it’s a go for asking them to leave a review. 

Remember to ask for a referral, too! Referrals are a goldmine for mortgage leads. 

Host your Reviews on your Website

Make It Easy For Borrowers to Leave a Review

Remove the hassle and clear the pathway for more reviews. Do this by giving them multiple review platforms, minimizing the number of clicks it takes to get to the review site, letting them know it only takes a minute and sending the request multiple ways, such as email or SMS. 

Post and Share Positive Reviews That You’ve Already Received

The influencing power of positive reviews also works to gain more of them! Share your reviews across social media and display them proudly on your mortgage website. Displaying reviews encourages past customers to leave you a review as well.

Manage Reviews and Continue to Listen

Continue to manage your online reputation by setting up Google alerts (it’s free) or another review tracker to send you notifications automatically. Remember to schedule in time to respond, too. The faster, the better. 

Bonus tip: Snoop on Your Competitor by Reading their Reviews

Want to know more about what your competitor is doing right or wrong? Read their reviews! Use that feedback to improve your service quality and gauge what borrowers in your area value in a mortgage experience. 

Remember that over 93% of consumers use testimonials in their decision-making process. That goes for choice in mortgage service providers too. Take care of your online reputation, and your reputation will take care of you. 

Get More Leads from Testimonials

Mortgage websites are unlike traditional business websites. As a highly regulated industry, lenders have a slew of compliance requirements in addition to state and federal regulations like the CCPA in California and WCAG 2.0 across the nation.

But having a mortgage-compliant website isn’t the only thing you have to worry about.

A mortgage professional’s website must also incorporate crucial structural, design, marketing, branding, and functional elements –all while delivering a borrower experience that delights and converts!

Does your current site meet the standards of 2022 consumers?

Check out this list of the most critical and essential elements your site should have right now.

Essential Elements of a Mortgage Website

Clear Site Navigation and Architecture

Several avenues may lead a user to your site. Google My Business could have directed them to your homepage, or maybe a search query landed them on one of your mortgage blog articles.

Or perhaps a real estate partner or former client forwarded them an email resulting in the user clicking over to your site. Where ever the user came from, it’s important that they can easily find what they are looking for.

Navigation should be located both at the top and bottom of the site. Nest categories in the menu to minimize clutter and include a link to a site map at the footer.

Also, make sure the navigation is intuitive to the visitor’s device.

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Visible Call-to-Action (CTA)

Again, depending on the page the user landed on and their intent, you’ll want to provide clear direction as to what to do next, and there are several key spots where you want to include a CTA.

Your homepage should include a lead capture form, and it’s good practice to have an apply now at the top of your navigation –visible on every page they visit on your site.  Including a CTA at the end of every article and a lead capture form on key evergreen content is also an excellent idea.

The CTA can vary in wording, but essentially you want to encourage the user to continue through the sales funnel and get closer to completing an application. This can be accomplished by:

Telling them to contact you for more details on a particular program

• Pre-qualify using your online form
• Download your mortgage mobile app
• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Read more articles about a specific topic on your blog

Mobile-Friendly Version

There’s some confusion about what constitutes a “mobile-free” website. Mobile-friendly isn’t just about its site resizing to fit on a smaller screen. According to Google, a website must have these features to be classified “mobile-friendly” by their Google bots:

• Avoids software not commonly used on mobile devices –like Flash.
• Uses text that is readable without zooming.
• Content fits the screen without requiring users to scroll horizontally or zoom to view
• Places the links far enough apart so that the user can tap on the correct one easily.

Well-Defined Mortgage Business Brand

Your brand is what makes you memorable and unique. From a mortgage consumer’s perspective, a well-defined brand makes them feel at ease and familiar.

It can also give them a sense of happiness and satisfaction -both rooted in the emotional connection that digital consumers build with brands they find trustworthy.

When it comes to your website, make sure that you communicate your brand throughout your site –from your logo and tagline to mission statement and “about us” pages.

Even font and color scheme elements communicate your brand to the digital consumer, so be mindful of that when customizing your mortgage website.

Mortgage Content and Resources

Many loan applications begin with questions like, “how do I…?” or “the truth about…” or something similar. In other words, it’s unlikely that a digital consumer landed on your site because looking to apply for a loan at that time.

A consumer typically lands on a mortgage site researching loan or real estate services and topics, making it essential to have a library of well-written informational articles on your site. Note that relevant content goes hand-in-hand with your SEO efforts and search engine ranking.

Reviews From Previous Happy Clients

Positive reviews from past clients underscore a phenomenon called social proof. Social proof is the idea that others place a higher value on something simply because someone else has placed a high value on it.

Social proof also encourages people to follow suit. In other words, if a prospect is unsure if using your services is the correct course of action, seeing that someone else had used your services and was happy with the result will reinforce the idea using your services is the best action to take.

So while positive reviews raise the trust factor,  reviews also make your services more valuable and desirable. This is why this element is necessary for your site.

Pre-Designed Mortgage Websites by LenderHomePage

A well-built mortgage website that connects to a digital consumer takes more than just looks.

It must also be compliant, well-branded, and positioned as a reliable, professional resource for all mortgage needs –all of that in addition to easy to navigate and designed to capture leads!

Our flagship product, mortgage websites, is still one of our most highly-praised digital mortgage assets. We’ve maintained this reputation by consistently improving and evolving with the needs of our clients, their digital borrowers, and search engine trends.

Explore our gallery of templated mortgage sites –including designs tailored for personal branding –and try it free for 14 days.

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Digital presence is vital to your success. Consumers turn to the internet when they want to learn more about a loan officer or a particular loan product, making it crucial for LOs to have a robust digital presence. How easily your business is found online, how effective you are at conveying trust, authority, and value, and how well you connect and engage with current and potential borrowers will all determine your business longevity from this point forward.

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Digital presence is the modern lender’s differentiator.

Digital presence includes all online platforms and content you have control over – such as your website, social media profiles, email campaigns, etc. It also involves those you may have no control over, such as online reviews, testimonials, and general feedback. The same goes for both web and mobile presence.

Check out these recent stats on digital presence and consumer online behavior:

• The average consumer reads 10 online reviews before making a decision. (Hubspot, 2020)
• 88% of consumers trust online testimonials as much as personal recommendations. (Hubspot, 2021)
• 63% of consumers need to hear company claims 3-5x before accepting it. (MarketingBlender, 2020)
• Facebook is the most widely used social media platform. About 68% of US adults report that they are Facebook users (Pewinternet, 2018)
• 81 percent of US adults aged 30 to 49 are active social media users. This number falls slightly to 73 percent for those aged 50 to 64 and 45% for 65 and above. (Pew Research Center, 2021)
• 71% of consumers who had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to others (Lyfe Marketing, 2019)
• Businesses average 67% more leads every month if they have a company blog than those who don’t. (Learn Hub, 2020)
• 59% of consumers cite at least one online channel as a source of initial awareness. (Responsify, 2022)
• Consumer’s online activity begins with a search 97% of the time. (Compare Hare, 2020)
• 18% of local searches on mobile devices lead to a conversion within a day. (Junto, 2022)

However, building your mortgage business’s digital presence can seem daunting. With so many platforms, terms, and varying trends, staying on top of it can be challenging –especially if you don’t know how to do it or tell if your actions are successful.

Even online-savvy LOs can mistakingly think they have this “digital presence thing down” when, in reality, they’ve simply blurred the line between personal social media use and digital reputation management (hint: they are not the same).

This ebook will lay out the first foundational steps for creating a robust digital presence.

We’ll go over everything from how to improve your website traffic to social media content with the highest engagement to increasing your presence in the inbox! But first, let’s review why digital presence is so paramount to your success strategy.

Stand out from the competition. Get noticed with disruption. If you want to reach a millennial borrower, you got to shake things up. When it comes to tactics for driving mortgage website traffic and having a lead pipeline that’s constantly filled, doing something that get you immediately noticed seems to be the way to do it. 

And there’s some truth to it. That’s why companies spend millions of dollars on 15-30 second Super Bowl commercials. But simply doing something “outside the box” is hardly a growth strategy – and indeed not a wise financial investment in an uncertain mortgage market. 

However, implementing innovative marketing, business, and technology tactics have proven to be critical for success, for businesses large and small. The key to doing this right is to discover a consumer need or target market that is currently ignored.

We call this “White Space.” 

White Space is where consumers’ unspoken, unmet needs are discovered. White Space is used to spark innovation, and uncover new revenue opportunities by reaching a new consumer or making improvements to the current process. 

Whitespace exists in all industries. It’s contained in the unoccupied territory where rules are unclear, authority is fuzzy, and strategy is vague. And it’s here where enterprising originators find the most success for driving innovation, finding new lead sources, and discovering untapped revenue outside of market fluctuations. 

Moving From Black Space into White Space

Black space encompasses all the business and marketing tactics you have already tried or incorporated into the business. Therefore, the White Space would be all the opportunities outside that scope. Remember, White Space encompasses the unmet need of consumers, and discovering those needs won’t occur by happenstance. 

When Tesla emerged as a frontrunner in car manufacturing, it wasn’t luck. There was an opportunity Elon Musk saw in the White Space by developing electric sports cars. 

When Carl’s Jr launched their $6 burger (more than double the price of most fast food burgers at the time), it was a strategic move discovered in the White Space where they found an untapped market in-between “fast food burger” and “restaurant burger.”

Your local fusion restaurant is another example of opportunity born in the White Space. The wine and paint night business is yet another –providing a space to drink and socialize that’s not a bar. Revolutionary! 

How can you move into the White Space to reveal new opportunities for your mortgage business? Read below for strategies to get started:

Discovering The “White Space” in Your Mortgage Business

Innovate Upon What You Already Have

The perfect place to uncover areas where your prospects’ and borrowers’ needs are unmet is to examine your current offering. For example, are you still using the same Wix site from when you started your business? Then it’s time to ditch it and launch a professional mortgage website. 

Are you still using your personal social media profiles to market your business? Then it’s time to not only create new consumer-facing profiles, but it’s also time you create a strategy and budget for digital marketing for mortgage leads. 

Target A Separate Consumer Segment

If you’ve been struggling to reach enough prospective borrowers for your main loan product, it would be worth exploring a segment of that consumer market. For example, if your main product is FHA loans for first-time buyers, consider whether there is a separate pool of loan prospects within that target market (this is similar to the Carl’s Jr example mentioned above). 

By moving into the White Space, you may discover that there is a growing Hispanic population in Denver and surrounding areas. Or the White Space may reveal that there is an influx of tech professionals relocating to your state. These subgroups would benefit from an FHA loan. However, reaching them requires a refined tactic. 

Analyze What Makes Your Mortgage Services Different

Many mortgage companies make the mistake of trying to be everything to everybody. While there’s value and truth that you can do every type of loan, consumers tend to trust professionals that are specialists. The specialization could come from a particular loan product, expertise in financial challenges, locale, or even association with a distinctive group such as law enforcement or being bilingual.

Your specialization could also come from other sources, such as exemplifying your modern lending capabilities or demonstrating care by humanizing the borrower experience. 

So if you haven’t already pinned down what makes your mortgage business different from your local competition, move into the White Space to reveal it. If you already know your winning difference, use the White Space to lean into it harder. Doing so can help you find ways to strengthen your branding and uncover new tactics in lead generation. 

White Space is a much-respected and innovative practice that can help mortgage companies build their niche in a crowded market. Remember, it’s not just about standing out or thinking “outside the box” —White Space is a place to discover ways to reposition your business and maximize opportunities from the unmet needs of consumers. 

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Looking for more ways to move your mortgage business into the White Space? Talk to an account executive today to learn more about our brandable and stackable digital mortgage tools that help you to customize the lending experience to any target market.

You watched the tutorials, read the how-to’s, and boosted your top Facebook posts for several weeks now. Yet still, your mortgage marketing efforts have failed to produce results. Truth be told, marketing is partly an experiment, and sometimes, a particular marketing campaign just doesn’t work. However, there are plenty of instances where marketing campaigns fail when they shouldn’t have. 

Read on to learn the most common reasons mortgage marketing fails –and what you can do about it!

Tops Reasons That Mortgage Marketing Strategies Fail

Unclear Objective Or How To Measure It

The first common mistake made in mortgage marketing is not defining the objective or having too many objectives on a single campaign. Along the same lines is failing to determine whether meeting just one of those goals equates to success or failure. 

The best marketing campaigns have a single measurable objective that allows you to develop a plan and outline what success looks like. While being stringent about your objective can seem counterintuitive (being flexible will widen the possibilities, right?), the opposite is true. As it goes with any life’s goal,  determining the goal and what success looks like will make it more likely that you’ll achieve it. 

Application: A brokerage is expanding and is now licensed in a new state. They want to launch a campaign to create awareness of their brand and service to the new market (objective). They decide to run a video marketing campaign featuring high-value mortgage content discussing the buyers’ needs in that specific market. The video ads are set to run in their target location. Success is measured by video engagement, such as liking, sharing, commenting, or following. 

Undefined Calls To Action

A call-to-action (CTA) lets the consumer know what to do next. After engaging with your ad, the prospect’s next logical question is, “now what?” Your CTA answers the question by telling them what to do next. 

If your CTA is weak or missing altogether, your prospect won’t move forward. Likewise, if you have too many CTA options, they’ll be confused and are less likely to take any action.

Remedy this by establishing a single and well-defined CTA. Make sure the CTA is easy to find, and the task is simple enough for them to complete without challenges. 

Application: An LO is running ads on Facebook to generate more leads. She pairs the smartly worded copy and attractive graphic with a CTA that says “Learn More.” Clicking through, the prospect is taken to a landing page with a few bullet points on the loan product and adds more sizzle with an offer (aka, the solution). She then has another CTA, “Your Homebuying Journey Starts Here,” with a simple lead capture form below. 

Read this previous post for the Ultimate Call-To-Actions for Mortgage Pros

Insufficient Budget

The thing about setting a marketing budget is that it typically isn’t set at all. Like any other business expense, a marketing budget should be based on a percentage of the revenue. But all too often, companies will base their marketing budget on what they feel comfortable spending. The problem with not putting enough money to finance your marketing could mean not running your ad long enough or not reaching enough people to see results. 

Application: One way to set your marketing budget is to review past revenue sheets and set aside a percentage for marketing. Allocating between 6.5% to 8.5% is the norm for established businesses. If your business is less than five years old, consider spending 10% to 12%. 

Read this previous post on Reducing Loan Production Costs by 50%!

Relying On LOs or Interns To Do The Work

As mentioned earlier, marketing is partially an experiment, but handing off the experiment to a novice will make it doomed to fail. It’s also costly. So while there’s no guarantee that a particular campaign will succeed, a professionally crafted campaign based on metrics, solid theory, and past successes will likely yield positive results. 

Application: Employ either an in-house marketer or hire a mortgage marketing agency to handle the planning and undertaking of the overall campaign. Social media marketing, creative, paid ads, video creation, and SEO content are critical marketing elements requiring professional development and execution. When it comes to the finer aspects of marketing, like building relationships and nurturing leads, let your LOs take the lead on that. 

Read this previous post on Increasing LO Volume By Freeing Them From Marketing Responsibility

Customer Experience Is Subpar

Sometimes a business will think that the marketing campaign failed when in reality, it was the experience after the fact that was unable to get results. Challenging to navigate POS, a digital 1003 that isn’t mobile responsive, or an LO that didn’t respond to the lead fast enough are possible reasons outside of marketing that could make it seem as if your marketing isn’t working. 

Remember that no amount of marketing will fix poor business operations or customer experience. 

Application: If you haven’t already refined your digital mortgage transformation, do it now before adding any more money to your marketing budget. Your website, digital application, POS, mortgage mobile app, and every element in between must be working at the highest level of performance in both consumer and business-facing processes. 

Read this previous post on Mortgage Touch Points and Creating An Exceptional Customer Experience Through Digital Means

Ready to level up your mortgage marketing and customer experience? Contact us today to learn more about our stackable digital mortgage tools and services –everything you need to grow your business in any market. 

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Retaining clients is essential for both maintaining and scaling a mortgage business. But it doesn’t happen magically. Similar to the work you put into nurturing the mortgage lead in the first place, it takes work to foster a relationship that keeps those clients around. Here are the top reasons it’s worth the effort to re-engage previous clients and the strategies to help you do it right

Re-engaging Past Clients Bolsters Your Reputation

The decision to buy or refi is not an easy one. So when clients choose to work with you, they’re also choosing to entrust you with a significant financial undertaking. 

By continuing to engage with clients even after funding, you underscore the concept that you care about the well-being of your borrowers, and they are not “just another loan.” It’ll implicitly demonstrate that you see people as more than just dollar signs, further solidifying their trust in you. 

Aim to be known as a trusted loan advisor beyond the life of that one deal –one that helps them make sound financial choices to refinance when rates are low, cash out of their investment when the market is high, or help find a property to grow their wealth.

Your reputation is the key to mortgage business success, and when you re-engage with your clients, you establish a reputation as a go-to resource for all present and future mortgage needs. 

Re-engaging Clients Encourages Repeat Business

A fact that often gets overlooked is that most home buyers are not first-time homebuyers. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, only 31% of the homes sold in 2021 were purchased by first-time buyers. This means that 69% were repeat borrowers.

Failing to keep up with your previous borrowers gives them a reason to seek another mortgage pro for the next transaction. So if you’re not re-engaging your past clients, you’re likely leaving money on the table.

Re-engaging Clients Boosts Referrals

Even those past borrowers who never plan to buy another home or refinance anytime soon will likely know someone who will. Consistently re-engaging those previous clients with authenticity will encourage the referral and motivate a glowing recommendation. 

Remember that people want to work with professionals they trust. And without a frame of reference in the home financing, they’ll rely on the recommendations of the people they know.

Ideas for Re-Engaging Past Clients

Thank them for the referrals they sent.

We’ve already discussed the incredible value of leads that come from referrals, but did you know that you can use this event to re-engage your past client again? You can do this in a couple of ways. First, establish that the new lead is a referral by asking prospective clients how they heard about you. Alternatively, if the client provided the referral which you later engaged, make a note to follow up with your past client to thank them for that lead. 

Re-engaging doesn’t have to be complicated. A quick call, text, or email to say thanks, plus adding an open-ended question, will feel natural and be welcomed. 

Use your mortgage expertise and past notes on the client (you’re saving notes in your CRM, right?) to develop good open-ended questions. Considering their current loan, would they possibly benefit from a refi? Briefly discuss current market rates. Are kids nearing college age? Mention using equity for college tuition. Have they outgrown their home, or are they now empty-nesters? Go over home financing options for this next stage in life. 

Even casual conversation can reveal a wealth of information. For example, they may be excited about becoming grandparents for the first time or a vacation to Greece they have coming up to celebrate a wedding anniversary. Offer congrats, and if there’s any value you can bring (like recommending a can’t-miss winery in Greece), let them know! 

Of course, if the referral they sent you uses your services, be sure to follow up with a gift and a second thank-you.

Send a mortgage rate or market update.

Even with easy access to rate information online, many homeowners are unaware of or make an effort to stay up-to-date on the refinance market.

So as part of your plan to re-engage former purchase loan clients, you can send a rate update a few times a year. There’s no need to be “sales-y” when using this approach. The point is to provide the information, re-affirm your relationship with the client, and pique their interest. 

Share home improvement ideas.

A home is an investment, so sharing ideas on enhancing it makes sense. Not only does it provide value to your client, but it also keeps your name at the top of their mind. You can do this by creating a homecare email campaign where you share home improvement tips and suggestions with past clients. 

You can do this in a couple of ways. You can hire a copywriter to create 12 articles for you (or write them yourself) and email one every month. Alternatively, you can search the web for 3-4 pieces and write a summary of each, link it back to the original article, and email those summaries to your past clients.

You can also partner with a local professional, like a contractor or landscaper, and have them write an article. Your clients will get valuable information, you’ll get free professional content, and the partner will appreciate getting their name out.

How do you re-engage with past clients?

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Referrals are the lifeblood of any business, accounting for as much as 65% of new business. However, your former clientele isn’t the only source of referral –you also have realtors! The value of connecting with real estate agents is clear –you share the same consumers and complement each other’s services. 

However, while it’s an obvious avenue for mortgage referrals, few pros know how to get referrals from agents. Fewer still know how to keep a steady stream of qualified leads flowing. 

(Offering to buy them lunch or coffee won’t cut it)

In this article, we’re going to give you three actionable strategies to help you build a robust network of real estate professionals that will enthusiastically refer their homebuyers to you.

Let’s dive in.

How to get more qualified mortgage referrals From Real Estate Agents

Drop The Sales Pitch. Build Relationships.

Realtors are excellent salespeople, so they’ll appreciate a good pitch when they hear one. However, coming off too “sales-y” will have the opposite effect you’re hoping for. You might start to sound like competition, making the agent resistant to anything you might have to offer.

Let’s also remember that realtors are not your end consumers. They’re your colleagues and referral partners.

Here’s how to have a “building a relationship” approach that effortlessly encourages more agents to give you leads:

• Learn about the agent. Research the realtor to know more about their business style, clients they serve, and strengths. Even info about associations, hobbies, or other interests could come in handy when getting to know a potential referral partner. 
• Make the first conversations light. Don’t always talk business. Agents often get approached by loan officers looking to take them out to lunch and explore how they can “partner up.” Don’t be that basic mortgage pro. Instead, keep the first meeting friendly and personal. Congratulate them on a recent accomplishment or other noteworthy bits of news. 
• Share your value (but don’t brag). Casually sharing how many referrals you’re getting and how happy those clients are is a subtle way to hype yourself up without pushing it. It’s also a way of letting them know that you are open to receiving referrals and are successful at seeing it through to completion. 

Partner With Them In Social Media Marketing

Here’s what we know: Real Estate Agents are some of the most active professionals on social media. In fact, an estimated 90% of all 2 million licensed real estate agents use social media for marketing their services regularly.

This fact alone underscores their ability to be powerhouse networkers and your most lucrative ally for getting more qualified referrals. 

The key to getting “in” is not to pitch them, to echo the above point. Instead, you need to focus on creating a reciprocating relationship that genuinely adds as much value to their business as it would to yours. Here are some ideas to get started doing just that:

• Help cross-promote special events like live virtual open house events. 
• You can also offer to participate in the event via chat or live stream to answer questions from participants about home financing. 
• Create real estate-related centered content such as articles, infographics, or videos that you can co-brand with the agent. 
• Better still, have them publish the original content on their site and link back to your site for an additional SEO boost.
• Continuing the spirit of offering free valuable content, reach out to their email list. If you’re not already aware, email lists have one of the highest conversion rates. So if your agent has a list of a few hundred emails that they organically grew, it can prove to be a white-hot lead source. 
• Engage with the agent’s social media. Go beyond just liking every post and take the time to comment with additional insight or echo their sentiment. 

Leverage Your Digital Mortgage Tools and Co-Branding Opportunities

Historically, the real estate profession has been historically an in-person profession –at least when it comes to doing open houses and showing properties to potential buyers. So when the industry was suddenly thrown into virtual-only, it posed a significant challenge. 

Fortunately, it seems that both the industry and consumers have embraced a virtual way of home buying as a welcomed alternative to traditional in-person. And much like in the mortgage industry, technology in real estate is proving to be a significant boost to revenue potential.

As such, real estate agents look to partner with technologically savvy mortgage professionals. Products like our co-brandable mortgage mobile app Loanzify are a popular and valuable tool that agents can easily share with their clients. It’s free for the agent and consumer to use, and it’s packed with resources, information, and interactive tools that lead all users back to you. 

Loanzify POS is another tool you can use to win over more real estate referral partners. Keeping every interested party informed is hard, and miscommunication is a major cause of delayed funding and unhappy customers. With Loanzify POS, the agent can have secure access to the loan file with a pre-determined level of access.  They can also be assigned to specific loans.

From the agent’s admin view can see where the borrower is in their journey to approval and can even download the borrower’s preapproval letter to submit with their offers. 

Real estate agents are a powerful resource for finding quality leads, but only you make a conscious and strategic effort. Remember that when you approach it from building lasting relationships, you make it a win-win for everyone. Make it personal, overdeliver, be social and genuine, and leverage your mortgage technology every chance you get. 

Want to learn more about implementing mortgage tech to win over more referral partners? Click below to try it out for free and schedule a live demo with one of our helpful account executives.

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Some pretty fantastic promises have been made regarding what social media can do for a business. Post daily on Facebook and triple your revenue in 3 months. Be more active on Linkedin, and leads will pour in by the hundreds. Reach 10,000 followers on Instagram, and your pipeline will be filled with qualified leads.

While social media is a catalyst for remarkable growth and revenue, it doesn’t happen quite so easily or quickly. It takes time –a continuous and strategic effort –to achieve measurable, long-lasting, revenue-generating results. 

However, the bottom line is that social media for mortgage businesses does, in fact, work. It’s just a matter of knowing how to work it and having the patience to do it for a sustained period. In fact, it can be one of your most powerful tools in lead generation and so much more. 

Let’s take a look at recent stats that every mortgage professional should be aware of regarding social media and consumer behavior:

• 72.3% of Americans are on social media (Data Reportal)
• 74% of social media users review business sites to make buying decisions (Statista)
• Facebook is the largest organic lead source, second only to websites (Hootsuite)
• The number of social media users in the US increased by 10 million between 2020 and 2021. (Data Reportal)
• Information found on social media influences the shopping behavior of 75% of Americans (Adroit Digital)

Now that we’ve established that it’s is a powerful tool that’s worth the investment and effort, let’s drill down even further and explore the various ways social media benefits your mortgage business.

The Power of Social Media for Mortgage Business Growth

Increase Traffic To Your Mortgage Website

Social media posts are vital for driving more traffic to your mortgage website. You can do this by sharing content from your blog or with a graphic that directs them to a landing page. Be sure to include your main mortgage website on all your social media profiles, as motivated prospects often investigate a business’ online presence before contacting them.

Generate More Mortgage Leads

Social media is a critical part of your mortgage sales funnel, and as the number of users continues to boom, so does the opportunity to reach more prospects. Use the platforms to amplify your reach and put your lead capture form in front of more eyes.

The Power of Social Media for Mortgage Branding

Increase Brand Awareness of Your Mortgage Business

Social media users are open to discovering new brands on social media. Instagram recently released stats that showed that over 200 million users turn to their Explore page, and over 80% discovered a new product or service from their platform.  And with nearly 70% of Americans checking social media at least once a day, your brand is more likely to stay top of mind. 

Increase The Trust Factor with Your Prospective Borrower

Trust is the precursor to all transactions, especially when it comes to large ticket items like mortgage loans. Use the platforms as a way to increase trust by showcasing your company’s mission and values along with establishing your brand as a thought leader in the mortgage industry.

The Power of Social Media for Communication with Borrowers

Manage Your Mortgage Company’s Reputation

Even if you’re not currently active on social media, chances are that people are still talking about your business. Use social media as a listening tool and be part of the conversation about your services. If the conversation is positive, use it to highlight your business and win over more potential borrowers. If the conversation is negative, get ahead of the situation and attempt to resolve it before it turns into a major issue.

Engage With Borrowers and Prospects

When a person feels noticed and part of the conversation, the stronger the bond becomes. In the case of the prospective borrower, this bond makes it more likely that they’ll apply for a loan. For a current or past client, engaging with them builds loyalty that compels them to recommend your services to others and generate leads on your behalf. 

Social Media Management Solutions By LenderHomePage

Communication is as old as humanity itself, so the principles of social media are nothing new. However, the digital age has altered how best to execute communication via social media. The tools, strategies, pace, scale, and capabilities make it a total game-changer in the business world. Are you keeping up with the best practices in social selling? Or are you leaving that to your competitors? 

We can help. 

Click below to learn more about our social media management services and schedule a conversation.

Marketing Services

Keeping that pipeline filled with new qualified leads is one of the biggest challenges that brokerages face daily, and marketing plays a critical role in making that happen. However, many mistakenly hand this crucial task to their LOs or office staff, thinking that it’ll be just as effective (or cost-efficient) to do so. 

But having your LOs take responsibility for mortgage marketing could be costing you more than you realize. 

If you want your LOs to increase their loan volume, you must take marketing off of their plate and pass it on to a professional marketer. Here’s why:

1. A professional marketer will free up LO time so they can focus on processing loans
2. A professional marketer will modernize your lead gen strategy
3. A professional marketer is easier to manage and will deliver better results.

In this age, it’s no longer a question of whether a brokerage needs to do digital marketing but rather how serious they are at getting results. A healthy benchmark for effective marketing would be that it accounts for about 20-30% of your total pipeline. Are you near that benchmark? How much time are you willing to have your LOs dedicate to reaching that goal? 

By answering those two questions, you’ll start to get a better idea of how significant and costly the problem is to have your LOs take responsibility for your business marketing. Let’s take a deeper look at why you need to remove marketing from their to-do list, and give it to the capable hands of a professional mortgage marketer. 

Mortgage Marketing Powered by LenderHomPage

A professional marketer will free up LO time to process More loans.

Many business owners have a “Do-It-Yourself” type of mentality. While admirable and essential to business start-ups, requiring your LOs to have this same mentality regarding marketing will end up backfiring, and here’s why. Firstly, marketing takes knowledge of how marketing works, how to design a marketing strategy, and how to execute it. Essentially, when you require your LO to take on marketing, you make them take on a second career. 

How well do you think they’ll execute? 

How long do you think it’ll take them to complete the necessary tasks? This leads us to our second point…

Even with an experienced marketing team at the helm, implementing the strategy takes time. Considering the 40-hour workweek, how many of those hours are you willing to take away from lead nurturing and loan processing to have your LO make a rudimentary effort in mortgage marketing?

A professional marketer will modernize your lead gen strategy.

The rise of the digital age has reinvented many aspects of marketing, and with algorithms constantly evolving, competitors altering their campaigns, market changes, and consumers shifting their online behaviors, your approach must also adapt. 

That includes modernizing every aspect of your inbound mortgage marketing strategy. Below is a partial list of tasks that entail a “modern marketing strategy”:

• Website development or redesign
• Branding
• Graphic design
• SEO/keyword research
• Content development
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Local market research
• Mobile marketing integration
• Print marketing development and production
• Paid advertising
• Metrics and data analysis
• Public relations
• Video creation and marketing

While this is an extensive list, it’s not exhaustive. Remember that innovative technology, apps, and marketing disciplines are constantly being created. It’s challenging enough to train an LO into a top producer –do you really want her also to try to keep up with the latest in marketing? 

A professional marketer is Easier to Manage with better results.

When you hire a mortgage marketing agency, you get access to a team of expert copywriters, graphic designers, social media marketers, SEO professionals, PPC strategists, web designers, plus managers to coordinate it all. Is this something you want your loan officers or business to take on?

While some are tempted to take their marketing in-house, that’s not always the best way to go, especially for mortgage businesses. For mortgage businesses, the cost of recruiting and training a new marketing department could be prohibitive. And that rings true for both individual and multi-branch firms. 

So unless you’re in the business of marketing, it’s best to focus on lending and leave the marketing to the experts.

The Bottom Line

Marketing is both essential and a necessary expense. That’s right –there’s a cost for marketing and lead generation. Some falsely believe that they can eliminate or reduce the cost by their LOs do the marketing. But as you now can see, you’ll end up paying much more. When you shift the responsibility of marketing from your LO to a marketing professional, you’ll have beefed up your revenue streams from both your lead generation side and your lead nurturing side. 

Ready to make that happen? Click here to schedule a conversation with our redesigned mortgage marketing services. 

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