Data-Driven Mortgage Marketing: Using Analytics to Engage New Leads

Building revenue starts by building relationships. That’s true for any industry, and for mortgage lenders, it’s crucial.

How well does your current marketing strategy translate into meaningful connections? It may be time to consider a data-driven mortgage marketing approach.

How can data help you engage new leads? With the correct data, you’ll empower your business to meet your clients where they are. Understanding their needs allows you to build bridges and convert new leads into satisfied clients.

Here are some of today’s top tips for using data to drive your marketing strategy.

Engage Website Visitors

The front page of your website is often more important than the front door of your lending office. But what happens when visitors land on your website only to navigate away?

This turning away is known as your “bounce rate.” It’s one of several key metrics you can use to evaluate the quality of your web content. A high bounce rate may nudge you to optimize your content. Making your site easier to navigate may help you engage new leads.

Mortgage lenders can also design their websites to convert traffic into leads. For example, a clear call to action (CTA) will invite visitors to contact you for more info. You can later measure how many visitors engage these CTA’s, which might also prompt you to optimize your content for better engagement.

A customer relationship management (CRM) system can help. A mortgage CRM contains templates for creating quality websites. You can use these programs to maintain a web presence and engage leads that land on your website.

Know What Content Is Working

Content marketing is crucial for engaging mortgage leads. Many first-time borrowers seek information about new loan programs or how the process works. You can create content that satisfies these needs.

But data-driven mortgage marketing strategies measure the success rate of this content. What types of content work best? It may be that your visitors are looking for specific topics. For example, you might see greater engagement with “first-time lender programs,” which may prompt you to create more content for new borrowers.

You might also see different levels of engagement with the type of content you use. For example, short videos might be more popular with your target market than long-form blogs. You can use this data to create more content that connects with your audience.

Segment Your Mortgage Pipeline

A mortgage pipeline is designed to guide your leads through the lending process. However, the customer journey won’t look the same for everyone. This is another example of how data-driven mortgage marketing strategies can be so helpful.

The data you gather on your leads might allow you to create multiple customer segments. For instance, you can create sub-groups based on the following:

• Type of mortgage product
• Current mortgage rate
• Credit score
• Financial data (e.g., debt-to-income ratio)
• Geographic data

This approach allows you to craft unique content and strategies tailored to each group. For that matter, you can market loan programs that match your borrowers’ needs. FHA loans, for example, maybe a welcome option for borrowers with less-than-stellar credit.

You can also segment based on current and former clients. Doing so will remind you to follow up with past clients who might be willing to send leads your way.

Focus on Specific Products

Many mortgage lenders find success by carving out an industry niche. Specializing in a specific type of real estate can showcase your unique value and give you a competitive edge.

But that assumes your marketing tactics reflect your products. Your sales data will give you a clear idea of what products generate the most revenue. If your aim is to focus on these products, you can adjust your marketing materials accordingly.

Conversely, you may have mortgage products that are underperforming. Are you trying to focus on commercial real estate? Bridge loans? Low-income loans? Your data might highlight programs that need extra attention. You might create a marketing campaign to give these areas a much-needed boost.

Track the Conversion Rates of Digital Ads

Chances are that you already rely on digital advertising to promote your business. But how well are these digital ads performing? And which marketing channels are leading to more mortgage applications?

These are two separate questions, but data can help answer both. Your data will show how effectively your ads convert leads into clients. If they aren’t performing well, you may need to refine your sales approach to engage your target market better.

To that same end, data can also show you where your target market spends its time. Data-driven mortgage marketing methods will help you focus on specific marketing channels. For example, generating more leads through Google Ads may indicate that you must focus on this channel.

But data can also highlight areas to improve. If your target market primarily uses Facebook, you may invest more energy into your social media marketing campaigns.

Optimize Email Marketing

A mortgage CRM platform will help you contact your leads via email. But the success of an email marketing campaign depends on how many people open those emails.

That’s why you need a data-driven mortgage marketing strategy. Your opening rate will tell you more about who’s reading your email. Moreover, data can tell who clicks the links in your messages.

The importance should be obvious — if your current email marketing campaigns aren’t working, it may be time to reevaluate or diversify your marketing channels to include social media.

Keep Track of Inactive Leads

Monitoring your inactive leads may sound counter-intuitive, but there’s a sound strategy behind it. For one thing, you can send a final email to these inactive leads to re-engage them in the process.

If you fail to re-engage inactive leads, cutting them loose is best.

Why? Because sending emails to inactive customers can hurt your digital credibility. Delivering emails directly to someone’s spam box will increase your bounce rate (see above). Worse, it can trigger filtering (or blocking) of your IP.

Additionally, you’ll want to purge your inactive users from your larger list over time. That way, you can focus on the users that remain engaged in the process without inactive users affecting your marketing data.

Nurture Business Connections

Real estate brokers often generate leads through professional connections. You might develop relationships with real estate agents, lawyers, or other industry professionals.

A well-maintained lead pipeline might impress these business connections, forging new partnerships. A mortgage CRM will even provide a portal that lets these partners drop leads right into your pipeline. That’s a great way to get real estate partners to help you connect with leads they meet at trade shows, conferences, etc.

A data-driven mortgage marketing approach can maximize these efforts. Analytical tools can show you how each connection is contributing to your pipeline. This will ensure that you focus on the right industry connections.

Use Feedback from Past Clients

Some of your most meaningful data will come not from today’s leads but from yesterday’s clients. You might already use reviews and testimonies as part of your marketing materials. But the data received from past clients can also refine your strategy.

What materials are connecting with former clients? What made them choose your lending practice? The answers to these questions can give you a better idea of what to focus on for future leads.

Conversely, it might highlight areas that just aren’t working. If past leads were unimpressed with your blog content, maybe that indicates it’s time to pivot or focus on video over written text. By making such adjustments, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are working as hard for you as you are for them.

Unleash Your Creativity

Perhaps the most important things analytics can provide are the insights and opportunities you can’t predict.

The data you gain from a mortgage CRM might inspire you to try something brand-new. The same data can be used to evaluate your success.

This is particularly important for marketing teams. The right data can reveal flaws in your current approach. It can also inspire you to take a whole new approach. Customer data might motivate your team to adapt to new client needs or shift priorities to better connect with your target market.

The point is that data will give you greater end-to-end visibility of your business. From this vantage point, you’ll be better able to connect with your current leads and nurture new ones.

Data-Driven Mortgage Marketing with a CRM

These tips offer a helpful starting point for your mortgage marketing efforts, but getting these ideas off the ground demands the right platform.

A mortgage CRM can help. The BNTouch platform offers tools to assist you with website design, content creation, and team collaboration. In short, you’ll get more done with less and have the data to verify your success.

Contact the BNTouch team to see these features in action. We can schedule a demo so you can discover how a mortgage CRM can transform your mortgage business.

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