How Mortgage Brokers Are Leveraging Social Media to Generate Leads
Over the last few years, social media-based marketing has become a valuable tool for mortgage brokers. Social media platforms can help loan officers to bring in a steady stream of high-quality leads.
If you work in the mortgage industry, then you need to be active on social media. But just logging on and sharing an occasional post or clicking the “like” button on a few status updates won’t get the job done. Instead, you need to use proven tactics that produce real results.
Thousands of mortgage brokers are already making the most of social media to market their businesses. You can, too, with a few proven strategies. In this guide, we’ll explore the many ways that lenders can make the most of social media to connect with prospective buyers.
Types of Social Media Marketing Â
Before we discuss how you and your loan officers can generate more leads, it’s important to cover the basics of social media marketing. Generally speaking, social media marketing can be grouped into one of two broad categories.
Organic Leads
An “organic lead” is a lead that you acquire without having to use paid advertising. Much like SEO marketing, getting organic leads via social media takes time. You have to create a social media page, build your following, and consistently post interesting content.
However, the work doesn’t stop there. You will also need to remain active on your business account if you want to continue to generate organic leads. Even a few weeks of inactivity can hurt your ability to attract new clients.
Paid Advertising
The other type of social media marketing is paid to advertise. You can create various types of paid advertising campaigns, depending on your preferences. For instance, Facebook allows you to display paid ads in the following locations:
- Newsfeeds
- Stories
- Messenger
On top of selecting the “placement” for your ads, you can also choose what types of content to display. A few examples include written content, images, or videos. As you might have guessed, ads that feature video content will be more expensive to show than written material.
As you’re creating a paid advertising campaign, you’ll find that each social media platform allows you to customize your budget. This approach lets you have total control over how much you spend in total on your paid marketing campaign.
Tactics Loan Officers Use to Generate Leads
If you want to attract clients, you will need an effective marketing strategy. To help, we have identified some of the best tactics that loan officers use for lead generation.
The mortgage brokers who have the most effective social media marketing campaigns are:
Consistent
Perhaps the most important component to social media lead generation is consistency. This is especially true if you want to capture organic leads and minimize expenses.Â
When you post erratically on social media, it can be difficult to connect with prospective clients. Each platform uses a complex algorithm to analyze your behavior on the page.
We’ll use Facebook as an example since they are the world’s largest social media platform. Facebook’s algorithm scores and displays organic posts based on various ranking signals. A few of these criteria include how recently the company has posted, the type of post created (picture, text, video), and whether a user is likely to engage with it.
Mortgage brokers who post engaging, consistent content will be more prominently displayed on news feeds. Loan officers who post bland marketing materials once or twice a month may not generate any leads at all.
Diverse
The loan officers with the most effective social media marketing campaigns are extremely consistent, but that doesn’t mean that they’re boring. Successful mortgage brokers also post diverse types of content.Â
These individuals do everything from posting compelling videos about homebuyers that they’ve helped to share stats that show off their speedy loan processing timelines. Their efforts keep their audiences engaged while helping them build their following.
As you’re creating your social media lead generation strategy, take advantage of the various features within each platform. Set realistic goals for your company. For example, you might choose to post written content on your news feed twice per week and incorporate one video or image onto your story every other week.
Concise and Easy to Understand
Think back to a few pieces of mortgage-related social media content that caught your eye. What did these ads have in common? All of them likely had a great “hook,” delivered a pointed message, and ended with a gentle call to action.
Marketers designed these ads in this way because they understood that users on social media often have a very short attention span. Remember, most prospective clients are turning to social media to take a break from their daily responsibilities!
With that in mind, you need to keep your marketing content concise. Whether you’re creating a paid marketing video or simply posting an update on your timeline, be brief and purposeful.Â
Each piece of content should have a specific goal, deliver useful information to the audience, and end with a call to action. Depending on what you created the content for, the CTA may be simple instructions such as “like our page” or “share this post.”
Genuine
The average consumer can see right through a fluff piece or flashy marketing video. Mortgage brokers who have the most success in generating leads on social media have mastered the art of being genuine. Instead of packing their content with self-promotional materials, they strive to add value to the lives of their audience.
If you want to do the same, focus on creating content that is informative and easy to digest. Everyone knows that you want to earn their business. You don’t have to dedicate every piece of content towards reinforcing this point. Share information, teach a skill, solve a problem — in short, show that you’re an expert in the industry!
Benefits of Social Media for Mortgage Brokers
Social media marketing is an excellent tool for mortgage brokers. This advertising medium offers several significant benefits because it allows loan officers to:
Connect with New Clients
Perhaps the most notable benefit of using social media is that it can help mortgage brokers to connect with new clients. Social media platforms have almost completely replaced traditional word-of-mouth advertising.
In the past, consumers would tell their friends and family if they had a good or bad experience with a company. Now, they post about it, like the business page, or even actively comment on other people’s pages when they ask about mortgage services.
Social media sites also give loan officers the ability to proactively seek out prospective customers through paid and organic marketing.Â
Social media marketing can be much more effective than other forms of advertising, especially when you understand that the mortgage industry is heavily focused on building relationships with clients.
Earn Repeat Business
Social media is useful for generating new leads, but it can also help loan officers to earn repeat business. When a mortgage broker provides their client with a great experience from start to finish, that person will likely follow the company’s business page.Â
If the broker stays active on social media by using the strategies outlined above, that past client will frequently see their content.
When it comes time for that customer to refinance their current loan or purchase another home, they will likely turn to that loan officer for help.Â
Loan officers can also send out birthday messages and refinance alerts to increase their chances of retaining customers for future deals.Â
These types of correspondence are typically sent via email, but they can also be delivered in a social media message. Remember that staying in contact with people is the best way to build an ongoing relationship. Even if they don’t require your services right now, they probably know someone who might!Â
Build Your Brand Image
A strong brand image is an integral part of lead generation. Ideally, you want your company’s name and logo to be highly recognizable. Social media marketing is a great way to reach this goal.
Every time you post on your company’s social media accounts, your followers will be exposed to your brand. Over time, this will leave a lasting impact on your audience. As a result, they might just turn to your company the next time they need mortgage services.
Save Money
Another significant benefit of lead generation via social media is that it is extremely cost-effective. This is especially important for independent loan officers and small mortgage firms that do not have massive advertising budgets.Â
Mortgage professionals can start a business page on the top social media platforms for free. They can also begin to build their audience using organic marketing tactics until they have the funds to start using paid advertising.
Marketing Made Easy with BNTouch
As you can see, social media can be a powerful tool for mortgage brokers. When it’s used properly, social platforms can generate quality leads and grow your business.
With that being said, we understand that you may not have time to build marketing campaigns from the ground up. That’s where we come in!Â
BNTouch provides our clients with cutting-edge mortgage CRM software. This technology includes several features, including pre-built marketing content that can help you to get more leads fast. If you would like to learn more, request a demo today!
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