Google “Mortgage Marketing” and Lead Gen Vendors Show Up
Ugh. There is nothing harder than ranking your website on Google when it is new and the competition is fierce. But since we happen to be SEO experts who can optimize websites well, it’s been rewarding to watch our website go from page 7 in January to the top of page 3.
But each week when we Google ourselves (you have to love that Google is a noun and a verb), we are always competing against mortgage lead providers and CRMs. But the reality is that there are very few mortgage technologies or mortgage lead gen providers that have real mortgage marketing prowess.
Mortgage Marketing may not be the right keywords to measure ourselves as a mortgage marketing agency by, as we do so many other things. Ranking for the following keywords are every bit as important for our growth as “mortgage marketing” or “best mortgage marketing” are.
Mortgage Website SEO
Mortgage Website Optimization
Mortgage Website Content
Mortgage Logos
Mortgage Branding
Mortgage CRM
Mortgage CDP
Mortgage Sales Coaching
Mortgage Texting Platform
Mortgage CMO
Mortgage CTO
Mortgage Technology
Mortgage PPC
And the list goes on and on and on. Mortgage originators and brokers come to us asking for their sites to be ranked higher on Google and we have to do the same exercises with them. Organic SEO, while time consuming, is an amazing way to build SEO.
How will you rank? It depends on what is important. The word “mortgage” itself may not be the right key word while “refinance” is a big hit. Working with experts in SEO is the way to go if your goal is better lift from Google. Just make sure to Google the company that you are thinking about using. If they aren’t ranking on the first page, what makes you think you will by using their services?
(And yes, we know we are on page 3, but that’s not bad after only really trying for 90 days with this new site!)
The Best Mortgage CRM
Over the past seven years in the mortgage CRM space, we have often heard the adage that the best mortgage CRM “is the one you use.”
But let’s be realistic, mortgage originators don’t want another piece of software that they have to manage each day. What they want is smart marketing done by industry experts that is automated, personal, and brings in business.
Mortgage CRMs, and there are a lot of them, are great for certain things, but we much prefer being in the Customer Data Platform (CDP) model. Intent provides data intelligence, segments your audiences, learns your objectives, and builds smart campaigns via email, SMS, and social media channels designed to initiate, engage, close, retain, and create new business.
Your mortgage CRM certainly does not do that for you. These critical pieces need to be built in by experts. Contact us at Intent so we can show you how we use our CDP to move the needle for our customers. Mortgage marketing is an art – let artists paint while you close the leads.
Use Mortgage Marketing to Increase Your YouTube Channel Followers
Gaining subscribers is one of the best ways to grow your mortgage marketing brand on your YouTube channel. By attracting subscribers to your YouTube channel, you retain attention. According to the YouTube Creator Academy, subscribers watch twice as much video as non-subscribers. So, the more subscribers you have on your YouTube channel, the more watch time your videos will gain and the more likely they are to be ranked highly by YouTube or featured in the “related” section.
Here are some ways you can leverage your mortgage marketing efforts to gain more subscribers on YouTube:
Create engaging content – Creating amazing content that will engage your viewers is the best way to increase the number of your followers. YouTube has created an algorithm that rewards engagement using metrics like watch time, view duration, audience retention, and more. Are you looking for some great mortgage marketing video ideas? Check out this article.
Utilize playlists to keep viewers watching – By placing your videos in playlists, you are presenting content in a fashion that is easy for viewers to digest. Try placing your videos with the highest engagement at the beginning of the playlist and end each video with something that will entice your viewers to keep watching.
Add a CTA at the end of your videos – After completing a video, viewers will determine if they want to keep watching more. Add a subscription CTA at the end of each video that makes it easy for viewers to click and subscribe to your channel.
Create captivating thumbnails – Video thumbnails can affect search rankings on YouTube and subscriber growth. YouTube places a high importance on a video’s clickthrough rate during its first hour on the platform, so having a captivating thumbnail that entices viewers to click is important. Learn more about mortgage marketing video thumbnails here.
Engage with viewers – Across all platforms of social media, one of the best practices for retaining and acquiring new followers is to interact with your audience. On YouTube, it is important to respond to every comment. Read more about responding to comments on social media here.
Promote within other content – Share your videos across your other social media channels and in your blog posts. The more people you can reach across different channels, the more views your videos will likely attract.
To learn more about video mortgage marketing, click here.
Looking for more ways to increase your mortgage marketing efforts? Intent can help you! Contact us today to learn how we can assist you in growing your business.
How to Become a Loan Officer
Helping people to finance their dream home is a wonderful profession for which loan officers are appropriately compensated. If you feel as though you have the passion for helping people, you are able to crunch numbers and solve problems, you are computer savvy and have a head for marketing, being a loan officer might be the perfect career fit for you!
But where do you start when becoming a loan officer?
Before you start, ask yourself the following questions to make sure that the mortgage industry is right for you.
- Do you need a 9am-5pm job? Chances are that this one will need you to be available for questions after 5 and on the weekends. It’s good to know that upfront.
- Are you trustworthy, organized, patient, and outgoing? Those will be important to your success!
- Do you find selling easy?
- Are you good at marketing yourself or do you have a large social sphere?
- How much do you know about finance and real estate?
- Do you have access to a mentor in mortgage?
- Are you a good leader?
- Are you a self-starter?
- Do you have a knack for tech?
- Is your criminal record clean and your credit history healthy?
4 Steps To Get Your License:
1. Sign up with NMLS.
The National Mortgage Licensing Service (NMLS) is a fantastic resource and can provide you tools and direction for learning.
- Navigate to NMLS.
- Click the Log Into NMLS
- Click the Request an Account
- Select the Individual
Applicants are required to take 20 hours of pre-licensure education courses.
2. Know the SAFE Act requirements for your state.
The Secure and Fair Enforcement Act of 2008 helps regulators keep lending safe for all by making sure that loan officers are licensed and provides customers with easily accessible information about the loan officer. Applicants for MLO licensure are required to pass the SAFE MLO test with a score of at least 75%.
Loan officers will need to complete the following for NMLS & the SAFE ACT*:
- Receive licensing for their state (or states where the loan officer will be doing business).
- Provide various forms of ID, consent to being fingerprinted, and authorize credit check, background check, and financial services employment history.
- Registration with the NMLS.
*check with your state for details on exactly what you need to do to be licensed
All test candidates are required to accept the Candidate Agreement prior to scheduling any SAFE MLO Test. If you should fail the test, you must wait 30 days to retest. If you fail the test three times, you must wait 6 months before taking the test again.
3. Study for the exam.
How long it takes you to study for you exam is entirely dependent on you and what courses of study you choose.
The State Examination System (SES) is an examination system built by state regulators for state regulators and the companies they supervise. It is the only nationwide system connecting agencies and companies in the examination process.
4. Take your test online or in person.
Download the complete guide to becoming a licensed loan officer here. Once you have your license and know where you want to work, let your friends at Intent Modern Mortgage Marketing know you are ready to dominate the competition with your brand!
…it’s just so incredibly important to stay upfront for those people as they [homebuyers] go through those life changes whether it be through CRM or gifts, or social media, whatever it is, that will allow me to be a part of all of their future changes and transitions.
Ali Dubois, Mortgage Planner at Atlantic Bay
To check the entire interview with superstar loan officer Ali Dubois and gain more insights into the mortgage industry, click here!
Closed Borrowers Are the Best Mortgage Marketing Cheerleaders
Homebuyers engage the services of a mortgage broker or mortgage banker because they want to feel guided by an expert while purchasing their home. That human connection is going to become all the more vital as the mortgage process continues its journey toward digitalization. But if you are operating a conveyor belt approach to your business and ignoring your borrowers once they close, you are missing out on the opportunity to engage your best brand advocates.
Preparing them to be your biggest cheerleader starts at the moment you meet them. It’s obvious to say that you should be giving exceptional client care, but you need to check in with them during the process to make sure it’s all going smoothly. Once you have closed, prepare them for how appreciated their support moving forward will be to your mortgage business.
The following is the checklist that we use to produce loan love:
- Connect with your buyers on social media platforms.
- Give them a stellar experience.
- Check in with them during the mortgage loan process to see if everything is going well.
- Communicate with them using their preferred method – call, text, or email.
- Prepare them for anything negative while remaining positive.
- Close with no hassles.
- Get a testimonial video or written shoutout.
- Promote the closing with tagging on social media platforms.
- Give them the tools that they need to share their experience working with you.
- Send them excellent, timely information post-closing about how to unpack, ignore junk mail, add equity, and more.
Only THEN should you ask for referrals. Once plenty of time has passed, check in with them. Do a six-month gift. Continue to have a “real” social media relationship with them.
Change the way you think about marketing to them once the loan is closed — or let experts in mortgage marketing show you the difference. Contact Intent today.
What is a Mortgage CDP and How Can it Help Your Business?
What is a Mortgage CDP?
In the world of mortgage, there are more acronyms than you can shake a stick at. (Also, please stop shaking that stick. People are talking.) From FHA to NMLS to RESPA – and everything in between – the last thing mortgage originators need is yet another series of letters to learn.
Which is why for years Intent was stuck in the bucket of mortgage CRMs. We hated it, because what we actually have is a CDP, or Customer Data Platform. What exactly does a mortgage CDP do?
Mortgage customer data platforms (CDPs) are mortgage marketing solutions that allow you to understand your data, create ideal customer profiles, segment your audience into B2B and B2C marketing efforts, and allow you to receive automated data intelligence. Each person in your database has a profile with data collected from LinkedIn, including their contact information, picture, purchase history, email history, marketing journey, and sales strategy reminders. Your mortgage CDP should deliver opportunity, but it will always be every bit as useful as the data that you put into it.
Mortgage CRMs are machines for the loan process. Mortgage CDPs are the heart and soul of the mortgage sales and marketing process. When all data is unified, clean, segmented, and marketed to, the difference is nothing short of extraordinary. When you have data specialists who you engage to find all potential opportunities, you have something truly special.
Combine Intent’s mortgage CDP power with the data intelligence that we are able to partner with and you stop being able to count the number of opportunities that exist. Knowledge is power. You don’t need 100 leads if you have 100 personalized marketing journeys in your current database.
Already using a CRM at your company? Keep it. Let your LOA and your processor use it to update people on their loan status. But a successful, modern sales guru knows that the future of marketing is taking the lead in your market with how you present yourself. A mortgage CDP can help with that.
Change the game. Be first in line. And for $200 per month, it’s almost crazy not to at least try it out. Plus, you can hire our team to clean your data, connect it, segment it, and create personal campaigns JUST FOR YOU! Start making your data actionable and your marketing incredible.
Intent Modern Mortgage Marketing Welcomes Liberty Home Mortgage
Welcome to the Intent family, Liberty Home Mortgage!
Intent is thrilled to be working with Liberty Home Mortgage to build their mortgage marketing strategy and provide them with exceptional mortgage technology to better their business. At Intent, we strive to deliver personalization into every step of the mortgage process to engage homebuyers and not only increase their strength as a lead but turn them into a customer for life.
Headquartered in Ohio, Liberty Home Mortgage is a trusted lender serving 30 states across the U.S. Liberty is a direct lender offering almost all residential-type home loans to fit various financial situations. With a phenomenal reputation in the mortgage industry, Liberty prides itself on its knowledge and responsiveness, offering customer support seven days a week.
Intent could not be prouder to partner with such a leading company.
Are you interested in learning how Intent can help your mortgage business? Contact us today! We have a variety of programs to fit almost any mortgage marketing need.
Buying Mortgage Leads that Become Loans
Ask any mortgage originator their opinion about online lead generation and you are likely to hear an earful. For some, online mortgage leads have been a tremendous way to grow their business. For others, the money spent on myriad services delivered no results. Ask mortgage marketing experts what our thoughts are, and we only have one answer: WHAT IS THE FOLLOW-UP?
The reality is that buying bad quality and cheaper mortgage leads is going to yield low quality results. Investing wisely in good leads can also go south if your CPC (costs per close) are insanely high. And you are truly missing the boat if you are not marketing effectively across all platforms to get their attention.
Once a lead is delivered to you, do you have automated, timely follow-up scheduled? What is your approach? There are MANY tricks of the trade with mortgage leads, but we keep those for our customers. (Hey, we give you plenty of info for free, but we have to keep some things under wraps!)
Your online lead campaign needs to be smart, automated, delivered across multiple channels, timed for the best hours when a prospective buyer can actually talk, and move the buyer toward application.
Ideally, for most buyers, you are asking the important questions to make narrowing the marketing journey around their specific needs easier.
The first questions to establish:
- Is the borrower employed currently and has their income been steady and stable?
- Does the borrower have a credit score that will enable them to qualify for their loan?
- Are there outstanding debts or liabilities that will cause the borrower not to qualify?
- How are their savings accounts?
- Do they have money for a down payment?
- Are they ready for the commitment of buying a home?
No matter which of the hurdles mentioned above are detected, you should have a comprehensive game plan for solving that problem for your mortgage leads. You should offer solutions the moment you leave the call and follow up immediately with the success plan for each lead. But don’t stop there. Keep in front of mortgage leads with excellent resources until they are ready to apply.
There is a science to great follow-up when it comes to mortgage leads, but, before you blame your lead provider for having poor quality leads, ask yourself if your strategy needs tweaking. Or ask Intent for help. We can show you how to make online lead generation your very best tool.
