Marketing

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 Websites

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 Facebook Ads

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!)

Making Mortgage Marketing Videos

Mortgage videos don’t have to be a bore! We rounded up the best practices and social media video trends to help you get your foot in the door when it comes to video marketing. Today, more than one billion people use YouTube regularly. On Facebook, the combined number of hours watching videos amounts to 100 million every day. People on Snapchat watch 10 billion videos every day. 

The numbers are without a doubt staggering. And the stats reaffirm the power of video as a means to engage and convert. Social media video generates 1200% more shares than any other form of content combined and receive 135% more organic reach than photo on Facebook! But before you jump right on the video bandwagon, it’s a good idea to understand some best practices for mortgage videos and learn some tips to make it right. 

Best practices for mortgage videos

• Be clear and concise
• Start with an introduction
• Give a brief description of what you are going to cover
• Center the video around the story, and keep the video focused and coherent
• Showcase your personality
• Educate and add value
• Less is more: 45-60 seconds is a sweet spot
• Include a Call to Action such as how to contact you or visit your website
• Thank viewers for watching
• Post the video on your social media platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and more)

Tips for making your video shine

• Thank viewers for watching
• Set your intention by identifying your audience and what you want their takeaway to be
• Visualize it: Think about what the person on the other side of the screen will be seeing and hearing
• Develop a scriptUse bullet points to keep it simple
• Pause between thoughtsBreak up the script into small blurbs

Video types

• Explainer: Explainer videos are a great way to educate your customers on your product, service, or mission.
• Promotional: This is where you can explain what your product does, how it works and, most importantly, how it can benefit your customers.
• Testimonial: One of the most persuasive forms of social proof. A customer spotlight showcases how a customer uses your product or service and their satisfaction.
• Interviews: Use interviews with other professionals to discuss aspects of your industry and give a glimpse into your company’s culture.

Studio tips

You do not have to spend a small fortune to set up a dedicated filming space in your office. Many influencers use their cellphone cameras to create great content. Your iPhone should work just fine for the video or you can use your computer. Improve your acoustics by following these tips:

• Avoid rooms with equal width and length dimensions.
• Install sound panels, curtains, or drapes that absorb soundwaves and avoid reflection.
• Choose wooden floors as carpet only absorbs high frequencies and should be avoided.
• Strategically place objects that scatter sound, such as a bookcase.
• Invest in shotgun mics as they record background noise in a natural sounding way.

Writing a script and preparing to be on camera

Writing a loose script will help you gather your thoughts before you begin filming. The best scripts are concise and simple.

Avoid wearing light colors on the day of the shoot. Dark or bright always work best in video. You don’t need to dress up but a nice shirt or a statement necklace is advised. Finally, remember that you are already natural on camera. Don’t overthink it.

Editing and hosting

Editing out footage at the beginning and end of your videos will make them appear more professional. There are many free video editing sources available. If you are using your iPhone, you can edit directly from your camera roll. Otherwise, Lightworks, VideoPad and iMovie are some great free options.

Youtube and Vimeo are two of the most widely used video hosting platforms. By hosting your videos, you have the ability to share your links to social media, embed them into articles and pages on your website and increase your SEO.

There are tons of ideas you can try out, such as sharing the story of the sales transaction about which you are proudest or discussing th ways a borrower can begin to improve their credit score. Make sure to tap into your creativity! 

Mortgage Marketing in 2021

2021 is the year to invest heavily in marketing and close more loans. But what can you expect to see in the 2021 market? Here are some trends for Mortgage Marketing in 2021:

• Housing inventory could open up
• Mortgage rates will edge up
• Home prices will keep rising, but not as quickly
• Zoom towns (housing markets that are growing in popularity due to the remote work trend) could really take off.
• City homes could get a lot cheaper

According to Realtor.com chief economist, Danielle Hale, you can “expect sales to grow 7 percent and prices to rise another 5.7 percent on top of 2020’s already high levels.” Interest rates, which have motivated many buyers in 2020, “are expected to remain low and will help ameliorate some of the affordability concerns resulting from rapid home price appreciation seen in 2020”, says Selma Hepp, CoreLogic deputy chief economist. 

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

To take advantage of these favorable conditions and get your message across to your target market, it’s important to know who your audience is and market to them appropriately. Millennials, for instance, represent a huge market you should tap into. Many millennials plan to purchase a home within the next 5 years meaning that they are seeking information about the house-purchasing and mortgage processes.

This generation grew up in the age of the internet, so they both respect high-quality information sources and know where to find them. Your company must provide them with the information they want and need, or they will find someone else. That’s where social media marketing comes into play. As social media becomes more professional, mortgage companies have the opportunity to reach out to strategic business partners like real estate agents and builders and develop relationships that can turn into actionable leads.

To give you perspective, five out of six millennials connect with companies on social media, meaning that it is crucial for your company to have an active social media presence where you can engage with your customers. 62 percent of millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social media that they are more likely to become a loyal customer.

CONTENT MARKETING

Well-written and useful content can help educate leads, improve website SEO and attract internet information hunters who trust and respect good sources. Your content can also be shared via social media and can be promoted directly to your targeted audience.

REFERRAL MARKETING

Trust, reliability, customer service, communication, solutions, priority, and speed are just some of things real estate agents cherish. Make sure to have conversations about strategy and goal alignment with your referral partners for a stronger Q1 & Q2. More importantly, add value to them. There are several ways you can create value to your partners, such as:

• Tech
• Coaching
• Marketing
• Support
• Lead Nurturing
• Education

DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing is a broad field that relies on the internet and digital devices to attract consumers. The methods are various:

•  Solid, easy-to-use website
• Good SEO
• Educational content
• Retargeting
• Lead capture & follow up
• Ads & Landing pages

If you are pursuing leads, the only thing that matters is having immediate, predictable, and personalized follow up with purchased leads. They should be immediately prequalified and an appointment should be set for follow up.

DATABASE MARKETING

Everything you need to generate leads in 2021 is likely already in your database! Before you buy another lead or ask for another referral, shouldn’t you have a clear understanding of what your own database can provide?

Other forms of marketing include video marketing and traditional marketing. This all seems too much? Intent Marketing can help you assess your needs and create the right marketing strategy for your audience market. Are you ready to make Mortgage Marketing in 2021 a success?

Targeted Sphere Mortgage Marketing

Knowing your audience and personalizing your messaging to each individual is the heart of targeted sphere mortgage marketing. Unlike traditional marketing, it boils down to making customers feel like they are the only one you have. This is the secret to creating raving fans who advocate for you to others.

Targeted sphere mortgage marketing starts with defining “WHO” specifically is a good fit for a product or service and delivering personalized messages directly to that targeted audience. This is different than starting with “WHAT” the promotional message is, marketing to a broad audience and expecting a reaction. The process involves four stages that can transform a stranger into a promoter of your brand, ultimately. 

Attract: The first stage is to attract strangers via keywords, blogs, social publishing and advertising so they become visitors.

Convert: Next up, you’ll work to convert them using effective landing pages, calls-to-action and user-friendly forms. 

Close: Leads are then nurtured by your CRM, marketing campaigns and workflows until they close.

Delight: Once they become customers, this is when you’ll send out surveys and small contents that add value to your customers and make them promoters.

If you are creating an email campaign, you need to think about the type of audience you are targeting. It’s important to get a sense of your target market and find out who they are (age, job, school, home etc.), what appeals to them, where they are geographically, what they do in their free time, how connected they are (email, social media, text), and what they do online (shop, search, learn etc.). If you are targeting refinance customers or first-time homebuyers, there are a number of characteristics you can determine right off the bat:

Refinance Shoppers:

• Rate-sensitive
• Willing to shop around for quotes
• Know what they are doing

New Homebuyers:

• Looking for someone to guide them through the process
• Willing to pay more for helpful advice
• Referral driven

Use the characteristics of each audience to craft a tailored marketing message that speaks directly to their needs or concerns. Intent understands the different types of customer journeys and offers a multitude of targeted campaigns. 

Now that you know the concepts, here are the steps to creating your own targeted sphere mortgage marketing for your business:

1. Find your niche: Decide which customers you work best with and market to them. Do you love working with first time homebuyers? Are move-up buyers more your speed? The more you can target your marketing the more success you’ll have with responses.
2. Determine the need of your audience: What are your customers looking for that you can provide to them?
3. Develop your solution: How are you going to explain to your customers what you can do to help them?
4. Market your solution: Reach out to your target audience via text, email and social media letting them know that you can fulfill their need.
5. Share your knowledge and engage in your space: Become a member of groups, forums and communities where you can share ideas, tips and more.

There are several ways to reach your audience and find leads, whether going through your database or asking for referrals. Social media ads are likely the most scalable and cost-effective method to get your brand in front of your target market. People who are thinking about refinancing their home and people who are about to move are on social media platforms. Social media advertising allows you to directly target and retarget these people and place highly relevant ads straight into their newsfeed. Think Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google and more.

Intent can create targeted social media ads and landing pages for you! Talk to us to learn how we can help you grow your business.

Understanding LinkedIn for Mortgage Marketing

Using LinkedIn for mortgage marketing is one of the best ways for mortgage professionals to build their network. With over 660 million users worldwide, LinkedIn has recently been on a steady growth trail and seen record levels of engagement and job postings. Not only does using LinkedIn help expand your professional network and connect you to other business-minded people who can contribute to your success, but it also increases lead generation. Adding LinkedIn to your marketing strategy is a pivotal move toward a successful business. According to a HubSpot study, the Microsoft-owned platform has performed better than Facebook or Twitter when it comes to visit-to-lead conversion rate at an impressive 2.74% compared to .69 and .77% from Twitter and Facebook, respectively. 

There are a number of ways you can use LinkedIn to best advantage:

• Explore Opportunities: use advanced search resources available to find prospects
• Expand Network: send personalized connection requests to prospective customers and business partners
• Engage Connections: engage in conversation after connecting
• Establish Relationships: show interest in connections and engage with those who are active on your posts
• Expert positioning: provide value with great content that is shared consistently

If you are new to using LinkedIn for mortgage or haven’t given it much attention lately, you will want to update your profile with a current and professional photo, work experience, background photo, headline, summary as well as a customized URL. The URL should look something like: linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.

The profile headline, in turn, should be instantly recognizable, short and concise. By default, the headline is your current employment position; however, you can customize it to demonstrate your expertise or vision for your role. Sum up your specialty or approach succinctly and support the professional brand you’re cultivating.

For you summary, be sure to ask yourself the following questions: What do you really want readers to know about you, if they read nothing more? Professionally speaking, what’s your purpose? You can highlight your skills as well as developing aspirations.

Additionally, endorsements can enrich your profile tremendously. If you recommend someone on LinkedIn, chances are they will return the favor. By having good recommendations on your LinkedIn page, business partners and customers will be more likely to want to work with you. When recommending someone, make sure you follow this sequence:

1. explain the nature of your professional relationship
2. provide details of the position for which you’re recommending the person
3. explain how they’ve grown at the company
4. indicate how their contribution helped grow the team or company
5. explain what these achievements reveal about that person
6. end with a note about the personal aspect of working with him/her.

Once you have a solid profile, your next steps should be to customize your connections to grow your professional network, join and create your own LinkedIn groups, befriend everyone in your sphere, post about your closing with pictures of your happy customers, and take advantage of the blog and website links on your profile. These tips are guaranteed to help you crush it using LinkedIn for mortgage! 

Prepare For the Hot 2021 Housing Market

Get ready for a hot housing market. According to a recent forecast from real estate giant Redfin, over 30 percent of homebuyers are projected to leave their current metro area in 2021. With the transition to remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of Americans are moving to suburban and rural areas that more align with their personal preferences rather than career needs.

Although the 2020 spring housing market did not meet pre-pandemic expectations, the market has nonetheless remained hot throughout the year and is only expected to increase in 2021. Interest rates are low and demand for housing is high as Americans search for homes that fit their new lifestyles.

So how can you best prepare for the busy year ahead? Let Intent help!

1. Send your database a customized holiday message before the New Year letting them know that you are eager to help them with home financing needs.
2. Plan to attend our free coaching in January to prepare for the upcoming months.
3. Take advantage of co-branded marketing with your top agents and make a plan to conquer 2021 together.
4. Let Intent manage your database and nurture your leads to create meaningful relationships that will yield sales for a successful 2021.

Interested in learning more about predictions for the 2021 market? Check out this article.

Ready to learn how to make the most of your database and increase your sales for the new year? Contact us today and get ready for a hot housing market.

The Best Realtor Marketing Yields Results

Mortgage originators are always looking for new Realtor marketing ideas to wow their agents and other referral partners, but there is no substitute for building real, lasting and trusted relationships. Real estate agents want to know that when they refer a buyer to a lender that they are in the very best hands and that the transaction will be a fantastic one all the way around. While the results of the partnership should and typically is happy homebuyers, there are also many ways in which loan officers can support the real estate agent’s business that does not include spending money on leads.

The approach at Intent is to provide conversational, empathetic content that is automatically sent to the real estate agent each week on Friday morning. These weekly realtor marketing emails include the latest industry news, soft requests for referrals, strategies for business building, marketing tips, and much more. But what they truly do is allow real estate agents to feel as though their partnership with the loan officer is one of reciprocation. Open-ended questions lead to longer conversations about what the agent is experiencing. And the best part is that the loan officer does not have to find the content, it’s simply sent on their behalf.

While weekly update calls about loan status are likely never going away, it’s time to involve real estate agents in the conversation about how the industries will change in 2021 and engage them in meaningful conversations. While the Weekly Realtor Marketing package would be worth its weight in gold, it is included in a monthly account for those using the Intent Marketing Platform.

For more information about how to change the way you communicate to agents, click here.