Mortgage broking involves sales, marketing, loan processing, changing lender policies, customer service and so on.. but some might say that it is more about trust and relationships rather than a finance business. Honestly, it is. Being in the mortgage industry with a lot of competitors, the longevity and growth of your business relies on nurturing your client base.
Fact: Two thirds of clients leave their brokers because they get attracted by advertisements that are more customized for their needs which then they will feel neglected by their current broker. So, it is essential to build a marketing plan that will not only attract more clients but also retain current ones.
So, here are some Marketing strategies that Successful Mortgage Brokers use:
#1 Psychology of Attraction
It is essential that you understand how you attract prospects and clients. Since you want to create and build a relationship with them, the Psychology of Attraction will give you things to consider, which will help you create a marketing campaign that is effective.
- Similarity
- Reciprocity
- Proximity
- Familiarity
- Physical Appearance
You have to be able to provide them that they can to trust you. Take your time to learn about their needs and goals but then again, “don’t oversell, don’t undersell”. Providing them a sense of Similarity, Reciprocity, Proximity, Familiarity and a Professional Physical Appearance will make them trust you.
#2 Three Step Educational Marketing
This is a marketing strategy in which you share knowledge to build trust. Through this, you can get quality leads and create an audience that is looking forward to hearing from you, your posts, your newsletters and your updates.
“The basic formula is this:
- Identify their specific needs relevant to home loans.
- Give them a substantial item of educational value relevant to their needs that immediately positions you as an authority and gets you permission to keep in touch with them.
- Send them regular information targeted to those needs to keep building both ability trust and personal trust, with occasional sales messages to make it clear you are there to help them when they are ready.” – MPA
Educate them, then follow up with consistent quality messages. There are some brokers who stop reaching out or following up on their prospects or clients on their 2nd or 3rd attempt, thinking that they don’t want to annoy them. The familiarity principle is the tendency among human beings to develop a preference for things (be they people, products, ideas etc.) which they see more often. So, the more often they see your presence, the more likely they accept you. So, the thing is, if you’re able to educate them which will give you a good reputation and positions you as an authority, they won’t think that way.
“Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating” -Siva Devaki
#3 Focus on the 95%
Stop aiming for prospects who want to have a loan right now, try to focus on the 95% who want a loan in the future. Why? Because the 5% who want to get a loan at the moment, probably know other brokers already. It’s better for you to build a relationship with those who want a loan in the future, make them trust you, show them how good you are in the business, so that when they are ready, you are the first one they reach out to. Create a resource that supports and entails a lifetime service proposition.
It is important to segment and specialize your marketing, sending information that is relevant to your audiences is key. Everyone prefers to deal with professionals who specialize in whatever they need, someone who provides answers to their questions and someone who supports their goals. Be that someone. Invest your time. Having a marketing funnel in which you can understand your prospects behaviour and journey towards your reach will be really helpful in building your relationships.
To show our support, we at Florida Title Center, have created a marketing funnel for Brokers like you which is proven to work wonders!
#4 Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is an hypothesis of your prospects’ journey and behavior towards your reach. Your goal is to create a highly automated system that is measurable at any point in the customer’s journey.
3 Layers of Marketing Funnel
- The prospecting system
This is where you essentially need to invest time and energy on, since this is the most visible among the three layers. This is where you get your prospects to know you and have them view/receive regular updates from you… it’s either by subscribing to your email list or by following your social media accounts. Prospect subscribing to your email list is the golden grail of this stage because you get to have direct contact with them and control your reach to them.
The benefits of an effective prospecting system:
- You have direct contact with your prospects
- You can track their response to your reach
- You can now segment and specialize your marketing accordingly
- The Sales conversion System
This stage is where you build trust with prospects, nurture them, and then convert them into customers. This may mean sending welcome emails, regular newsletters, podcasts and eventually calling them to offer your product directly.
Follow-ups happen in this stage and your system should automatically track the actions you have taken including the sales they have produced.
Remember: The money is in the Follow-up!
They might not buy it the first time but they might buy it the seventh time!
“7 Times Factor – an essential marketing concept that states, when advertising your brand, your selling point should appear to your audience at least 7 times.”
- The system to maximize customer lifetime value
You need a system that caters to your clients in different situations. You need to keep track of what services or products they have purchased and even if they haven’t purchased anything yet, you still need to remind them that your services are always available for them. That’s why a good marketing funnel automates this process for you and keeps track of the data automatically.
Receive a Marketing Funnel that really works courtesy of Florida Title Center
“Again, a good system keeps track of where our customers are in the life cycle and then adjusts your offering accordingly”
#5 Email Marketing
Email Marketing is not dead! Many may underestimate the effectiveness of email marketing but trust that it really works wonders! Especially in the mortgage broking industry! With a potential return on investment of up to 4400%, email marketing remains the best way to attract and retain customers.
Here are some key benefits of good email marketing:
- Email marketing is very cost-effective
- It creates higher retention
- It can be almost completely automatic
- It boosts brand awareness and helps build trust and authority (very important in real estate)
- Email marketing enables amazing data collection and very deep behavior reporting, allowing you to identify the ‘hot-leads’ and the best approach to communicate with them
Do know that many people are in need of your services and a lot of them have very little to no knowledge about mortgages, opportunities and larger sales are just around the corner.. You just have to maximize your potentials, educate your audience, innovate your marketing system and explore synergy with others.
