Summary

This article discusses strategies for mortgage professionals to adapt and succeed in the changing market of 2021. It covers key trends, tips, and insights that mortgage pros need to leverage to stay ahead of the competition. By the end, you’ll know how to market yourself effectively in the evolving mortgage landscape.

Successful mortgage professionals are always adapting their practices to the changing market landscape. Overseeing a prospering business means constantly finding new ways to increase your efficiency, cultivate a broad lead network, and grow your client base. The past year has brought about many new challenges for everyone, mortgage brokers included. Many of the changes that have occurred are likely to persist into the coming years and those LOs who are looking ahead will be best positioned to find success in 2021.

Whether you work alone or oversee a team of loan officers, one of the most important elements of developing a thriving loan company is marketing. Successful marketing involves representing yourself and your business in ways that resonate with prospective clients, garner their interest, and earn their trust.

Fortunately, there are many strategies and tools available that allow you to market effectively by building your unique brand and differentiating your business from the competition. Let’s look at several of the resources and best practices that mortgage professionals should consider in 2021.

Use Current Technologies to Become More Efficient

While efficiency should always be a priority for mortgage brokers, there are a range of existing technologies that present fresh methods for increasing your company’s efficiency and productivity. A good place to start when attempting to find better ways for your loan business to operate is to conduct an audit of your workflow. Think through which of your daily tasks currently requires significant amounts of time and then consider which elements could successfully be automated using the technological tools that are available.

Many tasks that once required hours to complete manually can be accomplished automatically now, which allows you to use your time more effectively. For instance, mortgage brokers can craft social media posts and schedule them to publish during peak times in order to curate a cohesive and effective presence online. Also, contacting clients via email and text messaging can be automated in order to save valuable time.

Use Social Media Effectively

Everyone knows that social media platforms have become increasingly prominent in business and marketing. However, many LOs use these apps ineffectively or in counterproductive ways. In 2021, keeping a loan company successful will require developing a coherent and unique brand on social media. This is especially true given that the amount of time consumers spend on these platforms is rising dramatically.

One key principle of social media marketing is making sure that you are not overextending yourself and diluting your efforts by attempting to engage on too many platforms. Absent a fulltime social media manager, it is best to choose one or two sites and engage thoroughly and effectively on them. Also, be sure to focus on platforms or apps where users are most likely to represent a broad swath of consumers, such as Facebook and Instagram.

As mentioned above, it is best to automate your social media posting so that valuable working time isn’t wasted. There are an additional range of benefits to scheduling posts ahead of time, including:

• Allowing you to plan varied content to pique your audience’s interest
• Decreasing the likelihood of typos and mistakes from posting too quickly
• Ensuring that posts are published at times when the highest number of users will view them
• Permitting you to plan these tasks based on your schedule, not vice versa

Social media branding is also an excellent way to personalize yourself to your clients and allow them to see you as more than a faceless corporate name or logo. Utilizing a mortgage CRM platform, such as BNTouch, makes it simple to post curated content to multiple social media sites with just one click.

Deliver Customized Video Content to Clients

Another strategic way to effectively market your loan business is to provide users with informative and customized video content. Around 45 percent of consumers view an hour or more of video content each week through online platforms like Facebook and YouTube, making videos a useful way to engage with customers. Providing skillfully crafted and customized video content is an excellent branding strategy. It builds trust with prospective clients and positions you as a trusted source for all of your audience’s questions about the mortgage process.

Short, engaging, and customized videos can cover an assortment of topics and assist with a range of professional goals, such as:

• In-processing videos to guide clients through the beginnings of the loan process
• Loan anniversary videos to highlight customers’ refinancing options
• Birthday wish videos to nurture relationships with leads and clients
• Videos that humanize and personalize you to prospective borrowers

Video content marketing is an incredibly versatile tool because it can be shared through a variety of online platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on your company’s website. BN Touch, for example, offers professionally produced videos that can be customized with your company name and contact information.

Share Customer Testimonials in Multiple Formats

Building a network of high-quality leads and clientele requires fostering productive relationships and trust among all of your professional contacts. Because of the importance of relationships, success stories from customers are an invaluable resource for marketing your business. Find ways to highlight and detail these stories online.

Dedicate a page on your website to testimonials and stories of customer satisfaction. Foregrounding your accomplishments will present your company as being professionally effective, as well as highlighting your excellent customer service.

Business listings and review sites like Yelp and Google My Business provide a space for customers to post reviews. You should encourage satisfied customers to do so.

Also, ask those customers, whose stories are most engaging and impressive, to record short video testimonials. You can then incorporate these videos into your social media and online marketing plans to drive traffic, develop trust among your leads, and convert contacts into new clients.

Use Your Email List to Drive Engagement

Building an email contact list is one of the most crucial elements of accumulating leads and converting them into customers. Using your email list effectively can do wonders for your conversion rate.

Quality should be the highest priority for emails that your business sends to prospective clients. Including useful information, engaging videos, client success stories, and enticing mortgage loan options are all great ways to make sure that those on your list read and engage with the content that you email to them.

It is also important to send out emails regularly so that you remain top-of-mind for potential clients. Sending emails too often will exhaust or annoy users but emailing too infrequently can cause a loss of interest. Emailing your list with fresh and interesting content every two weeks is ideal.

In addition to simply sending regular messages, cross pollinate your social media marketing efforts with your email list. Services such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads allow you to drive advertisements and content toward users on their platforms based on email addresses. Using these services is a great way to reach prospective clients through multiple online channels, making conversions much more likely.

Promote Your Community Engagement

Especially given the radical changes and economic difficulties that have taken place recently, many people would prefer to patronize businesses that invest their time and efforts into their local communities. Find and support a local cause or organization that is important to you and that makes a positive difference in your area.

Community engagement is a good idea for your loan company for a number of reasons. Of course, getting involved in productive social or economic causes is a good and laudable use of resources. But beyond that, taking positive local action also presents an excellent opportunity to create engaging content for your online audience. The best way to convince customers that your business is invested in bettering your local community is to actually do so.

Moreover, the time and energy that you spend engaging with community causes and organizations can help you to broaden your network of local contacts, leads, and clients.

Gather Information from Users

Gathering user information in order to grow your business is one of the most useful tools that is available through online marketing. Contact information allows you to discover high-quality leads, target your online advertising, and drive web traffic and engagement.

One excellent way to gather user information is with surveys. Customized surveys can be used to solicit customer testimonials and to collect information that will help you improve client satisfaction over time. A customer relationship management platform, such as BNTouch, provides the tools to create customized surveys to retrieve the most useful information for your business goals.

Another way to collect data from prospective clients is the development of gated content. Use your expertise about the mortgage lending process to produce white papers, videos, or short eBooks that provide users with helpful material in exchange for information about them.

For instance, you might grant users access to an informational video in exchange for their name and email address. Gated content simultaneously positions you as an expert voice in the industry and also allows you to gather information about potential leads.

Despite the many changes to the marketplace and the continuing development of new tools and technologies, utilizing these marketing strategies can help mortgage professionals to distinguish themselves from the competition in 2021.

Key Takeaways

• Embrace Digital Marketing Strategies

As the industry shifts, using digital marketing techniques like SEO, email campaigns, and social media is crucial for mortgage professionals to reach and engage clients online.

• Understand Changing Consumer Behavior

Staying in tune with how consumer expectations and behaviors are evolving, such as preferences for remote services and digital communication, will help mortgage pros meet client demands effectively.

• Leverage Data for Smarter Marketing

Using data-driven insights can help mortgage professionals tailor their marketing efforts to target the right audience, optimizing lead generation and conversion strategies.

Commonly Asked Questions

• What marketing strategies are important for mortgage professionals in 2021?

Digital marketing strategies such as SEO, email campaigns, and social media are key for reaching and engaging potential clients online.

• How has consumer behavior changed in 2021?

Consumers increasingly prefer remote services and digital communication, so mortgage professionals must adapt to these expectations to meet client needs effectively.

• What role does data play in mortgage marketing?

Data-driven insights enable mortgage professionals to target the right audience and optimize their marketing efforts for better lead generation and conversions.

• Why is staying up-to-date with market trends important for mortgage professionals?

Keeping up with market trends allows mortgage professionals to adapt to changing demands and maintain a competitive edge in the industry.

Market Yourself and Stand Apart as a Mortgage Professional in 2021