Grow your home loan portfolios with these data-driven purchase mortgage marketing solutions to increase customer engagement and conversions as refis slide.
Article Highlights
- Interest rates are rising, making refinancing less appealing and making it more challenging to attract homebuyers
- Leveraging data to segment buyers and sellers can help you reach the right audience with the right message at the right time
- Delivering relevant personal finance content can move audience segments through all stages of the sales funnel
- Maximizing digital communication channels and best practices leads to a better customer experience and higher engagement
The past few years saw historically low mortgage interest rates and a refinancing boom as homeowners raced to lock in lower rates and pull cash out for home improvements or debt consolidation. Eventually, though, the pool of homeowners who could save money by refinancing dwindled and interest rates started climbing. This has slowed the volume of refi activity.
Simultaneously, higher mortgage rates are causing many homebuyers to consider hitting pause on their house hunt. Put it all together, and you can expect increased competition among lenders to boost their purchase mortgage leads and optimize their loan portfolios.
Below we share data-driven tips and mortgage marketing solutions to help you get customers and prospects engaged with your purchase mortgage products and services so you can grow your loan portfolios.
Start Your Purchase Mortgage Marketing Strategies with Education and Awareness
As a financial services marketer, you have your pulse on current interest rates, as well as the unique features and benefits of different mortgage loan products. By passing this information along to your customers and prospects in an educational format, you can create awareness of suitable borrowing options. And you can initiate a conversation that can ultimately help them find the best loan product for their needs.
For even greater impact and ROI, take this educational approach a step further by joining it with your treasure trove of customer data. This will allow you to identify customers and prospects who have borrowing power, and to pinpoint which product types are likely to be of most interest to each person. With those details, you can deliver personalized, highly relevant messaging that helps each person move more easily through the sales funnel.
How to Leverage Data for Stronger Mortgage Marketing Campaigns
Exactly how can that customer data be used to inform your purchase mortgage marketing tactics? In a nutshell, by helping you separate customers and prospects into different groups based on their wants and needs. For instance, you know that a home refinance marketing campaign shouldn’t look identical to a homebuyer campaign. By digging into your data, you can identify which customers or prospects should receive your purchase loan campaign.
The mortgage marketing strategies below can help you leverage data to generate more leads and guide your purchase mortgage marketing campaigns toward greater results.
Identify homebuyers and home sellers.
Most mortgage lenders rely on credit bureaus to identify consumers who have recently applied for home loans, and then target them with a purchase mortgage campaign. At CCG, we use premover data, as well as additional sources of public data, to identify potential home sellers and homebuyers sooner. This efficient and cost-effective financial marketing strategy not only gives our financial institution customers access to a bigger pool of leads, but also lets them reach their intended audience before their competition does.
See how we helped this Midwest financial institution gain a 350% increase in leads for their purchase mortgage portfolio with an innovative list-building strategy. Read the case study
Segment refinance prospects from homebuyer prospects.
Refinancing might not be as hot as it was in 2020, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore this profitable segment. Use data to identify and segment potential homebuyers from refinance prospects.
This mortgage marketing strategy makes it easier and more efficient for your company to send personalized offers that are relevant to each group’s particular interests and needs. That makes for a much more cost-effective and efficient way to target your intended audience versus sending a broad, generic message to your entire database. While both of these audiences seek new mortgages, they have different needs.
For example, refinance shoppers are likely to be rate sensitive and willing to shop multiple lenders. By segmenting out this audience, you can send communications focused on rates and what differentiates your products from the competition. You may even be able to show them how much they could save on their monthly payment by refinancing with you.
On the other hand, homebuyers (especially first-timers) are likely looking for more information and guidance. You could offer this group an educational email series about mortgages and the homebuying process.
Include Content Marketing in Your Mortgage Marketing Strategies
Content marketing can help your financial institution attract and retain mortgage loan prospects by increasing brand awareness and positioning your company as a trusted source of valuable information. Whether you distribute value-added content through blogs, videos, infographics or newsletters, there’s a nearly endless supply of financial topics that can provide a wealth of useful information to current and potential customers.
Letting data drive your choice of topics, and even your delivery channels, for different audiences can increase the impact of your content marketing efforts. Here are some mortgage marketing ideas to try using value-added content.
Educate prospective homebuyers.
Providing trustworthy information can be especially important when communicating with prospective home purchase borrowers. Unlike homeowners interested in a refinance, homebuyers likely need more information to guide them through all steps of the homebuying process.
For example, you could:
- Develop an infographic comparing different types of mortgages, liked fixed rate and variable rate
- Create a checklist of documents needed to complete a home mortgage application
- Distribute an article with tips to boost their credit score for more favorable interest rates
Then, deliver that content through multiple channels, such as an email, an online blog, on your website or via social media.
Audit your existing mortgage marketing campaigns.
You may have spent the past year focusing primarily on refinance marketing campaigns. Now is a good time to review and update all of your mortgage marketing campaign materials, adding helpful, informative, value-added content so you can target each prospect group with the information they need.
Start by organizing your mortgage marketing content by category, like purchase, refis and home equity. Focus on your purchase mortgage content and look for any gaps that need to be filled in. Then review your refi and home equity content to make sure you have plenty of relevant value-added content in those categories, too.
Provide a Great Mortgage Customer Experience with Digital Best Practices
Consumers have access to more lenders than ever before — and they expect faster approvals and a simple, transparent mortgage loan application process. With the majority of mortgage searches beginning online, it’s more important than ever to provide an exceptional user experience.
A few ways to do this include keeping your mortgage marketing campaign messaging consistent, tracking customer information across all channels and platforms, and maintaining quick, convenient interactions. In addition, be sure to check your website and mobile app to make sure they offer a seamless customer experience.
Leverage your email lists, since email is still a low-cost, efficient way to engage with your different audience segments by sending them helpful, value-added content. Finally, be sure to deliver messages with relevant offers through your customers’ preferred channels.
Stay Ahead of the Competition with Data-Driven Mortgage Marketing Strategies
Interest rates, and the housing and mortgage industries, will likely continue to fluctuate in 2021 and beyond. Financial institutions positioned to enjoy healthy loan portfolios will be those who have mortgage marketing strategies in place — including solutions that effectively leverage data in order to reach the right prospects before the competition.
Does your team need help gathering and leveraging data to increase mortgage conversions? CCG’s financial marketing experts have helped financial institutions deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time for more than 40 years. Our financial marketing solutions and services include customer data, analytics and research, as well as value-added financial content and creative strategy. Call us at 303.986.3000 or click below to schedule a free consultation to see how we can help you improve your mortgage marketing strategies.
