Influencer marketing is now one of the biggest trends in digital marketing and more businesses are beginning to heavily rely on influencers to promote their brand. While influencer marketing has largely been disregarded by the mortgage industry, the right partnership and strategy have been proven to generate mortgage leads and boost conversions.
If you’re looking to bring your mortgage business to the next level, consider adding influencers to your marketing strategy for 2022.
What Is an Influencer?
An influencer is seen as a trusted expert within a particular field or community that has a steady following. They may endorse or review certain products, services or thoughts and others within the community often look to these influencers when making a purchase decision.
Because the opinions of influencers are so highly valued, their endorsements carry a lot of power behind them, making influencers a powerful marketing tool across a variety of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, TikTok and even podcasts. Here are some key statistics about influencer marketing:
- 9 out of 10 marketers believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing.
- The influencer marketing industry is set to hit $15 billion in 2022.
- Influencer marketing can drive annual incremental sales at a rate of 11x vs traditional digital advertising.
- 40% of millennials say their favorite online influencer understands them better than their real-life friends.
Why Does the Mortgage Industry Need Influencers?
Influencer marketing is certainly on the rise, but can this be leveraged by the mortgage industry? It’s already been proved that it can.
Known on TikTok as That Mortgage Guy, NFM Lending loan officer Scott Betley has experienced incredible success through the platform, even generating 600 to 700 leads from a single video. His growing popularity has pushed NFM Lending to create and launch an Influencer Division led in part by Betley.
Mortgage influencers have been around for a couple of years now, but their popularity with younger generations and potential for lead generation is expected to grow.
When it comes to more traditional advertising, consumer sentiment toward display ads is on the decline. Consumers feel like they don’t get much in return for the ads they see online and that too many ads interfere with their online experience. Many people also don’t trust the ads that they see.
This is where influencer marketing has truly made a difference. Followers relate to the influences they subscribe to, and more importantly, listen to what they have to say about certain products or brands.
Top Benefits of Mortgage Influencers
There’s no denying the effectiveness of influencer marketing in the mortgage industry. Forbes predicts that 2022 “will be the year when partnerships between brands and influencers are stronger, more diverse and more purposeful than ever” and that influencers are set to take over the entire marketing funnel.
Here are some of the biggest benefits of utilizing influencer marketing in your mortgage marketing strategy.
Improve Brand Awareness
One of the biggest benefits of influencer marketing is that it can increase the awareness of your mortgage brand. A prospect cannot become a customer without being at least somewhat aware of your brand. Studies show that around 59% of shoppers prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them, and 21% say they purchased a new product because it was from a brand they like.
Visitors to these platforms can learn more about your brand and what makes your business stand out as a leader in the industry.
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Offer Value
Influencers are tuned in to the needs of their subscribers and can recommend products or services that will be of value to their followers. Influencers can provide content that educates and motivates your target audience to take action.
Fill Gaps in Your Content Strategy
Effective content strategies are always evolving and sometimes, it can be difficult to come up with something that’s fresh and unique. By teaming up with an influencer, your mortgage brand can revamp its content marketing strategy.
Expand Visibility and Reach
With ad-blockers being more common, display ads are becoming more of a nuisance for consumers. Influencers give brands a way to get right in front of their target audience. Many social media influencers have a large following, with a subscriber base in the millions. Brands can build effective marketing campaigns by tapping the audiences of the right influencers.
Connect With Your Target Audience
People follow their favorite influencers for a reason. They offer value to those already interested in their specific niche. If someone subscribes to someone who offers content about the mortgage industry, they are more likely to engage with mortgage brands. This cuts out a substantial amount of time, money and effort trying to find your audience.
Build Trust and Show Authority
According to a study, 50% of millennials trust influencers they follow on product recommendations, compared to 38% for their favorite celebrities. One of the biggest reasons for this is authenticity. Approximately 88% say it’s important for influencers to be authentic and genuinely care about their interests.
Consumers also tend to make decisions based on reviews and the opinions of others. The same study found that 88% of Gen Z and millennials learn about products they’re interested in buying on social media and 56% have purchased a product after seeing a post from someone they follow.
Generate Leads and Drive Conversions
Consumers require multiple touchpoints with a brand to convert, which makes influencer marketing perfect. Influencer marketing gives your mortgage brand the opportunity to engage more frequently with your target audience.
Influencer content is also viewed as being more authentic, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
Improve Your SEO
An influencer can also help increase your social media following, which is a ranking factor used by search engines. A bigger presence on social media, higher levels of engagement and linking can send more people to your mortgage website. This tells search engines that you have a sizable following and that people are interested in what your business has to offer, which can boost your SEO.
Roundup
The mortgage process can be confusing and it’s not surprising that people search for easily consumable content so that they can better understand one of the biggest transactions of their lifetime.
Influencer marketing is here to stay and it can be leveraged to amplify your mortgage brand. It all comes down to finding the right partnership, connecting with your target audience and offering valuable content.
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