The past year has seen a lot of change in the way that companies do business and in consumers’ expectations. If you want to continue to be successful as a professional in the mortgage industry, you’ll need to stay on top of these changing expectations, so you can deliver the best results to your existing customers and appeal to brand new ones in order to grow your audience base. With the right marketing techniques, you can earn the trust of prospective clients and bring them into the fold.
BeSmartee explores how to stand out from the crowd by marketing yourself in the lending industry post-pandemic.
Stay Current with Technologies
While COVID-19 may be winding down in the United States with the widespread vaccination programs, many of the changes made to businesses are unlikely to go away soon, if ever. One of the places we’ve seen the most change is in how companies and individuals market themselves to their audience.
Plenty of places market themselves as being cutting-edge by leveraging new technologies to improve efficiencies which is why you need to stay up-to-date with what competitors are doing. Simply monitoring existing workflows isn’t enough anymore; you need to think outside of the box and see if there are new tools you could implement to speed up the lending process and improve overall efficiency.
We recommend starting by making a list of daily tasks, with the ones that take the most time at the top. Break down what tools you need to complete the task and how you go about it. Chances are high that there are other tools and technologies that could alleviate some of the workload through automation, freeing you up for other work that requires a human touch.
Once you’ve done this for daily tasks, it’s not a bad idea to look at those less common tasks or ones you perform weekly or monthly in the same way. Automation saves time, energy and ensures that there is no risk of human error when inputting information. Currently, there are tons of tools available that automate different tasks and processes.
Customize Your Content
Everyone wants to feel special, right? By providing customized content, customers feel like you’re really talking to them and don’t just see them as another open wallet. This can really make or break your company and your reputation. Companies that go out of their way to personalize content and connect with customers on a more personal level often see a much higher level of brand loyalty, which is significantly more profitable in the long run.
One example of customized content is through videos. Most people will watch at least one or two short videos through YouTube or Facebook each week, and videos are a good way to really speak to customers. You can make tutorials or FAQ videos to answer common questions and dive into the lending process on a deeper level. Don’t feel like you have to be all business, though. A little personalization can go a long way. Something as simple as a happy birthday video can foster a relationship in a way that otherwise isn’t accessible.
Utilize Social Media
It’s hard to overstate the value of a good online presence nowadays. Social media is a marketing tool that can promote your business to a very wide audience, if used correctly. Once you’ve established your brand and voice, you’ll need to post early and often about unique content that interests your audience if you want people to stick around and hear you out.
As we mentioned before, automation is a powerful tool and one that can be applied to social media as well. There are tools to let you create and queue up social media posts, so you can keep your mind on your work without worrying that your timeline’s gaps are growing. People spend more and more time on social media with each passing year, so you shouldn’t ignore the opportunity to reach out and connect.
Ideally, you’d want a social media manager to work on your campaign full-time, but most people learn to hone in on one or two social media platforms where they find the majority of their customers. It’s always better to be effective in one or two places than spread too thinly across every platform. When you can dedicate time to plan your content you can reduce the number of errors or mistakes that might happen if you simply dash off something fast.
Social media is also useful because it gives a sense of intimacy between people. Instead of simply being a corporate entity, your social media represents a person who is talking to another person. Potential customers would rather feel like they’re having a conversation, and it allows for more personal interactions.
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Learn About Consumers
Clearly, the best way to market your company is to know what your customers are looking for. Easier said than done, right? Not necessarily. With the rise of analytics software, it’s becoming easier to gather information about consumers so that you can appeal to their sensibilities, no matter how they change.
With the right data, you can narrow down potential leads, drive engagement and refine your online advertising to ensure that the right people are seeing your marketing strategies. Aside from data-gathering tools, you can also ask your customers to fill out surveys to get a better idea of where they learned about you and if their expectations were met with your services.
Be Part of the Community
As the realities of global warming and social injustices become more and more visible with each passing year customers are looking to support companies that give back to their communities. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the dangers of financial inequalities in stark ways that shook even the most conservative people to their cores.
Spending time and money by investing in your community has plenty of rewards, only one of which is that you can easily show your audience through social media how committed you are to helping people get back on their feet. Regardless of what you are passionate about, committing yourself to a cause and then standing behind it is a great way to connect with your followers and prove that you care about more than just raking in more money.
You also have the opportunity to get involved with people who might otherwise have never heard of your company. Expanding your network is never a bad thing and by helping your community, you’ll empower people who might not have been able to consider your loan services before.
Stay in Touch
Another example of how much energy automation can save you is through sending emails. With a large network full of people at different stages of the lending process, it can be difficult to remember every single person and which type of email you want to send them. With automation, you can add names and email addresses to lists which automatically generate emails on specified time intervals to ensure that no one is forgotten.
Bring Reviews to the Forefront
Millennials aren’t the first generation to seek out previous reviews of your company, and they certainly won’t be the last. By making it easy for people to find out more information about your services and other testimonials, you’ll increase the chances that new customers will come knocking. Highlighting the positive interactions with previous customers helps demonstrate your trustworthiness and other qualities that consumers consider important.
We recommend having a page on your website that showcases some of your favorite clientele and their experiences with you. However, it’s important to remember that there are other places where people will want to see reviews, like Yelp! Depending on how eager your clients are to provide reviews, you might want to advertise some small incentives for reviewing your company. You might even ask some customers to make video testimonials which can then be shared on your social media in the future.
Roundup
Marketing yourself in the lending industry’s changing landscape doesn’t have to be an insurmountable challenge. As long as you keep up-to-date on the recent technological advances and continue to cultivate the personal aspects of your relationships within your network, and community, you can stand out from the crowd as a trustworthy company that people will turn to when they need guidance.
Learn why lenders leverage BeSmartee’s mortgage expertise to stay ahead of the competition by calling us at (888) 276-1579 or reaching out to us at sales@besmartee.com today.
