Credit unions provide some of the best mortgage rates in the business. Their low fees, flexible underwriting standards, and excellent customer service make them the competitive choice for borrowers looking to finance their home purchase.

Despite high-touch service levels and attractive rates, challenges still exist for credit unions competing with retail banks and consumer-direct lenders. As a result, credit unions need to adapt to the new market with a solid mortgage marketing strategy to capture homebuyer attention while driving consistent product, membership, and revenue growth.

This Article Covers: 

• How credit unions use mortgage marketing to optimize their ROI
• How to avoid costly mistakes when implementing product cross selling
• Optimizing the cross-selling experience for both lender and borrower through integrations

Credit unions are nonprofit, member-owned cooperative organizations that can provide an array of banking services, including but not limited to savings accounts, mortgages, and auto loans.  

The key difference between a credit union and a bank is that credit unions are not-for-profit institutions. They are owned and controlled by members who use their services in a cooperative structure, creating a cycle of mutual assistance with a common goal: financial well-being for all members.  

Any profits made by credit unions are returned to their members to fund projects and services that benefit members’ interest, including but not limited to lower loan rates.  

Credit unions range in size from small, single-location operations to large corporate entities spanning the country. More often than not, they only serve a particular region, industry, or group.  However, just because credit unions have fewer physical locations does not mean they cannot have a reach similar to that of a big bank.  

Credit unions benefit from their non-profit status. With the absence of a need to generate high-profit margins each quarter, they can offer lower borrowing rates for their members and create the need for a cross-selling strategy for their different products and services.

A great marketing strategy for credit unions is the key component to increasing sales, educating current members, and attracting new members within their market segment. Some organizations may deviate from the traditional path, but ultimately a well-defined credit union mortgage marketing strategy means selling more products and services to more members.  

There are six components for an effective credit union mortgage marketing strategy.  

1.)    New Member Acquisition

Credit unions appeal to borrowers with a member-centric model. As a result, the communication process between credit unions and their members needs to be timely and personal. The challenge that all credit unions face is the growth of this personal service at scale.  

The member acquisition process blends customer service and marketing elements gathering information about prospective members to understand their needs and the products and services that offer the best solutions. 

By implementing different marketing tools such as landing pages and SMS texting, credit unions can automate and streamline this process leading to growth at scale.

2.)    Landing Pages

Savvy and successful financial marketers create campaigns that send leads and foot traffic to landing pages. Different from the institution’s home page, landing pages should draw a clear path of action for leads. With any landing page strategy, you must measure lead and inbound foot traffic. Set key performance indicators and adjust your landing page to achieve the best results. 

A call to action is the most essential component of a landing page. Entice leads with a free quote, consultation with a specialist, webinar, etc. Click here for a list of elements that make up an effective mortgage landing page.

According to a recent survey by Renderforest, videos on landing pages increase conversions by up to 86%. The video should be educational and informative for the lead, and you’ll get bonus points if it’s personalized to your brand. Immediately add a face and personality to your brand with a short greeting that introduces your credit union and encourages prospects to fill out the form. 

Another way to keep leads on your landing page is to add a mortgage calculator that can be configured by the prospective member. It’s both a valuable tool for the lead and a way for you to gather important information that could help to turn them into a member. 

For more information on how to build a landing page that converts, click here.

3.)    Email Marketing

Email marketing allows credit unions to educate and build trust with future and prospective members. Although it’s the oldest digital marketing medium, email still positively contributes to ROI for 73% of companies in the financial industry, according to Econsultancy.

It’s important for credit unions to shape email campaigns in a way that targets member audiences personally, involving them in the conversation and keeping your services top of mind. A great way to engage your target audience is through email is with video. 

Create educational videos that establish your institution as a trusted subject matter expert. For first-time homebuyers, send videos that coach them on building their credit score and the do’s and don’ts of the loan process. For experienced homebuyers, they’ll need a refresher course on what to expect during the loan process and what they need to do to prepare. However, these videos need to go to the correct member types to be effective.

Customer segmentation of your contacts is crucial to effective mortgage email marketing. According to MailChimp, users who segmented their contacts into email lists received 14% more opens and 15% more clicks than the list average. 

Credit unions should be keeping a very detailed record of their contacts and properly segmenting each type for appropriate messaging. Sending emails to check in on abandoned loan applications drastically improves closed loan volume for credit unions. 

Another way credit unions can benefit from customer segmentation lists is through post-close follow-ups, such as a nice note on the anniversary of their closing or wishing them well on their birthday. Small and intentional touches like these keep credit unions at the top of members’ minds for the next time they need financial services.

4.)    Social Media Marketing

Studies show that 78% of salespeople who use mortgage social media marketing out-perform their peers. So in a world of mindless scrolling and information overload, how can credit unions use social media marketing to stand out and build their brand?

Connecting with prospective members on every social media channel is a great starting point for credit unions. Of course, your entire audience won’t be on a single platform, and you’ll want to maintain profiles on as many sites as you can to get in front of every age group.

Social media is an avenue that can help credit unions build brand recognition within their own community and with the option to invite current members to groups, it creates a direct path to interact with their current member roster. 

However, an omnichannel presence on social media will only get you so far. Credit unions should post with a cadence and a purpose on social media to drive awareness and growth. 

Here are some topic suggestions:

• • Product announcements
  • Local branch news
  • Member testimonials
  • Answer questions
  • Provide solutions to common problems

Posting with a purpose-driven strategy builds brand authenticity and shows followers that the company is community-driven. With any mortgage social media marketing strategy, consistency is key to building loyal followers and an engaged audience.

The type of content you post on social media matters, too. The same study from Renderforest found that video is the most preferred content type on social media and that 75% of people are more likely to follow a brand’s social media page if it has video content.

Videos add an extra level of authenticity for credit unions to showcase their unique differentiators in the marketplace. Plus, borrowers can picture what it would be like to become a member. 

5.)    Compliance

Regardless of their non-profit status, credit unions must abide by the same marketing compliance standards as any other lending institution and the same fines for non-compliance. 

When credit unions attempt to grow through the use of marketing automation, it can be easy to forget the fact that all communication will need proper compliance review. Luckily, there are methods to streamline this process with compliance technology:

• • Centralized communication

With marketing automation, emails, text messages, and social media marketing messages are now all in one place. So you don’t have to worry about that one rogue LO sending unapproved messages. 

• • Approved content at your fingertips

Strong mortgage-centered marketing automation systems like Surefire will include content that adheres to compliance standards. If a loan officer decides to customize the content, marketing managers can review the piece of collateral and make adjustments, if necessary. 

• • Audit reports on demand

Robust mortgage-centered systems will offer credit union lenders the ability to pull commonly requested audit reports. Then, when compliance officers need more details, strong CRM companies will have team members ready to assist.

6.)    Marketing Automation

A personalized experience is no longer an option in the credit union space, it’s a necessity. From digital touchpoints that help members streamline their finances, triggered email communications based on changes to members current status, to providing exceptional customer service  marketers can strengthen the member experience through email, text, social media posts, and even phone calls in a way that feels friendly and personal.  

Marketing automation builds brand trust, enabling credit unions to place members on engaging and educational tracks with a simple click. 

Plus, credit unions discover more deals with marketing automation. If your lists of contacts have become unwieldy, you’re in the right place. Surefire, the most-used mortgage CRM, helps credit unions identify new loan and retention opportunities within their existing database. 

Surefire identifies and deploys rate, equity, and just listed alerts, so you never have to miss an opportunity again. In addition, Surefire sends off award-winning content with set-it-and-forget-it functionality when an alert arises, which is the key to winning repeat business before your competitors beat you to the punch.

Did you know that 80% of your future profits will come from 20% of your current customers? Cross-selling is an invaluable mortgage marketing practice that saves mortgage professionals time and money and keeps them top of mind with customers. 

Look at cross-selling as a way to become a trusted advisor with your repeat customers. While mortgage professionals look at buying a home as one of many transactions completed month after month, buyers look to this as both an aspirational and emotional chapter of their life. Show your customers that you genuinely care by listening to their needs. A mortgage lender is more likely to win the sale when they actually take the time to listen to the customer’s needs and offer a product or service based on those needs. What better place to store and use this information than a world-class mortgage CRM like Surefire?

In the mortgage industry, cross-selling happens when financial institutions with a mortgage lending division use the information gained during the mortgage origination process to offer different financial products.  Credit unions are one of the main financial institutions that create incremental revenue growth opportunities by cross-selling. 

Product cross-selling requires financial institutions to overcome natural challenges that exist within a complex lending organization: internal communication and data sharing between divisions.  

Existing mortgage customers expect that the bank that financed one of the biggest events in their life should know them well. Without the proper methods to share complete customer records with different divisions, lenders run the risk of damaging relationships with existing clients by sending generic communications.  

As an example, if a customer was recently turned down for credit, the last thing that should be sent from their lender is a text about refinancing their home. Don’t make the mistake of rubbing salt in the wound and inevitably causing irreparable damage to your bank’s reputation.

Automated workflows that can be triggered based on client interactions are  imperative when implementing a cross-sell program.  These triggers should be reactive to the actions of your borrowers instead of your sales team.  Borrowers seek out information when they think of taking action, so having articles available that speak to those actions helps current clients qualify themselves as leads for other divisions or lending programs.  

Information sharing is also an essential function of  successful product cross-selling.  The borrower’s full story needs to be accessible at any point of the decision making process while remaining compliant with federal lending regulations. 

As the leading mortgage marketing software provider, Surefire CRM enables lenders to engage with their clients using award-winning creative content backed by industry-leading compliance. Surefire also helps lenders:

• Close more loans through the implementation of customer recapture and retention campaigns
• Maximize cross-selling opportunities through system integrations that alert lenders of credit pulls, lifestyle changes or web interactions.
• Ensure compliance by automating the administrative review of all marketing materials and workflows
• Strengthen borrower relationships through placement in appropriate nurture campaigns