How Banks and Credit Unions Are Finding Success With Marketing Automation

In any industry, the marketing department’s path of least resistance is usually to continue doing things as they’ve always been done.

This is especially the case for banks and credit unions that offer mortgage lending. Loan officers are often in their own silo, where it’s easy for the marketing team to forget they’re out there managing their own contact lists and developing their own messaging — at least until the compliance officers come knocking.

When marketing teams at banks and credit unions set up marketing automation for their mortgage lending divisions, they break down the silos while still giving those independent-minded loan officers a sense of control.

Marketing executives will also find they can better manage compliance and branding, even while their LOs are happy to be getting more leads in the pipeline.

Banks and Credit Unions Discover More Deals With Marketing Automation

Consolidate disparate customer lists for consistent management, more repeat business, and more referrals.In some cases, LOs at banks and credit unions manage their own contact lists. Over time, the job can become daunting, and contacts fall through the cracks.

Marketing automation solves both problems by providing one place for LOs to enter and view contact records, record notes, and properly segment contacts for appropriate messaging. One-click or even no-click automation means each LO communicates with their contacts as needed, staying top of mind when the next financial need arises.

Marketing managers, branch managers, assistants and others can also understand the contact management system since it’s now consistent across the company. This means they can step in to help LOs, rather than sitting on the sideline while LOs struggle to manage marketing along with their other duties.

Not only does the improved management and communication mean that more customers are coming back for new deals and are making referrals, but it also means LOs have more time on their hands to make those deals happen.

Presidential Bank Mortgage (Presidential) provides a success story. An operating division of Presidential Bank with branches in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, Presidential had loan officers managing their own databases before they adopted marketing automation with Surefire. In some cases, the LOs had been with Presidential for several decades, so their lists of contacts had become unwieldy.

By introducing marketing automation, Presidential’s marketing director helped the LOs wrangle their databases into a manageable platform where they could nourish each relationship with automated workflows and recurring deployments. Access the full case study here.

Increase cross-selling.

When banks and credit unions use marketing automation software, they can increase their effectiveness and efficiency in cross selling their various financial services.

Consider, for example, a bank or credit union that offers investment services, auto loans, mortgage services and life insurance. A loan officer speaks with a client about a cash-out refi. The client is welcoming a new baby to the family and wants to consolidate debt and have extra cash to refurbish the nursery.

As the LO works with the client and makes notes, the client is tagged, and activities are triggered. The system starts an appropriate marketing campaign that features one or more products new parents might appreciate, such as a 529 plan, life insurance, or an auto loan. It then sends messages to appropriate team members in the organization who can help offer those products.

Identify mortgage-related opportunities.

Marketing automation platforms can also be set to identify mortgage opportunities for users.

Platforms often offer credit pull alerts, credit rating change alerts, just listed alerts, refinancing alerts and equity alerts. LOs receive a notification when the client takes action and may benefit from mortgage services; when the client’s interest rate is at a level where they’ll benefit from a refinance; or when their home equity has grown to a point, they can eliminate PMI.

As an LO fills the marketing platform with contact records, the platform will continually feed the LO leads in return.

In Presidential’s case, Just Listed Alerts triggered their LOs to follow up and offer services any time a client placed their home on the market. They learned that many clients who had not contacted them about their next home purchase were moving out of state and assumed that Presidential could not help with their next loan. Since Presidential is licensed in all states, their LOs were able to recapture this business.

Banks and Credit Unions Remain Compliant with Marketing Automation

When banks and credit unions employ automated marketing, it’s easier to review and approve all materials and access all sent items for audits later. Here are three benefits:

• First, with marketing automation, emails, text messages, and social marketing messages are now in a central location. You don’t have to worry that one rogue LO is sending unapproved messages.
• Second, strong mortgage-centered systems will include content that adheres to overall standards. With this as a starting point, marketing managers can review and use content as it is, edit existing content or create their own messages. They can then set up approved workflows and recurring deployments that will automatically send to certain contacts or that LOs can assign to contacts with a simple click.

Strong mortgage-centered systems will allow for easy review and approval processes for companies that want to give the LOs more flexibility in creating or selecting their own messages.

• Finally, robust mortgage-centered systems will offer banks and credit union customers the ability to pull commonly requested audit reports. When compliance officers need more details, strong CRM companies will have team members ready to assist.

Banks and Credit Unions Stay On-Brand with Marketing Automation

For marketing executives who live and breathe the branding for their bank or credit union, the idea of individual financial professionals creating marketing materials and graphics on their own can be the stuff of nightmares. It’s not that other team members can’t do it; it’s just that they may not be versed in the intricacies of approved colors or fonts or niceties that excite marketing executives.

With a strong mortgage-centered CRM as a marketing automation platform, bank and credit union marketing executives will find a depth of content that allows them to match their brand personality. For example, Surefire CRM and Mortgage Marketing Engine offers a whimsical in-process series of communications or a more straightforward, classically professional version.

Strong marketing automation platforms will also automatically add your logo and company colors, allowing you to adjust as necessary.

Of course, you should always have the ability to build your own marketing from scratch and deploy it through the system, too.

Banks and Credit Unions Can Do More with a Mortgage-Centered CRM Platform

Not just any marketing automation platform will do when meeting the specific needs of banks and credit unions. Surefire CRM has been working with mortgage lenders of all stripes for almost two decades. Sign up for a tour today to see how we may be able to help you, too.

Looking for an all-encompassing, free resource to get your 2021 mortgage marketing plan started with a bang? Enroll today in Mortgage Marketing University!