How to Create a Mortgage Marketing Plan That Will Convert

Mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers have forever had marketing plans. These have been as slight as a phone directory ad, email marketing, digital marketing, social ads, blog posts, all the way up to national campaigns encompassing major media.

A budget usually dictates the what, the how and of course, the how much. But measuring how much should never be about what it costs; it should always be about how much it’ll make.

What really constitutes the best mortgage marketing plan?

Simply put, the best pursuit is a mortgage marketing plan that converts. When it does, it pays for itself and more. There’s just absolutely nothing better than a self-financing and self-perpetuating plan to keep the deals coming in the door.

The best mortgage marketing plan should not be one that you start, run for a given period, and then stop. That approach might work while it’s running, but what about later? For instance, if you’re a relatively small business and you blow your whole budget on a radio spot that runs for a month, what happens after it’s no longer on the air?

The best marketing plan is one that is woven into your everyday business. The cost of conducting it is factored into your margins, as it’s considered a cost of doing business. This way, there is no beginning or end. It’s constant. It’s credible. It’s manageable. It’s consistent. It’s simply part of who you are and what your business does.

How to create your mortgage marketing plan

There are plenty of salespeople knocking on our doors. They’re pitching everything from an ad in the local newspaper, or in a real estate agent’s book of homes, to digital marketing ads, social media campaigns, email list rentals, cable tv, radio, etc. From the salesperson’s perspective, their product is usually the only one they believe you need for an effective mortgage marketing plan or strategy.

We can’t do it all though. But we must be doing something, right? Yes, we must find what works and then stick with it. Often, that’s as much about truly providing exemplary service vs. just advertising that you do. Ask yourself if you have an easier time landing a new deal with a warm referral from a happy client or a lead generated from a Facebook ad.

Generating as many of those warm referrals as possible from every client is the result of a perfect mortgage marketing plan. But how much marketing really goes into that? It’s more about doing what you do best, and that should be servicing your clients’ wants and needs. When done correctly, your clients then do the rest.

When you create a mortgage marketing plan that becomes a part of your regular business, you should start by introducing yourself to your prospects as a great consultant upfront using nurturing educational drip campaigns to help your customers navigate the home buying process.

But don’t stop there, you must progress through to online resources such as calculators and pre-qualification tools. Ultimately, once borrowers are in the application process, you’ll continue providing question-answering materials at each step along the way. And that of course will help you save time answering those same questions on the phone.

Closing information should be provided even before the required Closing Disclosure to prepare them for any potential surprises. Let them know how the process works and what they’ll need long before it happens.

Then, of course, stay in touch afterward. This is critical to building a self-sustaining business based primarily on client referrals and repeat business. Good educational content marketing before, during and after the sale will keep your mortgage pipeline full and ever-growing.

Focusing on knowing your business inside and out is key. So is sharing that expertise with all who come to you for your service. Nothing sells you better than consumers that feel they received more than they expected.

Still, it takes time to build a loyal following. You may manage other mortgage loan officers, and they also need prospects. They may be too green in the business to have referral relationships, and we all know how tough it can be to get busy agents to pay attention to a newbie. Most of the agents you want as partners already have someone they’ve done business with for a decade or more.

Starting out with more traditional mortgage marketing plans can still be in order. Yet, aim your recruits in the same direction where they want to end up. Let them, too, come to be known as resources of good and timely information. That’s easily achieved by creating a marketing plan around great content.

An ad can get a response; an education gets clients for life. Which would you prefer to deploy?

It’s not easy to be an expert at your business and an expert at marketing. That’s the simple reason why being the true mortgage expert should be the real core of your marketing plan. If you don’t even have to think about marketing in the traditional sense, wouldn’t that make life and work easier?

Know your game. Back it up with a plan. But let that plan be really knowing your game and letting your prospects know you’re the one with the answers and solutions to what they want and need. Share great material always. Be present where you need to be and let your process be there when you can’t. In the end, you’ll be happy; you’ll save a lot of otherwise wasted effort and expense; and your clients will thank you too.

Need the right materials to help establish your plan? A great place to start is with a Mortgage CRM (client relationship management) program. And one that’s pre-loaded with all the award-winning content you need to provide to prospects and past clients alike. Give Surefire by Top of Mind Networks a look. Just click here to set up a demo of Surefire CRM today.