Success metrics for mortgage marketing efforts resemble the measurements employed in other industries. But we mortgage marketers can’t be just like everyone else, of course! The mortgage industry has its own considerations.
Here are several mortgage marketing success metrics you can use to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns and, in the end, create more business for your mortgage firm.
Evaluate Different Mortgage Marketing Types With Different Success Metrics
For the purposes of this article, we’ll divide mortgage marketing efforts into three categories:
- Lead marketing, with a goal of increasing the number of new leads in your database
- Prospect/client marketing, with a goal of creating new business from people already in your database
- In-process marketing, with a goal of completing the app-to-closing cycle more efficiently
While there may be sub-goals for each category, the ultimate goal is to create more closings and, in turn, more revenue.
Success Metrics for Lead Marketing Campaigns
Lead marketing campaigns aim to increase a loan officer’s (LO’s) database of potential borrowers. For our purposes, a “lead” is someone new to the database and not yet engaging with the LO. After the lead begins to engage, they become a prospect.
Lead marketing efforts might include:
- Display ads or content on Facebook or other social media channels
- Direct mail
- Print media advertising
- Billboards
- Radio/TV ads
If the goal is to grow an LO’s database, measuring success is as easy as looking at the number of contacts in the database. Marketing reporting can segment these by lead source (such as ads on Facebook or local real estate websites) to determine the most effective strategies.
To further determine the quality of the leads, success metrics can also consider the lead’s life cycle. Here are questions to consider, based on lead source:
- How many leads engaged with the email marketing campaign that began when the lead was added to the database? (More on this below!)
- How many responded to a phone call?
- How many went on to apply for a mortgage loan, and what was the application value?
- How many went on to secure a mortgage loan, and what was the value?
- Does growth in the size of the LO’s database correlate with growth in the number of closings/amount of revenue generated?
Marketing Reporting for Prospects/Client Marketing Campaigns
With clients and prospects in an LO’s database, the ongoing goal is to establish relationships with them that will lead to more applications and more closings and the amounts of those closings.
Since most LOs communicate with existing contacts through email or text messaging, the nitty-gritty reporting can occur according to overall marketing involvement, by marketing campaign, or even by individual email or text message.
For example, if some LOs use the company’s preferred mortgage CRM for marketing while others use it only as a database management system, it’s easy to compare results of the two groups just by looking at their CRM dashboards. If the group that initiates prospect/client communications through the CRM closes more loans than the non-CRM group, then it’s apparent the mortgage CRM is doing its job.
To consider the effectiveness of a particular campaign – or series of messages delivered over time – run a report of all contacts in that particular series. How many of those contacts went on to turn in an application and how many closed on a loan? For what amount?
Looking for Trends in Your Data
Finally, look at the specific emails or text messages that precede a closing by your typical turn time as a measure of their effectiveness. For example, if your mortgage process, from inquiry to funding, is typically three months, run marketing reporting to show which emails or text messages were sent three months prior to funding.
This type of report might prove most useful in showing patterns rather than just the effectiveness of each individual communication. For example, if eight of your top 10 emails are holiday or birthday greetings, then you’ll know those sorts of campaigns are paying off. If several come from your rent vs own workflow, then you know that campaign is effective.
Another useful measurement is the rate of opens and click-throughs for the individual campaign pieces. At what stage do the rates drop off? You may need to work on revising the campaign or its included pieces to keep interest levels high throughout. You can also consider A and B versions of your emails or texts varying the subject line and headlines. You can also personalize them to specific product types or coming from a certain LO.
You should also pay attention to the “from” name that’s shown in previews to make sure you’re using a name your borrowers will recognize and trust (hopefully yours!). You also can customize your email’s preheader (the text that shows up in the preview pane) to ensure your customers know who the sender is (your company or a particular division like the servicing team) and will open your emails. (See more on open rates below.)
Success Metrics for In-Process Communications
In-process communications will often include phone calls, text messages and/or emails to update borrowers on the status of their loan application, to remind them of what to expect in the coming weeks or days, and to request information or action.
These communications can lead to two measurable differences in your business: improved processing time and improved customer satisfaction.
Determine the effectiveness of your in-process communications by comparing processing time, responses to customer service satisfaction surveys and social reviews submitted by your borrowers who were part of in-process communication campaigns and those who were not part..
As with prospect/client workflows, you can also assess the effectiveness of individual emails or messages by reviewing their open and click-through rates. (Again, see below for more info on open rates!)
Changes to Apple Privacy Protection Mean Changes in Open Rate Reporting
If you’re using email open rates as a success metric, be aware that changes to Apple Mail’s Privacy Protection options (Fall 2021) may cause your open rates to appear artificially high. Apple allows users to enable Mail Privacy Protection, which hides opens from senders by making it appear as everyone who received an email opened it upon receipt.
These changes affect all commercial email marketing platforms (like Constant Contact or MailChimp), so you may want to read more at the link above to get familiar with them.
It’s estimated 95% of Apple Mail users will opt for the new privacy protections. That could mean a dramatic increase in open rates.
So how can you track engagement?
- Use benchmarks and comparisons to judge open rates. Did the last email see a 50% open rate and this one a 51.2%? Then this one performed better.
- Focus more on click-through rates than on open rates. These should still accurately show the number of recipients who clicked on a link in your email. Of course, you’ll need to be sure to include links in your emails to make this work!
How Can You Use a Mortgage CRM to Improve Your Success Metrics?
Surefire℠ CRM and Mortgage Marketing Engine by Black Knight wants to hear from you! What features in your mortgage CRM are the most instrumental in building your business? What would you like to see added? Let us know!