Success Metrics of Mortgage Marketing

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 with people already in your database; and
• In process marketing, with a goal of completing the app-to-closing cycle 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 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:

• Facebook, other social media, or display ads.
• 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 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

For clients and prospects in an LO’s database, the ongoing goal is to establish relationships that will lead to applications and closings. The ultimate success metrics are the number of apps and closings the LO is realizing and their amounts.

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 second 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 on a particular series to determine its effectiveness. How many of them went on to make an application and close a loan? For what amount?

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 it 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. (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 communication by comparing processing time, responses to customer service satisfaction surveys and social reviews for borrowers who were on in-process communication campaigns and those who were not or for varying in-process campaigns.

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 recent 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 all who receive an email open it upon receipt.

It’s estimated that 49.8% of emails are opened on Apple devices and that 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 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!