Welcome to our new series, Surefireside Chats, where we sit down with mortgage marketing leaders to hear their top strategies and secrets for success as they raise the bar one campaign at a time.
Joining us for our second episode is US Mortgage Chief Marketing Officer Ian Klein. Ian has been riding the wave of the mortgage industry for the last eight years, gaining insight into what it takes to be a top mortgage marketing leader.
How did you get started in marketing?
As a freshman in college, I wanted some extra money to supplement my meal plan. My oldest brother asked me if I could make a website for a client. Even though I had no idea how to make one, I said yes. I quickly learned how, and soon I was going door-to-door to small businesses in Princeton asking if they had a website to sell their products. Soon after, I started marketing websites to businesses, and the rest is history.
What does the marketing team owe the rest of the organization?
We provide support to sales, which is the engine that keeps the company going. On top of that, the marketing team brings an added element of fun. I’m a firm believer that a happy worker is a more productive worker, so we try to make our work environments as enjoyable as possible.
How do you draw on your company’s existing tech stack and data partnerships to enhance the marketing effort?
After eight years in the industry, I’ve seen technology grow by leaps and bounds. Our business intelligence tools and Surefire CRM play a critical role in enhancing our marketing efforts and helping us stay on top of trends. For instance, with just a few clicks we can review our closed loans and identify past clients that could benefit from a refi so we can initiate marketing to them. Having these tools makes a huge difference in our marketing efficiency.
How do you keep the marketing outreach of a distributed origination team on-brand and on-message?
We needed a CRM that kept everything centralized to ensure that we’re all sending out a cohesive message and not running into any compliance issues. Once we’ve created campaigns in Surefire, we inform our sales team of everything that will be going out in their name — all the messaging, emails and texts. We let them know when the campaign is due to start and from there, set it and forget it – everything is taken care of for our sales team.
Surefire even offers loan officers the ability to opt in or out of campaigns going out to their clients. Overall, our sales team really appreciates that we’ve taken the burden off of them so they can focus on what they do best – selling, selling, selling!
What kinds of industry trends do you keep your eye on as a marketer?
It’s really important that mortgage marketers stay on top of up-and-coming markets. For example, right now we’re seeing an influx of northerners moving south due to the pandemic, and that shift will provide opportunities to recruit and get customers familiar with our name ahead of opening new branches. Forbes publishes some lists that are helpful for keeping up with hot markets.
Staying on top of the tech trends is an absolute must for marketers. A few weeks ago, I had a chat with my Surefire representative and he was already preparing me for their newest integration. In the marketing field, you can’t be static – don’t rely on outdated technology, especially when there are tools that create efficiencies and save you time and money.
Have your tactics changed at all this year in response to the pandemic or interest-rate environment?
Our company went virtual very early on, which enabled our underwriters, operations staff and sales teams to work from home. This provided a safety net and alleviated a lot of the stress involved in venturing into the unknown. We were quick to put a virtual plan into action and within 48 hours, nearly 100% of our company was remote and our technology enabled us to make that seamless for our clients.
What are some ways you measure the success of marketing activities?
Our founder and CEO often says, “If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.” It’s essential that we see ROI in all that we do, regardless of what the marketing activity might be. It’s also important to recognize that ROI is not always immediate – it could be that in six months, someone has seen our marketing efforts and now is ready to proceed with a refinance or mortgage.
Can you share a top marketing trick or success story?
We hired an employee new to the mortgage industry in the midst of the pandemic. She had a great personality and an eagerness to meet with Realtors, but it just wasn’t possible because of the stay-at-home orders. To help her succeed, we gave her some leads from our proprietary lead-gen program for her to share with Realtors. This allowed her to connect with potential referral partners by bringing them pre-approved customers and ready-made landing pages generated in Surefire. The employee reached out to me last week to let me know that her first loan closing is from one of those Realtors that our program connected her with. To see her already hitting the ground running within the first month is a great success story.
What are five productivity-boosting tools you can’t live without/use every day?
You’ve just won an Oscar. Give us your top-3 acceptance speech shoutouts.
First, I have to thank both owners, Steven and Scott Milner. I wasn’t originally from the mortgage industry, and they took a chance on me. Eight years later, my role transitioned to taking over the whole entire marketing department as the chief marketing officer. I also have to give a big shout out to my older brother for always pushing me to do the right thing and be a good person, which still sticks with me to this day.
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