Welcome to our brand new series, Surefireside Chats, where we sit down with some of the industry’s top 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 inaugural installment is Kim Bratic, VP of marketing for ALCOVA Mortgage. Headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, ALCOVA serves clients spanning most of the east coast, from Pennsylvania to Florida and as far west as Colorado.
Top of Mind Networks:
How did you get started in marketing?
Kim Bratic:
My career actually began in public television and public radio. My early gigs promoting TV and radio shows included awesome moments like dressing up as Elmo and as Emily Elizabeth from Clifford the Big Red Dog. Later I got into working for nonprofits.
It was a bit of a leap transitioning into the mortgage industry when I started with Alcova Mortgage, but at the end of the day, my jobs have all been about getting people what they need and making sure that process is as simple as possible.
Top of Mind Networks:
What does the marketing team owe the rest of the organization?
KB:
Our marketing team serves as a trusted advisor. Our loan officers have a lot of autonomy, and they’re bombarded by offers and suggestions on how they can best market themselves, from sticking their ads on grocery carts to buying billboards. Collectively, our marketing team has worked in pretty much every industry, so we know what actually brings in leads, what moves the needle to bring in more business and what helps to build relationships. We help our loan officers sort through all the options.
Top of Mind Networks:
How do you draw on your company’s existing tech stack and data partnerships to enhance the marketing effort?
KB:
Our industry is largely based on building relationships with clients, referral partners and business partners. Tech helps us enhance those relationships.
There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to call, email and text every person with news of what’s happening in our industry, so we rely on Surefire to help our loan officers with that. We have loads of tools to help get the word out, whether we’re sharing information about interest rates or our clients’ own neighborhoods.
Top of Mind Networks:
How do you keep the marketing outreach of a distributed origination team on-brand and on-message?
KB:
We’ve made great strides in the past few years to really focus on how our company presents itself. Alcova Mortgage keeps it real. That means making sure our brand always reflects who we are. This is another area where we really rely on Surefire to help us automate our marketing.
It’s a huge benefit to loan officers to have a content library with flyers, emails and great social media graphics on demand. Our marketing team creates them, puts them into Surefire and then they’re available for use – all loan officers have to do is execute it. The substantial library of materials we’ve created is a really great way for us to keep our brand on focus and make life easy for our loan officers.
Top of Mind Networks:
What kinds of industry trends do you keep your eye on as a marketer?
KB:
I focus on how market changes impact our borrowers and referral partners. In marketing, we look at things from a very high level and strive to be a resource for consumers. When the industry, markets and interest rates are changing simultaneously, consumers will have a lot of questions.
Our marketing enables clients to communicate with past, present and future borrowers who aren’t spending the day looking at what’s happening in the mortgage industry. When they come to Alcova Mortgage, they’re looking for an amazing home where they can create memories. Our communications focus on the consumer — for instance, we might inform them that rates are lower and they might be able to buy a bigger house. We break the industry jargon down into plain terms.
Top of Mind Networks:
Have your tactics changed at all this year in response to the pandemic or interest-rate environment?
KB:
Of course, our marketing plans have changed a little bit this year — and that’s okay! We pride ourselves on our agility.
We truly are a client-first business, so we want clients to know we take things seriously and are prioritizing their safety. We provide them with tools to apply for a mortgage online so they don’t need to come into our offices. We’ve also added a feature that delivers loan status updates via text messaging.
We’re all in this together. Interest rates have been great, so people can refinance or buy more this year. Reaching out and giving our clients some positive news is why it’s great to work with Alcova Mortgage. We didn’t plan for all of this to happen, but adapting is what we do best.
Top of Mind Networks:
What are some ways you measure the success of marketing activities?
KB:
We do a variety of marketing, like digital, email and social media campaigns and traditional advertising, events and relationship-building activities. We gauge success by looking at analytics and determining which campaigns were most effective. Surefire is an amazing tool for measuring success because we can quantify the sheer number of emails we receive after sending out a campaign.
While we do measure success by looking at the analytics, it’s also important to see how clients are responding. I think we’ve seen so much success because our emails aren’t salesy and they’re not full of mortgage jargon — they focus on what’s important for realtors and homeowners. We’re sending them information that’s all about them, and I think that’s where we’ve seen a huge win.
Top of Mind Networks:
Can you share a top marketing trick or success story?
KB:
My marketing philosophy is “it’s always about the consumer.”
One of my tricks is to channel my inner homebuyer and reflect on what it would be like to buy a home right now. I also wonder what would make me want to get a loan with Alcova Mortgage when I could go anywhere.
Focusing on the consumer by trying to think like a homebuyer guides every one of our marketing principles and campaigns. We help loan officers focus their content on alleviating some of the fears homebuyers have or providing information consumers (or their Realtors) may need. This is the key to excellent marketing.
Top of Mind Networks:
What are five productivity-boosting tools you can’t live without/use every day?
KB:
Top of Mind Networks:
You’ve just won an Oscar. Give us your top-3 acceptance speech shoutouts.
Kim Bratic:
I’m honored just to be nominated!
I would like to thank Alcova Mortgage for giving me the opportunity to blend together my love of marketing and my burgeoning film career. I would like to thank my fiancé, Jason, for always believing in me and my three kids for inspiring me every day. This is for you!
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