Times have been good for mortgage lenders. Refinance activity has been strong for years now, with some of the lowest rates in decades pushing loan volume through the roof. With rates starting to inch up and refis slowing down a bit, there is a shift taking place in the market. As we move closer to a purchase market, marketing will become more critical than ever for loan officers.
For many originators during the refi-boom, marketing simply wasn’t a priority. Leads just kept appearing in the database. However, times are changing, and marketing will become a critical component for loan officers looking to maintain volume and personal brand awareness. With that said, now is the time for originators to become purchase-minded while embracing the power of marketing, automation and technology.
A mortgage marketing automation platform can handle most of the heavy lifting for originators. A powerful marketing platform like Surefire can help uncover additional loan opportunities, send personalized marketing to leads and past clients automatically, and help lenders cast a wider net to drive deeper engagement with homebuyers across text, video, social, email, print, etc.
Alongside using marketing automation to help drive volume and reach in a shifting market, here are four key strategies lenders should be thinking about as we head into a purchase-focused environment:
1. Borrower education is essential in a purchase market.
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As refinance volume slows, LO’s will win customers by positioning themselves as purchase market experts. Borrowers will be very supportive of originators offering a consultative and educational approach versus a transactional approach.
According to HousingWire, future homebuyers were asked to demonstrate their knowledge of the mortgage process and the affordable options available. Among respondents, 73% were unaware of lower down payment options that range from 3% to 5% of a home’s purchase price.
Social media is a great way to deliver educational content and engage with prospective new borrowers. A powerful strategy is creating 1-2 educational videos a week and driving these video snippets to your pages across YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.
To help ensure you are staying consistent and your content is aligned with a purchase market, creating a social media calendar with pre-planned topics will help ensure the content is strategically curated and aligned with current events.
Consistent blogging is also an excellent way to reach borrowers. An example is the blog The Truth About Mortgage. They are a respected resource and do a great job educating consumers on all things mortgage.
To help ensure messaging is timely and relevant, a powerful marketing CRM like Surefire can offer pre-built content and automatically send communications on your behalf across several different social channels simultaneously.
Borrowers expect quick and continued engagement, and this is where having the right mortgage marketing technology will help you drive the right message at the right time to the right audience.
2. Embracing Specialty Markets Helps Maintain Volume
First-time homebuyers and cashout refinances will continue to offer volume. Millennials will keep entering the market, and many are ready to purchase their first home.
For cashouts, there is a ton of home equity out there ready to be released into life events such as retirement, weddings, home improvement and debt consolidation. The baby boomer population is a perfect audience to educate on these programs.
While targeting equity cashouts and first-time homebuyers, start looking into specialty markets including the rental, reverse, military, and builder markets. All areas of opportunity.
The military market is a great audience because members consistently return home from service and are ready to purchase a home. For homebuyers currently renting, a lack of inventory has created thousands upon thousands of renters sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right opportunity to jump in the market.
Surefire offers content specific to these individual markets with strong database segmentation capabilities to help lenders personalize marketing efforts to each audience segment.
3. A Retention Strategy Can Help Drive Repeatable Business and Keep Pipelines Healthy in a Purchase Market
It is estimated borrowers will do 7-9 loans throughout their lifetime. Lenders can benefit from this. Staying in touch with past clients and engaging with them during certain life events will be important in this market.
Life events include moving to a new home, putting in a new pool and getting married to name a few. Be sure to stay engaged with past borrowers to unlock additional loan volume.
Lenders looking to create a solid retention strategy and customers for life, be sure to check out Surefire’s newest retention center. A collective retention strategy utilizing marketing CRM tools such as opportunity alerts, birthday greetings, and postcards can help uncover additional opportunities and keep you engaged with past clients.
4. Building Deep Relationships With Referral Partners Now Can Pay Dividends Later On
Agent partners can be an extended lead source for you during this time with an ear to the market.
To help identify additional referral partners and loan opportunities, Surefire CRM customers can identify which real estate agents are closing the most loans of a given type within a given geographical area. Lenders can even track agent activity in real time, receiving alerts as Realtors post new listings.
Agents are a great lead source for lenders and LO’s can provide compliant value-add back to referral partners. For example, our partner MonitorBase can help originators strengthen their relationships with partners and clients by offering them a $3 instant credit check tool called Softpull. It’s a cost-effective tool that provides value and helps agents get the ball rolling faster on the loan process.
Forming strong relationships with your referral partners now will be one of the most important action items you can take as we transition into the new market.
Pro tip: It is super important to have the latest contact information for your referral partners up to date inside your CRM to ensure accuracy and ongoing communication.
Surefire removes complexity in mortgage marketing and is helping mortgage professionals find, win and create borrowers for life. To learn more about Surefire and how we are helping companies win business regardless of market condition, contact us today at sales@surefire.com and request a demo to learn more.
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