As a mortgage lender, you’re always on the lookout for new leads and new ways to cultivate a steady stream of new opportunities that enables you to sustain and grow your business.
Due to the competitive nature of the mortgage industry, you need to have strategies in place to capture the attention of aspiring homeowners and convince them that you’re the right lender for the job. Fortunately, achieving these goals doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor.
Check out these nine effective and affordable ways to generate more mortgage leads in 2022 to discover new, creative ways to find opportunities and prospects.
Table of Contents
#1 Share Helpful Content Online
If you have the budget to invest in a professional digital marketing campaign, it can certainly help you attract more leads. However, you don’t need to hire a team of marketing professionals to get the ball rolling. Instead, you can simply create content on your own and share it online.
What is Content Marketing?
As many digital marketers say, content is king. Content marketing is a form of digital marketing where you share helpful, relevant content online to attract new leads’ attention.
The content you create should be tailored to your ideal customer or target market’s questions, concerns, and pain points. If you don’t know where to start, think about the common questions you receive from your current clients. Chances are that your potential leads are also searching for this type of mortgage information online.
Once you’ve chosen a few topics, decide which content medium you want to focus on. You can write blog articles, record Youtube videos, or even put together eye-catching infographics. To cast the widest net, try out all three. Sharing your expertise through this content will help you:
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- Attract potential leads’ attention
- Establish trust with them
- Drive them on your website
- Inspire them to get in touch with you
#2 Write an Article for a Local Paper or Magazine
Your content marketing efforts can expand beyond the online space. An easy offline content marketing strategy is writing for your local newspaper or real estate magazine. All you need to do is give the publishing manager a call and see if they’d be willing to publish one of your articles. You may even be able to get it published for free.
Once you’ve secured your op-ed slot, write an article that showcases your expertise in the mortgage industry. When readers see your name in print, it will bolster your credibility. Printed magazines and newspapers can also provide enduring exposure, especially if your edition makes it into a local office’s waiting room.
Don’t forget to include your website or contact information somewhere within the article so new leads have a way to get in touch with you.
#3 Curate Your Online Presence
If your content marketing efforts are successful, you’ll most likely experience an uptick in traffic on your website and social media channels.
Modern mortgage clients are savvy. You can rest assured that they’re comparing your mortgage business to other lenders online before they contact you. As a result, you want to ensure that your online presence wins them over by exuding trust and professionalism.
To put your best foot forward in the digital space, you should:
- Invest in professional web design
- Showcase positive client reviews and testimonials
- Provide important details about your lending process and requirements
- Share the story behind your mortgage business
- Post photos with your clients at closings (with their permission, of course)
Once your website and online profiles are spruced up, they’ll help you win over potential leads who are currently in the phase of vetting various mortgage lenders online.
#4 Develop Strategic Partnerships
Establishing alliances with professionals in other industries is a great way to get more leads. By forging these partnerships, you and other professionals can share leads with each other from your respective client bases.
As you seek out strategic partnerships, ask yourself which professionals are already working with your ideal clients. These professionals will be the best resources for qualified referrals. Some possibilities include:
- Real estate agents
- Estate planners
- Divorce attorneys
- Financial planners
- Certified public accountants
- Life insurance agents
- Local credit unions that don’t offer mortgage services
These types of professionals often know when their clients are interested in buying a new home or refinancing their mortgage. If you develop a good relationship with them, you can become the go-to mortgage lender they recommend to their clients.
#5 Get Involved in Your Community
Forging valuable connections doesn’t have to take place strictly within the confines of strategic partnerships. You can also get more involved in your local community in a broader sense. Being an active community member will help you stumble upon new leads without even trying.
Here are a few simple ways to become more active in your area:
- Join a local organization or club
- Volunteer with a local charity
- Attend nearby trade shows
- Set up a booth at local events
- Engage with others at your place of worship
- Reach out to people in your social circle to see if they know anyone who may need your services
Success is often about who you know. By expanding who you know in your town, you’ll inevitably meet more people who are actively seeking mortgage services.
Even if some new acquaintances aren’t looking for a new mortgage right now, they may need one in the future. When this time comes, you’ll be the mortgage lender that comes to mind, especially if you’ve forged a positive connection with them.
#6 Leverage MLS Listings
Did you know that over 91% of sellers list their homes on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database?1 This means that the MLS is a treasure trove of real estate information, cataloguing the latest home listings in your local area.
Unfortunately, only licensed real estate professionals can access MLS listings directly. One way to access this information is to work with your friends or strategic partners with a real estate agent and ask them to pass on some of this data.
Once you have a list of new property listings in your area, you can reach out to their sellers and real estate agents to let them know about your lending services. If you make a good impression, they may be willing to pass on your contact information to their interested buyers.
#7 Monitor Your Current Clients’ Properties
Your current client base can also serve as a source for leads. Around 4% of homes are put up for sale each year.2 This means that a portion of your current clients may be selling their homes and looking for new mortgages.
Since you already have an established relationship with these clients, they make for even better leads. Returning mortgage clients are more cost-effective to obtain than new clients.3
So, how can you find out when your current clients are listing their homes and looking for new ones? Certified Credit’s In-The-Market Alerts can help. By monitoring your clients’ tri-bureau credit activity with this tool, you know when one of your clients may be shopping around for a new mortgage. Once you receive an alert, you can reach out to them and market yourself as the right mortgage lender for their next chapter.
#8 Request Referrals and Reviews
Want to know another benefit of returning clients? They’re more likely to refer you to friends and family members, as long as you’ve impressed them with your services. Getting new leads this way requires minimal effort on your part – just make sure to thank your clients who send you referrals. Happy clients are also usually willing to write you a positive review on Yelp, Facebook, or Google. Garnering great reviews is essential if you want to stand out online. After all, 92% of mortgage consumers begin their lender search on the internet.4
#9 Buy Leads
So far, we’ve focused primarily on free lead generation methods. However, time is money and sometimes you need to obtain new leads in a pinch. In these situations, you can purchase qualified leads quickly from a reputable mortgage lead company.
With this strategy, there’s no marketing or networking required on your part. However, this simplicity comes with a price tag and the leads are not always the quality you are looking for. That’s why it is important to do your homework on the lead company before you invest your money. It’s a good idea to compare a few different company’s:
- Price per lead
- Lead freshness
- Lead source
- Lead qualification
- Lead exclusivity (exclusive leads can only be sold to one mortgage lender)
- Return policy
Getting leads this way can help you spark more business when you don’t have time to leverage other tactics on this list.
Qualify New Leads Affordably with Certified Credit
As you can see, there are many ways you can create a consistent flow of new leads and many strategies are totally free! Finding the right methods for your mortgage business will depend on your preferences, budget, and ambition.
As your business grows, you’ll need an affordable credit report provider to help you assess all these new applicants. That’s where Certified Credit can help. We offer affordable credit reports, as well as low-cost lead generation services.
Our comprehensive suite of credit-related services for mortgage lenders includes:
- Customer retention tools
- Third-party verifications
- Fraud and risk support
- Settlement services
- Mortgage lender money-saving strategies
With the help of our customizable solutions, you can attract more leads affordably and qualify them efficiently. Learn more about our credit services for mortgage lenders today.
Or, discover more ways you can grow your business through client retention and lead generation with insights from the Certified Credit blog.
Sources:
1 Statista. Total home sales in the United States from 2011 to 2020 with a forecast for 2021 and 2022.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/275156/total-home-sales-in-the-united-states-from-2009/
2 Harvard Business Review. The Value of Keeping the Right Customers.
https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers
3 Harvard Business Review. The Value of Keeping the Right Customers.
https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers
4 The Mortgage Reports. Mortgage borrowers report increasingly digital experiences.
https://themortgagereports.com/42041/mortgage-borrowers-report-increasingly-digital-experiences
