Social proof is a concept in which consumers will modify their behavior based on what they believe others are doing. It’s a powerful psychological influence that essentially means that if enough people claim something to be true, the consumer will assume they’re correct and will take action based on that “truth.” 

Social proof for your mortgage business may be subtle, but make no mistake –it’s continuous, instantaneous, and more influential to conversion rates than most realize. 

Here’s how you can use social proof to influence your mortgage prospects and substantially improve your conversion rate.  

Social Proof Facts and Stats

• 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses 
• Only 48% of consumers would consider using a business that had fewer than 4 stars.
• For 54% of consumers, the next step after reading a positive review is to visit the company website.
• Harvard Business Review found that for every one-star rating increase a business gets on Yelp, they see a 5-9% boost in revenue.
• According to this study by The Wall Street Journal, advertisements with social proof are more persuasive than ads with monetary savings.
• Consumer testimonial stories are even more influential than a straightforward rating because prospects feel the urge to heed peer “advice.”
• Low social proof is even worse than zero social proof when it comes to conversion rates. 

How To Leverage Social Proof to Influence Mortgage Prospects

Learn The Types of Social Proof Mortgage Prospects Rely On

There are six primary sources of social proof for mortgage businesses. If you’re relatively new to leveraging this concept, pick the ones that you are already on and work on improving those first.  

• Existing or Past Clients – reviews, testimonials, or case studies
• Professional- recommendations from real estate partners or other respected professionals 
• Influencer- influencer recommendation, particularly from those with a solid social media audience in your target area or market
• Masses- large following (e.g. “Over 400 loans successfully funded!” “Join 2,000 savvy homebuyers and subscribe to our newsletter”)
• Friends- prospects who have friends that follow your social media (e.g., “Your friend Carlos likes us on Facebook”)
• Certifications- a credible, 3rd party entity that certifies that you’re an authority or trustworthy source (e.g., “Better Business Bureau”)

Optimize Your Mortgage Website for Social Proof

One of the primary ways of optimizing your website is by adding testimonials or reviews to your site, especially your homepage. Make sure that they are recent too. Testimonials that are more than 3 months old are seen as irrelevant by most consumers.

Social following and counters are also persuasive add-ons for mortgage websites. Consider counters like “loans funded” or “total amount funded to date.” Posting a social media widget that displays how many followers you have on that platform is also a good idea. Just make sure you have at least 100 followers before showing the number on your site. 

Engage with Online Mentions

Enable notifications across all platforms to stay on top of the mentions of your business. To get the most out of this tactic, reply to the comment quickly, use the same language that the commenter used, personalize your response, and remember to thank them for the positive mention, too.

After all, they just helped you increase your social proof and mortgage conversion rate!

Share User-Generated Content (UGC)

Along the same lines of engaging with online mentions, you can also share any mentions or testimonials on other platforms. For example, Yelp reviews can be made into a graphic and shared on social media. Also, when a client tags you on a post, reshare it onto your own social media. 

Be even more strategic and create an entire campaign specifically for this purpose. Ask your clients to tag you and add a specific hashtag, so all your UGC are grouped and easy for your mortgage prospects to find. 

Borrower Showcase and Story

Make your testimonials even more potent with a photo and real-life story. As mentioned above, consumers’ stories (marketers call these case studies) evoke positive emotions, creating a subconscious preference for your business.

Pair this emotion with a photo, and you’ll create a memorable and irresistible attachment to your mortgage brand.

Use Social Proof With LenderHomePage

LenderHomePage amplifies your authority and trustworthiness, and in today’s viral culture, only proactive digital-first lenders will win earn the trust and business of digital consumers.

That’s why we built our templated mortgage websites with all the necessary features you need to maximize your social proof right out-of-the-box, including:

• Testimonial engine
• Auto-published mortgage blog to showcase knowledge
• Social sharing buttons
• Widget-ready templates –no coding required!
• Individual Power Profiles for each team member
• Brand with your logo and color scheme
• Customizable pages where you can highlight borrower stories
• Mobile responsive –a must-have for all local search queries!

Schedule a call today to learn more about our mortgage websites, plus our resigned Loanzify Mobile App and game-changing Loanzify POS.