In a perfect world, every mortgage website visitor would be ready to apply now. But we know that that’s not the case. Most of the time, a digital mortgage consumer will encounter your business several steps before they are ready to commit to applying for a loan.
The problem is that most mortgage marketing messages and strategies target “buy now” consumers, leaving behind a slew of potential mortgage borrowers who need additional encouragement before they finally flip into a full loan.
This article will help you understand the mindset of a digital mortgage consumer during their early stages of consideration to expand your mortgage consumer base and refine your sales tactics.
Step One: Create Awareness of Their Problem
During this stage, your prospect might not even know they have a problem. The consumer is likely blissfully unaware that they are overpaying on their mortgage, or maybe they don’t understand the benefits of refinancing.
For them, education should be the focus. Share marketing messages that bring to light the issues with their current rate. Reveal the pain points and create the urgency that compels them to search for a solution.
Step Two: Create Awareness of Your Solution
Now that you have their attention and have made them significantly uncomfortable and desperately aware of their current home loan issues, it’s time to present your solution –getting a new home loan.
Messaging is key. In addition to underscoring the pain point, subtly address objections to reduce friction.
For example, let’s consider a prospect that has never refinanced. Perhaps she was previously unaware that refinancing meant significant monthly savings. Now informed, the prospect is upset about “giving money away every month” and realizes that refinancing can resolve it.
However, as a first-timer, she’s hesitant. She thinks the process is complicated and is wary of lenders. Her concerns about applying for a loan outweigh the urgency, causing her to delay.
To put the prospect at ease, you could employ a more consumer-friendly language with your marketing messages. You can also share positive reviews about your business, client success stories, and discuss how your business connects to the community. You can also share an interactive digital mortgage calculator, empowering her further with information and transparency.
At this stage, this type of digital mortgage consumer unlikely to apply just yet. However, that’s not your goal. What you want to do is apply gentle pressure and increase trust just enough that they share their contact info. Use a lead capture form to grab it and feed it into your CRM and email manager, allowing you to continue pulling them through your mortgage sales funnel.
Step Three: Repeat Visibility and Engagement
Sustain and expand visibility by repeating the message in different formats and through various channels. This will be easier since you’ve already captured their email. However, even if they aren’t a subscriber, you can still reach them through social media and paid advertising with retargeting.
Automation is critical! Remember that these leads (while valuable) are still low-hanging fruit. Don’t spend too much time personally attending to these leads quite yet.
Instead, create an automated drip campaign, schedule social media posts, keep your mortgage blog updated and full of quality informational articles, and delegate the creation and management of your paid ads to a mortgage marketing professional.
Step Four: Underscore Your Winning Difference
During steps one through three, your prospect is still in the consideration stage. That means that they could just as easily be swayed by a competitor as they can by you. To make sure that you stand out and above your competitors, emphasize what makes your business and offer unique.
Unify the tone of your messages and use your logo to make your mortgage brand distinguishable and memorable. Also, be concise about what makes your business unique and express it in as few words as possible.
Step Five: Engage to Build Rapport
Trust and familiarity is the strongest initial factor that pushes a prospect to take action, thus, qualifying the lead. If you’ve been actively speaking to their pain points, then you’ve already started the process.
Build on that momentum by sifting your pipeline, and transition the leads with the highest CRM score into a granular email campaign –one that is more personalized and moves you closer into that coveted position of being their trusted loan advisor.
Once the tipping point is reached and the prospect finally begins the application, then the next phase of the Borrower Experience begins.
LenderHomePage Offers Solutions. Not Just Products.
Imagine executing a perfectly planned lead capture only to mess it up with boring or difficult-to-use loan intake tools. That’s precisely what most brokers do! At LenderHomePage, we’ve developed our digital mortgage software to address not just the functionality of origination but the experience as well.
Our suite of consumer-facing digital mortgage products includes mortgage websites, Loanzify Mortgage Mobile App, and Loanzify Mortgage POS. Each of these remarkably intuitive tools can be branded to your business and relieve your consumer’s pain points –helping to strengthen their trust, increase your value proposition, and improve your intake rate.
Explore what each product has to offer and start reaching your digital consumers in a manner they early respond to.
