The current market has been tough to navigate for both consumers and mortgage loan officers.

If consumers aren’t sure what they want or what’s best for them, how are lenders, loan officers, and brokers supposed to know how to market to them?

Fortunately, with mortgage marketing, you have the power to help your current and future borrowers make sense of what’s going on, and guide them to the right decisions for their unique situation.

Let’s take a look at the current mortgage market and 22 ways to market for mortgages despite today’s volatile conditions.

What does the current mortgage market look like?

It’s already been quite an interesting year for the mortgage market.

Early in 2022, many market experts were confident that consumers wouldn’t see 30-year fixed rates go higher than 4.5% to 5%. However, we’ve already seen rates stretch to 7%, with no signs of stopping.

Of course, this has ground refinances to a near halt, while homebuying has become more and more difficult for many consumers as the month’s pass.

News headlines have shouted reports of mass layoffs at some of the biggest mortgage companies, which had spent the past few years in hiring mode to catch up with the scorching home demand.

It looks bleak, right?

As an experienced mortgage professional, you have been through this before. Despite what the news claims, you know that rates are still historically favorable, even though they’re rising.

You also know that the right time to buy a home depends on many personal factors for homebuyer hopefuls—not just mortgage rates and home price averages.

The problem is, those homebuyer hopefuls don’t know this. They are reading the news, stressing about the rising rates, and feeling like their opportunity to purchase or refinance has passed.

This is where a successful mortgage marketing strategy comes into play. Use your expertise to build a strategy that speaks directly to the concerns of your clients, and helps them solve these problems.

We’ll show you exactly how to do this by skillfully adjusting your current strategy.

How to be a successful mortgage loan officer in 2022

To be a successful mortgage loan officer in 2022, you have to meet your clients where they are. Take a look at your current clients and define them. 

Is this who you still want to target? Is there a different audience you want to focus on? Has your focus been too general? Too specific?

Mortgage loan officers and lenders no doubt have to work harder today than ever before, but that’s because there’s so much competition in this space.

Nearly everyone has gotten the memo that they need to be online to compete, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is doing it well.

If you’re reading this, you know that there has to be a better way to do what you’re doing.

Kaleidico has generated mortgage leads through booms and busts, since 2005. Our process has been refined and perfected in good and bad markets—from a refi boom to a mortgage meltdown, and back again.

We can help you get your loan products in the hands of the people who will benefit most from what you do—starting with updating your mortgage marketing strategy for 2022.

There are some marketing trends circulating today that you can apply to your current strategy to help guarantee a boost in your leads, including:

• Personalization
• Video marketing
• Collaboration
• Connecting with personal values

It’s less about focusing on your competition these days, and more about focusing on what makes you unique as a business and how you can use that to connect to your clients.

Outperform competitors with mortgage marketing

The single most effective way to beat your competitors in 2022 is with a carefully planned, thoughtful mortgage marketing strategy.

Leveraging your industry expertise, information on your current clients, and relationships with your referrals, you can refine your strategy to be more engaging, informative, and personal.

It’s difficult to build trust as a mortgage lender or loan officer, especially if you operate exclusively online or are trying to move toward an online mortgage process.

While the Covid-19 pandemic brought a lot of challenges to businesses, it also has led to the current trends we see today.

During a period where more businesses operate virtually than ever before, marketing strategies have to push harder to bring a human element. 

The good news is, we already had a lot of tools at our disposal. We just had to learn how to leverage them in new ways. For example, social media, video, and content marketing all were blossoming pre-Covid. 

These tools just happen to be some of the best ways we can connect with mortgage clients to share information, engage in conversation, and most of all build trust.

Twenty two ways to market for mortgages in todays market

As an experienced mortgage professional, you understand what’s going on in today’s market.

We’ll help you translate that expertise into a creative, unique marketing strategy that reflects your goals, your voice, and who you are as a mortgage professional in 2022. 

The following are 22 ways you can use the latest marketing trends to update and refine your current mortgage marketing strategy.

1. Be relatable

One consistent marketing trend in 2022 is personalized content.

Personalized content has a strong voice that speaks directly to your target audience. This voice is maintained across all channels, and has proven to be effective in boosting customer engagement and overall ROI.

Personalized content is created based on the information you’ve gathered in the past about your clients. 

Depending on how sophisticated you’re able to be with your existing mortgage CRM, you may base the information on certain demographics such as location, age, or specific interests based on past interactions or behaviors.

As a mortgage loan officer or lender, this “voice” and content should be easier to execute than it is for other types of companies, because you have a unique individual personality and style that you can embed into your content.

It just may take some practice to figure out how to translate your voice into your content.

Most importantly, have fun with it. Consumers have a strong interest in seeing the human side of businesses, because it helps them connect with you and make these important purchases and decisions.

For example, millennials and the incoming Gen Z love using memes and gifs on social media.

Mortgage memes are a popular way for you to express your unique voice while also sharing a lighthearted joke about the homebuying process or helpful information with humor.

Try it out yourself using a popular meme generator.

2. Pivot to consumer direct

Mortgages are just one of many products today pivoting to consumer direct.

Most mortgage lenders and loan officers are used to preparing an experience that’s a mixture of in-person, over the phone, and email.

But as we collectively shift to a more digital mortgage process—even partially—we are going to have to reframe our marketing to reflect this shift.

Luckily, this goes hand-in-hand with our first point on being more relatable and personable as a business.

Mortgage professionals will have to work a bit harder to incorporate their voice and what makes them unique into their marketing, because they’re losing out on the chance to make in-person first impressions.

One of the best marketing tips for helping make that “missed” connection digitally is video marketing.

3. Embrace video marketing for mortgages

Video marketing is a huge trend right now and a major engagement booster.

Consumers love to view and share videos online, and it doesn’t appear to matter too much what type of video it is, which makes video a versatile tool for a range of topics and purposes.

Examples of video marketing for mortgage professionals include:

• Meet the team
• Educational videos on your loan products
• How to apply for a mortgage
• Tutorials on the mortgage process
• Series on a certain product or news topic
• Client referral or review
• Personal holiday greeting

If video marketing seems intimidating, we have good news. Most people prefer videos that are lower quality and more authentic over high-quality, polished videos that don’t feel authentic.

A good place to start with your video strategy is on your social media channels. Going “live” on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok is a good way to get in front of your followers and start engaging.

If you have a penchant for humor, you might enjoy taking to TikTok and trying out the latest trends with a mortgage twist.

No matter what you decide, it just has to be true to you to help your current and potential clients connect and engage with you.

4. Ask for referrals

Referrals help your future clients know they can trust you.

Most business owners today understand the weight of a good or bad review: Just ask anyone who’s gotten an unfavorable review on Google.

Future clients seeking an online mortgage will comb your website for indications that you are who you say you are. They don’t want to hand out their contact information for something as personal as a home loan to just anyone.

That’s why your website has to provide them with everything they would need to know about you, including a loan officer profile page with the following information:

• A friendly photo
• NMLS number
• Contact information
• Biography
• Testimonials from others who have had success with you

If you’re lacking reviews on your website or Google, you will look suspicious to a new visitor.

Get started by reaching out to friends, family, and past clients who had a great experience with you.

You can ask for reviews through any of your loan officer marketing channels, including social media and email. 

Consider including a personal video with a friendly greeting and a short explanation about how they can review you or refer you to friends and family.

5. Write compelling blog posts

What do you wish your future clients knew about the mortgage process? What are some of the most-asked questions you get on a daily basis?

Answer these questions and more on your blog! Your blog can be framed as your website’s full resource center, where visitors can come to find information on any aspect of the mortgage process.

Blog post examples for mortgage professionals include:

• Steps to buying a home
• How much home can you afford?
• How to get pre-approved for a mortgage
• FHA vs. conventional loans comparison
• How VA loans work
• How to choose a mortgage lender
• How long does the mortgage process take?
• How to make an offer on a home

You can write blog posts for each type of loan product you offer and include different homebuyer scenarios.

Backed by a little keyword and competitor research, you can include some hot keywords in your articles to boost their ranking on Google.

If you have a blog section on your current website that needs a refresher, see which topics can be expanded or updated and republish them.

Then, you can promote your blog posts on social media or via email.

6. Host a webinar for first-time homebuyers

Have you ever heard of experiential marketing? It’s another hot marketing trend where brands find ways to create an experience for consumers.

Some of the most popular ways to create this experience are through unique events where customers can actually use a product, but there doesn’t need to be a physical product involved. 

Experiential marketing for mortgages is more about engaging with consumers and creating a lasting impression.

Mortgage lenders, loan officers, and brokers can participate in this trend by hosting a webinar or event where they can take a first-time homebuyer through the mortgage process.

You can include videos, infographics, interactive quizzes, checklists, or a Q&A session. 

The purpose is to bring value to a specific audience who is looking for exactly what you have to offer and create a memory that will stick with them so they remember you.

7. Team up with a local influencer

Partner with a social media influencer in your state or area with a loyal group of followers and high engagement on their posts.

Influencers have earned their title because they influence their followers with their information and recommendations. Their followers truly trust what they have to say.

Maybe there’s a financial guru in your area with a loyal chunk of followers on Instagram who can recommend your services or a millennial TikToker who is sharing their home search journey and giving you a shout-out for your helpful homebuyer checklist.

8. Set up a drip campaign

Successful companies have upgraded to a certain level of automation in their marketing strategies.

Mortgage professionals can start implementing automation into their campaigns by creating and executing drip marketing.

Drip marketing campaigns involve sending out a series of emails or texts based on specific consumer actions or triggers.

For example, if someone signs up for your newsletter or submits their contact information on your mortgage website, they will automatically receive specific emails based on your drip campaigns.

Drip emails make staying in touch with potential, current, or past clients effortless, so you can continue nurturing your mortgage leads for as long as it takes them to close.

9. Refine your focus

Sometimes when you’re an expert in your industry, you forget what it was like to not know what you do now.

You get consumed with the day-to-day business aspect and lose sight of the confusion or excitement going through the minds of your new clients.

For your marketing to be effective, you’ll need to take the time to put yourself in the shoes of your audience.

This will help you become more relatable to your target clients, and hone in on how you need to adjust your marketing approach in order to effectively reach them.

10. Build relationships with real estate agents

There is still very much a place in mortgage marketing for traditional networking strategies.

Go ahead and introduce yourself to agents at open houses or local events, then turn back to digital marketing to continue nurturing these relationships.

You can create drip email campaigns for the real estate agents in your network, too, and provide them with regular, valuable content they can share with their clients.

Eventually, you can partner with the agents you really connect with and host webinars or events together.

11. Share the latest news and why it matters

Mortgage, real estate, and economic news are always hot topics, but many people don’t understand what it really means for them.

With your target clients in mind, you can share and translate the news for them to help them understand what’s going on and how it affects them.

You can share this news in a weekly newsletter, social media video series, email, blog posts, and more.

Marketing for mortgages often involves education, with the goal to position yourself as the trusted expert in the industry.

Sharing the latest news can help you connect with your clients’ struggles while addressing them in a meaningful way—and offering solutions with you.

12. Host an in-person workshop

Do you service an area where VA loans are popular, or FHA loans are most common?

Do you get a ton of questions about credit scores?

Are you trying to target new investors?

Create valuable content such as worksheets, checklists, cheat sheets, or templates, and host an in-person workshop to go through this content together.

The workshop will provide a valuable experiential opportunity to connect and engage with potential clients, while teaching them useful information that can make the loan process smoother for everyone involved.

You can create a quiz to take at the end of the workshop or course, and email the attendees a survey they can take at home to share their thoughts on how it went so you can improve for the next one.

13. Replace traditional web forms with progressive forms

Making a simple switch from traditional contact forms to progressive forms on your website can help you bring in more leads.

Contact forms can be clunky and tedious. Most people just don’t feel like filling these out.

Progressive forms ask one question at a time, and feel more like a quiz or game. Users simply click through their responses and are automatically brought to the next question.

Take a look at the progressive form example above from Compass Mortgage. When the user types in their zip code, the next question that pops up is a simple yes/no question that asks, “Have you already found your new home?”

Once it’s completed, you will end up with a detailed mortgage lead that includes the type of property they want, their income and zip code, the estimated purchase price, the down payment estimate, and more.

14. Make and share infographics

Infographics are an effective type of content marketing that helps you share a lot of information in an attractive, clean, easy-to-read format.

Readers are naturally drawn to colors and charts, and infographics are among the most-shared types of content on social media.

Infographics can be placed in your blog posts, shared alone on social media, presented during webinars, printed and distributed, or even used as part of a direct mail campaign in a postcard format.

Infographics essentially share concise information backed by data and beautiful design.

You can create your own using a template online, or you can team up with a graphic designer or mortgage marketing agency to help you bring your infographic ideas to life. 

15. Sponsor local events to put your name out there

In many communities, local businesses will sponsor anything from tee-ball teams and movie nights in the park to portions of a news segment.

Find out the most effective ways to get involved in your community through events that will bring people together, provide entertainment or meaning, and will leave a lasting impression.

Make sure you’re present at the event to greet people, and bring some branded merchandise to pass out to guests.

Even if the majority of people don’t care who sponsored an event, at the very least your name will look familiar when they do a search someday for local mortgage loan officers.

16. Update your Google Business Profile

Keeping your Google Business Profile complete and up-to-date is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to boost your leads.

When your potential clients search Google for “mortgage lenders near [location],” your profile will pop up with completed information, photos, and reviews.

Check out the search above, “mortgage lenders in Ohio,” and note how, at a glance, the completed Google Business Profiles have helped the top listings stand out in Google Maps with the location, phone number, hours, and featured reviews.

Google Business Profiles allow you to pack a lot of information in your listing for free.

If you created your profile years ago but haven’t touched it since head back over and fill in the following details:

• Website
• Hours
• Phone number
• Location
• Photos
• Respond to reviews

When you ask clients for reviews, you can point them to your Google Business Profile as one of their options.

One of the reasons completing your profile is so helpful for mortgage lenders and loan officers is because you’ll find that many of your competitors neglect their profiles. Do a Google search for “mortgage lenders near me” and you’ll see what I mean.

Your completed profile will help you stand out to consumers. People love to sift through Google reviews before choosing a business.

17. Launch an updated direct mail campaign

The average ROI for direct mail is $4.09 for every $1.27 spent, according to GlobalNewswire.

A USPS study also found that nearly all millennials love receiving mail, and nearly 60% responded to direct mail offers.

Direct mail offers consumers another form of engagement and connection that they are craving in a very digital world.

Postcards and catalogs in particular are increasing in popularity, as the digital surge during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic burned out some consumers from the constant marketing emails and digital ads.

To complement your digital marketing for mortgages strategy, consider launching a direct mail campaign with beautifully designed postcards or pamphlets.

18. Engage on social media

There are tons of ways to engage with your current and potential clients on social media, as well as your referral partners.

The more you engage and the more others engage with you, the more your posts will appear in people’s feeds.

Consider these suggestions:

• Comment on the posts of your referral partners, or tag them in your own posts
• Frequently film and post short videos
• Post infographics
• Link to your blog posts or your referral partners’ blog posts
• Search for mortgage keywords and answer questions or frustrations from consumers
• Post quizzes, surveys, and polls
• Reply to all comments on your posts
• Reply to all reviews
• Reply to all direct messages

You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t reply to comments interested consumers leave on their posts, or respond to direct messages.

Not only will the social media channel’s analytics and tools realize that you don’t reply to comments or engage often enough, but your followers certainly will notice — and they’ll stop commenting or messaging you.

19. Make sure you’re using the most effective tools

If you were wondering in the previous section, “How am I supposed to keep up with social media all day when I have work to do,” you have a valid point.

Part of your mortgage advertising success in today’s market involves using the right tools to maximize automation and ultimately productivity.

Perform an audit on your current marketing platforms and tools to determine which ones could use an upgrade — starting with your current CRM.

Sophisticated platforms exist today that do a lot of the work for you. 

So, for example, when it comes to managing all your social media channels, you can find a marketing platform that has all your channels filtering into one place. This makes replying to direct messages, comments, reviews, and more much faster.

If you’re not sure where to start, consider chatting with a digital marketing agency that can recommend the best tools for your specific business goals.

20. Get on a podcast

If you love listening to certain podcasts, why not reach out and ask if they want a guest?

There are over 400 million global podcast listeners in 2022.

Prepare a pitch for the topic you’d like to discuss, and bring your expertise to their audience.

If you’re feeling ambitious and have a lot of mortgage tips and information to offer to the world, you can even launch your own podcast.

21. Create a few lead magnets

If you have at least one lead magnet on your website (or even if you don’t), consider creating a few more and offering them to your visitors.

Lead magnets are a valuable piece of content you can offer your site visitors for free in exchange for their contact information.

For example, if a visitor provides their email address, they’ll gain access to the following lead magnets:

• Personalized rate or mortgage calculator results
• Mortgage approval or pre-approval checklist
• Ebook on the mortgage or home-buying process
• Whitepaper
• Access to a past webinar
• Access to a video series
• Quiz results, such as “Which loan is right for you?”

Lead magnets give your website a major boost by offering something valuable, relevant, and engaging to the visitor in exchange for a guaranteed lead! 

22. Try PPC ads

Pay-per-click ads are a fantastic way to bring in more exclusive leads per month via Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

It’s very cost-effective overall, but it’s not necessarily easy to execute unless you know what you’re doing.

There’s a lot of moving parts involved in PPC ads, including keyword research, the overall quality of your existing website landing pages and the ad itself, plus an in-depth understanding of your Google Ads account.

None of this is meant to discourage you, just to explain that if you don’t have any PPC experience, it’s highly recommended that you work with an experienced mortgage marketing company so you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

Update your current mortgage marketing strategy today

Let our team at Kaleidico give you a competitive advantage in today’s market. 

We’ll help you show your potential customers what sets you apart and what they can expect from you by upgrading your website and current digital marketing strategy.

Book a Discovery Session with us today to get started.