TheMReport

MReport October 2018

TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.

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TH E M R EP O RT | 41 FEATURE A s a lender, you've talked to a lot of people about their mortgage options over the years, and many of them probably slipped through your fingers. They may have gone with another lender, decided not to buy a house, or simply become distracted and decided refinancing wasn't a high-enough priority for them to set aside the time. Whatev- er the reason, wouldn't you like to know when they become interested in that mortgage again so you can time your outreach perfectly? You would probably like to have ad - ditional insights about: • which customers in your portfolio are shopping around online; • whether your aged leads are con- tinuing to shop for a lender; • which consumers have high intent (high interest versus window shoppers) and should receive more aggressive marketing; and • which consumers aren't ready to buy and are an inefficient use of marketing dollars and time. If lenders knew all this, they could drive more relevant conversations and experience better outcomes, resulting in more funding. Protecting a portfolio takes a few simple, yet effective steps. By blending people- based marketing with rich data insights, lenders can tell if their stale lead has re-entered the market before they show signs of intent that the competition can see. Protecting Your Portfolio S ervicers may have won the battle to acquire a new customer, but they won't grow a successful business by just passively sitting back and col- lecting mortgage payments. Knowing which customers are at risk of leaving the portfolio for a new mortgage lender and then engaging them to retain their business is a vital part of growth and profitability. Acquir - ing early signals of in-market activity not seen by other lenders shines a spotlight on which customers are expressing interest in a new mortgage before they talk to another lender. This creates opportunities to maintain profit-margin goals while greatly im- proving portfolio retention rates. Data is the key to consumer insights, and the data-as-a-service (DaaS) industry is creating an ocean of information available to lenders to help take marketing engagements and contact strategy to the next level. With activities such as investigat - ing rates and online comparison shopping now possible, lenders could represent opportunities to acquire, re - tain, or grow that customer relation- ship. Jornaya research reveals that, on average, consumers are shopping for a loan 170 days before they sign closing documents. One in three new leads continues shopping for a lender in the 90 days after filling out an online quote form. When used cor - rectly, this type of data can provide the competitive advantage lenders need to thrive in this new mortgage environment. Advantage Marketing M arketing in the mortgage industry has evolved over the past 20 years. There was a time when sales managers would print leads and hand them out to the sales floor, and the loan consultants would have three folders on their desk for hot, warm, and cold leads. The rest would take care of itself (or not). Today, lead management systems are driving automated contact strategies, lead routing is more intelligent and based on scoring algorithms, and auto-dialers blaze through calling thousands of leads faster than you can say, "Let's get you locked in before rates jump again." When a lead is delivered into a lender's ecosystem, the consumer enters marketing automation purga - tory—receiving hundreds of auto- mated calls, emails, and texts for months and months. Marketers are expending a lot of resources to reach out to as many consumers as pos - sible, in many ways, multiple times each, unaware of their current level of interest and contact preferences. This is the worst-case example of By Mike Eshelman

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