TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1181586
26 | M R EP O RT FEATURE P ersonalization in market- ing campaigns matters—a lot. Delivering the right engagement, to the right person, at the right time, with the right message means marketers have to get a lot of things right. When done correctly, market- ing campaigns soar with success, and it makes the loan officers' jobs a lot easier. When done generically, it's not necessarily a failure, but the results are nothing to brag about, and much of the success of converting a prospect into a customer is based on the loan officer's talents. When done wrong, the wheels completely fall off and it's hard to recover with those prospects. In that case, many of the top-performing loan officers will begin to seek a new company to call home. Great marketing is difficult for a variety of reasons and is a constant work in progress. Implementing personalized mar- keting automation campaigns at scale and across multiple plat- forms requires a lot of energy and focus given the amount of detail required, but it will pay dividends for years to come. The result can be an experience that is unique for each consumer. Personalized experiences make people feel like they are being marketed to by someone who knows them and cares about them as an individual. People like doing business with those that care, are empathetic, confident, and treat them with respect. They don't appreciate being "sold" or feeling like they are just another number. But the care given doesn't start and end with the loan officer. Marketing plays a vital role in this relation- ship, more so than most realize. Many times, marketing can make or break a deal based on the level of personalization of campaigns. When marketers have the tools and data to create personalized engagements, and care about getting every detail right, that is when it all comes together seam- lessly and harmoniously, and the consumer feels like they matter to the lender. On the other side of the coin, when marketers are sloppy and throw marketing cam- paigns together, consumers assume the lender doesn't care about them and will seek financing elsewhere. Marketing Gone Wrong W e've all seen mistakes in marketing, some small and others large. Consumers reject lenders who make mistakes in getting the marketing details right because it's a reflection of what they can expect throughout the process where a mistake can be costly. Here are some examples that negatively impact a lender's conversion. Email/Text Campaigns 1. "Hi {first_name}"—Have you ever received a message with the first-name tag from the email platform rather than your actual name? The delete button is usu- ally the next button utilized by those that spot this mistake. 2. "Hi mike"—This time, they got your name in the right place. Unfortunately, they did not capitalize the first letter, resulting in poor execution. Many email and text platforms can cleanse your list first, however Excel has a simple function to do this as well. Try it for yourself by downloading your contact list into excel. Assuming the contact names are in the first column, use cell B1 and enter the formula =PROPER(A1). The name in cell A1 will convert from the current format (example: "mike smith") to the proper format ("Mike Smith"). 3. Any and all typos. Use spell check, triple-check grammar and spelling, have another person review the campaign, and subscribe to an editing service. Whatever you do, do not make grammar and spelling mistakes, and do not let autocorrect ruin an opportunity to gain a new customer. 4. "Are you ready to start the refinance process?"—A refinance mes- sage to a consumer who is in the market to buy a new home is just telling them you don't know them and don't care enough to know their goals. Outbound Dialing Campaigns 1. Calling too much (part 1)—Dialer configurations are tricky, but test, test, and test again to make sure you aren't making any mistakes that will result in dialing the consumer over and over again on the same day unintentionally. 2. Calling too much (part 2)— Understanding what people will appreciate and not appreciate is not tricky. Receiving more than a couple of calls in response to an inquiry on the first day begins to get annoying. Rather than using a jackhammer approach to get a person on the phone, use a multichannel approach to engage, asking their preferred time to speak and method of communica- tion (email, text, phone, chat). 3. Not calling or taking too long to call back—Many consumer inquiries aren't responded to or the response took greater than 24 hours. The Personal Touch When it comes to marketing, the challenges of standing out from the crowd are as daunting within the mortgage industry as they are in other fields. How can you break through the noise? By Mike Eshelman