TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1490083
28 | M R EP O RT FEATURE needs to scrutinize a marketing plan when there are already too many orders to fill? Now, however, as mortgage firms return to their marketing plans, more than a few are realizing that what worked in 2019 probably won't work today. It's time to update. In that seemingly short period, however, something changed dra- matically among those who did continue to update their market- ing. Ad sales began to decline— even on modern platforms like Meta (Facebook) or Instagram. TikTok became a bona fide platform for promotion—even at the B2B level. Above all, mortgage marketing began to demonstrate a genuine human connection and authenticity. It turns out that pure repetition and bombardment by logos no longer sells. Rather, it is content and compelling informa- tion of value—regardless of the product or service being sold— that does. The End of Interruption Messaging T he mortgage origination industry has long relied on relationship building and con- sultative techniques in its sales strategies, if not its marketing. The worn-out joke about the "box of donuts strategy" is just that. It's a relic of a past era. For success- ful sales organizations, building relationships and serving as a con- sultative seller have led many to success. And yet, for others, sales is just a numbers game driven by call centers and ad buyers. The presumption was that if we just knock on enough proverbial doors or make enough cold calls, we'll get results. However, the returns on that approach are declining. It's time to work smarter, not harder. Mass bombardment barely counts as a strategy, anyway. While successful mortgage sales strategies might have embraced re- lationship building, mortgage mar- keting, for whatever reason, hasn't always prioritized relationships with the same rigor. The "inter- ruption approach" has too often passed for good marketing strat- egy. Essentially, the advertiser or marketer simply needed to get the prospect's attention—usually with a catchy turn of phrase, but again via sheer volume of bombardment (read: harassment)—in order to get the firm's key message across. All too often, this became a shotgun approach by which the sheer rep- etition of a message (true, credible, or otherwise) brought results. The main problem here is that these (allegedly) tried-and-true approaches don't require you to get to know your prospects and provide them with real value. As a not-so-surprising result, today's executives and deci- sion-makers have become allergic to being pitched. After all, we're bombarded in every phase of our life with unsolicited texts, emails, robocalls, or pop-up ads. Most of the time, that messaging isn't even relevant to our wants or needs. Prospective mortgage borrowers or consumers of mortgage-related products are far less likely to care about old-school direct marketing or advertising campaigns. They feel harassed instead of being listened to and known. Relationships are critical. To say that's an understatement is itself an understatement. Most sales efforts continue to include some level of rekindling old relationships with key real estate brokerages as well as widespread marketing and advertising aimed at consumers. But now, marketing is beginning to align much more closely with the network-building efforts of a good sales team. While the use of advertising and traditional direct marketing still has valid applications, these are no longer the most effective way to spread a brand's message. Because of this growing resilience to blind marketing and mass campaigns, other industries have adapted by embracing marketing strategies only now being adopted in our own industry. At the core of this new approach is self-gener- ated content. The Transformation of the Audience Has Changed. Now, Marketing Must Change Too. L ong before the internet was considered as vital a utility as fresh water or electricity, consum- ers (whether B2B or B2C) had to work a little harder than they do now to learn about the products being pitched to them or the pro- viders that were marketing them. Not surprisingly, direct marketing often was the primary means of educating oneself about the features and benefits of the ser- vices being sold. Thus, there was less need to win over the target market and more need to educate said market on the characteristics of the goods being sold and how they could help that market. Needless to say, that has changed. Today, consumers or purchasers at any level (and that includes mortgage lenders being pitched technology, Realtors being pitched by a particular lender, and the like) are much more educated and skeptical than their predecessors. An old-fashioned advertisement, although it has some place in the marketer's toolkit, is no longer ac- cepted on its face. It's simply too easy to Google a brand, a product, or a batch of reviews about that product's performance. Instead, today, the marketing materials are expected to deliver value in and of themselves. In a throwback to the consultative sales model, the brand creating the marketing needs to prove its relevance with content that delivers some level of value to the prospect—regardless of whether that prospect ends up purchas- ing from that marketer. As a result, web banners or marketing postcards have significantly given way to podcasts, blogs, and video production. Successful mortgage marketers are building their own unique spaces (social media events, webinars, event-related dinners, and networking oppor- tunities) that deliver value to While the use of advertising and traditional direct marketing still has valid applications, these are no longer the most effective way to spread a brand's message.