One of the most important aspects of becoming successful in real estate is knowing how to generate online leads for mortgage brokers. Yet, as every mortgage broker knows very well, generating online leads can become both time-consuming, and expensive. In an article from mortgagebrokernews.ca (powered by Canadian Mortgage Professional magazine), one broker is quoted saying he more than doubled his business after spending $500,000 in marketing.
It’s the old “spend money to make money” philosophy. So, given the amount of capital at stake, analyzing this data begs the question: what are some ways to generate mortgage broker leads of higher quality but less cost?
Here is how to generate online leads for mortgage brokers
1) Inbound Marketing
As opposed to digital outbound marketing, which forces itself into the view of the prospect in the form of traditional media and paid advertisements, inbound marketing, also known as content marketing, means that the quality of content you produce will naturally bring leads to you.
The truth of the matter is that most people don’t know how a mortgage broker works; they have questions, and they’re looking for straightforward answers. As a broker, it is important to think about the questions you’re asked most often by your clients, and then create the content that clearly answers those questions.
Examples of inbound marketing include blog posts, videos, webinars, and eBooks that potential clients will want to read, find valuable and educational, and hopefully encourage them to view your company as credible. Additionally, be sure to include content on topics that are unique to your company while maintaining professionalism; don’t be afraid to show personality!
2) Website Optimization
Your website is your front page on the Internet; it’s how your clients “meet you.” Therefore, your site will be the platform by which prospective clients will take advantage of your inbound marketing efforts. Optimizing your website will not only ensure that potential clients find your content quickly, but that they also view you as a professional and be more inclined to stick around.
Here are 3 ways to optimize your website:
A) Search
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website will be the bread and butter of your efforts. Google is constantly crawling and ranking search results and websites using their system Rankbrain, which allows you to play a role in where your content lands in this process. Therefore, in order to generate online leads for mortgage brokers, you should put effort into improving your SEO.
There are 6 things you can do to rank higher on Google and improve SEO.
- Add keywords and key phrases into your content and website pages (which can be easily found using tools such as LSI Graph)
- Optimize each webpage, article, and blog post by adding in metadata, title tags, and images with alt attributes.
- Boost your social media activity to connect directly with potential clients.
- Improve the loading speed of your website. You can check the loading speed of your site by using Pingdom Website Speed Test.
- Improve your domain authority by linking to other websites and getting other websites to link back to you.
- Make sure your website conveys professionalism. You’ll generate website visitors that stick around longer and check out more than one page.
Search engines will take notice of these aspects and place your website in higher slots on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
In order to keep track of your optimization and website traffic efforts, be sure to install a service such as Google Analytics. You will be able to see data such as demographics, CTR (Click Through Rate), time spent with your content, and whether or not website visitors choose to interact.
B) Content
As mentioned earlier, providing high-quality content is essential when looking to generate online leads for mortgage brokers. Be sure to create content that’s up-to-date and accurate. Content that provides answers to specific queries is why people will visit your website and is what will keep them coming back for more.
Take a moment to consider the clients you currently have – what kind of questions do they ask you? Are they curious about how the process works and what the next steps are? Are they wondering why they should seek the help of a broker?
Individuals will be more inclined to recommend your website if it answers common questions. People trust their friends more than any piece of content you could create, and shareable content makes for easy referrals!
C) Conversion
When you begin to see traffic on your website, it’s important that you give these prospective clients clear instructions to take the next step through lead magnets. Lead magnets are call-to-actions that prompt people to either contact you about their mortgage needs, provide steps to receive a free consultation, display incentives, or simply to opt into your newsletter to follow along on your content creation.
Every page on your website should have a call-to-action placed in multiple locations throughout the content. It often takes users a few times to view them before they’ll take action.
3) SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Search engine marketing is the process of purchasing ads on search engines. When utilizing this process, consider whom you are targeting. In addition to potential clients, be sure to create ads geared towards companies you want in your referral networks, such as realtors and real estate agents.
Below are the basics of SEM as well as some things you can do to get your content shown more frequently in high-traffic locations:
A) PPC (Pay Per Click)
PPC, sometimes considered in conjunction with CPC (cost per click), is a branch of SEM that allows advertisers to display ads for their products or services to potential clients that search for relevant topics.
What makes PPC unique is, as its name indicates, mortgage brokers are only charged for the placement of an ad when a user clicks on the ad. While this sometimes takes the form of a fixed price charged per click, most often it is handled through a set daily budget. Then, depending on how often the ad is clicked, the price per click will adjust accordingly. Tools commonly used in this process are Google Ads and Bing Ads, for Google and Bing search, respectively.
The incorporation of PPC then begs the question, if advertisers are only charged when someone clicks on their ad, how do they ensure that their ads are shown on a SERP in the first place? Well, given the nature of the model, advertisers cannot pay more to have their ads shown over their competitors; therefore Google has implemented something called the Ad Auction that determines the relevance and order of the ads.
If you properly keyword your ads and analyze your ads data, you can watch the clicks roll in.
If your Google Ads are not performing as you want, maybe you need to find a Google Ads Coach to help you optimize your account to generate mortgage leads.
B) CPI (Cost Per Impression)
Similar to PPC, CPI is when mortgage brokers are charged for their ads. This will only happen when their ad is displayed to a viewer. In this way, it is similar to traditional media such as newspapers, in which a newspaper will charge for ad space based on readership and reach.
High traffic websites offering CPI advertisement space may choose to measure ad impressions through CPM (Cost Per Thousand). For example, an advertiser would only be charged $5 for every thousand impressions incurred on the ad.
To measure the success of these ads, advertisers will compare the number of impressions to the number of clicks on the ad, and come up with the CTR, shown as a percentage.
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4) Social Media Marketing
Social media can be a large contributor to mortgage lead generation for a mortgage broker. If you are not active on social media, you are missing out on the opportunity to connect with potential clients. Social Media allows mortgage brokers the opportunity to share their industry knowledge, connect with other brokers, build brand awareness and answer questions from potential clients.
It is important that you regularly post on these platforms to ensure that you do not go dormant. It is a good practice to post engaging and insightful content that benefits your audience around twice a week.
Considering social media is increasing in popularity by the day, it is important to stand out from your competitors. One method that mortgage brokers can utilize is by getting referrals, reviews and recommendations. After each client you serve, ask them to leave you a review on both your social media pages and a Google review. Not only will you be able to build trust from the community to generate new clients, you will also be able to improve your services from the feedback given.
Digital marketing consistently provides qualified leads. If you are using social media to generate leads for your business, it is critical that you properly set up Google Analytics to ensure you collect the most information possible from users who have clicked on your ad and visited your website. It will also allow you to determine which pages from your site are generating the most traffic, so you can optimize your website.
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Here at Newfound Marketing, we provide a thorough consultation and personalized inbound marketing, website optimization, and SEM strategies. We’re here to help you generate more online leads for your mortgage company. To get 5 actionable items today, call or text us 709-769-2725.
