By Doug Wilber
Nonbank mortgage lenders are carving out an increasingly large portion of the mortgage space, originating 58.9 percent of all U.S. mortgages in 2019 and 68.1 percent in 2020. As customers have increased their adoption of other digital solutions, it’s no surprise that they seek the ease and speed of online mortgage services as well. Digital lenders prioritize creating seamless customer experiences, and customers appreciate the fast and efficient process.
Speed and convenience are nonbank lenders’ biggest competitive advantages, but banks do still have something digital lenders don’t: human relationships. Banks must focus on maintaining existing customer relationships to increase mortgage sales. Lenders today retain fewer than 20 percent of past customers, which represents a lot of missed opportunities as past customers approach other lenders.
Banks that maintain relationships will have a better chance of being the first place that customers go for new lending needs. Considering that 77 percent of borrowers move forward with the first lender they speak to when they’re looking for a loan, it’s an excellent way to boost your mortgage business. So how can you do it?
Increasing mortgage sales with social media marketing
A strong social media marketing strategy is a great way for lenders to maintain solid customer relationships over time. Consider these steps to build an effective strategy:
Establish stronger connections through social selling. Social selling is essentially social media marketing for your mortgage loan officers. Loan officers share branded material and engage actively with current and potential customers through their own social media channels. Bank employees’ individual accounts have 10 times the reach of brand pages alone, and they can create more meaningful conversations. It’s about marketing your people, not just your products, as a way to build human connection. Customers can communicate directly with real people to find mortgage-related guidance, which establishes loyalty and trust in your brand from the start.
Stay top of mind with targeted paid social media advertising. Social selling can help loan officers start and maintain customer relationships, but existing customers do deserve an extra level of attention—and it will pay off. It’s five to 25 times more expensive to acquire than retain customers, and an increase in customer retention rates by a mere 5 percent can boost profits by 25 to 95 percent.
Build paid social media advertising into your social media marketing strategy to focus on customer retention. Paid ads offer the precision necessary to target existing customers with messages that speak directly to their specific needs—refinancing their current mortgage or seeking loan options for a second home, for instance. Paid social can get your loan officers in front of customers when they need lending options the most. It’s also one of the more affordable ways to create targeted ads, so you can make the most of a limited budget while keeping your brand top of mind.
Enhance customer engagement with retention tools. Your loan officers can stay in touch with current customers on social media, but they can’t see into the future. Enable more predictive social media marketing for mortgage loan officers by investing in data analytics solutions. The technology can compile customer intelligence from sources like credit history, accumulated home equity, consumer debt load and major life events to show you when customers might be ready for new lending arrangements—perhaps before customers even know themselves. Loan officers can then perform proactive social media outreach to be the first option in front of a customer before they begin shopping around.
Social selling and paid social media advertising, when strategically executed in tandem with retention tools, can bring your bank measurable results. As you channel your focus into social media marketing for your mortgage loan officers, track conversion metrics to see how your efforts contribute to the bank’s bottom line.
Doug Wilber is the CEO of Denim Social, a social media management software company that provides tools to empower marketers in regulated industries to manage organic social media content and paid social media advertising on one platform.
