Generating mortgage leads usually seems easier than people think. However, this requires a wide range of lead generation strategies that range from traditional ads on radio stations and newspapers to digital advertising with social media marketing and other platforms and options.
This is why it can be easy to understand how generating leads works, but it can be difficult to master the strategies for qualified leads.
Since the mortgage industry is competitive, you will need to come up with a specific plan for your business or service. Then, focus on adding lead generation strategies one by one but use as many as you can to complement each other.
You lose opportunities to modern methods of generating leads if you stick to old ways. Adding from both “categories” is the right move.
We will be discussing strategies and ideas for generating leads with online lead generation and offline one. So, stay tuned for it and take notes for your next plan.
Invest in Social Media
It’s essential to have a social strategy for your business in this age. After all, people and potential customers are spending time on those platforms more than ever.
In fact, in 2019, 73% of Americans used Facebook. It is important to identify your audience and the best distribution method for them based on statistics like this.
Paid social media can be leveraged through sponsored ads or boosted posts. These ads can be used for targeting consumers who have visited your site before or to follow pages similar to yours.
Lenders might assume that paying for paid ads will always increase their ROI. However, it’s not suitable for everyone.
Using organic social media for mortgage leads might be more cost-effective if you have a limited marketing budget.
Facebook Live is one example. This video streaming service, which was launched in 2016, allows live broadcasters to use real-time video to engage their audiences. It is completely free to Facebook users and generates three times as much engagement as traditional Facebook videos.
You should go live if you have a knowledgeable mortgage lending team and can record video with a smartphone.
Facebook not only pushes this content to the top news feeds of your followers, but it also sends a notification to your smartphone letting them know that you are live.
Facebook and Instagram search and hashtags are also free, and they generate many sales qualified leads for your type of business every day.
Talking About Paid & Organic…
You need to reach consumers when they are most likely to search for your service. This is why you should use Google search to find results.
Major lenders are able to generate over 50% of their clients through Google searches. How can you ensure that your institution is on the first page of Google searches when people search for mortgages?
Focus on increasing your search visibility organically.
Google’s algorithms constantly scan content to find material relevant to your industry. Maintain a fresh website and use the terminology that clients will search for. Google’s bots will handle the rest.
Now, focusing on the paid and organic aspects, you can consider Google’s paid search to boost your site to the top of search results.
These paid ads, known as Google Ads or PPC, are top in lead generation strategies, and we will be discussing them in detail later. Meanwhile, we want to focus on other factors.
- High-Qualified Internet Traffic to Your Website.
Only a tiny percentage of website traffic converts to qualified mortgage leads. This makes optimizing your website for conversions is even more important by adding elements that “push” them to contact you or take action.
When it comes to driving traffic to your website, there is no magic bullet. You can’t do everything instantly and make a huge difference, but the combination of PPC and organic strategies and details with some time will lead to qualified traffic.
- Organic Traffic Generating Channels.
We categorize traffic sources into channels when we talk about how to generate traffic to your site.
Although you may use different strategies or tactics within a channel to generate traffic, it doesn’t alter the source. Social media will always be social media regardless of how you leverage it.
These channels offer the best results for the least amount of money. The only thing that costs you is your time.
- High-Value Content.
Marketing experts say that content is king.
This content can be used to attract customers in search engines. To generate traffic, you can also share the content on social media. In terms of what the content is about, it is usually (and should always be) based on your niche and what you know about it to be useful info.
- Search engine optimization (SEO).
Now, focusing on the organic part again, SEO is the process that allows search engines like Google and Bing to identify what your content is about to deliver relevant content to people searching for it.
While traffic may be your ultimate goal, Google and other search engines like Bing, etc., aim to help users find the best content on the topic they are looking for.
Your content should be valuable and optimized to make it easy for prospects to find in search engines. SEO can seem daunting, but if you master the basics, your content will rank highly in search results.
Listings & SEO in the Local Area
If you aren’t part of the listing, you’re missing great chances.
Check that you are listed in the right local directories and that your profile contains accurate information.
Register for a Google My Business account as soon as possible if you don’t already have one. It is free and allows you to list your business on Google Maps. Local search results will also include your business.
It also allows you to gather unbiased reviews, which will help build credibility.
Another recommendation that is low-hanging fruit and get-together with this listing is to make sure your website’s metadata has been properly set up for local searches.
Each website should have a title and a description that are visible in search results. Use local keywords to leverage your website’s potential.
These results are obtained when the keywords are directed to a location. For example, if you are based in California, focus on “mortgage services in California” or similar long-tail keywords (with more than 3+ words) to have better results.
You will notice that very specific services and lenders are at the top when you do this. Some thanks to paid ads but thanks to the same: Local keywords.
Google will display the local website’s Google My Business listing at the top of the map, and the rating is prominently displayed. Or several options will be considered in the map like above.
When working in this, you must know Google uses the prospect’s IP address to find their location to local businesses.
Reviews Are Important
This is a fact: 90% of prospects read reviews online about local businesses regularly to determine if they hire or not someone.
It is important to have positive reviews in order to win the battle for attention via search results and review-centric services.
Trust is associated with having a rating of at least four stars on a review and five stars on a review. People will not go to your website if the rating is below three stars. What is your current rating? If it is low, you can still improve it.
If you don’t have one, this is your chance to make it amazing.
After you have closed with a happy customer, ask them for feedback by writing a review. You can remove the friction by giving them the link to the review.
Plan and rotate services where reviews are posted (Google, Zillow. Yelp!, Facebook). Consider offering a discount or other incentive to reviewers in order to generate more reviews.
Keep an Eye on Your Property List
In the United States, approximately 5% of single-family houses are for sale in a given year. Look no further than your existing clients for the best leads.
Your client may be selling their home and could be a potential lead for a mortgage since they might need more money for a new one. Once you have found these candidates, it is possible to prequalify them for financing their new property.
But how do you find them?
Numerous list-building services can access national property databases to help you.
You can access national property databases through many lead generation products to create a list within a specific geographic area.
This will allow you to determine if any properties are for sale. These lists can be customized based on zip code, city, or county. After you have established your radius, you can sort properties according to key criteria like the mortgage amount, property type, and square footage.
You can also use demographics such as language, age, and last sale date. The system will search your area for homes sales and notify your team when a property becomes available.
For-sale monitoring can be extremely beneficial, especially if you already have a strong client base in the area.
Forge Innovative Partnerships
It is a great way to generate mortgage leads and build connections by creating strategic partnerships with people in similar industries.
Think about who outside of your company has the trust of your customers. They could be a source of referrals. These visionaries could be great partners in case you have no idea of where to start:
- Financial advisors: Financial advisers are often the best informed about a customer’s financial situation, including the terms of their mortgage.
- Divorce attorneys and estate planning: Unexpected loans are necessary for people going through a divorce or who have lost a loved one. When it comes to managing these loans, you need guidance and expertise.
- Credit unions and community banks without mortgage lending services: Keep in mind that many small credit unions around the country don’t offer mortgage loans. Referring is another way to generate leads from them.
Make It Easy for Leads
It’s no secret that buying a home can be a complicated experience, particularly for first-time buyers. A personalized experience with a mortgage expert is a great way for borrowers to make sure they have everything covered.
People who are about to apply for a loan or thinking about it will always want to talk with someone to get tips or suggestions. This is when you need to do your best to allow them to make a simple and easy decision.
Your website’s technology can make it easier for prospects to experience a better customer experience as well. This will ensure they have fewer obstacles in the process.
An idea for this is to include an online appointment schedule. This will allow consumers to be connected with knowledgeable experts in as short a time as possible.
Pre-qualification tools are another example. As soon as a consumer visits your website, they can be prequalified for financing.
Pre-qualification programs allow consumers to compare their credit history with your criteria instantly.
Build Trust and Authority with Content
Remember our very brief mention of content? Here we are again.
Your website should be viewed as an authority, and for it, content is required. This builds trust with prospects and is a great way to get organic traffic to your website if done correctly.
When working around this lead generation strategy, choosing a niche and creating content that shows your expertise is important. This will help you establish authority.
It doesn’t matter if you only focus on one line of business. However, well-written niche content can be your lead magnet. Are there loan programs in your region that you could be an authority on?
This is the first step to building a relationship with your website visitors. You don’t have to limit yourself to writing content. Mixing text, video, and infographics can help you appeal to a wider audience.
Optimize Your Website to Capture Mortgage Leads
Mentioning more than the regular SEO, you need to work harder in your website to generate a sales-qualified lead (and dozens of them).
After establishing your expertise through high-quality content, optimize the site so visitors can easily complete actions that get them into your pipeline.
These are the basic principles you should follow to increase your chances of converting visitors to mortgage leads:
- Clear and obvious calls to action.
- Reduce friction.
- Try to reduce the clutter.
To further explain all points above, let’s start with one: Each page should have a purpose, and it should be respected.
Research shows that there is a very narrow window of opportunity (a few seconds) for you to catch the attention of a visitor.
Your site should not overwhelm someone with irrelevant and unrelated information. If this is the case, they will leave, and the same happens if your site takes too long to load.
Within a matter of seconds, ensure that a visitor to your website can easily understand who you are as well as what you do.
In the case of calls-to-action (CTA), it is simply an element that encourages visitors to take immediate action.
You can make it as simple as a line, button, form, or text. Your CTAs will increase their effectiveness by clearly describing the action that the person will take.
This will reduce the fear of what’s coming that can cause people to flee.
CTAs need to be prominently visible, especially on your homepage. It means that visitors don’t have to scroll down to view the CTA or take the desired action.
Also, choose colors, sizes, and placements that are easy to see.
Finally, in the case of reducing friction, to achieve the desired result, you must focus this on your CTAs.
Friction is any action that slows down or makes it more difficult to complete your desired actions.
So for prospects to have less reason for exit, make your actions short and easy.
To get them in your pipeline, ask as few questions as possible. Follow up with them once they are in your pipeline to get the rest of their information.
These principles can be integrated into your website to create mortgage leads. Once you have a solid foundation, things will start to run even smoother.
Leverage Clients with Emails
If you are a newbie in the business, this won’t work until you are able to build a list of clients or prospects that have decided to share their email addresses for some reason you have set.
However, if you already have a list of clients or prospects, the emails provided will be key for your lead generation process.
Emails can be used to follow up on leads and clients, and automating a “nurture sequence” can make this process even easier since you don’t have to deal with many steps and tasks.
We have found that email marketing should be more about education than selling. Facebook posts and other marketing are the same: Sharing useful content is more effective in generating business than a sales message.
It’s also a good idea to keep your emails brief and concise and direct people to your website. You can think of them as social media posts.
You don’t have to make them beautiful and brand your business. However, you can send several versions and see which one is most popular.
You can be very creative with emails and program a sequence. You might show them a more conversion-focused email if they click on three emails at once.
Also, make sure to measure the results. Perhaps you are already emailing people but don’t know how many are clicking nor the conversion rates. To know if the strategy is working, you need to be familiar with statistics and results.
Many people use MailChimp as a tool. It’s free for up to a few thousand email addresses. However, the automation side comes with a price. In general, it is a good option if you can pay for the automation option.
Another we can recommend, and we like Active Campaign. The options and automation available are top-notch are quite cost-efficient.
Sendinblue, which many mortgage businesses or professionals use often, is another good option.
Zapier is great for connecting all your platforms and systems as well.
They’re all good tools, and they’re easy to use. You can decide to use a specific one based on your budget, how good it is for the automation of your strategy, and the easiest based on your knowledge of how to use it.
Remarket All the Time
Remarketing refers to targeting people who have visited your website before or who have interacted with you in the past.
To make this strategy work, create an audience and place ads for them. This is possible on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube, and the Google Display Network.
For the latter, this is where banners are found on many websites and make money from Google to host them.
Remarketing is something that we all get almost every day, depending on what we do online. If you take a look at clothes on a website, you’ll have noticed that they will be following you around the Internet for the next few weeks.
Perhaps someone is looking for self-employed mortgages in a mortgage situation. They may have read your content but not been ready to submit an inquiry.
Your brand reminds them that they haven’t done anything regarding their mortgage the week later. You might get a call or an email from them when being there trying to “push” them to take the next step.
Even if they don’t, it’s a great way to increase brand awareness among those who are interested in mortgages.
This is a cost-effective way to reach a small group of people who know you well and are already interested in your brand.
People need six touchpoints with a brand before making a purchase decision.
Remarketing ads can be run for as low as $1 to $5 per day, even on the Google Display Network.
However, for Google, this will only work if your website is well-established and is generating traffic. For brand new sites, you better wait a bit more before trying to generate more leads with this.
Also, you need to train your sales teams properly to know how to work with sales leads generated with remarketing.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Mortgage Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Mortgage Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Mortgage Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.