Grow Your Mortgage Loan Officer Business with These Tips
In an ever-changing market like real estate, a willingness to learn can be vital to a successful mortgage loan officer career. Here are some loan officer tips that can help you grow your customer base and stay in front of previous clients.
Market Yourself Effectively
You know that a major part of your job includes marketing yourself and your services. But to really set yourself apart from your competition, you need to do it effectively. We’ve organized our marketing suggestions into three categories: awareness, consideration, and action.
Awareness: Content Marketing
Content marketing is when you create a free — yet valuable — resource that potential customers can find online. According to a 2022 study from the National Mortgage Insurance Corporation, 98% of Millennial and Gen Z first-time home buyers said they use Google and other online resources to learn about financing a home. In addition, 40% of this demographic researched financing on social media.
The content you choose to create should be an extension of your skills. If you enjoy writing, consider creating blog posts, how-to guides, or an e-book that covers topics new homebuyers should learn.
If you’re comfortable in front of a camera, try making videos for YouTube or social media that discuss important mortgage information. If you’re friends with a real estate salesperson, you could even start a podcast together.
Whatever you choose to create, make sure it draws on your expertise and experience to make it valuable for potential customers. If you’re creating helpful online resources that show up when a potential customer Googles “how to finance a home,” then you can attract warm leads.
Awareness: Network
Online tools are helpful, but sometimes it’s hard to beat a firm handshake and in-person interactions. Networking can be as simple as meeting local loan officers, real estate agents, accountants, appraisers, and real estate attorneys. Fostering relationships with these professionals in your industry can create great referral opportunities.
Maxwell, a mortgage technology company, suggests including email marketing in your networking strategy. They spoke with a real estate agent who loved how a loan officer would send them weekly industry and rate update emails. Content marketing can generate leads and build professional relationships.
Awareness: Paid Advertising
If you’ve got the time and the budget, paying for online advertising can be a great way to generate leads. Less pricey alternatives to print ads include social media, video, and search engine advertising. Social media can be an especially flexible advertising tool. You can create targeted ads that only reach people who are close to you and have expressed interest in home buying.
According to the previously mentioned study, the top three social media platforms that Millennials and Gen Z use are YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Creating ads on these platforms is a great place to start.
Consideration: Use Social Media Wisely
You’re probably already on social media, but maybe you’re frustrated that people aren’t seeing or engaging with your organic (unpaid) posts very much. While social media may only bring in new customers with paid posts, organic social media is still a great way to establish trust.
Think of organic social media as a place to show your expertise, not a billboard. If you read (or write) an interesting article that’s relevant to potential customers, post it to your social profiles along with your insights or opinions. Did you get a good review from a previous customer? Turn it into a visual post using a free online tool like Canva and post it.
If you use social media this way, it can help bolster customer confidence while they research you.
Consideration: Make Sure You’re Easy to Find Online
Since online research is important for many first-time home buyers, your contact info, personal website, and social media accounts need to be easily searchable. Even if you don’t have a personal website, which we recommend for content marketing, you should at least create a Google Business Profile.
This free resource helps you show up in Google searches like “home financing near me” and makes it easy for people to find your professional phone number, email address, and more.
Action: Nurture and Engage
By investing time and effort into content marketing, chances are that potential home buyers will find you and reach out. But that doesn’t always mean they’re ready to buy right away. Although market tire kickers might not seem worth the effort, nurturing a warm lead can help bring them to the point of action.
If you utilize a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like HubSpot or Salesforce, you can create a simple sales funnel. Use a CRM to send your leads a monthly newsletter or set up periodic emails that go out to warm leads every other week. Whatever you use to nurture a customer in the consideration phase, remember to make sure the material you send provides value.
A CRM can also keep you in front of previous customers. Consider the benefit of creating resources that provide refinancing tips or describe the benefits of a home equity loan. Sending content like that to past customers after they’ve owned a home for a while can drive an action they might not have considered.
Keep Learning
The success of your content marketing efforts hinges on your knowledge. To engage customers and provide valuable information, you must stay curious.
Stay Updated
Even if you work in a small town, national and global events affect the housing industry. Keep your current or potential customers up to date on home-buying topics by carving out some reading time each week.
Most reputable news outlets have finance or housing sections that talk about mortgage news. Or you could check out housing-specific publications like Mortgage News Daily.
Complete Continuing Education
It may feel like homework, but the NMLS requires all licensed mortgage loan originators to complete annual continuing education (CE) for a reason. Consistent housing market and legislation changes make CE necessary.
Thankfully, there are course options that work around your busy schedule. Our MLO CE courses are MLS-approved and completely online, so you can complete them at your own pace. These courses are taught by Mary Tillery, a loan originator and educator with over 35 years of experience. Choose your state to get started!
Find Mentors
Finishing training and reading the latest news is helpful, but sometimes experience is still the best teacher. If you work at a bank or mortgage lender, listen and learn from the more experienced loan officers on your team. If you’re a new MLO, ask them if they’d be willing to mentor you. Find out their sources of information to expand your knowledge base.
Even if someone on your team doesn’t have time, they could probably point you to another industry veteran who could help you. Just keep looking!
What Makes a Good Loan Officer?
All these marketing and education tips point to one thing: The customer comes first. Everything that you do, from writing a blog to returning a call, should serve your clients — current or potential. Put simply, good loan officers find effective ways to serve customers and keep a willingness to learn throughout their careers. No matter where you are on your journey as a loan officer, remembering these two things will help you find continued success.
Sources
American Pacific Mortgage. (2022, September 09). Top 6 Loan Officer Strategies to Grow Your Customer Base. Retrieved from https://www.apmortgage.com/joinapm-blog/top-6-loan-officer-strategies-to-grow-your-customer-base
Leung, A. (2022, January 13). 5 Powerful Ways to Generate Mortgage Leads in 2023. Retrieved from https://himaxwell.com/resources/blog/mortgage-lead-generation/
Messerli, K. (2022, November). 2022 NextGen Homebuyer Report. Retrieved from https://www.nationalmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022-NextGen-Homebuyer-Report-final-v3.pdf
Mize, C. (2022, January 25). 6 Mortgage Marketing Tips for Loan Officers to Win in 2023. Retrieved from https://himaxwell.com/resources/blog/6-mortgage-marketing-tips-loan-officers-2019/