Millennials are an incredibly valuable demographic, but to some loan officers, they can feel like a challenging client base to win over. So, how do some loan officers seem to become the go-to person for millennial borrowers? In many cases, it starts with their brand. With so many millennials looking online for a loan officer and researching their options, they’ll likely encounter your brand before they encounter you. This is why it’s so important that loan officers’ brands appeal to this demographic. This doesn’t mean turning your current strategy inside out, though. It’s simply a reminder to consistently evaluate and tweak your brand to ensure it’s reaching its full potential. Here are some important questions to ask yourself if you want to assess how effective your branding is with a millennial audience:
Is it Genuine?
One of the biggest mistakes professionals make when trying to attract a millennial audience is to completely change their brand in an attempt to appeal to this group. When you do this, though, you often abandon some of the core, authentic elements of your brand. And it’s that realness that millennials want. So, check in. Is your brand an accurate representation of who you are? Does it convey the messages that are most important to you? This must be the foundation of your brand if you want to succeed.
Is it Current?
Millennials are used to a constant stream of new content. With endless newsfeeds, things are always updating. Your brand also needs to be up to date. It can’t be something that you establish and forget about. Millennials want to see that your brand is current. They want to see you responding to things in real-time. They want to see you engaging with your audience. They want to see that there’s an active person behind the brand. This takes regular effort to maintain a current brand, but it’s worth the investment.
Is it Helpful?
Your brand shouldn’t feel like an advertisement. Instead, it’s a vehicle to tell a story. And, even more importantly, a vehicle to offer help, assistance, and expertise. When you share content focused on the common questions and concerns of millennial borrowers, you’ll catch their attention and start earning their trust. When creating content for your brand, don’t just think about what you want to say about your business, think about what you can share that might help your millennial audience.
Is it Credible?
Finally, millennials aren’t just going to take your word for it. They want to know that your brand is credible. This starts with you living up to what you claim in your branding, of course. And the most important way these potential clients will confirm the legitimacy of your brand is by looking for reviews from your past clients. This means loan officers need to ask for these reviews and encourage their satisfied clients to share about their experiences.
Do millennials make up a significant portion of your business? Would you like to better engage this demographic? If you’d like to talk more about using your brand to grow your millennial client base, don’t hesitate to reach out – I’d love to hear from you!
Don Riggs
VP – Retail Market Leader
NMLS 132702
303.249.8274
