If you’re a loan officer, you’ve probably heard of content marketing. But are you utilizing it to its fullest potential? Content marketing is the subtle marketing strategy where, instead of directly selling your services, you create and share content that is interesting, informative, or helpful. It’s less of an advertisement and more of a collection of advice or tips to keep you at the forefront of your audience’s minds. For mortgage professionals, it can help to solidify new clients as well as to maintain relationships with current and past clients. Here are a few reasons LOs should embrace a content marketing strategy:
Online identity
Creating engaging, helpful content and sharing it with your audience through your website, blog, and social-media platforms can dramatically improve your online presence. It can help get your name out through capitalizing on SEO, or search engine optimization. By posting quality content on a regular basis, you’re more likely to come up higher in a Google search for those looking for mortgage professionals in your area. This increase in exposure is great, and your content marketing will also help form your online identity for when prospects do find you online. By getting your name out through engaging content, the prospects you reach will have a better sense of who you are, even though they haven’t met you yet.
Added value
Content marketing is a great way to build trust with prospects because you’re sharing information that they need or are interested in. Because of this, it’s not only important to post and share content, but to make sure it’s valuable to your audience in some way. Sharing the right articles and videos can help position you as an expert offering key information about the lending process. It also makes your outreach seem less like spam or advertisements asking something of the recipient, and more like complementary information sent for their benefit . Many consumers today choose to learn about a business through the content that business shares online, so make sure you’re providing quality content on a regular basis.
Stand out
Marketing your content helps you to remain at the forefront of people’s minds — whether prospects, current clients, or past clients. Posting, sharing, and emailing useful content catered to these recipients will help you earn their business and referrals. When the time comes that these recipients need a loan officer or know someone who does, they’ll be more likely to come to you. It doesn’t take long for someone to forget your name, and content marketing is a strategy to make yourself better known and remembered. Instead of a one-time email or phone call, your content marketing is a steady, subtle reminder that you’re a helpful mortgage expert. Sharing great content will set you apart from other LOs as someone who is tech-savvy, informative, and helpful.
Millennial prospects
Millennial prospects are highly sought after for their business, and the mortgage industry is buzzing with trends to reach them. LOs who use content marketing strategies are much more likely to succeed with millennial prospects than those who don’t. This is because millennials are known for doing their research online and using brands and businesses they have confidence in. Lenders who have ample content available online and share it with millennial prospects will position themselves as trustworthy experts. Millennials often get their first impression of an LO online; having a collection of quality content will convey that you’re knowledgeable, friendly, and have wisdom to share.
Today’s prospects want engaging content as opposed to traditional advertisements. Get ahead of the competition by creating quality content for them to read and watch online. Great content marketing will help people get to know you and your business, learn useful mortgage tips and information, and build trust with you. The best part is that your singular articles will each serve this purpose for a multitude of prospects, maximizing your time and effort.
