The critical success factors to tailoring a mortgage business to pay per lead marketing are:
- understanding pay per lead marketing techniques
- creating an appropriate sales process
- evaluating and selecting a good lead provider(s)
- optimizing your lead buying to your business
- tracking your leads and tracking your sales
Determining if pay per lead is a marketing strategy fit for your mortgage business is a simple 5 point plan.
Understanding Pay Per Lead
Performance marketing, often simplified to pay per lead, is a grouping of many marketing techniques that ultimately produce a customer inquiry or lead for sale. Lead generation is increasingly the preferred method of purchasing marketing service, particularly for businesses like mortgage and real estate. Pay per lead mortgage programs can be an efficient way to pay specifically for an inquiring borrower or homeowner.
Paying for an already generated lead actually accelerates you deeper into the sales funnel, creating the need for a unique sales process. Understanding how these leads are generated and what you will be receiving is key to optimize both your lead buying and sales process.
Typically, although many marketing techniques may be used, most lead providers will use email marketing and paid search (or a combination) to generate a mortgage lead. Either of these methods require a lead generator to possess scale and efficiency to deliver you consistent results. Each of techniques accomplish the goal of acquiring leads in a similar fashion, engaging prospective mortgage consumers (email recipients or Web browsers) with a brief offer or value that entices them to submit a brief amount of contact and financial information. The result is a prospective borrower or homeowner that has raised their hand to talk to a mortgage loan officer.
Creating an Effective Sales Process
Any new marketing channel is going to require adjustments to your sales process. However, buying Internet leads is most likely going to require some radical refinements. When you begin buying marketing that are already leads, customers who have already made their inquiry, you are jump starting your sales entry point much deeper into the sales funnel. This results in a greater since of urgency considering this customer is already waiting for a response.
Because leads are already captured customer inquiries you need to be prepared for frequent follow-ups to make initial contact, prepared to present specific loan offers, and minimize the customer’s time/hassle to close the loan. As you can see purchasing leads accelerates the expectations of the customer, and if done properly the velocity of your sales.
However, to accomplish this you need a system–a lead management system. Most often this is in the form of software or service designed specifically for mortgage lead management, but an adequate process can be created on a smaller scale with email lead receipt and spreadsheet sales tracking. The important thing is to ensure you have some system account for and manage each valuable lead purchased.
Selecting a Lead Provider
With a solid understanding of how pay per lead marketing works and your lead management system in place your next step is to find a good lead provider. The key to finding the right lead partner is lots of questions. Here are some to get your started:
- Validate business address, contact information, and business (mortgage) licenses
- How do you primarily generate leads?
- How are the leads I am buying generated?
- Do you only generate mortgage leads? If not is it the core of your business?
- Do you have return policy?
- What are some of the best practices I should follow in working your leads?
There are a lot of lead providers, and generally beyond the top 10% there is a steep decline in quality, so make sure you do the simple background checks too: Google business names, websites, and principles as well as ask colleagues their opinions, recommendations, and perspectives of lead providers you are considering.
Optimizing Lead Buying
Buying the right leads for your mortgage business is almost as important as your sales process in converting them into loans. It is critical to match your lead buying filters to your state licensing, loan programs, and any credit or program niches you may have. Lead providers typically have very robust filtering options, take advantage of that ability to target. Talking to the right customer is more profitable than just calling a lot of people.
Also, make sure that you are buying the right quantity of leads. Although you may be tempted to just turn on the fire-hose (and most lead providers would be happy to take your money) it is important to remember you are trying to build a stable and consistent pipeline. So, start with quantities of only 3-5 per loan officer per day and really work them hard. This will allow you to learn and maximize your opportunity to convert.
Sales Lead Tracking
Tracking your leads will not convert more leads to loans, but it will dramatically increase you ability to optimize you lead buying and sales process. By simply tracking when you contact borrowers and the actions you took you will quickly see trends. Trends relative to the best lead providers, the best lead types, and where your sales may be falling out of the pipeline.
Observing and tracking every step in the lead lifecycle within your lead management system will pay enormous dividends. Being able to see what works and what doesn’t will quickly focus you on what leads to buy, what leads to dump, which sales processes to blow up, and which processes to ditch.
Pay Per Lead is a Proven Mortgage Marketing Strategy
Buying mortgage leads, even building the core of your mortgage business around this strategy, is proven. However, success will be frustrated if you do not prepare your organization and culture for the adjustments it requires. This marketing strategy is not for everyone, but if you select it to be a part of your mortgage business prepare.
