Positioning yourself as a mortgage industry expert

Added 25/10/21 - 3 min read

You know you’re a great mortgage broker. You know your stuff, you understand the market and you find the best deals for your customers. But in a crowded market place, how do you get that message across? How do you stand out as an industry expert?

Think about your brand image

Make sure your brand image is consistent, professional and recognisable. It needs to shine out from all your communications; your signage, your website, any printed documents, your email signature, and all your social media channels - in fact, wherever your name is mentioned. Check any photos of you are up-to-date and professional.

Remember, your brand image needs to convince a prospect that they’d like to do business with you.

Focus on content marketing

Demonstrate you’re an expert through the material you publish on your website and your social media channels. This is your opportunity to share valuable content with your target audience. Create a content calendar of blogs, articles and social media posts so that you’re showing you‘ve got something interesting to say on a regular basis. Write thought leadership pieces and answer people’s questions, so they see you as a trusted source. You could even create a guide for people to download, such as “My 5 top tips on finding the right mortgage” - anything that puts you in a position of authority with something useful to share.

But don’t spread yourself too thin. Just choose one or two social media platforms where your target audience are most likely to be and commit to those, actively liking, sharing or commenting as well as posting.

Don’t forget, content doesn’t just have to be words. The average person in 2021 watches 100 minutes of online video content per day through platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Think about producing short, engaging videos which will help you establish a direct relationship with your customer.

Spread the net further

A regular newsletter to your email contacts is a great way of keeping at the front of their minds and reminds them of your expertise. Make sure it’s in your branding and full of useful content, including customer success stories.

Podcasts have also become an increasingly popular means of communication in today’s busy world, with 15.6 million podcast listeners in the UK in 2020. So, why not consider hosting your own as another way of getting direct access to your prospects and positioning yourself as someone who knows what they’re talking about. Think about people you could interview and relevant information you could share so you have a good pipeline of material.

Take every opportunity to appear as an expert in your field. If there are any panel debates in your subject area, make it known that you would be happy to be involved. Likewise, if there are any local radio shows, try and get invited on as a guest. Once you become known, your views will be sought out as an industry spokesperson.

Let SEO help

An effective behind-the-scenes way to position yourself, as a trustworthy expert in your field, is by making sure your website is well-optimised, so it can be found by search engines.

If you’re not on page 1 of Google, your prospects will struggle to find you. So, make sure you show up in the rankings with well-researched keywords. Ideally, aim for those that have a high search rate and low competition. Choose a mixture of:

short-tail keywords, such as mortgage,
long-tail keywords, such as current mortgage offers,
local keywords, such as best mortgage brokers in Leeds.

Google’s E-A-T guidelines stand for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness which will decide whether your pages are of high enough quality to rank. If you can also get backlinks from other sites in your industry that will add greatly to your authority. Try to establish yourself as an expert in your local community by completing your Google My Business listing and getting local reviews.

Download: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist