What do clients look for when they are choosing a mortgage broker? There are three qualities that stand out: expertise, trustworthiness and authority.
It’s through your marketing activities that you can showcase these attributes to a targeted audience and encourage prospective clients to get in touch.
So, what do you need to look at as you seek to attract new clients?
The first element of attracting new clients is understanding exactly who it is you want to attract. You need to research who they are, what their pain points may be, their lifestyle and their wider circumstances.
So, go through your client data and social media platforms to answer these questions and get a good picture of the type of person you want to speak to.
With this information, you can put together a message with this person specifically in mind and target it accordingly to platforms and outlets where they will be active.
Simply selling a product or service isn’t enough to distinguish yourself from competitors in your field.
As we said earlier, clients want to see expertise and authority, in which case you can use your online platform to share your knowledge and insights.
For example, you could create and publish blog posts and videos that answer frequently asked questions, react to recent news events or comment on wider issues affecting the mortgage market.
By using original content to educate and inform, you can establish your brand as a trusted source of information, one who keeps an eye on the world around them and wants to add value to the customer experience.
Social media is the perfect platform for showcasing your latest blogs and videos, but in between the publication of these larger pieces of content, add value to your followers by posting regular status updates on your Facebook page, tweets on Twitter and posts on LinkedIn.
These posts don’t have to be lengthy, but they should offer something new, valuable and reflect the brand proposition you want to put across.
Implementing a website and social media content strategy is an ongoing process and one that doesn’t necessarily yield instant results. But it is a hugely powerful and effective way of engaging with existing clients, building brand awareness and driving conversions.
Word-of-mouth marketing is often hailed as the most powerful marketing tool - and with good reason.
When you get positive feedback from happy clients, make sure everybody knows about it. Add positive testimonials to your website and other marketing collateral, and encourage your clients to leave feedback on customer satisfaction surveys and review platforms, such as Trustpilot.
The unadulterated, genuine views of real people carry huge weight in influencing all sorts of purchasing decisions, from what book to read next to what car to buy.
If a potential client is looking for trustworthy and reliable financial advice, genuine client testimonials could be the final piece in the jigsaw that makes them decide to get in touch with you and ask for your services.
We’ve stressed the importance of trustworthiness throughout this article, but as we all know, trust is often something that has to be earned over time, and that isn’t always easy.
That means you have to be true to yourself and your brand values at every step of the customer journey, from attracting new prospects to engaging with long-standing, loyal clients.
One key element of building and maintaining trust is showing that the broker-client relationship isn’t just a transactional one and that it actually works two ways.
Many of the marketing methods we discussed earlier can help you achieve this. For instance, not every blog, video or social post you publish needs to have an immediate call to action included, but can still add value to the client experience.
It all reminds the clients you want to attract and retain, that you’re driven by acting in their best interests, which will inform the financial advice that you provide.