The complete guide to referral marketing for mortgage lenders

Introduction

One of the biggest hurdles for mortgage companies seeking to get new business is the complex nature of the mortgage experience itself. In fact, 42% of borrowers described the mortgage experience as stressful.

Mortgage brokers and loan officers play a pivotal role as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders by simplifying the mortgage experience for borrowers and guiding them through the entire process. That means it's absolutely crucial for lenders to ensure loan officers succeed at filling their pipeline with highly qualified prospects.

The key question is: which channels should your company invest in to help mortgage brokers and loan officers generate more leads? One highly-demanded channel is referral marketing.

Referral marketing

A whopping 88% of mortgage brokers said that referrals from current clients are one of their most successful marketing tactics. This isn’t surprising, given that 84% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers and people they engage with over any other form of marketing.

Even though trust for traditional marketing channels is lower than ever, it doesn’t mean that your mortgage business should give up on your marketing efforts entirely. It just means you need to be smarter about using channels that work better and that empower your mortgage brokers.

Referral marketing leverages a simple insight: While borrowers seeking the right loan might not trust your marketing campaign, they do trust the recommendations of their friends and family members. 32% of borrowers choose a mortgage broker because of a recommendation from a family member or friend.

Referral marketing is clearly a significant driver of new business for mortgage brokers, highlighting the value in helping them optimize and scale referral campaigns to further develop their most successful marketing strategy. Let’s talk about how mortgage brokers can optimize their referral marketing efforts to fuel growth, and start things off with a couple of definitions.

What is referral marketing?

Referral marketing is when businesses enable and encourage customers to tell friends and family members about products and services.

For mortgage companies, this means empowering your loan officers and mortgage brokers to quickly and easily roll out a scalable referral marketing program.

What is a referral marketing program?

A referral marketing program is a systematic method of encouraging borrowers to refer their broker to their friends and family members...

Download the guide for more insights.