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Financial experts, economist, and mortgage lenders are all in agreement that the market will change substantially during 2011. As we’ve already seen, the refinance boom is over. Rates are rising, and as a result, overall demand for mortgages is declining. And Dodd-Frank; that’s a topic all its own!
There is light at the end of the tunnel. With home prices still declining, purchase applications should rise as the spring buying seasons gets underway. March Madness is typically associated with basketball, but with the market undergoing significant change, the madness this year could be transitioning your sales process from a refinance market to a purchase market. [read more]
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In its purest form, marketing is an investment in company growth, aimed at attracting new customers. Like any investment, marketing activities need to be monitored, measured, and compared to ensure money is spent wisely.
To get more benefit from your marketing spend consider applying financial investment fundamentals to your marketing strategy. Such investment principles—clarifying the objectives of the investment, finding and exploiting points of economic leverage, managing risk, and tracking returns—can create a coherent understanding of the marketing outlay and help develop both short and long-term successes. [read more]
Most SoftVu users don’t realize how email messages and landing pages come about—everything happens automagically. Personalized email messages and view notifications simply appear as if by magic.
Our client managers and staff of marketing experts use a series of best practices to develop each campaign strategy. The strategy is then used to craft the email messages, video scripts, and associated landing pages. While we can’t share everything that goes on behind the curtain, we can provide a quick listing of some of our most frequently recommended strategies. We rely on these practices to get your email into the inbox and viewed by your client.
[read more]
March Madness: The Purchase Market Game Changer
Financial experts, economist, and mortgage lenders are all in agreement that the market will change substantially during 2011. As we’ve already seen, the refinance boom is over. Rates are rising, and as a result, overall demand for mortgages is declining. And Dodd-Frank; that’s a topic all its own!
There is light at the end of the tunnel. With home prices still declining, purchase applications should rise as the spring buying seasons gets underway. March Madness is typically associated with basketball, but with the market undergoing significant change, the madness this year could be transitioning your sales process from a refinance market to a purchase market.
We are not predicting that mortgage originator’s will be able supplement the recent refinance lead volumes with purchase volume. Instead, originators will need to change their game from a fast-break offense to a slower-paced, patient game.
How will loan officers respond when the average of 43 days required to close a refinance loan suddenly increases to over 90 days for a purchase loan? While there’s no secret game plan that fits all lenders, there are a few best practices that apply across the board. With simple changes, you can increase close ratios on purchase loans.
- Adjust the workflow. Purchase leads typically fall into two categories: found a home and still looking. Both categories requires an individualized workflow, designed to assess the lead’s situation while soft-selling the benefits of working with your institution. As you map the workflow, indicate significant milestones and the related sales activities that should occur at each event. Be sure to add more events for the still searching category, as it will take more time and effort to convert leads in this group. The updated workflow may require additional statuses in the CRM/LMS, which will expand the opportunity to automatically trigger email messages. With the length of time for each sale increasing by 75% or more, updating the workflow can help focus the loan officer’s attention on next steps and associate the most relevant messaging with each event.
- Focus on relationship building. Home buying can be a nerve-racking experience, and unlike a refinance lead, a purchase lead is not a quick sale. Patience, targeted communications, and a “partner” mentality can help your loan officers build trust. Communicating early and often can often make the difference between building a relationship and losing a lead. Loan officers need to dedicate themselves to helping borrowers understand the lending process, the numbers, and the paperwork required to close the loan.
- More relevant touch points. The home-buying process is riddled with decisions. Help borrowers convert through educational materials that answer routine questions. How-to videos that explain the various loan options, calculators and other helpful tools, and general information about the benefits of working with your institution will quickly win over the borrower’s confidence…and their business.
- Don’t ignore existing customers. New leads are not the only sources for qualified buyers. According to the Mortgage Banker’s Association and the US Census Bureau, over 15% of your existing customers will shop for a mortgage each year. As you rework the sales process, be certain to consider how to identify those customers that are shopping and how you will grab their attention. At a minimum, you should nurture your existing database by sending relevant content and utilizing credit file monitoring to know “when” they enter the market.
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Putting the “I” in ROI
In its purest form, marketing is an investment in company growth, aimed at attracting new customers. Like any investment, marketing activities need to be monitored, measured, and compared to ensure money is spent wisely.
To get more benefit from your marketing spend consider applying financial investment fundamentals to your marketing strategy. Such investment principles—clarifying the objectives of the investment, finding and exploiting points of economic leverage, managing risk, and tracking returns—can create a coherent understanding of the marketing outlay and help develop both short and long-term successes.
According to Investopedia.com, return on investment (“ROI”) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. Investorpedia’s definition is used here to emphasize the investment aspect of ROI. Calculating ROI for marketing activities can be complex based on the variety of tactics used and frequently missing performance data. Similarly, the calculations often overlook the investment aspect of marketing, especially if too much attention is paid to short-term, bottom-line impact.
With the focus on ROI intensifying as the economy continues to struggle and budgets tighten, trying to do more with less might be the natural reaction. The likely inclination then is to emphasize the “R.” However, a practical “I” strategy may bring better results. The best-positioned and successful companies have mastered the art of spending during economic recessions and in return achieve superior business performance, build their brand, and strengthen their competitive advantage in the marketplace. American Express introduced “Blueprint” to help people to better manage money during the current recession; Walmart expanded its market position with the “Every Day Low Prices” campaign during the fallout of the dot-com bubble bust; and, Intel launched “Intel Inside” during the recession of 1990-1991.
Granted, these are massive companies with resources that many companies can only dream about. However, there are still prudent lessons to be learned from these examples. Trading effectiveness for pricing efficiencies has merit, but the benefits are likely to be temporary. Once the cost savings run dry, you risk losing market share to competitors that maintained or even grew marketing activity.
By incorporating an investor’s mindset into your marketing plan, both short-term impact and long-term results can be realized. While the two are fundamentally different in approach, balancing your portfolio will help smooth out the dips and bumps, and provide an overall positive return.
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Email Magic or SoftVu Pixie Dust?
Most SoftVu users don’t realize how email messages and landing pages come about—everything happens automagically. Personalized email messages and view notifications simply appear as if by magic.
Our client managers and staff of marketing experts use a series of best practices to develop each campaign strategy. The strategy is then used to craft the email messages, video scripts, and associated landing pages. While we can’t share everything that goes on behind the curtain, we can provide a quick listing of some of our most frequently recommended strategies. We rely on these practices to get your email into the inbox and viewed by your client.
- Keep your message short! Bulky messages are often discarded or not even looked at because a prospect doesn’t want to take time to weed through the content, searching for anything that is relevant to them.
- Reference your company name in the subject line. This can be accomplished through a shortened name or even an acronym but it helps to keep your message viewable or recognizable even from the email view pane.
- Personalize. Personalize. Personalize! When possible send messages from a real person, especially if you have had the opportunity to speak with the prospect. This will keep the communications “real” and help to continue to engage the individual you are attempting to reach.
- Use relevant templates or call-to-action text. When developing a campaign message, use language that clearly tells the user what to do, such as “Watch Video”, “Provide Feedback” or “Learn More”. When possible, use active urgent words that encourage the reader to take action.
- Timing. Timing email delivery can have a drastic impact on open rates and click-through responses. Timing involves not only the time of day but also the best day to send a particular message and the optimal frequency for sending messages. SoftVu uses a variety of tactics to determine campaign timing: triggers from the LMS, past results, and campaign analytics.
While this is just a peek behind the curtain, a significant part of that magic comes from the help of your dedicated SoftVu Client Manager. SoftVu’s staff will assist you with the creation of relevant messaging to ensure the best possible client experience.
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