Easy Refis Are Done – How to Grow Your Purchase Loan Business

You know how it goes: when interest rates go up, refinance business tends to go down. As interest rates sank to an all-time low after the 2008 housing crisis, more and more of your business came from people trying to save money and cut interest payments with a refinance. For the past couple of years, refi business was an easy way to fill up your pipeline. However, as the number of people who can refinance dwindles, and as the economy slowly improves, thus increasing interest rates, you have to refocus your business efforts away from refi business.

While a decline in refi business is challenging, the good news for your business is that as the housing market and the economy move toward recovery, more of your past clients are finding themselves in a position where they are ready and able to purchase homes.

Get Ready to Market

With a simple shift in focus from refi to purchase business, you can establish a long-term marketing strategy to help you stay top of mind with past clients and increase your referral and repeat business for the long haul. While customers may not have an immediate need for a purchase mortgage, you can put your marketing into place now, so when they are ready to make a move, they immediately think to call you for their financing needs.

Email Marketing

Sharing information via email is a great way to stay in touch with your database. Use a combination of solo emails and newsletters to share content, tips, advice and industry news with your email list. Solo emails focus on one specific topic, while newsletters include various types of information in one marketing piece.

You can use solo emails to highlight a specific article that helps your customers. This type of information shares your knowledge and also keeps in mind that not every contact on your list is currently in the market for a purchase loan. For example, you can share tips on making energy-efficient upgrades to their home or ways they can pay off their mortgage early.

Social Media Marketing

No matter what the age of your prospects or current customers, almost everyone seems to be using one or more social media networks. Create a Facebook page for your business and ask your current customers to connect with you. Do the same on other networks, such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Make sure you take the time to follow your customers on Twitter and connect with them on LinkedIn. Still a social media skeptic? Check out these 12 social media stats to convince you otherwise.

Use your social media networks to share information that is pertinent to your industry and your customers. Share links to articles home buyers and homeowners can relate to, such as creating a foolproof landscaping plan or ways to keep your important documents safe. Share quick tips on how customers can spring clean their homes in a few easy steps or ways they can cut down on expenses. The idea here isn’t to sell them anything, but to keep them engaged so they remember your name and face.

Content Marketing

When you share information with your past and potential customers, you are working to educate and entertain, rather than sell to them every time you make contact. You are an expert in mortgages, so you can share your knowledge with customers using articles, industry news, and blog posts. You can distribute content in various ways—emails and social media are but two ways to share content.

In an age of digital overload, you’d be surprised how much people appreciate a handwritten, personal note. Use the mailing addresses for your customers to drop the information in the mail with a short note saying, “When I read this article, I thought it might be of interest to you.” Include your business card.

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Testimonials

Nobody can promote you as well as your past list of satisfied customers. Now you can put all of the thank you letters and testimonials you’ve been gathering to work for you. On occasion, when you create a marketing piece, weave a testimonial in where appropriate. Since you are laying the tracks for purchase business, use testimonials from past clients who were able to purchase a home with your help.

Places for sharing testimonials:

• Website (mobile optimized, of course!)
• Letters
• Brochures
• Sales flyers
• Product sales sheets

Use quotation marks to set the testimonial apart from the rest of the content on the piece. With permission, use the name and location of the customer who provided the testimonial. It gives credibility to the testimonial when the reader can put a name and a place to the quote.

Position Yourself as the Expert You Are

Write your own article. Pick a timely topic about mortgages and financing. (It might even be about the fact that the economy is starting to right itself, which is opening up the opportunity to buy homes rather than focus on refinancing existing loans.) Submit it to local publications or publications that serve your market. Everybody wants to work with the mortgage expert. By writing and publishing an article, you are showing your readers that you are the expert they should turn to when they need mortgage financing for purchasing their next home.

Not only does this attract the publication’s readers to you, it can also help you continue to stay top of mind with past customers. Order reprints of the article from the publication to mail to your customer list, share with prospects you meet in your office or include in your marketing packages. Use a digital version of the article in your e-newsletter or as a solo emailing.

Put Purchase Marketing in Place

Put your long-term marketing plan in place now. You can start to lay the groundwork with customers who are going to need mortgages to purchase homes in the future. While the fast and easy refinance market is starting to decline, the righting of the economy is opening up the market for purchases. Understanding this and rolling out a marketing strategy now can help you to start reaping the benefits over the long haul.