Why Email Works Better than PPC for Loan Originator Marketing

Talking about loan originator marketing plans for this year with mortgage professionals, I’ve noticed that a lot have tried pay per click (PPC) advertising (Adwords, Bing Ads, etc.) to generate new leads before trying email marketing and nurturing their existing leads. Whether they were new or been in the industry for years, an overwhelming majority either gave up quickly or wasted a lot of money when attempting PPC advertising. Why did this happen? PPC advertising isn’t easy and not everyone is cut out for it. So, why does email marketing make more sense as a mortgage marketing strategy?

If you think about your professional mortgage marketing needs as a whole, what is the outcome? To make more money, of course, so making sure your marketing strategies return on your investments (ROI) is important. It goes along with the thought of maximize what you have to work with before moving on to the next project.

PPC Marketing is Hard to do Right and Costly

While PPC can be effective, without knowing all of the rules, you are possibly wasting a ton of money just to get your PPC campaigns optimized, not to mention the countless hours spent on landing pages, web copy, analyzing key metrics and writing adverts that only allow about 25-35 characters per line. Just writing the ads is an art of its own. This is a lot to ask of someone who doesn’t specialize in marketing, especially PPC marketing. Sure you can hire a firm to do it, but then you are paying someone to do the advertising plus the cost of paying for each click. This isn’t even an option for a small business or brokerage. Add in the cost of testing for optimizing campaigns and you are spending a lot of money out of your budget and not getting much, if anything, back from it.

Bye, Bye, PPC and Hello Email Marketing

Once you’ve decided to go the email route, you have a lot of low cost options available to you. Some of the email marketing tools are good; some are great and some are just plain horrible. Some are do-it-yourself email marketing tools and others are done-for-you, so you can see how your mortgage marketing strategy, well, can have a strategy as well. Do you choose a do-it-yourself or a done-for-you email marketing tool? It depends on your experience.

New to Mortgage Lending and Email Marketing?

If you are new to mortgage lending and need marketing ideas but don’t know how to go about it, you can hire an automated email marketing service or you can try to write your own emails. Writing your own emails is time consuming and results vary, taking time for you to learn what works and what doesn’t. Hiring a full marketing service can be really expensive and take up a lot of your budget, plus you have to manage the contractors you are working with so it takes up your time. Another option is to get a hybrid email marketing solution that provides the content and automates the emails and is generally a lot less pricey than the previous option. This gives you a good balance of saving time without losing all control of your marketing, but at a price point you can stomach. This will help you get started and leave you more time working with clients and customers to put money in your pockets.

Are You a Veteran Mortgage Lender and Know Marketing?

The same pain points for new loan originators apply to a veteran’s mortgage marketing strategy – price, time involved, knowledge and ease of use. Even if you have a budget to hire a full marketing service to do your mortgage email marketing, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to save money and even if you have time to write your own, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to save time. Who doesn’t want more time with the family, more money to play with and less hassle?

Now, I have to admit that I am set in my ways and there are certain things I have done in marketing that may have been outdated at the time, but hey, even old dogs can learn new tricks. As technology advances and skills evolve, so does marketing, and if you think you have done it all, that is just when reality hits. Most of us who are engulfed in marketing don’t have the time to go back to school, attend seminars or even read about new marketing tactics. PPC changes constantly, new rules, bids, budgets, and a lot more. Keeping up with it isn’t for the faint of heart. However, email marketing stays pretty much the same and is a lot cheaper, so even if you know a lot about marketing, you can maximize what you have a lot easier with email marketing and improve your ROI.

Turn Your Marketing Into Profit, Not an Expense

So, what’s the point with all of this? I’m glad you asked! It’s that no matter if you’re just getting started with your mortgage marketing strategy or if you’ve had a strategy all along, new tips, tricks and technology make it cheaper, easier and less of an expense. Turning your mortgage marketing into a profit is a lot easier to do than you may think, and email trumps PPC almost every time.