If you’re interested in using video to generate mortgage leads, build relationships and close more loans, but you’re not quite sure where to start, check out these recommendations we pulled from watching thousands of videos from hundreds of loan officers.
Learn How to Generate Mortgage Leads From Our Mortgage Video Influencers
For the third year in a row, the team at BombBomb has created both the Real Estate and Mortgage Video Influencer’s Guide. This December we’re combining the two and releasing the 2019 Video Influencers Guide. Before we launch our new guide, we wanted to share some of our favorite content from last year’s guide. Check out our favorite mortgage marketing ideas below!
1 Make Your Videos Personal
This is an extremely simple concept, but personalizing a video send is a key way to build relationships and generate responses. Alex McFadyen says the personalization he adds into his videos are often the reason that he closes deals. Mortgage Marketing Video rehumanizes the increasingly faceless and digital process of applying for a loan – and it’s even better when it’s truly personal.
We recommend using a whiteboard and writing your client’s first name on the board so they know the video is just for him or her. Make sure that video is saved with the whiteboard image as the thumbnail or animated preview (something BombBomb does for you automatically). Also, be sure to keep detailed notes on your clients and update them if you learn something new about them from social media or direct contact. Do they have kids? Pets? Where are they originally from? Hobbies and interests? When’s the last time you connected? Mention these personal details in your video to establish rapport.
2 Don’t Just Talk About Loans
Kevin Fritz, ranked number two in the YouTube category, is a pro at this. He understands that to grow his business and to stay relevant between transactions, he should talk about topics beyond mortgage. This attracts all kinds of people and adds variety to his mortgage youtube channel.
Some of the topics he’s covered on his channel include: “The Best Way to Make Plastic Chairs Look New Again!” (158,575 views), “How to Make a Tiki Torch Out of an Empty Wine Bottle” (7,479 views), “Amazing Ways Walking Barefoot Can Improve Your Health” (2,100 views), and “Best 3 Ways to Clean Your Nasty Smelly Garbage Disposal” (26,000 views). Clearly, these videos are helping him grow his brand recognition and delivering consumers value. We recommend following a similar structure when creating your mortgage social media video.
3 Use Screen Recording to Walk Through Important Documents and Explain Complex Topics
In 2017, TD Bank conducted a survey to find out what real estate agents valued in a mortgage loan officer. Nearly 80% said they place value efficient communication and responsiveness ahead of all other concerns. And real estate agents believe that the need for communication extends to the borrower, too; more than 31% said their borrowers were concerned or confused by the paperwork required by a mortgage.
A great way to eliminate confusion in the difficult lending process is to use a product that can record both yourself and your screen on video. That way, you can walk your clients through the difficult paperwork as if you were sitting next to them. This not only helps your clients have a positive experience, but it also allows the agent they work with to see that you’re taking care of their clients and the deal, which makes them much more likely to refer you in the future.
4 Educate Your Consumers to Generate Mortgage Leads
This is a fundamental concept that almost everyone in our guide has mastered. All of our top influencers are creating videos for both real estate agents and consumers. Even if you’re getting creative with your content topics, we still suggest creating content on great searchable topics as well. Start by answering the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) as separate videos. This will help establish you as an expert in your industry, and build rapport as well. You’ll be generating more and warmer leads, too.
Many of our video influencers, including Jason Roy, send update videos to the people in their databases explaining the impacts of rate changes, updates on significant developments in lending and guidelines, or something unique they’ve run into in the lending process. For drip or individual sending, you can also create a set of videos to use over and over again to prospects and clients – VOE (Verification of Employment), down payment standards, reverse mortgages, hiccups that can happen in the loan process, first time homeowners information, etc. You can do the same for real estate agents. Again, base them in FAQs.
Record the video once and use it over and over again. It’s you … as an expert … at scale!
5 Embrace Your Personal Brand and Build On It
If you watch all of the tip videos in this guide, then you’ll hear this one multiple times. Developing “know, like, and trust” is certainly the best way to land more deals. Especially in a high-stress, heavy-paperwork environment like mortgage, it’s important to bring in your personality and help people feel more comfortable with you. Our top All Around Mortgage Video Influencer, Alex McFayden, does this well with his “the mortgage pug” branding. Alex explained to us that before he even got into the industry he had a pug, Ernie. He brought Ernie into his business right away, and now it’s the main way most people know him; it’s a simple, authentic quality that’s easy to remember and talk about. “Mortgages are boring and stressful enough as it is, let’s have some fun!”
Alex suggests that anyone trying to brand themselves through video remain true to themselves. Don’t be afraid to let your personality show in your professional life and don’t bother creating a separate persona. Just be you! A great way to showcase your personality is to create a video about yourself, what it’s like to work with you, and why you’re in the mortgage industry. You should showcase this video as the main video on your homepage, and YouTube channel!
6 Communicate More Clearly and Save Time with Pre-Recorded Videos
Chris Brown is a master of this technique. He creates multiple versions of his home anniversary videos and “Happy Birthday” videos just in case he’s unavailable to send a more personal version. He also makes sure his team has access to these evergreen videos, so they can send them on his behalf.
Moreover, anniversary and birthday videos aren’t the only opportunities to make a more personal touch in a more efficient way. Walking customers through a digital loan application is a great example of when screen recording and pre-recorded videos can work together. Another great situation in which you can create a pre-recorded video and use screen recording is when you’re explaining the “what” and “why” of fees and rate details. There are a lot of situations where pre-recorded videos can benefit you during the mortgage process. Look for those situations that you spend time on over and over again – then record a video to use every time that situation comes up.
7 Create a Live Video Series
Our top Video Influencer in the Facebook and Instagram category, Minh Nguyen, created a successful live video series that he runs twice a week in the evenings to educate customers about mortgages, the process, and key information they need to know. Going live is a great way to significantly increase Facebook reach. In 2018, Facebook pivoted their algorithm to focus on “interactions,” meaning: likes, comments, and shares. More interactions will allow you to rank higher in your friends’ and fans’ feeds. According to Facebook, Live events generate six times more interaction than other posts!
At BombBomb, we have a live video show called The BombCast. We highly recommend other professionals try it out in order to increase engagement on their social media pages. To get started, select a theme and matching name that’s both approachable and easy to remember. Like Mihn, you’ll want to go live at a consistent time each week. Check out our tips on how to create a successful live series via the link.
8 Write SEO-Friendly Titles and Make Attractive Thumbnail Images for Your Uploads to Generate Mortgage Leads.
Just in case you need a quick refresher, SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This means, that if you’re thinking through SEO when creating content, you’re taking into account keywords that your target audience searches when looking for services similar to yours – for example: “How to apply for a loan.” Title your videos with common language that someone outside the mortgage business would use to ask the question or seek the answer. A good way to compare keywords and decide which ones to use is to use Google Trends as a resource.
Titles are very important. They’re the first thing a user sees on your video that will help them determine if they want to watch it or not. So while SEO keywords are extremely important, don’t let that prevent you from writing a witty and smart title that will captivate your potential viewers! And don’t forget the ideal title length is only 60 characters, according to HubSpot.
Moreover, just like your title is one of the first things to catch a user’s eye, your thumbnail image is just as important. We see so many YouTube fails from MAJOR companies where they stick with the automatic thumbnail that YouTube generates in the video upload. We suggest using a tool like Canva to create your own custom video graphic that you can manually upload as the video thumbnail. Make sure you include some or all of your title in the graphic itself. Check out more tips on how to create compelling YouTube thumbnail images here.
Get The Complete Educational Mortgage Market Guide
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