How to Market to Realtors as a Loan Officer

Henry

2 years ago

How to market to realtors as a loan officers

Loan Officers need Realtors and Realtors need Loan Offices. There is no getting around it. Often, I hear the question come up, “How to Market to Realtors as a Loan Officer ?”

The overall answer is simple, bring value to a realtor’s business. This comes in many shapes and sizes. However, the most effective way to bring value to realtors is by developing your own marketing system that a realtor partner can leverage.

As a loan officer, the first step to your own marketing system is building a website.

Mortgage Website Make You Stand Out

A mortgage website is the foundation of your marketing system. Not only does it act as the face of your brand to consumers and partners alike, but it has a huge impact on lead generation. Without a functioning website, it is impossible to have sustainable lead generation. Taking this concept a step further, without a website, it is impossible to market your skills to a realtor. Realtors expect you to be a marketing guru, therefore, you need to create a system that works for your business. From there, plug in a realtor, and production explodes.

The first step to creating a mortgage website is purchasing a domain that works for your brand. Consider merging your brand name and industry into URL for SEO purposes. Once you have purchased a domain, work with a hosting company and CMS provider to build and host your website. For more information on website development, read our comprehensive guide on mortgage websites.

All in all, having a website that looks clean is the first piece of the puzzle. Any realtor is going to expect a thorough Google My Business and local SEO strategy that generates leads in your local market.

Learn How to Market Towards Realtors as a Loan Officer With Google My Business

Now that you have a website, Google My Business and Local SEO will be your first marketing strategy. Google My Business is Google’s premier business listing service and can be used as a core lead generation source. When learning how to market to realtors as a loan officer, GMB will be a great tool. Realtors love GMB and local SEO; however, many do not know how to use it effectively. If you can leverage GMB for your own business, realtors will be lining up to learn from you.

The power of GMB is simple – your website can rank in the top 3 spots for terms like loan officer near me, realtors in my area, etc. Traditionally, SEO is an expensive long-term play. However, if your business can gain a good local reputation (utilizing reviews) and you know the technical side of local SEO, your business will be ranked almost instantly.

To learn more about GMB, read our extensive post on Local SEO for Loan Officers.

Build a Review Management To Market Towards Realtors as a Loan Officer

When learning how to market to realtors as a loan officer, it is important to understand the value of review management. Most realtors value reviews from Google, Zillow, and other review systems. However, few of them understand how to create an automated review system. Furthermore, if you create a Google review system that pumps your GMB with authentic 5-star reviews, your local SEO presence will skyrocket.

Instead of paying a company or software to conduct all your review campaigns, build it yourself! If your CRM has automated marketing campaigns, any loan officer can build a functioning review management campaign. The theory is simple, create a campaign that congratulates clients for closing on their home. If they had a good experience, send them a link to your GMB review page. Additionally, you can gate people from negative reviews using simple Yes and No logic. For more information on building this system, read our post on building a GHL CRM from scratch. All in all, this system will be extremely valuable for realtors.

Use Lead Generation To Market Towards Realtors as a Loan Officer

Lead generation is a bit of a buzzword in the mortgage and real estate world. The reality is simple, everyone wants exclusive leads at an affordable cost. Unfortunately, most realtors just buy Zillow leads and become dependent on giant lead aggregators. For this reason alone, realtors are ready for self-reliant lead generation.

As a loan officer, if you can master lead generation, realtors will be lining up to work with you. The first piece of this puzzle is brand development. Build a local brand that is recognizable, consistent, and authoritative.

Once the brand is developed, the best way to create lead generation success is a mix of social, SEO, and PPC. Fundamentally, you can generate leads through organic search and social channels. However, to scale your lead generation efforts, Pay-Per-Click is a must. With this said, many loan officers are tentative to pay for search ads because of the price, however, if you develop your brand, cost per lead will be a fraction of the cost you are paying for Zillow leads. For more on the technical side of PPC, read ourlead generation guide for loan officers.

Stand Out As a Loan Officer by Developing a Brand

To have success with online marketing, lead generation, or realtor partnerships, it is imperative to own your brand. Zillow, Quicken Loans, and Redfin are household names because of strong brand development. I’m not saying you need to become a multi-national brand, however, your local prospects should know who you are and what you do. This will give you an edge when marketing towards realtors.

The trick here is simple: when your brand is well known in your local market, realtors will be coming to you – instead of you going to realtors. This is an age-old problem, unproved loan officers call every agent in the phone book to beg for a partnership. This rarely works and generally does not yield a great partnership. However, L.O.s that build their own marketing system and brand will start to generate buzz among realtor groups. The reality is that agents need good L.O.s in their suite of services. Developing a brand gives you the edge over other L.O.s that cannot market themselves.

Creating a brand starts with creating a name, generating a color scheme, and educating your audience about the industry. If you work for a national mortgage company, your name, colors, and brand assets will be squared away. All you need to do is massage it towards your target audience. From here, it is imperative that you start generating content across Google, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. Mortgages are a scary thing for many people, therefore, your brand should educate and de-mystify the process. Became an authority in your market and realtors will gladly work with you.

Build a Relationship For Long Term Success

When a realtor reaches out to you, the process is just getting started. If you do not build a relationship with the agent, the process will only be transactional. Therefore, when another L.O. or broker comes by with a seemingly better transaction, you will lose this partner. Because of this, it is vital that you work, learn, and grow with an agent. This will ensure that both of your businesses grow together.

There is no easy button in this game. Even with a realtor partner, it is going to take time, effort, and patience to see scalable growth. It is important to track the progress, lead source, and value of each deal. This will give you and your agent data to look at and make smart business decisions.

In the end, no realtor-loan officer partnership is perfect, however, if you build a relationship and track your data, your business will expand exponentially. For more on this topic, read our post on realtor relationships.

If you are interested in more marketing topics, dig into the following posts:

Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.

Henry

Henry has spent the bulk of his career working for mortgage companies and marketing agencies. He uses his experience in the martech industry to guide his strategies and insights in the mortgage and real estate world. He firmly believes that marketing success in every industry boils down to a technology-centered strategy.