Segmenting Your Database For Marketing From A People Point-Of-View

A client once came to us and asked, “Do you have content for closed loans vs. unclosed loans?”

This request begs the question: Does this LO have a relationship with his clients during or after the loan process?

Everyone’s loan situation is different and loan structures differ as well, but borrowers are still people and they react to the world around them in very similar ways. As I’ve pointed out on many occasions, whether a file is difficult or easy, a relationship was formed during the process and that’s the focus.

After their loan is closed, the past client is so much a borrower as they are technically a debtor, the buyer is now a homeowner. The content you would send them in your marketing isn’t going to be qualified by whether they are a loan closed or otherwise and in doing so, takes the relationship out of the equation. Consider that you’ll have far more people in your database that are closed loans and homes than not and the segmentation isn’t going to be worth it. If you’re considering sending newsletters or any other mail piece to people that don’t know you, well that’s another story altogether and a topic for another, much longer blog post to be sure.

It is this misunderstanding of the buyer’s persona for this industry that causes marketing to fail and messaging to be completely wrong and ineffective. Not good!

Segmenting a closed or funded loan from unfunded loans in your overall lender marketing plan or campaign can be a big mistake. In the retail world of marketing to large numbers of people who DON’T know who you are, this type of “segmenting” is valuable as you hone down your core market. However, with a few hundred people in your database, it’s going to run out of gas really quickly.

How many of your clients are One Year, 10/1, 2-Step, 5/5 or 5/1, Balloon, etc? These factors are huge but not from a marketing perspective and most notably, not to past clients. How often does someone refi? When will they sell and buy again? From the cursory data from Realtor.com and the NAMB, people buy a new home after 10 to 12 years. You don’t want to market to folks now for that deal 12 years down the road. Sure, you want those and you’ll get those but it’s the referrals that are the focus. The relationships are valuable beyond those referrals but the referrals are what grow the business and keep more referrals coming in. When it comes to mortgage marketing, there’s an overall relationship that will transcend their loan type, and it’s the same for real estate marketing, and trying to segment your past clients is futile.

Regardless of loan or sale type, your past client trusted your process and your wisdom so there’s a lot of credibility earned when you work with folks. Regardless of whether they understand the underwriting process, credit, property values, Debt to income ratio, or any of it. If they were difficult clients or the best client ever, you developed a relationship with them, and maintaining that relationship is the key to more referrals. Another thing we always say,

Share Your Self, Share Your Knowledge, Become Family!

Referral marketing is easy! If you have questions or want to learn more about how we can help you increase your marketing share inside of 30 days, schedule a call, we’re always here to help!