What’s one thing your mortgage lending business can’t live without? Leads. Because people only buy a home every eight years, on average, you need to continually build new relationships to keep your business growing. 

With qualified, warm leads, your sales team can make that happen. But that begs the question: where do you find these potential homebuyers? 

As pros in the mortgage lead generation space, we’ve got a few ideas: 

#1: Leverage your website

We’re in the digital age, and most potential customers will research their options online. So, how do you turn a website visitor into a lead? With a strong website that makes them want to explore working with your company. 

That means:

• Clear, useful header navigation
• An engaging hero section at the top of your homepage
• Live mortgage rates
• Workflows website visitors can use to get personalized rates (and get captured as a lead)
• Branded calculators
• Rate comparison tools
• Calls to action that encourage them to reach out
• A blog page to showcase your industry expertise

To help you further explore bolstering your web presence, we’ve got some tips and inspiration. 

#2: Advertise online

Today’s sophisticated online advertising tools let you target the types of leads you want. Some good options to start exploring include:

• Google Ads
• Facebook
• Zillow Connect (which displays ads on Zillow and Trulia)
• Nextdoor
• Ring Neighbors

To ensure your ad spend delivers a return on investment, monitor the performance of your ads. You might want to look into A/B testing, which means posting two slightly different ads on the same platform (e.g., the same copy but different pictures for each) to see which performs better. This way, you can optimize your advertising based on what’s helping you get the most high-quality leads. 

#3: Create landing pages

Landing pages are what they sound like: a place a potential lead lands when they click something specific. That could be a search engine result, a Google or Facebook ad, or your company name from another site like Bankrate. 

To give you an idea of how landing pages work — and how they can help you generate mortgage leads — we’ve got a quick overview blog with examples. 

Those examples primarily focus on lead workflow landing pages. With these types of landing pages, someone looking into homebuying might enter some personal information (e.g., where they live, how soon they plan to buy) in exchange for a personalized rate quote. But when it comes to landing pages, you don’t have to stop there.

You can also explore other types of landing pages, like custom ones for each of your loan officers. That way, each member of your team can have a personalized webpage where they can direct people to get more information about them and take next steps toward originating a loan with them. 

#4: Work with real estate agents and brokers

A good real estate agent/broker will be able to recommend everything the homebuyer needs, from a trusted home inspector to a vetted escrow agent. And since the vast majority of homebuyers need financing to make their purchase, experienced real estate pros know they should be ready to recommend mortgage options.

Make it a point to network with real estate agents and brokers in your area. You might incentivize them to bring you mortgage leads with a referral fee. And you might consider extending value-adding offerings, like a free homebuying process workshop they can send their clients to. 

#5: Ask for referrals

Your past clients could be the key to future business. As you’re finalizing someone’s home loan, ask if they have any friends or family who are also in the process of buying a home. 

You might also explore periodic emails or social media posts reminding people that if they know anyone who needs a mortgage, you’re available. Offering a referral fee can help to motivate your past clients to connect you with anyone they know needing a home loan. 

#6: Improve your marketing

Sales and marketing go hand in hand. Getting your company out there in front of people entering the homebuying process can help you capture those individuals as leads. 

Your website is a huge piece of the marketing puzzle, but don’t forget to leverage social media and email. If you have the bandwidth, videos and podcasts are two marketing channels with big upside potential, too. 

Don’t just throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks. A strong marketing program means being strategic. Track what you do — and what becomes of it. For example, you should monitor open and clickthrough rates on your emails. And if someone does visit your website from an email link and fill out a contact form, you need to make sure that their info feeds seamlessly into your CRM and a salesperson gets pinged to follow up. 

#7: Buy them

Of course, there’s always this option to generate mortgage leads. With this path, another company does the heavy lifting for you. We explored a few of your options in this category in a recent blog. 

Generally, when you buy mortgage leads, the more you pay, the higher quality the lead. This can be a high-cost way to generate mortgage leads, so make sure you only invest here if your sales team is ready to tackle every lead you get. 

These are just a few ideas to get your wheels turning. If you want to start with improving your website and landing pages while leveraging marketing tactics like strong emails paired with advertising, let’s talk. Request a demo today.