SMS Texting in 2024: Winning Strategies For Text Message Marketing

As technology advances, it’s easier to reach leads where they’re at. A lot of mortgage lending institutions currently leverage email marketing, for example, to show up in potential borrowers’ inboxes. And sure, the odds are high that most folks have an email app on their phone. Whether they’re checking it regularly, though, is another story.

That’s what makes short message service (SMS), more commonly called text messaging, so exciting. With SMS marketing, you can be in leads’ lives in the same way as their friends, family, and favorite brands. 

If your lending operation is looking for new and effective marketing channels, SMS texting should absolutely be on your radar. To see the biggest benefit when deploying SMS marketing, use these four strategies.

Be exciting

If you’re going to show up in someone’s texts, you want them to be pleased with your message. Think about what you could send that would excite your leads and encourage them to action.

You might, for example, think about setting up an SMS campaign that sends a text anytime the Federal Reserve announces a rate cut. Since a lot of would-be borrowers have been waiting on this adjustment, this gives you the opportunity to be the bearer of good news. 

In the vein of being exciting, you want to make sure the people receiving your texts actually want them. It’s key that you only put leads on your SMS marketing campaigns if they’ve already opted into text messaging. (Similarly, you also need to make it easy to opt out via text.)

In other words, you only want to be texting leads who will be excited to hear from you. 

Be timely

You don’t want your texts to feel overly sales-related. Use SMS marketing the same way you’d use it to contact a friend. By sending timely updates and reminders, you get a way to keep your lending institution top-of-minds for leads without annoying them.

If, for example, they recently completed a lead workflow on your website, you might send them a text reminding them of the personalized rate quote they received and telling them about their options for next steps. 

Or if they’ve scheduled an appointment with one of your loan officers, you might send a text the day before with a reminder. Make that reminder useful by including the time and key details for the meeting, like the phone number, video call link, or address at your office. 

The timeliness of your text message marketing can be particularly powerful once a lead starts exploring prequalification or preapproval. By sending periodic text updates about where they’re at in the process and their next steps, you get a convenient, easy way to keep them engaged. 

Be conversational

When you set up SMS marketing campaigns, it’s key to remember the format you’re using. People expect (read: like) short, conversational texts. Your SMS messages should feel like any other text they’re receiving. 

In other words, you need to keep your texts brief. Generally speaking, you should keep SMS messages under 160 characters. There is some flexibility here, though, particularly if your loan officers are sharing information about their loan application. 

And you need to use language that’s easy for the everyday person to understand. Steer clear of mortgage jargon, instead trying to make your texts feel as conversational as possible. You might even integrate some emojis. 

Be strategic

To see success with your SMS messaging marketing efforts, make sure the texts you send integrate with other marketing messages. You don’t necessarily want to text and email a lead with a rate update, especially if both messages have the same wording and get sent at the same time. A rate alert update email sent one day followed up by a text reminder of the newly lowered rate a day later, on the other hand, can help to trigger action from your leads. 

It’s also key that your loan officers are aware of the text campaigns that are running. You don’t want to send a text only to have a loan officer reach out with different information. 

As part of your strategic SMS efforts, make sure your text campaigns include a call-to-action (CTA). That means making it clear what steps leads can take next. If you send out a rate alert text, for example, you might include a link to that lead’s customer rate dashboard. That way, they can click through to see how that adjustment affects what you can offer them. 

Getting started with SMS text marketing

When you send exciting, timely, conversational texts that align with your overall marketing strategy, you get a way to engage with leads straight from their pocket. 

If that sounds good, it’s time to explore just how easy this form of marketing can be. With AI-powered SMS campaigns, you can leverage this marketing opportunity without creating much work for your team.

To explore what it would look like to get an SMS AI service running at your mortgage operation, get in touch. Our team offers this service alongside others — like lead workflows and rate tables — that power successful marketing for mortgage banks and brokers and credit unions. 

To demo your options and see what might work best for your specific lending institution, schedule some time with us today. 

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