Increase Marketing ROI: 4 Facts for Mortgage Bankers et al
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Whether you’re a startup or a thriving mortgage banker or any other type of company in the mortgage space, there’s typically a laundry list of marketing items that dominate discussions when it comes to communicating with your target audience. These items could include website updates, campaign updates, public relations, enhancing or establishing a robust social media presence and the list of tactics goes on and on.
The reason? Tactics like these are associated with driving business and meeting the current financial goals of the stakeholders. The brand, where the real money sits, is rarely discussed in any depth beyond that of the visual items, name or tagline. When it is discussed, it's typically in the context of marketing and PR tactics likely due to a misunderstanding of what a “brand” or “branding” really is. Or, it’s just viewed as a luxury wherein the ROI is either non-existent or cannot be quantified. If only you knew!
A brand is most appropriately defined as “a claim of distinction reinforced by the evidence of performance.” What does this mean? To keep it simple, this means that if you say “excellent service” is your claim of distinction, then your evidence of performance on this claim could range anywhere from Yelp reviews to video testimonials and much more. I’m certainly not suggesting this be your claim of distinction because it wouldn’t stand out much, but you get the idea now on how the definition is applied.
Based on what I shared about the
definition of a brand and what it really involves, any business person would
agree that having a brand is important for the long term. But the question still
remains as to how focusing on brand relates back to the bottom line. Without
proof that it can really be measured, many may still regard the brand as
something that can be put on the proverbial “back burner” to focus on hitting
production numbers…mortgage origination volume goals, sales of credit reports,
appraisals, technology…you name it.
Accordingly, following is some insight into the financial benefits of having
a strong brand identity and how it will more than offset the expense associated
with its development.How does development of a brand relate back to your bottom line? Here are 4 irrefutable facts to consider…
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A brand commands a higher
price for your LOS system, collateral valuation technology or higher
market share for your mortgage company, title company, credit reporting company,
etc. Don’t believe me? Take a look at any sector of the industry, ask yourself
who’s doing most of the business and why. The answers come down to the emotional
benefit people perceive they can expect from doing business with that company
which is directly tied to their brand.
This also holds true for much smaller scale companies. If you’re a small or medium size business, the only hope you have in competing and thriving through the good and bad times is not a “me too” campaign with empty claims…you have to show what you can bring to the table that not even the “big kids” can…and maybe your smaller size gives you certain advantages over them!
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If your audience sees that you can command a
price premium or higher market share, then this furthers the perception that the
benefits you offer must be superior. If the top 5 originators, for
example, consistently command most of the origination volume, they’re winning
for a reason…much of which comes down to the intangible benefits as many
companies can provide the same tangible products.
If this weren’t true, then people would determine with whom to do business by drawing a name from a hat. We know this isn’t how business is done as people have their preferences based on past experience, experience of their peers, what they hear, read and much more…all of which drive them to one lender over another even without having had direct experience with that lender ever before.
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The better perception of a product or service
leads to its natural selection as pointed out above. In a competitive
marketplace, this leads to higher usage and brand loyalty. This perception
logically is the biggest driver of a company’s ROI.
According to a research study conducted by Dr. Aaker in his book Building Strong Brands, “perceived quality is the single most-important contributor to a company’s return on investment (ROI), having more impact than market share, R&D, or marketing expenditures…Improve perceived quality and the organization’s ROI will improve.”
- Perceived quality is therefore a point of differentiation that a brand can leverage to its advantage. If you leverage this perceived quality to your advantage, then you can command a price premium or higher market share, which goes back to the first point.
I hope this post was helpful…I’d appreciate your comments!
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