Welcome back to Lending Leadership: The Creative Brief.

In today's episode, we explore the critical role of marketing in the success of loan officers. Joining us are two marketing powerhouses, Caitlin and Laura, who share their expertise and insights on how to effectively leverage marketing to build a successful mortgage business. We take a deep dive into how internal marketing departments work in a mortgage firm, the significance of saying yes to various opportunities, and the art of turning complex marketing strategies into actionable steps for loan officers.

Throughout the discussion, we touch on essential topics such as social media strategies, the importance of authentic branding, and how to use available resources effectively. Our guests reveal some of their success stories, illustrating the tangible results that can be achieved with the right marketing approach.

Key takeaways:

1. Harnessing Social Media for Mortgage Marketing: Caitlin and Laura highlight the common challenge loan officers face with social media and offer practical advice on improving social media presence without succumbing to the pressure of perfection. They encourage starting small and utilizing video content to engage audiences more effectively.
2. Building Community Connections: The conversation underscores the importance of loan officers establishing themselves as community leaders. By demonstrating knowledge and involvement in their local areas, loan officers can foster trust and drive referrals.
3. Authenticity in Branding: Laura discusses the power of an authentic brand presence. She stresses the need for loan officers to align their marketing messages with their true selves to resonate with potential clients and partners authentically.
4. Results-Driven Marketing Strategies: Corrine emphasizes the need for measurable outcomes in marketing efforts. The episode includes a compelling success story where a simple change in a social media post led to increased referrals, showcasing the impact of strategic marketing decisions.
5. Simplifying Complex Marketing Concepts: Caitlin reflects on her approach to breaking down complex marketing strategies into manageable steps for loan officers, making it less intimidating and more accessible. This gradual learning process empowers loan officers to embrace challenging aspects of marketing confidently.

We hope you find this episode informative and inspiring as you navigate the intricacies of marketing within the mortgage industry. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow us for more insightful discussions on Lending Leadership: The Creative Brief.

Rach & Rinn

So marketing is the secret weapon, I would say, to top producing loan officers. And let's be honest, though. It can be overwhelming. It can be time consuming. So that is where our badass marketing account executives come into play. Welcome to Lending Leadership. I'm Rach.

And I'm Rinn. Welcome, everybody. We've got a quite an episode for you today because we actually decided to go internal into our own department and, take a look at, two of our front, front executives that work directly with our loan officers day to day, month to month on their marketing campaigns, on their strategies, on their personal brand, and I'm just so excited. Welcome, Laura. Welcome, Caitlin, to the show.

Thanks for having us.

Yes. It's great to be here.

So I

think a great way for us to get started, is to just kinda have a basis of understanding of how, a model of an internal marketing department can look for a mortgage firm. Right? And what, again, you might wanna expect, from your team. And it really comes into play with Laura and Caitlin because they are working directly with our loan officers, which we consider to be our clients. I think a a a great way to start and and, you know, warm our audience to understand a little bit more about this process, Laura, could you tell them a little bit maybe about your background and and Caitlin, then we'll move move over to you.

Yeah. So, I've been in the mortgage, marketing industry for close to four years now. I was at a different firm, learned a lot. It was a smaller department, so you wore all of the hats. You had swag. You had graphic design, social media, events, in house print shop, the the whole shebang. And, you you learn a lot from that, but to get to that point, you have to get a lot of other experiences first because marketing really is a lot of different aspects and putting it all together and building that web. So, I mean, I learned from an early age to say yes to opportunities.

So, when a friend was like, hey. Do you wanna freelance with this company? And you start learning, like, the the bidding system at auctions, at galas, and you start there and you're like, I have no idea when I'm ever gonna use this experience. And the next thing you know, I'm an event planner, and I'm I'm the one managing the galas. I've said yes to a lot of freelance opportunities in, like, the sports broadcasting world, just being a runner. And they'll just hand me keys as they pick up this this hall of famer with the police man in the back seat. And you're like, I have no idea when I'm gonna use this skill. But, you know, you learn from the broadcasters and you learn about the the media management, the the personnel management, and it all comes into play into marketing and you can bring that in the future. So if we ever do, like, an event with a whole panel of speakers, I can now organize those people.

I can figure out what their travel plans are. I can make sure that they know what they're gonna be presenting about and make sure that we have the PowerPoints and that's ready to go. So it all comes back to what you say yes to early on in life. And Mhmm. It's a I've had a weird life. Lots of different experiences, but it all comes down to what marketing is. And it's it's a whole web of opportunities and building upon that. And now I can bring that experience to our loan officers.

That's great. I love that, Laura. You know, what you say yes to. Oh, gosh. That shapes that's that's everything. Right? Your experience. You never know what what's gonna be connected, what one thing is going to lead to, and what door that's gonna open for you, and how that's going to fine tune your skill set. And, and that's great.

That's great. Caitlin, why don't we go to you?

Yeah. Alright. Well, I've been marketing within the housing industry for about ten years now. When I was, a fresh baby out of, high school, I decided I'm gonna be a real estate agent. So for a hot minute, I was a real estate agent, and I was a very successful one surprisingly for such a young age. I'm surprised myself with that. But what ended up happening is other agents started noticing that my marketing was really hitting home with my audience, And people were resonating with it, and it was getting a lot of traction. So I started making my money off of other agents' commissions.

Every single deal they had, I would get a portion of it because I did their entire marketing suite. They'd take me with them to pitch to their sellers for their big listings. I would woo them and, look at all these things we're gonna do. Go fast forward, a loan officer that I worked with a little bit said, hey. We actually have a position opening up that's very similar to what you're doing, and it would be my marketing assistant and my assistant across the board. So I started working with him, and I'll I was baptized by fire, you could say, in the mortgage industry. I learned a lot very, very quickly, and, I kinda started running from there. And I eventually became a part of the headquarters marketing team at that broker I was working at, and that's where I met Laura.

And we started our our work wife life as we like to say. Yes. So, she actually is the lovely lady that brought brought me here to HMA. She said she was having such a great time that I should jump on over and get to know our lovely loan officers here and help people with all of their marketing. So I've been doing that for about well, I've been here since the January ish, but I've had a phenomenal time so far. And I'm very excited for all of the goods that are in store this year.

That that's that's awesome. You guys have have brought so much experience, I feel, in into the team and directly and specifically working with loan officers. Let me ask you as we start getting into this a little bit. What are some of the most common questions that you guys hear from loan officers regarding their their planning and their marketing when you're diving in and doing those consulting calls?

A really good one that I I keep getting and it's unexpected is, how do I not suck at social media?

This seems to be the most common. I'm not gonna lie.

Honestly, and it's phrased like that too. And, a, you gotta start with a mindset shift. It's not why do I suck at social media. I never look at social media, and I'm like, oh, this person really, really sucks at it, and they're terrible. No. If they're getting interactions, nobody cares. Laura, what are you seeing?

That that's definitely a common one, and especially in terms of, like, adding more video content on a social because that's richer content than a static graphic. So we'll walk through a lot of, like, best practices for recording and ideas. And, I mean, I it's a lot of conversations of just starting somewhere. You need to just start. Like, you're not gonna get it right. If you're not comfortable in front of the camera, just sit there and talk to it, like, a whole bunch. Eventually, you'll get it right, but you're not gonna get it on the first try. Just sit there, practice, and eventually just talk about what you know.

I mean, you're knowledgeable. You you can do it in person. You can do it in front of the camera. So it's one of those those conversations with social media. A lot of, like, how can I be different from everyone else is like, well, you are a person who is different from literally everybody else on this planet? So, I mean, what are you good at? What do people know you for? Just leaning into that, is is a really good topic. And it's it's it's a little self reflection and and, like, we get these sometimes, but it's it's helpful, I think, because they they get takes them back to basics. And I think it really helps to be like, oh, yeah. I I should probably be talking about this thing more.

I'm like, yeah. Or, like, if you have family, like, talk about them. Humanize who you are as as a person and not just, like, your title. I think mortgages get really scary and I'm like Yeah. Show ways that you can be more human, more personable, and I think that's a really good place for them to start. And that kind of builds into, like, their event planning as well because they're like, oh, well, I'm introverted. I can't I I can't be speaking in front of crowds. Like, yes.

But you can go and invite them to the bar. You can invite them to other things. You don't have to

your comfort zone. Percent and then give up.

Yeah. So it's a lot of event planning, a lot of lot of social media strategizing right now.

And probably a lot of therapy, it sounds too. Yeah. Hand holding and and assuring you have the power. You've had the power all along, you know, putting on your Glinda the Goodwood chat of you've had the power all along. You can do this, which is so funny because that is in so many different categories of life. And I'm sure the loan officers you know, I I know that the loan officers that you're talking to, they're from all different backgrounds, and it's funny that those are the the two main things that you're hearing regardless of someone's background. Yeah. And I do think it's interesting to say, you know, you guys are you are seasoned mortgage marketing strategist.

You know, you are in no way in a customer sir I mean, yes. You're in a customer service role, but you're not a customer service generalist. You you are really focused, and you know your your craft. And so I I love that you're helping people with very, very specific parts of their branding, parts of their their business that they're trying to to build upon, but then also the very simple things too of how do I not suck at social media. Corinne, I have a question for you actually. Oh, I wanna know. You know, as our VP of marketing, when did you decide that this kind of a role that Laura and Caitlin are in for this marketing account executive, when did you say, we really need somebody in this role? Like, what what was it that was the catalyst to bring to bring these two awesome ladies on?

As I kind of saw the mold and structure of the department forming and, you know, what we wanted, what the partners wanted from, a strategy, service, counsel, support standpoint for our loan officers. I actually built the structure just based on a previous company that I worked at. There's a little secret sauce. So, there was a agency that I worked at previously that I felt had a very strong business model, and I literally just took the exact business model and applied it internally to our department here at, the company. So giving a little input, traditionally, we talk and bring experts on, from all different walks. Some of them are our loan officers. Some of them are experts outside of the company. But to talk specifically a little today, I think, is fair just about how we've done things internally here and and why we thought it would be important to to chat a little bit with Caitlin and Laura about their experience and how, loan officers can really benefit from this style and approach, of of marketing and and counseling.

Absolutely. So so, ladies, being in the trenches every day with our loan officers, you see all sides of the equation. You see the good, the bad, the ugly, the, you know, being a cheerleader moment, being a coach moment. What would you say is I I mean, I know what people are struggling with, but an area of, I guess, a strategy that loan officers that you've seen someone really take advantage of and and just turn it around.

Honestly, I I think it's about using the tools that are at their disposal. I mean, a lot of them are so quick to say, oh, well, so and so is using coaching, and I I should look into that. And, they're they'll look at an external, like, CRM platform that, you know, has all the bells and whistles and really is just flashy marketing and and a bit of an empty, actual structure when you get down to brass tacks there. But they they they look elsewhere instead of looking at what tools that they have. And so a lot of the conversations we have internally is, you know, what what are you platforms? What do you have that you could be using more? And it's a lot of time it's free things they could be doing. So, you know, if we they have, like, list reports. We'll go in and be like, okay. Well, what partners are you you building in there? Are you sending them marketing materials through there? Is there something that we can automate? So it's they a lot of conversations that we have are about, well, I don't have the time to do this.

It's like, okay. Well, let's look at what you are currently doing and what you could be doing, like, building passively in the background that's working for you while you're working on the more the the heavier lift projects like events or working on actual loans because that's your job. So a lot of times, we'll just kind of reel ourselves in and say, okay. Well, is what you're paying potentially hundreds to thousands of dollars for actually doing the thing, giving you the results that they said they're going to, or do we need to, like, pull that in, look internally, and see how can we build this better and possibly have that working in the background for you so you don't even have to think about it?

I I I like that, Laura, results. I wanna talk about results for a second because there is a lot of noise as you just pointed out, and there's a lot of kind of, oh, I need to be doing this or I need to be doing that or I have this, I have that. Just focusing on the tools. But I think a lot of it comes from, you know, each loan officer or client's skill sets and really honing in on what they can focus on consistently that can help make them better. Right? You know, to take it further and maybe we'll, you know, we can go to the to Caitlin for you on this one and and and go back to Laura. You know? How about talking about a results driven success story that you guys have experienced and been a part of? So maybe it was a recommendation you made. Maybe it was a light bulb went off with a loan officer and they started doing something a little bit differently, and then you were able to track a tangible result to it. Because, you know, again, as you just pointed out, Laura, just spending money to spend money or spending time to spend time doesn't mean that we're getting the the active result that we're looking for.

Could you guys share in your experience a success story that you've seen that that drove actual results?

So, one of the conversations I've been having, I've been loving these conversations, it ends up going well into an hour, maybe two hours sometimes because you just kinda get lost in the sauce of of marketing. But we'll strategize about, like, what is what is actually being marketed. Are you marketing too many things? Are you confusing the audience? So we'll hone in on this is your mortgage business. You may have other skill sets and they may tie into that, and we should highlight that but in a very intentional way. So I've worked with this person. I built a whole brand strategy out for them. I kinda did an audit of their social media. We looked at their brand colors that they're using, and I I kind of understood why they were choosing the colors that they were doing, and they were really testing things out.

They love posting on social, very consistent with it. But we just needed to fine tune it, so we, like, built it more into, like, our brand colors. And I said, like, hey. This is something you like to do in your free time. How can you tie it back into what what you're really marketing, which is mortgages and and that, like, the experience of coming home. So, they really took that to heart, and they've honestly been really great. They posted, I think it was a boomerang of a confetti popper of a closing. And, they ended up getting three referrals from just that post because they started to refocus what they're sharing.

And I think it's really helpful to just get back to basics and say, like, this is this is the client experience. Like, this is what you're selling. It's not a product. But, it's more of, like, the the experience, the feeling of, oh, in this community, this is a really great restaurant you should be going to, and they'll they'll highlight the food. They'll they'll go and experience it and say, this is a an amazing dish. Or they'll say, hey. Like, did you know there's a gym that's right in the community? It's a really great place. I've been there.

Highly recommend it. So they really, like, deep dive about their community to be able to sell it. And that experience is gonna work a lot better for clients and honestly for realtors because they show that they're knowledgeable, instead of just being like, hey. Here's a loan product. It's it's more

than that. So Really leaning into your hyper local niche and your area showing that you are the local expert that is going to take care of your community members. You are not just some Joe Schmo from another state that's never visited this area before. You are lending in your community. You are building community ties, and you are growing it. And when you are a community leader, people trust you, and they're going to come to you for your industry partners as they want to be your referral partner or partner with you for an event. But then you also have your consumers that coming to you immediately because they trust you off the bat and then you are able to take those people and your consumers and give them to your industry partners and again those partners are part of the community. It's one big ecosystem playing off of each other, and it's also just creating a better place in the world.

That's really what the housing industry is about. It's about people. It's about connection. It is about sales, obviously. But, really, when it comes down to it, if you're not a people person, are you gonna have a great time? You need to lean into your people.

I like that. I like that community tie in, Caitlin. I I so agree that, you know, individuals want to work with people that they know, like, and trust, and, trust does come from from the ground up on a community level. So I love that you're working directly with LOs on how to kind of get that out of them and see how they fit specifically into their community with connections and relationships that they already have.

And it's authentic.

They're not faking it at any point. It's a % real, and people aren't looking at the social media and thinking, oh, you suck at social media. No. What you put out is authentic. It will resonate with your people, and it's just fine.

Yeah. And I really I I love the point that, you brought up too, Laura, about you might be good at so many different things, but what is your marketing? What are you saying by what you're putting out there? Are you confusing your audience? And I think that's probably problem across the board where, you know, we think we just need to put everything out there. Well, I I think we can diversify. You can have playful posts or, you know, playful marketing that talks about your family or extracurriculars that you like to do. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of what you do, the service you provide to make sure that the message is clear. Because how many times do you do you know somebody and you see they're very active, but then you might not give them the referral because you didn't actually know that they were a mortgage lender. You just thought they were, you know, the coach or

the Yeah.

The person singing in the choir at church. This this is a true story. We didn't know they were an actual mortgage lender because they never put Yeah. That side of them out there, and and it was confusing. So

Yep.

So those are really, really great points, ladies. What what would you say, Caitlin, since you're you're newer in this role than Laura? What would you say is one thing that surprised you?

I think it would be how easy it is to trick our loan officers into learning the hard thing by just doing it organically a little bit at a time in a in a way that they needed to do. Say it's make a flyer, run a campaign, touch base with industry partners. It's really breaking it down from the get go, the little baby bits, and making it bigger and bigger and forming the idea with them. And it happens in such an organic way that it takes the fear out of it, and I was really surprised how we were able to do that so quickly. It, it's been great.

I love that. Hopefully, no one actually from our team listens to that answer. They're gonna be like,

oh, no. They're they're deceiving us.

Well Well, I know. I can tell them. Funny words too. They do. So I love it. How about you, Lara? Did anything surprise you?

Oh, probably how much I can talk without losing my voice.

I feel like I'm slowly you are.

I would probably say, like, how receptive everyone is to, like, what I'm suggesting and actually seeing to learn from it and, like, put it into action. I I mean, I've learned a lot of different skills over my career. And, again, like, I had no idea half of it would even be relevant today. Yeah. But then I come into conversations and I'm just like, oh, you know what? This is actually really good use of, like, this specific tactic, and I'll suggest it and they'll go for it. And I I see it in action. I'm like, oh, I'm so glad, like, they listened to me. Because, I mean, you can lead a horse to water, but if they don't drink it, like, there nothing

Not a good point for us.

Very good points. Yeah. So, like, I'm just really surprised that, like, how receptive they all are. And, like, they learn from it, and they're they're coming back and be like, oh, yeah. Like, my realtor loved this. Like, I I need to be doing more of this. And that just motivates them to to keep going and to, like, dive deeper in our marketing conversations. So I I really appreciate everyone being, like, a team player and just being into

it. Yeah. I think it was. I I I think also I noticed coming from, you know, diff we all come from different backgrounds, but, something specific to my background is when, you know, a a client has actual tangible budget and money that they're spending every single week, thousands of dollars, and you're you're putting it into certain, you know, mediums in which you can hard track. Hard tracking meaning with a tracking domain or URL or you're leading them to a lead funnel page and you're seeing how many forms are filled out or you're sending them to a call center and then you're looking at how many phone calls, you derived from a campaign and and what your cost per lead ended up being. That that's one way to track. Right? That can be very tangible against the spend. But when you get into smaller businesses where there might be a a a smaller budget or you don't have that leeway and you don't have some of those systems set up based on exactly what you're doing, you really have to get a little bit more specific on what is working and what's not and how you're looking at that if you don't have some of those metrics set in place just based on what the campaigns are.

So for example, I think what you guys are just talking about is, you know, making sure that our loan officers and holding them accountable, this is part of what you guys do, is for them to be able to say, you know, whether it's on a spreadsheet or an email or just through a phone call once a month. You know, I got three new referrals from this event. This social media, campaign that I did for free created, five new conversations for me or engage I got so much more engagement than I thought I would get by doing this style of graphic or video. You know, I think it's important that loan officers are tracking in some capacity even if they aren't able to see actual hard metrics behind a system that I kind of just illustrated there. And you guys are really on the front lines helping them with this To say, this effort, which is time, and that is money, time is money, got me nothing as opposed to this effort that I put out ended up blaming me three coffee conversations. You know, tracking that month to month, staying on top of it, staying accountable, I think, is a large part of what you guys are doing. And it's really important when building a small business and not having a huge budget to spend on marketing that we're, you know, getting creative and and figuring that stuff out.

Yeah. I think too, like, my background in nonprofit helps with that because I'm automatically in that mindset of how can I do this for free? Yeah. Or or for as little money as possible, which is why we usually start with social media. And that's, thankfully, what they also want help with, but it's a really great tool to use that that's really free unless you're paying for ads. But, I mean, there's a lot you can do to engage with your audience without spending a dime.

Yeah. I have to say it's been very helpful being a small business owner as well and being myself and being able to share with the loan officers the things that have been successful for my small business with zero budget so that they're able to see it's actually worked. Caitlin's done it. I'll send them little reels and voiceovers that I've done, teach them how to share links on Instagram, and all just those little things that add an extra to it. Adding as a collaborator on Instagram so that you show up on the, collaborator's feed instead of just a tag, all those goodies. I

love it, ladies. You know, it's the small changes. It's the things that we do, the little tiny pieces just as you were both saying, but the small changes in branding and consistency, that really can lead to big results. And, obviously, having the accountability that you both provide and the background that you both provide to our loan officers has really been exceptional. And I think, internally, it's really important so that we are constantly staying in front of people. We're we're we're ahead of it. If there's something going on, we're we're knowing about it. It's not like we're hearing about something after the fact that they're unhappy about or happy about.

You know? We can be in the room where it happens, when it happens, and, you two and your expertise is really, it's been it's been wonderful to have and and hold their hands through this whole journey of the mortgage experience. Corinne, do you have anything else for our amazing marketing account executive executives?

I don't think so at this time. I've really enjoyed this, Rach. I don't know about you. Thanks for coming on, Caitlin and Laura. This has been awesome. I hope that, everybody got a tidbit. Please ask us questions. Any follow-up questions from this, don't be shy, And make sure that you like, subscribe, and follow all the things.

And we can't wait to see you guys on the next, Lending Leadership, the Creative Brief. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Caitlin.

Thank you. Hi, guys. Thanks so much.