Mortgage originators who aren’t already using video content as part of their marketing strategy are missing out on a lot of opportunities. Video consumption is on the rise. It’s estimated that by 2022, online video content will account for more than 82% of internet traffic.
More people would rather watch videos than read articles, and this presents vast opportunities for mortgage brokers and loan officers to connect with their target audiences and give these people a glimpse of the individual behind the brand. Effective use of video also can help originators build and maintain relationships with clients and prospects, both past and present.
Video is powerful for mortgage industry professionals because it allows them to engage prospective clients more effectively than with online text content or print media. Compared to reading text, video lets originators present information to their audience in a more personal and compelling way.
People are naturally inclined to feel a stronger connection when they can see an image as opposed to simply reading about it. It makes it easier for viewers to understand and retain the information shared. Video marketing isn’t only for promoting products, however — it’s also perfect for connecting a brand with its audience and building trust with viewers. Mortgage originators should consider creating a YouTube channel that delivers video content to connect with clients and prospects.
People are naturally inclined to feel a stronger connection when they can see an image as opposed to simply reading about it.
Client acquisition
Mortgage originators can use YouTube videos as part of their client-acquisition process. Lead-generation videos are particularly effective when used at the top of the funnel, when borrowers are first thinking about a loan, to garner the attention of new and existing audiences. They also work well in the middle of the funnel where potential clients are at the “consideration” stage.
For instance, how-to videos typically get high search volumes, which makes them great for reaching new people. Product-review videos also are highly searched. They tend to rank well on YouTube and studies show they have an extremely high purchase intent attached to them.
By adding engaging and informative videos to the top and middle of their marketing funnel, mortgage originators can significantly boost their client-acquisition efforts. This, in turn, will lead to more sales.
Engage prospects
As the second-largest search engine in the world, YouTube is an important platform for mortgage originators. A well-ranked video on YouTube helps to increase a company’s brand exposure so it can be found by its audience on Google.
Videos can be optimized to rank well by including meaningful keywords in the video title and description. Popular videos with lots of click-throughs to a brand’s website also can indirectly raise the rankings of the website itself.
The traffic from engaged users with existing interests in the business improves website metrics for Google’s search algorithm. This makes YouTube a powerful tool for mortgage originators who want to reach larger audiences and generate more leads. To achieve this, originators need to optimize their videos well by following YouTube search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. These links in the video comments section make it easier for viewers to click over to the brand’s website.
Educate clients
Video allows mortgage originators to educate borrowers, which is important because it helps these prospects gain a better understanding of the products and services being offered. This, in turn, presents a wide range of benefits.
Video builds trust between a client and a company. Educating prospective clients strengthens the brand and acts as the service differentiator for the company. Clients trust mortgage brokers who put more effort into enhancing knowledge about the nature of their products.
Educating clients also helps to build trust between the audience and brand, without which it would be impossible to develop loyalty. When clients know and understand the company’s products — their features, benefits, capabilities and limitations — they form realistic expectations about the types of results they can achieve with them.
In addition to building loyalty and trust, educating borrowers helps to reduce the number of complaints pertaining to a company’s products. This is because clients become more adept at solving basic problems on their own. Ultimately, this relieves pressure on business-support channels, giving support staff more time to handle other issues in more attentive and productive ways.
Boost marketing
Once YouTube videos are created, they become versatile assets that can be implemented into various aspects of business marketing. This includes email marketing, website content, multiple social media platforms and more.
Companies can even embed videos on website landing pages, or turn them into written blog posts and snippets that can be used on social media. For best results with social media marketing, you can try out various social media analytics companies such as Sprout Social. For those on a tight budget, there are alternatives. And there are additional ways to repurpose video content to boost content marketing.
The majority of viewers prefer to watch videos with captions. Many people watch videos on mute and others don’t have the tools to listen to audio. By adding transcriptions to videos, brands can expand their audience.
Podcasts are great because, like video content, they can be consumed on the go. By transforming your videos into podcasts, mortgage originators can make it easier to consume content. Older videos can be transformed into more exciting content that appeals to a whole new audience segment, simply by creating screenshots and remarketing the content as a presentation.
Repurposing videos in this way will help originators refresh old or outdated content and improve SEO. It also helps them better target their audience and allows for a wider distribution of content, generating even more views of the brand’s content. Lastly, if your YouTube channel grows large enough, it could be a great way for your business to make money in a passive manner.
Create trust
Making educational content on YouTube allows originators to position themselves as experts and build trust with prospective clients. As previously mentioned, creating product videos is a great way to do this. But there are many other ways originators can use video content to connect to their audience and develop brand trust, such as sharing their brand story or testimonials.
Originators can create cornerstone videos to set their brand’s identity, tone, mission and goals. Every brand has a story to tell that helps an audience understand why the company exists, and why someone should invest their money and time into it. Brand stories should be authentic, but they should be shared in a way that makes the story interesting and creative so that the brand can capture and retain attention.
Sharing testimonials, referrals and reviews from other clients plays a huge role in the decisionmaking process of potential borrowers. The majority of consumers trust testimonials much more than they believe what companies say about themselves.
The audience also wants to know that they are dealing with someone who is an industry expert. Videos are a great way for brokers and loan officers to showcase their professional expertise. They can be used to discuss trends, tips and news that establish thought leadership and build credibility with current and prospective audience members.
Every brand has a story to tell that helps an audience understand why the company exists, and why someone should invest their money and time into it.
Connect locally
It’s important for originators to have localized content on YouTube to help them find prospective clients. YouTube makes this easy by allowing content creators to post high-quality, localized content for their business.
Some simple ways to do this include posting videos about local events on the brand’s YouTube channel. Originators can talk about local news, develop case studies relevant to their local prospects, or simply find out what their audience is interested in (relevant to the industry) and create videos about it.
As long as mortgage originators stay plugged into whatever is happening in their local community, they won’t have a problem coming up with interesting topics for their videos. Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when creating local content.
- Choose highly relevant local keywords that have a high search volume.
- Include the name of the neighborhood, city and state in the keywords.
- Optimize for “near me” and local voice searches.
- Make sure your website looks great on all devices and is optimized for mobile search.
- Use local keywords in title tags, meta descriptions, image tags, link anchor text, etc.
- Include essential geographic information in Google search results using rich snippets.
- Implement a link-building strategy so other local sites with domain authority link to your brand.
- Encourage clients to leave reviews and testimonials with links back to your website.
- These are just some of the basics of local marketing that originators can implement to build their brand’s local SEO credibility. If you’re looking to gain more expertise with YouTube and want an affordable way to do it, you can turn to an online course provider such as Udemy.
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Client acquisition, brand visibility, prospect education and enhanced content marketing are some of the reasons why mortgage originators should create a YouTube channel. With a strong video-marketing strategy, brokers and loan officers will be able to build awareness while earning the trust and loyalty of current and prospective clients, ultimately growing their brand in a meaningful and sustainable way. ●
