Navigating the Headwinds: Why Market Uncertainty Demands a Smarter Mortgage Marketing Strategy

Highlights:

• In a challenging mortgage market, a data-driven approach with highly targeted strategies is crucial for success, moving away from broad-based marketing to anticipate consumer needs and connect with high-intent borrowers.

• Key strategies include enhancing targeting with intent scores, advancing Invitation to Apply (ITA) segmentation, targeting "lookalikes" for ITA campaigns, and fine-tuning digital targeting to optimize marketing spend and capture more business.

The mortgage industry is currently operating in a period of significant macroeconomic turbulence. Heightened interest rates, low supply, material price increases, and slow economic growth have created a challenging environment. As economic conditions continue to shift, so does consumer behavior and the traditional flow of leads is no longer a given.

In this landscape, relying on broad-based marketing is a recipe for wasted resources. One of the keys to not just surviving, but thriving, is to pivot to a highly targeted, data-driven approach that anticipates consumer needs. With many prospective borrowers shopping for a mortgage on any given day, the opportunity remains, but only for those who can connect with consumers who are most likely to open a new mortgage, and do so with speed and precision.

Here are five key strategies that mortgage professionals can leverage to optimize their marketing resources and capture more business in this evolving market:

1. Enhance Your Targeting with Intent Scores

When economic uncertainty may make the pool of potential applicants smaller, it's vital to be able to identify those with the highest likelihood of taking action. Intent scores help you do exactly this, identifying consumers who are likely to open new credit accounts in the next two to four months. Applying future-looking intent scores can provide the power of targeting consumers with a high likelihood of opening new credit in the near future.

2. Advance ITA Segmentation

With marketing budgets under pressure from inflationary costs, every dollar must count. This makes precise segmentation for your Invitation to Apply (ITA) campaigns more critical than ever. You can use Intent Indicators to identify households likely to take action in the next 90 days. These indicators are based on non-FCRA aggregated data, making them a cost-effective way to use predictive credit and economic data to enhance your segmentation and ensure your message reaches a receptive audience.

3. Target "Lookalikes" for ITA Campaigns

In a challenging environment, the most efficient way to expand your target audience is to find prospects who mirror your most successful customers. You can use "lookalike" models, which are AI-driven models that help you target consumers with similar characteristics to those in your successful Prescreen audiences. By using these models, you can create prospect lists based on non-FCRA data and deliver offers to a wider pool of consumers who are statistically more likely to respond and accept a credit offer, mitigating the risk of a shrinking market.

4. Fine-Tune Digital Targeting

The digital advertising space for credit offers is crowded, and in a period of economic uncertainty, consumers are inundated with competing messages. To cut through the noise, you must reach the right online audience with a compelling message. You can use Digital Targeting Segments to find online audiences that are ready for new credit, specifically those who are likely in-market or likely to respond to an offer. By combining these segments with other digital information, such as aggregated credit scores or likely income range, you can reach audiences who have both the interest and the financial capacity for your offers, ensuring your digital spend is optimized for the highest possible return.

By implementing these strategies, mortgage industry professionals can navigate the current macroeconomic headwinds with confidence, making their marketing dollars more precise and ultimately capturing more new customers by focusing on the right leads at the right time.

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