How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
Make the most of your social media presence by optimizing your images and including essential information about your business on each platform. By giving your customers an optimal digital experience, you will be able to broaden your reach and provide better customer service through your digital platforms.
IMAGE SIZING:
Profile picture: 170 x 170px (desktop), 128 x 128px (smartphones)
Cover photo: 820 x 312px (desktop), 640 x 360px (smartphones)
Keep the main content of your image centered. On a desktop the photo will display as 840x312px, but on mobile will size down to 640x360px.
Facebook post image: 1200 x 630px
The ideal width for a Facebook post image is 1200px, but height can vary based on what type of device the image display is optimized for. We recommend keeping it at the recommended size to keep consistency on all devices.
When creating a Facebook Ad graphic, any text should not take up more than 20% of the photo. You can find a cheat sheet here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay.
Facebook Video: 1280 x 720px
The optimal length for a short-form video on Facebook is 15 seconds to 1 minute; for a long-form video, it is 3 minutes. The maximum file size is 10GB.
Facebook Link Image: 1200 x 630px
Make sure to claim ownership of your links for the ability to change the link preview photo. You can find more info on that here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/528858287471922?id=708699556338610.
Carousel Post: 1080 x 1080px
Carousel posts are a great way to display multiple services or features that you offer to your customers. When placing a Facebook ad you can link each carousel photo to a different link, making it easy for people to navigate to your specific products.
Facebook Story: 1080 x 1920px
Make the most of your stories by using all of your space and creating a fullscreen experience.
IMPORTANT PAGE INFORMATION:
Page name:
This is where you can name your Facebook Page, but be sure to keep it shorter than 75 characters.
Page username:
Customize your page URL by adding a username, making it easier for people to locate and navigate people from other digital platforms. Your Facebook URL can include up to 50 characters.
Page call to action:
Facebook gives you a variety of choices on calls to action. For example, if you’d like customers to contact you by email, you can set up a “Send Email” button with your email address connected and ready to go.
IMAGE SIZING:
Profile picture: 400 x 400px
Upload your business logo here to personalize your profile. If this page is for an individual, this is where you will upload their headshot.
Cover Photo: 1584 x 396px
Having a personalized business cover photo will make your profile look more professional and give you the opportunity to provide page visitors with more of the look and feel of your business. This can include an image related to your business or a graphic with information on services you provide or your business slogan.
LinkedIn post photo: 1200 x 628px (mobile), 1200 x 1200px (desktop)
When targeting an audience on both desktop and mobile, make sure that you optimize for mobile to give people the best experience.
LinkedIn Link Photo: 1200 x 628px (mobile), 1200 x 1200px (desktop)
Providing an image with your link preview can help give viewers a better idea of article content and also communicate your brand look and feel.
LinkedIn Link Video: 4096 x 2304px maximum, 256 x 144 pixels minimum
The optimal video length for LinkedIn is 30-90 seconds and the maximum file size is 5GB.
IMPORTANT PAGE INFORMATION
Page name:
This is where your business name is located, as well as your company industry, location, and number of followers.
Page description:
Add your business slogan, mission, or a short description that tells people what your company, products, and services can do for them.
IMAGE SIZING
Profile picture: 400 x 400px
Upload your business logo or headshot to personalize your profile.
Cover photo: 1500 x 500px
Be sure to center your content to give your followers an optimized experience on mobile.
Twitter post photo: 1200 x 675px
Allow your followers to see the entirety of the photo in their feed by adhering to this sizing guideline. The maximum file size is 5MB.
Twitter video: 1280 x 720px (desktop, recommended), 720 x 720px (mobile)
The optimal video length for Twitter is 20-45 seconds and the maximum file size is 512MB.
IMPORTANT PAGE INFORMATION
Underneath your profile photo, your company name and username will be displayed.
Write a short bio to tell people more about your business.
IMAGE SIZING
Profile photo: 110 x 110px
Your profile picture will be small, so be sure your image is sized correctly and centered. This is a great place for your company logo.
Profile thumbnail: Displays as 161 x 161px
This is a preview of your large image post, but looks best when the photo posted is square.
Highlight Cover: 1080 x 1920px
Your cover photos should have centered images to give your highlight reel a balanced look. You can also name your highlights, but be concise as they can only be 15 characters long.
Instagram Feed Photo: 1080 x 1080px (square), 1080 x 1350 (portrait), 1080 x 566 (landscape)
The recommended width for all Instagram feed photos is 1080px, but the height can vary. To optimize for your feed display within your profile, we recommend using the sizing listed above to keep your image square.
Instagram Feed Video: 1080 x 1080px (square), 1080 x 1350 (portrait), 1080 x 566 (landscape)
The optimal length for an Instagram video is 30-60 seconds and the max file size is 650MB.
Instagram Feed Ad Photo: 1080 x 1080px
Your ad photo will display the same as a normal feed photo, but with a link attached. When creating an ad in Ads Manager, you’ll be able to upload a separate photo for Instagram to keep your photos optimized for the user experience.
Instagram Story: 1080 x 1920px (portrait), 1080 x 601 (landscape)
Make the most of your stories by using all of your space and creating a fullscreen experience. The maximum length of the story is 15 seconds.
Instagram Reels & Live: 1080 x 1920px
Reels can be used to offer tutorials, demos, or service features. These will be saved under your profile page for viewers to go back and watch at their leisure. The maximum length for Reels is 30 seconds. For Live, this can be used for announcements, events, or other Q&A sessions. These can also be saved for later viewing, and can last up to 4 hours.
BOK Financial is a financial services partner for consumers, businesses and wealth clients with more than 150 users on the Denim Social platform.
In addition to building brand credibility and establishing loan officer expertise, Denim Social enables their mortgage loan officers to cultivate relationships in social media and organically source leads.
Mortgage professionals know: the industry is undergoing digital transformation, and it’s more important than ever for lenders to have access to the latest financial technology tools. Here at Denim Social, we want to empower mortgage marketers and loan officers with social selling resources that will help pave their way into a bright and people-centric future. To stay ahead of the curve, our team attended the National Mortgage News Digital Mortgage Conference to connect with our mortgage colleagues and learn more about how we can successfully guide customer social media strategies.
We learned a lot, but here were my three top takeaways:
- Technology solutions are helping institutions better serve customers.
Mortgage companies, banks, and credit unions are transforming how they interact with consumers. Technology is helping marketers learn more about consumers, so that lenders can provide the right product at the right time and decrease the time it takes to close a loan. This is drastically reducing the friction for the consumer, because it’s now as easy as clicking a button to connect with a loan officer and go through the entire approval process.
- The home buying process looks different than it used to.
Leaders in mortgage are recognizing that the next generation of homebuyers want and expect the buying process to be different from beginning to end. Today’s buyers expect that information will be readily available online and on social media, and communications between involved parties will be instantaneous and casual. Having a strong online presence signals trust and credibility that is needed for customers to feel confident in their decisions.
- Appearances matter, and it’s essential to look the part.
Sure, it’s important to have a strong back office system and process in place so that the mortgage business runs smoothly, efficiently, and dependably. However, now that the boom of the last couple of years is coming to a close, it’s time for many lenders to refocus that effort into the front office. Time, effort, and budget must be allocated to making a good impression and catering strategies to meet customers where they already are and on their terms. It’s a big shift from the old ways of doing things, but loan officers who commit to social selling and create a strong social presence will come out ahead of those reluctant to make the shift.
The bright side of these industry transformations is that now financial institutions will have more opportunities than ever to grow their brands and personalize their approach to customer interactions and sales. Loan officers especially have more resources than ever to interact with their communities. Social media is the perfect way to stay top of mind, and tools like Denim Social are here to support mortgage lenders, banks, and other services seeking to strengthen their social selling capabilities.
Spring has long been a competitive season for both homebuyers and lenders, but this spring is different for mortgage loan officers. Rates are up, applications are down. Mortgage loan officers can no longer rely on bargain rates and that means they need to work harder than ever to best the competition. So how does a loan officer stand out? It’s all about social media.
It should be obvious at this point that social media can support your lending business, but it’s no longer enough to simply post to a brand page and hope for the best. In today’s social environment, lenders and loan officers must humanize their brand, amplify their reach and work to initiate robust digital experiences.
As you plan your social media program this spring, consider these three strategies:
- Humanize Your Brand with Social Selling: Put simply, people buy from people. That means you need to put loan officers front and center on social media. It’s called social selling and it works. Activating mortgage loan officers in a social selling strategy is a key way to expand reach and drive engagement. LinkedIn reports sales reps who engage in social selling achieve 45% more sales opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit their sales quotas.
- Amplify Reach with Paid Social Media Advertising: Organically posting on mortgage loan officers’ profiles is a necessary first step in social selling, but it’s just the start. Organic posts – some may say ‘viral’ posts – may have received a lot of attention years ago, but social media platforms change their algorithms frequently, making branded content less visible. Organic content can’t stand on its own, but when paired with paid social media advertising, however, you can drive show huge returns. Paid advertising allows marketers to land loan officers’ posts in front of the right audiences at the right times.
- Start Digital Journeys: Think of your social selling strategies as customer experience builders, not just collections of standalone posts. Research shows that the vast majority of financial institutions are missing out on this opportunity to create experiences by failing to include links in posts. Sounds like no big deal, right? Think again. Links are important because they give followers a next step in their journey with your brand. A link to a landing page, for instance, could capture valuable lead information to drive deals.
In a season where every deal matters, a smart social media strategy could give your mortgage loan officers considerable edge. And with the right tools, both marketing teams and mortgage loan officers can efficiently execute and scale to drive big results. It’s tough out there, but building your social media strategy today means you have the opportunity to leave another lender in your social media dust.
This article was originally published in MBA Newslink.
The ice is melting and that can only mean one thing for those in the real estate business – spring buying season has arrived! Spring has long been a time for high inventory, but economic conditions make 2022 unique and perhaps more competitive than ever. And it’s not just buyers competing for homes, mortgage lenders need to work hard to stay competitive in a marketplace where everyone is feeling the heat.
As we look to this year’s spring buying season, we see a two key factors impacting the marketplace:
Supply is low and prices are up
Prices are wild out there. Existing housing inventory remains historically low and supply chain challenges continue to put the squeeze on new home construction. With low supply, comes high demand and even higher prices. In fact, Zillow projects year-over-year rate of home price growth to peak at 21.6% in May.
Rates are rising
Despite some news-driven, short-term drops, mortgage rates are trending upward. After two years of historically low rates, with the Fed signaling, most predict rates will climb to around 4% this year. While still low, with rates rising, we could see buyers moving to lock-in at a lower rate.
In an environment where MLOs can’t offer bargain-basement rates any longer, how do they stand out from the lending crowd? It’s about relationships. And the best way for a mortgage loan officer to stay in touch is social media.
How important is staying top of mind with prospects? Consider this: 77% of borrowers move forward with the first lender they speak to when they’re looking for a loan. Showing up a prospect or existing clients’ social media feed can not only build trust, it can help MLOs close more deals.
If you’re looking to make the most of social media at your mortgage institution, check out our guidebook, A Guide to Helping Mortgage Loan Officers Achieve Success with Social Media Marketing.
Temps are soon to be on the rise, and so are interest rates. Combined with a hopeful end to the pandemic, the spring 2022 real estate market is hotter than ever. Mortgage loan officers are reaping the rewards of the fast-moving market, but they’re also seeing fierce competition.
So how does a loan officer stand out and catch the attention of homebuyers? Social media is the answer. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business and consumers expect technology to be part of the homebuying process too.
Now is the time for financial institutions to unlock the power of loan officers on social media. Here’s where to start:
- ACTIVATE LOAN OFFICERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Social is all about human connections and audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual loan officers share branded messages on their own social media profiles, is essential. Marketers might bristle at the idea of loan officers posting, but the right tools can keep individual postings on strategy, on brand and in compliance.
- DRIVE INTEREST WITH PAID SOCIAL MEDIA. We all remember the early days of social media when good organic content was all it took to breakthrough, but the platforms and algorithms have changed -- and your strategy should too. Luckily social media advertising is low budget and high return. Whether it’s proximity-based ads or amplifying posts from your loan officers, paid advertising can ensure your content is served to the right people at the right time.
- USE CONTENT TO EDUCATE AND ENGAGE. Your institution’s content is an opportunity for your loan officers to establish trust through social media. Arm them with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money.
- DRIVE CONVERSIONS WITH A POST-CLICK EXPERIENCE. Don’t create a digital dead end on social media. Instead, build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns and create forms to capture followers’ contact information in exchange for a download. This arms your loan officers with interested leads and the details they need to take the next step.
- MEASURE AND ANALYZE PERFORMANCE. Pay attention to how your content is performing. Make note of what grabs attention and engagement from your audience, and don't be afraid to change your content strategy based on what you observe. Give loan officers feedback on their network activity.
With these strategies social media can help your loan officers stand out and stay competitive. Overwhelmed? Tools from Denim Social can help mortgage marketers maximize efficiency and stay compliant.
Connect & Convert on Social
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
Paid social is one of the most effective ways to introduce people who aren’t yet following your producers, agents, loan officers, or advisors to your financial institution at the right place and the right time.
Paid social is complementary to organic. While organic social builds first-degree connections and facilitates awareness, engagement, and branding, paid social allows you to reach larger, more tailored audiences.
BOK Financial is a financial services partner for consumers, businesses and wealth clients with more than 150 users on the Denim Social platform.
In addition to building brand credibility and establishing loan officer expertise, Denim Social enables their mortgage loan officers to cultivate relationships in social media and organically source leads.
As financial marketers look to the coming year, most are wondering, “what’s next?” While no one can say for sure, our team of experts here at Denim Social are keeping a pulse on what’s new in digital marketing for financial institutions on social media. This guide will not only educate you on the latest trends, but help you make the case for increased investment in social selling and digital marketing strategies at your institution.
Whether you’re in banking, wealth management, insurance or mortgage, relationships are the bedrock of your business.
Considering clients in these industries are handing over the keys to their personal kingdoms, it’s no surprise that trust and connection matter. That’s why successful sales strategies for these industries are focused on building long-term, trusted relationships.
To truly unleash the potential of social, financial institutions need to use social media as a sales tool. It’s called social selling and it works.
The power of social media is undeniable. The ability of banks to engage with and influence customers and prospects via interactive digital channels is an essential tool and a cornerstone of marketing. Gone are the days when it was “nice to have” a presence on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Today, these pathways are helping banks to build relationships that were historically cultivated by tirelessly walking up and down Main Street, shaking hands and leaving behind business cards.
In this case study by Denim Social and American Bankers Association, we take a look at how banks are using social media to ramp up digital engagement and build sales.
As any marketer worth their salt will tell you, analytics should drive your social strategy. The key to success is understanding how to link social media efforts to ROI metrics. Read this guide to learn how to gain insights that matter, optimize your strategy and prove your social success.
It’s no surprise that social media can help drive results for your mortgage business. In fact, the question for most marketers at mortgage lending institutions isn’t IF they should be doing more social media marketing - it’s HOW. Download to learn how to:
- Scale your social selling program
- Plan your content strategy
- Train your loan officers
AnnieMac is one of the fastest-growing mortgage loan providers in the U.S., serving clients in 42 states. Learn how Denim Social helped their team to streamline its brand’s social media strategy and activate social selling for hundreds of loan officers in just four months.
Find out how more than 400 financial institutions across asset classes, geographies, and more used social media in 2020 to effectively support their business objectives. We’ve also outlined key trends to inform your social media future.
As mortgage demand surges to historic highs, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it also means the environment is more competitive than ever.
So how can marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media.
Read this guidebook from Denim Social to learn how you can help your loan officers build strong relationships, stand out from the crowd and win more business using social media.
Every Mortgage Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Read this guide if you’re asking yourself:
- Is my social media policy current and comprehensive?
- How do I ensure social media compliance during M&A?
- What do I need to consider for direct messaging compliance?
In this guide we will help you think about your all important social media policy and thoughtfully consider how changes in social media tech and even your bank’s structure may impact compliance.
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Every Financial Services Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Stronger Customer Relationships on Instagram
Financial Services companies should be marketing and advertising on Instagram. We break down why, and help you create a strategy to reach new customers- while continuing to build trust in your brand.
How 6 Financial Marketers Are Creating Value in Social Media
Ever wonder what everyone else is doing in social media? We talked to six leading financial marketers about how they’re succeeding today and planning for the next big thing.
Get their insights on strengthening your social strategies, unlocking the power of employee networks and creating next-level content that drives engagement.
Download this guidebook to learn how 3 mortgage lenders are using social media to:
- Position themselves in a place the community is already looking ... their social media
- Empower loan officers to engage in local conversations
- Turn their institution's loan officers into the voice of their brand
- Build trust within the community
Which roles do you fill when building your bank's marketing dream team? This guide will show you the following:
- Who does what
- The right structure to execute strategy
- How compliance software can help
Enjoy!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
ABA Study: The Current State of Social Media
See what nearly 430 bank marketers had to say when asked questions such as:
COVID-19 & Bank Social Media
Times are different and how you connect with customers and potential customers has changed drastically. In a socially distant world, learn to still build lasting relationships.
Download and learn the guiding principles for using social media to serve both your customers and communities in the midst of a pandemic.
Evolve Bank & Trust (“Evolve”) is an $700M+ asset institution with nearly 40 Home Loan Centers (HLC) and nearly 500 employees nationwide. See how Denim Social helped Evolve activate Home Loan Center Facebook pages over the course of just a few months.
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
Paid social is one of the most effective ways to introduce people who aren’t yet following your producers, agents, loan officers, or advisors to your financial institution at the right place and the right time.
Paid social is complementary to organic. While organic social builds first-degree connections and facilitates awareness, engagement, and branding, paid social allows you to reach larger, more tailored audiences.
BOK Financial is a financial services partner for consumers, businesses and wealth clients with more than 150 users on the Denim Social platform.
In addition to building brand credibility and establishing loan officer expertise, Denim Social enables their mortgage loan officers to cultivate relationships in social media and organically source leads.
As financial marketers look to the coming year, most are wondering, “what’s next?” While no one can say for sure, our team of experts here at Denim Social are keeping a pulse on what’s new in digital marketing for financial institutions on social media. This guide will not only educate you on the latest trends, but help you make the case for increased investment in social selling and digital marketing strategies at your institution.
Whether you’re in banking, wealth management, insurance or mortgage, relationships are the bedrock of your business.
Considering clients in these industries are handing over the keys to their personal kingdoms, it’s no surprise that trust and connection matter. That’s why successful sales strategies for these industries are focused on building long-term, trusted relationships.
To truly unleash the potential of social, financial institutions need to use social media as a sales tool. It’s called social selling and it works.
The power of social media is undeniable. The ability of banks to engage with and influence customers and prospects via interactive digital channels is an essential tool and a cornerstone of marketing. Gone are the days when it was “nice to have” a presence on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Today, these pathways are helping banks to build relationships that were historically cultivated by tirelessly walking up and down Main Street, shaking hands and leaving behind business cards.
In this case study by Denim Social and American Bankers Association, we take a look at how banks are using social media to ramp up digital engagement and build sales.
As any marketer worth their salt will tell you, analytics should drive your social strategy. The key to success is understanding how to link social media efforts to ROI metrics. Read this guide to learn how to gain insights that matter, optimize your strategy and prove your social success.
It’s no surprise that social media can help drive results for your mortgage business. In fact, the question for most marketers at mortgage lending institutions isn’t IF they should be doing more social media marketing - it’s HOW. Download to learn how to:
- Scale your social selling program
- Plan your content strategy
- Train your loan officers
AnnieMac is one of the fastest-growing mortgage loan providers in the U.S., serving clients in 42 states. Learn how Denim Social helped their team to streamline its brand’s social media strategy and activate social selling for hundreds of loan officers in just four months.
Find out how more than 400 financial institutions across asset classes, geographies, and more used social media in 2020 to effectively support their business objectives. We’ve also outlined key trends to inform your social media future.
As mortgage demand surges to historic highs, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it also means the environment is more competitive than ever.
So how can marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media.
Read this guidebook from Denim Social to learn how you can help your loan officers build strong relationships, stand out from the crowd and win more business using social media.
Every Mortgage Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Read this guide if you’re asking yourself:
- Is my social media policy current and comprehensive?
- How do I ensure social media compliance during M&A?
- What do I need to consider for direct messaging compliance?
In this guide we will help you think about your all important social media policy and thoughtfully consider how changes in social media tech and even your bank’s structure may impact compliance.
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Every Financial Services Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Stronger Customer Relationships on Instagram
Financial Services companies should be marketing and advertising on Instagram. We break down why, and help you create a strategy to reach new customers- while continuing to build trust in your brand.
How 6 Financial Marketers Are Creating Value in Social Media
Ever wonder what everyone else is doing in social media? We talked to six leading financial marketers about how they’re succeeding today and planning for the next big thing.
Get their insights on strengthening your social strategies, unlocking the power of employee networks and creating next-level content that drives engagement.
Download this guidebook to learn how 3 mortgage lenders are using social media to:
- Position themselves in a place the community is already looking ... their social media
- Empower loan officers to engage in local conversations
- Turn their institution's loan officers into the voice of their brand
- Build trust within the community
Which roles do you fill when building your bank's marketing dream team? This guide will show you the following:
- Who does what
- The right structure to execute strategy
- How compliance software can help
Enjoy!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
ABA Study: The Current State of Social Media
See what nearly 430 bank marketers had to say when asked questions such as:
COVID-19 & Bank Social Media
Times are different and how you connect with customers and potential customers has changed drastically. In a socially distant world, learn to still build lasting relationships.
Download and learn the guiding principles for using social media to serve both your customers and communities in the midst of a pandemic.
Evolve Bank & Trust (“Evolve”) is an $700M+ asset institution with nearly 40 Home Loan Centers (HLC) and nearly 500 employees nationwide. See how Denim Social helped Evolve activate Home Loan Center Facebook pages over the course of just a few months.
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
Paid social is one of the most effective ways to introduce people who aren’t yet following your producers, agents, loan officers, or advisors to your financial institution at the right place and the right time.
Paid social is complementary to organic. While organic social builds first-degree connections and facilitates awareness, engagement, and branding, paid social allows you to reach larger, more tailored audiences.
BOK Financial is a financial services partner for consumers, businesses and wealth clients with more than 150 users on the Denim Social platform.
In addition to building brand credibility and establishing loan officer expertise, Denim Social enables their mortgage loan officers to cultivate relationships in social media and organically source leads.
As financial marketers look to the coming year, most are wondering, “what’s next?” While no one can say for sure, our team of experts here at Denim Social are keeping a pulse on what’s new in digital marketing for financial institutions on social media. This guide will not only educate you on the latest trends, but help you make the case for increased investment in social selling and digital marketing strategies at your institution.
Whether you’re in banking, wealth management, insurance or mortgage, relationships are the bedrock of your business.
Considering clients in these industries are handing over the keys to their personal kingdoms, it’s no surprise that trust and connection matter. That’s why successful sales strategies for these industries are focused on building long-term, trusted relationships.
To truly unleash the potential of social, financial institutions need to use social media as a sales tool. It’s called social selling and it works.
The power of social media is undeniable. The ability of banks to engage with and influence customers and prospects via interactive digital channels is an essential tool and a cornerstone of marketing. Gone are the days when it was “nice to have” a presence on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Today, these pathways are helping banks to build relationships that were historically cultivated by tirelessly walking up and down Main Street, shaking hands and leaving behind business cards.
In this case study by Denim Social and American Bankers Association, we take a look at how banks are using social media to ramp up digital engagement and build sales.
As any marketer worth their salt will tell you, analytics should drive your social strategy. The key to success is understanding how to link social media efforts to ROI metrics. Read this guide to learn how to gain insights that matter, optimize your strategy and prove your social success.
It’s no surprise that social media can help drive results for your mortgage business. In fact, the question for most marketers at mortgage lending institutions isn’t IF they should be doing more social media marketing - it’s HOW. Download to learn how to:
- Scale your social selling program
- Plan your content strategy
- Train your loan officers
AnnieMac is one of the fastest-growing mortgage loan providers in the U.S., serving clients in 42 states. Learn how Denim Social helped their team to streamline its brand’s social media strategy and activate social selling for hundreds of loan officers in just four months.
Find out how more than 400 financial institutions across asset classes, geographies, and more used social media in 2020 to effectively support their business objectives. We’ve also outlined key trends to inform your social media future.
As mortgage demand surges to historic highs, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it also means the environment is more competitive than ever.
So how can marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media.
Read this guidebook from Denim Social to learn how you can help your loan officers build strong relationships, stand out from the crowd and win more business using social media.
Every Mortgage Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Read this guide if you’re asking yourself:
- Is my social media policy current and comprehensive?
- How do I ensure social media compliance during M&A?
- What do I need to consider for direct messaging compliance?
In this guide we will help you think about your all important social media policy and thoughtfully consider how changes in social media tech and even your bank’s structure may impact compliance.
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Every Financial Services Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Stronger Customer Relationships on Instagram
Financial Services companies should be marketing and advertising on Instagram. We break down why, and help you create a strategy to reach new customers- while continuing to build trust in your brand.
How 6 Financial Marketers Are Creating Value in Social Media
Ever wonder what everyone else is doing in social media? We talked to six leading financial marketers about how they’re succeeding today and planning for the next big thing.
Get their insights on strengthening your social strategies, unlocking the power of employee networks and creating next-level content that drives engagement.
Download this guidebook to learn how 3 mortgage lenders are using social media to:
- Position themselves in a place the community is already looking ... their social media
- Empower loan officers to engage in local conversations
- Turn their institution's loan officers into the voice of their brand
- Build trust within the community
Which roles do you fill when building your bank's marketing dream team? This guide will show you the following:
- Who does what
- The right structure to execute strategy
- How compliance software can help
Enjoy!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
ABA Study: The Current State of Social Media
See what nearly 430 bank marketers had to say when asked questions such as:
COVID-19 & Bank Social Media
Times are different and how you connect with customers and potential customers has changed drastically. In a socially distant world, learn to still build lasting relationships.
Download and learn the guiding principles for using social media to serve both your customers and communities in the midst of a pandemic.
Evolve Bank & Trust (“Evolve”) is an $700M+ asset institution with nearly 40 Home Loan Centers (HLC) and nearly 500 employees nationwide. See how Denim Social helped Evolve activate Home Loan Center Facebook pages over the course of just a few months.
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
Paid social is one of the most effective ways to introduce people who aren’t yet following your producers, agents, loan officers, or advisors to your financial institution at the right place and the right time.
Paid social is complementary to organic. While organic social builds first-degree connections and facilitates awareness, engagement, and branding, paid social allows you to reach larger, more tailored audiences.
BOK Financial is a financial services partner for consumers, businesses and wealth clients with more than 150 users on the Denim Social platform.
In addition to building brand credibility and establishing loan officer expertise, Denim Social enables their mortgage loan officers to cultivate relationships in social media and organically source leads.
As financial marketers look to the coming year, most are wondering, “what’s next?” While no one can say for sure, our team of experts here at Denim Social are keeping a pulse on what’s new in digital marketing for financial institutions on social media. This guide will not only educate you on the latest trends, but help you make the case for increased investment in social selling and digital marketing strategies at your institution.
Whether you’re in banking, wealth management, insurance or mortgage, relationships are the bedrock of your business.
Considering clients in these industries are handing over the keys to their personal kingdoms, it’s no surprise that trust and connection matter. That’s why successful sales strategies for these industries are focused on building long-term, trusted relationships.
To truly unleash the potential of social, financial institutions need to use social media as a sales tool. It’s called social selling and it works.
The power of social media is undeniable. The ability of banks to engage with and influence customers and prospects via interactive digital channels is an essential tool and a cornerstone of marketing. Gone are the days when it was “nice to have” a presence on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Today, these pathways are helping banks to build relationships that were historically cultivated by tirelessly walking up and down Main Street, shaking hands and leaving behind business cards.
In this case study by Denim Social and American Bankers Association, we take a look at how banks are using social media to ramp up digital engagement and build sales.
As any marketer worth their salt will tell you, analytics should drive your social strategy. The key to success is understanding how to link social media efforts to ROI metrics. Read this guide to learn how to gain insights that matter, optimize your strategy and prove your social success.
It’s no surprise that social media can help drive results for your mortgage business. In fact, the question for most marketers at mortgage lending institutions isn’t IF they should be doing more social media marketing - it’s HOW. Download to learn how to:
- Scale your social selling program
- Plan your content strategy
- Train your loan officers
AnnieMac is one of the fastest-growing mortgage loan providers in the U.S., serving clients in 42 states. Learn how Denim Social helped their team to streamline its brand’s social media strategy and activate social selling for hundreds of loan officers in just four months.
Find out how more than 400 financial institutions across asset classes, geographies, and more used social media in 2020 to effectively support their business objectives. We’ve also outlined key trends to inform your social media future.
As mortgage demand surges to historic highs, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it also means the environment is more competitive than ever.
So how can marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media.
Read this guidebook from Denim Social to learn how you can help your loan officers build strong relationships, stand out from the crowd and win more business using social media.
Every Mortgage Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Read this guide if you’re asking yourself:
- Is my social media policy current and comprehensive?
- How do I ensure social media compliance during M&A?
- What do I need to consider for direct messaging compliance?
In this guide we will help you think about your all important social media policy and thoughtfully consider how changes in social media tech and even your bank’s structure may impact compliance.
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
Every Financial Services Marketer Should Ask Themselves
Compliance is complicated, but don’t let it stop your lending team from making the most of social media. Think you’re ready to start social selling? Ask yourself these five questions!
Stronger Customer Relationships on Instagram
Financial Services companies should be marketing and advertising on Instagram. We break down why, and help you create a strategy to reach new customers- while continuing to build trust in your brand.
How 6 Financial Marketers Are Creating Value in Social Media
Ever wonder what everyone else is doing in social media? We talked to six leading financial marketers about how they’re succeeding today and planning for the next big thing.
Get their insights on strengthening your social strategies, unlocking the power of employee networks and creating next-level content that drives engagement.
Download this guidebook to learn how 3 mortgage lenders are using social media to:
- Position themselves in a place the community is already looking ... their social media
- Empower loan officers to engage in local conversations
- Turn their institution's loan officers into the voice of their brand
- Build trust within the community
Which roles do you fill when building your bank's marketing dream team? This guide will show you the following:
- Who does what
- The right structure to execute strategy
- How compliance software can help
Enjoy!
Download this guidebook to learn how marketers are using social media to:
- Drive business with the lowest digital spend compared to traditional media
- Position employees as thought-leaders while leveraging their collective reach of their social media presence
- Ultimately, build trust with their communities and customers that translates to positive business results
ABA Study: The Current State of Social Media
See what nearly 430 bank marketers had to say when asked questions such as:
COVID-19 & Bank Social Media
Times are different and how you connect with customers and potential customers has changed drastically. In a socially distant world, learn to still build lasting relationships.
Download and learn the guiding principles for using social media to serve both your customers and communities in the midst of a pandemic.
Evolve Bank & Trust (“Evolve”) is an $700M+ asset institution with nearly 40 Home Loan Centers (HLC) and nearly 500 employees nationwide. See how Denim Social helped Evolve activate Home Loan Center Facebook pages over the course of just a few months.
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
When trusted relationships are the bedrock of the industry, most smart financial services marketers see the opportunity in social media. A corporate social media presence is the norm, and many brands are investing in paid social media campaigns — but that’s only scratching the social media surface. For teams looking to transform social media into a sales tool, it’s time to start social selling.
Social selling is so much more than encouraging your sellers to have a social presence. Having a company page on Facebook and a LinkedIn profile are table stakes. If Instagram, Twitter, or even TikTok make sense for your business, it’s important to be there, too. But social selling is so much more than just “being there.” Financial services marketers who embrace social selling empower their teams of intermediaries, such as agents and loan officers, to create lead-generating content that builds trust. Brands that get social selling right can expect to see a 45% increase in sales opportunities and a 51% higher chance of hitting sales goals, according to LinkedIn.
So, why haven’t all financial services marketers launched social selling for their institutions yet? For one, many marketers are hesitant to jump into a process that involves monitoring and amplifying social media content for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of intermediaries. Even for seasoned marketers, it can seem intimidating. (Spoiler alert: With a platform like Denim Social, it’s much easier than it sounds!)
Social selling also takes time. Organic social media growth ramps up over time, no matter how many social sellers a brand activates at once. But just because you might not see an immediate jump in KPIs doesn’t mean you’re not moving the needle. With patience and investment in the right social selling tools, social selling can transform your institution’s marketing strategy and results.
You’re ready to launch social selling for your brand, but where do you get started? Check out these helpful tips from our team of experts at Denim Social:
1. Identify internal social selling champions.
Social selling needs widespread buy-in between marketing, sales, and other key departments. The most effective way to encourage buy-in is to get influential players in these groups on board with social selling. Explain to them how social selling works and its social media reach potential — and how to use the right social selling tools to protect compliance.
By cultivating cheerleaders within your financial institution, these motivated individuals can be an example for their peers and showcase the value of social selling. The more buy-in you can get to your overall social selling program, the faster you’ll be able to demonstrate how valuable social selling is as a marketing strategy. Have patience and stay the course; your determination will pay off as you earn the support of more internal champions.
2. Pick a solid social selling platform.
Managing a social selling strategy could be your full-time job as a marketer, but it doesn’t have to be. The right social selling tech solution will help optimize your efforts without tossing another burden onto your team. We designed our platform to meet these needs with extensive compliance features, a library of preapproved content, and streamlined workflows that make publishing as easy as clicking a button. A social selling platform should make life easier for all its users; if it doesn’t, it’s not the right platform for you.
When evaluating social selling tools, keep a few critical questions in mind: Does the vendor understand the nuances of the financial services industry? What kind of compliance coverage does the platform offer? How will you create content, and how will the platform help you do that? Asking these questions will point you in the right direction so that you can find a social selling platform that works best for your institution’s needs.
3. Spend time training your social sellers and their support teams.
The loan officers, agents, advisors, and other producers who will become your social selling team might or might not be familiar with how to be present on social to grow their business. Even if they’re active on social media personally, they might not understand the concept of social selling or how to make it work for them. It’s your job to teach them (you’re the expert, after all!).
Keep in mind that social selling isn’t only the responsibility of your localized producers. It’s important to loop in anyone in your organization who supports your sales efforts. This means sales executives, regional sales leaders, and even marketing leadership. As part of your social selling launch, take the time to train your broader social selling support group, regardless of their department.
Broadened education and buy-in mean stickiness and support for the folks your organization is relying on to drive business at the local level: your true social sellers. Start with social channel basics and regular organic posting. Then, you can teach them how to feel comfortable generating their own content and engaging with their social networks. Does this mean all your employees need to become social media experts? Not even close. But a deeper understanding of social media in general lays the foundation for successful social selling as your teams get comfortable using it every day.
At Denim Social, we’re passionate about helping your financial institution drive business results with social selling. Not only have we designed our platform to make administering a social selling program easy, but we also provide strategic support from day one, helping you educate and support your sales teams.
Our platform offers several essential features that will help drive your ROI: (Hint: They can also help you implement the above three steps.)
- Customized Onboarding and Team Training. Onboarding onto a new platform shouldn’t be a cookie-cutter process; every team and marketer is different. Tailoring our onboarding and training means that your team (and execs) know they’re getting a bespoke experience for the institution’s specific needs. When you’re getting started, Denim Social can help craft vital internal communication to encourage adoption, leaving no questions unanswered. Once you’ve got the basics down and your first champions are ready to dive in, you can check out our train-the-trainer sessions or our online academy to further grow your team’s expertise. From start to finish, you’ll have an invested partner.
- Content-Rich, Customized Libraries. How will you keep up with content just for your social sellers? Denim Social works with you and UpContent to develop an extensive library of ready-to-use content for your social sellers’ unique needs and interests. Your teams will always have something to say on social, keeping them top of mind with their networks — with the peace of mind of staying compliant.
- Scalable Paid Advertising. Though the foundation of your social selling strategy starts with empowering your intermediaries with organic social content, the most robust social selling programs also integrate localized paid advertising. Although the organic content you cultivate through your individual champions will work to add nuance and humanity to your brand, putting your ad dollars behind your producers will reach consumers looking to connect with real, local humans who can guide them through their next financial decisions. We recommend that marketers drive this side of the social selling strategy, and our platform makes it easy. With Denim Social, one marketer can launch and scale tailor-made paid social campaigns delivered on behalf of your local producers to their local communities.
- Compliance-Focused Features. When you work in financial services marketing, you’re guided by numerous rules, regulations, and laws. Denim Social is engineered to find and flag compliance-related issues before any content goes live. This robust filtering proactively recognizes potential problems so you can sleep better at night.
As part of our compliance-driven culture, our platform provides continuous compliance training through constant feedback. As your team notices which posts are approved or unapproved, they’ll gain valuable insights into the nuances of social media compliance for the industry. Plus, your team can rely on the curated, preapproved content within your Denim Social library, so you can be sure everything posted is compliant (and compelling). An added upside to our compliance feature is that our social selling platform tracks and records all published content, so it can be used for audits whenever you need it.
Are you curious and looking to level up your digital marketing strategy? Or maybe you’re ready to dive in head-first and experience the benefits of social selling firsthand? Either way, social selling is a great way to get started empowering your team and increasing your reach.
Check out Denim Social’s comprehensive social selling guide to learn more!
As a financial marketer, you know that the past 12 months have been a prime time for social selling. Social media usage has been on trajectory to rise 7.8% in 2022, with steady growth expected to continue over the next five years. This growth is fueled by consumers increasingly consulting social media for help making decisions — a habit that offers big opportunities for financial institutions.
As the new year rapidly approaches, it’s a great time to plan your future social selling strategies with the latest social media trends in mind. Wondering what’s popular on social networks? How should trends inform your social selling strategy in the coming year? Here’s what you need to know as you plan for 2023 and beyond:
1. Video content is taking over.
Videos, particularly shorter clips, are having a major moment on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels. Social users are increasingly consuming short-form (call it “snackable”) content, even on legacy social networks. For example, bite-sized videos earned 57% of YouTube views in the second quarter of 2022, versus just 21% the year before.
Many of these videos attract viewers by seamlessly blending education and entertainment. Financial concepts are perfect for the “edutainment” treatment, too. Think about it: With more than 89% of TikTok users actively trying to learn more about finance, it only makes sense to add financial video “edutainment” into your social selling strategy.
That said, not every social selling post needs to contain a video, and not every video needs to be a highly produced affair. Easy-to-consume content is the name of the game, so think short and concise. Quick, pithy videos such as selfie commentaries or quick tips from your social sellers can make your content feel more authentic. No matter what video style you pursue, short clips will stop scrollers and make them more likely to engage with your intermediaries’ posts.
2. Financial advice influencer culture opens up social selling opportunities.
Social media probably seems like the last place most people would turn to for advice about money, yet finance-focused influencers are attracting lots of interest, particularly from younger social media consumers. Gen Zers are five times likelier than older Millennials and Generation Xers to get their money management suggestions on social media. With consumers seeking answers to their business and personal questions via online influencer personalities, you can’t afford not to put your intermediaries on social media to engage these audiences thirsty for (and often unable to find) credible information.
If you haven’t already, plan to empower your producers (agents, loan officers, financial advisors, and other rock stars at your organization) to share their expert advice on social media. When they do, your social sellers’ audiences can build up their financial literacy with insights from qualified professionals. Those prospects’ and customers’ lives will improve, and their loyalty will grow.
Note that your social selling team members don’t have to become superstar influencers for this strategy to work, either. Micro-influencers in their communities also gain plenty of loyalty — and sales as a result. Because social algorithms favor individuals over brands, it’s time to get more of your brand representatives to highlight their expertise on social channels.
3. Social networks as search engines enhances discoverability.
Social is the new search engine. Almost 40% of Generation Z searchers go to apps such as Instagram and TikTok first for search capabilities. In other words, they bypass Google in favor of social networks. That’s huge. And we at Denim Social think this online behavior is sure to catch on across generations. We also think the best way to make use of this trend is to have social sellers active on social media. When more of your employees are on social networks, you’re more discoverable.
Another surefire way to take advantage of the social search trend is to make sure your social selling strategies include both organic and paid tactics. When organic and paid elements work together, you can be where consumers need you at the time they need you.
Otherwise, optimizing for search on social isn’t much different from any other SEO work you’ve encountered. A fast way to enhance the discoverability of social selling copy is to ensure that it incorporates strategic hashtags, including nods to trending topics. Remember, it’s fine for social posts to include numerous hashtags, as long as they all make sense. SEO keywords can also fit nicely into social selling content and ad copy, just as they do in website copy and blog posts. All that optimization drives the social media search engine, ensuring users find your content when they’re seeking information that could lead them to decisions.
Social media has changed the game for marketing and has made person-to-person communication (and selling!) an essential strategy. As with any social media strategy, being up to date on trends is critical for social selling success. Guiding your intermediaries to add short videos, credible advice, and search-boosting features to content will strengthen your social selling strategy for 2023.
A financial conversation is already happening online, and your institution needs to be part of it. It’s time to launch a social selling program if you haven’t already. And if you have, let these trends be a clear sign that it’s time to expand your efforts. People are choosing to work with financial professionals they find on social media, and your intermediaries can meet them there. Want more insider knowledge about applying social selling techniques? Download our exclusive 2023 Denim Social Trend Report today.
Smart financial marketers know social media and social selling are essential to effectively reach and build trust with today’s consumers. But how does your digital marketing strategy measure up against competitors?
Denim Social is here to help. We collected social media data from 177 institutions across banking, mortgage, wealth management and insurance to help you get the pulse on the social media performance. Take a look and see how your institution stacks up.
Ready to learn how you can adopt these trends? Book a demo to learn more.
People buy from people. That fundamental truth is the cornerstone of the insurance industry and is holding true even as the insurance value chain becomes more and more digital. But in a world where customers increasingly avoid in-person interactions — McKinsey’s 2020 U.S. Insurance Agent Survey saw a 65% drop in face-to-face conversations in 2020, with a slow recovery — how do agents adjust? The answer is to meet customers where they are - online.
Insurance professionals likely view social media as a necessary evil, but social media can be a powerful sales tool, putting agents right in the path of their clients and prospects. It’s more than just posting content into a digital void; it’s taking what agents have done for decades to build their business and bringing it to life within the social media landscape. Consider this: GWI research suggests online consumers around the globe spend almost 2.5 hours scrolling through social sites daily.
Putting energy into social media as a sales tool means attracting those eyes and winning more chances to interact with prospects and customers. But where do you start? Here are a few things to consider before leaning into social selling.
- Learn exactly what social selling is (and isn’t)
Social selling is using social media to showcase thought leadership and industry expertise, build relationships and, ultimately, connect with new prospects while maintaining trust with existing ones. But a social selling strategy requires much more than having a Twitter account; it requires the same attention as any sales methods do. It’s taking social beyond simply posting regularly. It’s using social as a connection point to identify life events and points of connection with your community. And the good news is, you should see the returns. LinkedIn’s Social Selling data notes that 78% of social sellers outshine their peers who aren’t using social media as a sales tool.
- Take stock of your social media accounts
If you hope to capitalize on social selling, you must first take stock of your existing social media accounts and look for opportunities to strengthen your overall social presence.
Whichever social channel mix you’ve decided is right for your business (it’s OK not to be on every social platform!), you always want to make sure your brand is consistent and robust across each channel. That sounds easy, but there are a few things to consider to ensure that your identity is clear and consistent:
- Profile images: Whether it’s a professionally taken photo, a well-lit high-resolution image taken on a smartphone or your company logo, make sure your profile images reflect how you and your company look today. (For example: Don’t use your headshot from 15 years ago.)
- Cover images: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all have a space for a cover or background image. Be sure you have a cover image that is consistent with your brand and that you have the rights to use that image.
- “About” sections: Today’s consumers use social media for information searches like they use Google, so your bios and “about” sections pages are more important than ever. Sections can vary across social channels, but your information should be accurate and reflect your business on each channel. Pay special attention to your business description, location information and hours of operation.
Rather than jump right into the heavy stuff, it’s important to get these social media ducks in a row first.
- Make a plan for posting, engaging and amplifying.
After your social accounts are up to speed, it’s important to have a plan. Regularly posting content is only the foundation of social selling, but it will help keep you top of mind with your followers and give you a place to interact with them. It also sets you up well when you’re ready to start putting money behind your posts with paid social advertising.
Beyond posting, it’s important to keep an eye on those who interact with your posts. Comment back, connect with them or, better yet, give them a call. Social selling really comes to life when you can weave social into your everyday sales practices. Either way, prioritize social just as you would other crucial facets of your business. Post regularly and have a plan for responding and engaging with your existing and potential clients. Then turn those engagements into sales opportunities.
- Leverage your resources.
You’re not the only one flexing your social selling muscles, so look to others – even insights from competitors - for help. A good way to begin is to look at the social accounts of others in and out of your sector. What are they writing about? What posts seem to engage followers? How are they branding themselves to be trustworthy experts? Use the information you gather to help you plan your own social selling and content strategy.
The question shouldn’t be if you should start social selling, it’s when. Your existing and potential clients are there, waiting for you. You only must give social selling the time and energy it deserves. As someone in a profession built around risk, you’ll find that social selling is a safe bet.
This article was originally published in Insurance Newsnet.
In today’s origination and refi environment, most mortgage loan officers are finding it’s no longer fish in a barrel. That means every loan officer needs to consider their competitive edge. And when bargain-basement rates are no longer the decision driver for prospects, relationships matter more than ever.
Everyone knows a successful sales strategy is focused on building long-term, trusted relationships, but today, that means building relationships online. Social media has long been regarded as a brand builder, but the real power of social is using it as a sales tool. It’s called social selling and it works.
Social selling is just what it sounds like: using social media to sell a product or service. It’s leveraging social to build personal relationships, showcase thought leadership, engage with prospects, interact with existing customers, and ultimately build trust and rapport that will eventually lead to deals.
An active social selling strategy can not only help build ongoing relationships, but keep you top of mind with contacts when opportunities open up – and in this rate environment, that can be short-lived.
Social selling requires continual care and management, but it’s worth the investment of time, and effort when you’re using social to drive business results. A daily social selling routine helps loan officers in so many ways and managing a program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here’s where to start:
Optimize Your Profile
Before you even get to posting, it’s important to take a look at your profiles to ensure your brand is consistent across channels. Ensure you have a current and easily recognizable profile picture. If you haven’t already, upload a cover image and update the about section to be your descriptions, location and hours are current.
Post Meaningful and Relevant Content
It’s not only important for you to be posting regularly, you need to be posting with purpose. Your social profiles should be an extension of who you are in real life. Authenticity always wins in social media.
There is no magic formula for how often you should post, but consistency is key. Successful social selling programs offer a variety of organic content. The mix looks different for every loan officer, but commonly a healthy and informed mix includes brand, industry and most importantly, personal/community content.
Interact with the Community
Social media is a two-way conversation and that means you need to be interacting with followers. In other words, don’t post and ghost. Social selling is about listening, responding and engaging. It’s a conversation, so you should be promptly responding to comments and direct messages, showing connections that their inquiries and concerns matter.
When every deal matters, so does every relationship. If you’re looking to build trust and connection with customers and prospects alike, make sure your profiles are up to date, post regularly and interact with your followers. A social selling strategy can help you make the most of social media opportunities in a competitive environment.
This article was originally published in MBA Newslink.
The insurance industry is built on — and amazing at! — assessing risk. But the industry’s risk aversion has put insurance marketers between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, modern customer expectations mean agents need to leverage their relationship-building skills to gain ground online. On the other, unfamiliarity and fears about compliance are driving slow social selling adoption across the industry. While the concept may seem novel to some insurance leaders, that doesn't mean their competition is standing on the sidelines. After all, rival carriers aren’t twiddling their thumbs; many are jumping headfirst into social selling strategies and generating the new business to show for it.
The good news is that adopting social selling doesn’t mean the industry has to reinvent the wheel. Rather, it should feel natural because this kind of digital communication is simply an extension of what agents are already doing. Instead of viewing digital marketing and social selling as an entirely new strategy, remember that it’s built on the same bread-and-butter relationship skills that trusted insurance advisors have always used with their customers. Insurance leaders must acknowledge social media as a sales channel, just like cold calling and in-person meetings, and must integrate social selling into the fabric of their organizations.
How to Advocate for Social Selling
Social media isn’t going anywhere. It’s where consumers are interacting with each other, looking for advice, and learning new things. This means intermediaries have to be there, too. Insurance agents need to reach their clients and prospects alike on social media, and the carriers and agencies they’re part of can help.
With this in mind, insurance marketers and leaders must advocate for social selling throughout the organization. And everyone has a role to play. While marketers will stay busy coordinating paid ad campaigns to reach new target audiences and managing the branded social media, agents and other representatives of the brand must be on board as well: They need to be posting, liking, and replying to build relationships and bring a human touch to the broader social media strategy. Getting this buy-in means bridging the gap between sales and marketing — and educating them on why social selling works. If you're ready to sell-in social selling, here are four ways to get started:
1. Get Everybody on the Same Page
While some marketers may already be comfortable with the concept, social selling is still a recent marketing innovation for the insurance industry. Marketers need to get up to speed on strategy and execution, while also educating the organization (especially intermediaries — have we mentioned how important they are?).
Start by defining social selling. This is our shorthand definition:
Social selling is using social media to sell a product or service. It’s using social to:
· Showcase thought leadership
· Engage with potential customers
· Interact with existing customers
· Build trust and relationships
Sounds pretty straightforward, right? While the execution can be trickier — think balancing paid and organic advertising, tracking analytics to calculate ROI, and overseeing the social media accounts of all the intermediaries — starting simple helps ease everyone into the process. This is especially important for advisors with limited social media experience. Lead with empathy to help them adjust to the new face of insurance marketing.
2. Speak Their Language — With Stats to Back You Up
Intermediaries want to build relationships and drive results — and social selling can help them do it — but only if they understand its potential. Highlight the value social selling has for both the company and individual intermediaries. Thankfully, this is one of the easier parts of selling social selling: The stats can do all the heavy lifting.
Gather good information from trustworthy sources. If you’re going to be persuasive, you have to paint the picture of what social selling can do. Some of our favorite data comes from LinkedIn. Sales reps scoring higher on LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index experience:
· 45% more sales opportunities
· 51% higher likelihood to hit quotas
· 78% outselling peers who don’t use social media
And don’t be afraid to share the success you’ve had with brand social media, too. Brand social media and intermediary social selling, paid social ads, and organic social media content: All of these are chapters in the greater narrative of successful digital marketing strategies.
3. Seriously, Bring Up the Data
Raw numbers are well and good, but case studies marry data and narrative in a uniquely compelling way. Countless other industries have had success with social selling, and insurance needs to pay attention. Share these stories about what social selling has accomplished for so many other businesses. The housing industry, for one, has been particularly astute with social selling in recent years, especially when it comes to mortgage lending.
In addition to formal case studies, bring the concept to life with experiences anyone can understand or has likely seen in their personal social media feeds. Local real estate agents are great examples of an industry that’s exemplary at utilizing social selling tools. Instead of starting from scratch, look to adjacent regulated industries to guide the way.
4. Create a Culture of Q&As
Don’t assume leaders know that social media is a sales channel — but also, don’t talk down to them when explaining the state of digital marketing. This means creating safe spaces where pros can ask questions (and not feel silly). Have a coffee; grab lunch. Give someone permission to be vulnerable and learn. Their aversion is likely rooted in misunderstanding. And remember, more experienced professionals may never have used social media for anything other than personal sharing. Empathy is your best friend. Walking alongside leaders and agents as they dip their feet into social selling will be so much more effective than talking down to them from the podium of knowledge. Building a strong foundation of understanding and a desire to learn will go a long way toward activating a social selling strategy.
Social media marketing for insurance intermediaries may seem like a radical concept, but it’s more radical to not be using social as a sales tool. Sure, it may be new and feel risky, but educating the team and arming them with resources will make social selling feel not only prudent but necessary. To learn more about how social selling can help you reach your audience, request a demo today.
Connect & Convert on Social
How Loan Officers Can Use Social Media to Win Business
As mortgage demand surges, home purchase and refinance markets remain hot with no signs of slowing down. This is excellent news for loan officers, but it’s important to note that COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing down, either. Capitalizing on the opportunity of increased mortgage demand has to look a little different today than it has before: As the pandemic limits face-to-face interaction, loan officers can’t rely on traditional tactics to win business and get a leg up over the competition.
So as the pandemic continues and as competition builds higher than ever, how can bank marketers ensure that their loan officers stand out? The answer is social media. Social media has already become an essential part of the mortgage lending business — consumers expect technology to be part of their homebuying process — and many marketers and loan officers have recognized the value of social channels in maintaining authentic human relationships safely during COVID-19. But in a market that’s more competitive than ever before, social media strategies must be competitive as well.
It’s time to kick it up a notch. With the following strategies, bank marketers can help loan officers build stronger social media strategies to stand out from the crowd and win mortgage business in 2021:
1. Activate loan officers on social media.
Audiences pay more attention to individual people on social media than to brands. That’s why a social selling approach, in which individual associates share branded messages on their own social media profiles, can stretch the reach of brand messaging 561% further than if a brand shared the message on only the company profile.
Marketers can help loan officers carry out their own successful social media strategies by arming them with educational content that their audiences will find useful. With the right social media management tool, marketers can store pre-approved content in a digital library, and loan officers can access it easily and frequently to share with their social media followers. What’s more, if each piece of content gets the compliance team’s sign-off before going into the library, the marketing team can rest easy knowing loan officers aren’t overstepping any regulatory red tape.
2. Drive interest with paid social media.
A compliant, organic social selling strategy is an important foundation — but to truly get ahead of the rest and capture more mortgage business, you’ll need to level up your social game. To target and distribute each post strategically for maximum return, fuel your social selling efforts with advertising dollars in paid social campaigns.
For example, if a loan officer wants to reach first-time homebuyers, you can target an ad by ZIP code to land it among those who are currently in rental-heavy areas. Whatever specific audience you’re trying to reach, paid ads allow you to tailor and target each message according to key indicators that someone may be looking to refinance or buy.
3. Use content to educate and engage.
Whether an organic social post or a paid ad, the content your loan officers share on social media can both help spark an interest in their services and position them as the trusted expert to turn to when it’s time to buy or refinance.
Arm your loan officers with articles, guidebooks, blog posts, and more to help educate audiences on the unique opportunities in today’s market and how they can save a lot of money. By helping followers understand what they have to gain, loan officers can set the foundation for many trusting, lasting client relationships.
4. Drive conversions with a post-click experience.
When loan officers share targeted, relevant content on social media, they’ll get their audience’s attention — but what happens next? Give interested prospects a clear path to further engage with your brand with landing pages.
Build landing pages on your website to correspond with each of your social campaigns. For example, the social selling strategy to reach first-time homebuyers could lead prospects to a landing page where they can download a guidebook on securing their first mortgage. You can create a capture form that asks for their name, email, and phone number in return for the download. Then, the contact information for your hottest leads is right in your hands. With it, you can do more than engage with audiences — you can convert prospects into clients.
Of course, all of this would be hard for any marketing team to pull off at the scale necessary to remain competitive in today’s mortgage market. The right social media management software can help you create landing pages with ease, coordinate different paid campaigns at once, ensure compliance among individual loan officers’ social posts, house educational content for loan officers to share frequently, and more. Today, when there’s both more opportunity and more competition for loan officers than perhaps ever before, investing in social media is well worth the money and effort.
With inflation still looming, clients and prospects remain cautious about spending and investments. This is especially evident in how today’s investors choose which financial advisors to work with (and how your brand acquires new prospects). As clients’ financials become even more vulnerable during market volatility, they need to know that their financial advisors are ready to build plans to help them meet their financial goals.
Current and potential investors are looking for trustworthy advice—and building strong relationships is key to that. To truly cultivate financial advisor and client relationships that will lead to client acquisition and retention, bank financial advisors can be very effective through social selling.
The importance of social selling for financial advisors
Social selling is precisely what it sounds like: using social media to sell a product or service. It’s leveraging social to build personal relationships, showcase thought leadership, engage with prospects, interact with existing clients and ultimately build trust and rapport that will eventually lead to more accounts opened.
It’s understandable that people might feel afraid and confused during market volatility, which is what makes social selling a critical trust-building opportunity. With social selling, financial advisors meet investors online in meaningful ways.
Marketers now recognize the modern power of social media, and in today’s market your financial advisors can use social to reassure clients. When 73 percent of clients who work with financial advisors feel more prepared for a recession, it’s essential that financial brands proactively discuss the value of advice. But to do that successfully, advisors need to be at the center of the conversation.
However, a social media brand presence does not equal a solid social selling strategy. You need your advisors to meet prospects throughout the buying journey, which requires investing in comprehensive social selling campaigns to connect with investors and build trust. When deciding who handles their investments, people don’t choose institutions; they choose people. So, help your advisors build those relationships online.
How to build trust with potential clients using social selling
This should go without saying, but prospective clients are already getting financial advice on social media. In fact, Gen Z is five times more likely to get financial advice on social media channels than people age 41 and over.
To stay visible and competitive, your brand’s financial advisors can use social selling to become financial micro-influencers in their local communities. At its core, social selling is about the human element of one person’s relationship with another. Not just client to bank.
Here are four ways to empower financial advisors to build impactful relationships with clients and new prospects:
1. Post consistently
If an advisor is new to using social selling, don’t worry. The first key to using social media to build trust and relationships is simple: consistency. Advisors should post often to stay top-of-mind with investors and build algorithmic preference. Consistency ensures that advisors are providing value to clients and prospects on a regular basis.
And remember, every post counts. Not every post will get the engagement marketers hope for (or even the same amount), but each post should feel intentional and authentic to the advisors publishing it. Also, when your advisors post, they need to make sure there is a goal and specific audience for each one.
2. Upload quality content to favor the algorithm
Consistent posts are crucial, but you also have to ensure that advisors are posting high-quality content. One hot tip is to include a video or image (social media posts with images tend to garner more engagement). Also schedule posts for the ideal time for target audiences. After all, it doesn’t matter how great a post looks if no one sees it.
Marketing teams can also help intermediaries craft copy that opens the door to conversations with their audiences, such as asking open-ended questions, soliciting responses, or featuring polls that can be answered on the spot. Social posts are at the top of any new client’s journey, so helping your social sellers craft posts with interactive elements will lead to more engagement and conversions.
3. Source content from trusted third parties
To facilitate advisors’ trust-building with clients and prospects, it is critical to ensure they only share information from credible third-party sources. There’s a lot of bad financial advice and misinformation out there. If the audience suspects that an advisor is full of baloney, the brand risks losing a lot of trust.
Social content libraries can help ensure social sellers have access to trustworthy, fact-checked third-party content. It’s essential that financial advisors add personal commentary to make third-party content more authentic and personable.
4. Encourage authenticity
It seems simple to say, but trust hinges on authentic relationships. Today’s investors want to work with real people who connect with them on a human level. That’s why it’s so important to instruct and encourage advisors to be themselves when social selling. Suggest that they put some of their personality into their social selling posts, talk about things that are important to them, or ask their networks questions. (If this keeps you up at night from a risk perspective, know that approval tools can help ensure compliance.)
When people interact with your advisors through social selling, they’ll see how much reliable value those advisors provide to their lives and will be more likely to trust your brand with their livelihoods. Authenticity is even more crucial when it comes to attracting prospects at the top of the funnel who haven’t gotten the chance to meet (and befriend) advisors yet.
While the current economic climate poses many potential challenges, remember that gaining and keeping investors’ trust is the key to acquiring and retaining clients (even in tough times). Lean on social selling to tell the bank brand’s story, build thought leadership online for intermediaries, and gain more followers who convert into new clients. Let them get to know your institution and your intermediaries, and they’ll want to work with you, too.
*This article was originally published in ABA Banking Journal.
There’s no doubt about it: Firms that prioritize digital connections with clients are the ones who will succeed in the future.
I was thrilled to speak at this year’s SIFMA Social Media & Digital Marketing Seminar. From compliance pros to financial advisors, we were all there to learn more about digital transformation and what’s next for the client experience. I was there to speak, sure, but I most enjoyed listening to how financial services leaders are navigating the real-world digital challenges and building strategies that enable their institutions to thrive. The common thread in every discussion was there – relationships will always be the top priority for firms and advisors.
Here are a few other key trends I saw emerge from the discussions:
- Social media is an integral part of digital transformation. As the industry undergoes massive digital transformation, social media will continue to play an important role in the client experience. For industries that go to market through intermediaries, it’s an essential communications channel. Helping your team understand the importance of social media and its value in creating real business results should be a pillar in a more robust digital transformation. .
- Education and training are necessary for advisor success. While most financial advisors see the power of social, they need support from marketing teams to be successful. From content resources to functional training, advisors are hungry for marketing guidance to optimize their strategies.
- Compliance and marketing have to work together. Teams need to work for, not against, one another in order to be successful in any social media or digital marketing strategy. There will always be risk for financial services providers sharing information online, but with a coordinated approach, marketers can be confident that anything being shared is approved.
The future of the industry is bright and digital transformation offers the opportunity to reach even more potential clients. Marketers can use the power of social media to support advisors and provide clients an experience that converts. Denim Social can help institutions with tools and resources to make building those meaningful relationships easy. See how social selling works in our Social Selling Guidebook for Financial Institutions.
Personalization isn’t new to marketing. The process of connecting with customers has been moving in that direction for years, and for good reason. One survey found that 80% of respondents would be more likely to do business with companies that offered personalized experiences. But it seems many financial institutions haven’t yet gotten the news.
If you dig through the numbers, you’ll find that personalization applies to the financial industry. In fact, 72% of consumers rate personalization as highly important in finance. They value text alerts, customized tasks and opportunities to transact more efficiently. They also want digitally driven features that save them time with routine tasks and the ability to track multiple accounts using a single dashboard.
Financial marketers’ job is figuring out how to use personalization to gain (and retain) customers — and how to get leadership to buy in. It’s an easy sell: Personalization enhances the customer experience and also helps teams use social media marketing budgets more efficiently.
But financial marketers are often up against a knowledge gap. Senior management doesn’t always understand a digital-first strategy focused on personalization. Financial institutions historically aren’t known to be early adopters or quick to change, which can leave marketers spending years advocating for updates.
The question is, how exactly do you get buy-in from leadership to start personalizing and investing more money for social media marketing. The following strategies can help you get started:
Target the right people: Social media marketing is about identifying target audiences and catering strategies accordingly. The same applies when securing your social media marketing budget. When looking for buy-in, target those on the leadership team who are likely to understand what excellence in personalization looks like.
Great personalization is omnichannel; it engages consumers on the channels of their choice and it’s deeply human. To humanize marketing beyond the brand level, financial institutions need to reach out to leaders who would be open to highly personalized tactics such as social selling, which puts employees and producers on the frontlines to build relationships for the brand.
Craft the right message: Messaging is critical in marketing — and that goes double for selling the idea of a more personalized social strategy. Your message needs to resonate with your audience, even if your audience is one decision-maker. Link everything back to ROI by explaining that customers weigh bank reputation and online presence when deciding among financial institutions.
Be prepared to explain how you’ll track and increase customer conversion metrics through your campaigns. When arguing for more money toward paid social media advertising, for example, you’ll want to explain how it can boost conversion rates, meaning more customers (and revenue) coming in from your ads. Framing your message in business terms will help you advocate for funds to support personalization at scale.
Present the right data: Use compelling data to bring your message home. With 75% of B2B buyers using social media to make buying decisions, social selling is powerful for attracting new customers. But it’s important to understand whether your customers want to talk to your brand. Your audience is likely more comfortable engaging with brand intermediaries instead; people buy from other people.
That’s why so many financial institutions find it valuable to launch social selling programs that position agents, advisors and loan officers to build customer relationships. Social media is thick with prospects, as 54% today use social networks to conduct product research. Your team can capture prospects where they are with the right strategies, processes and technology.
Decide the right timing: The time to start advocating for personalization is now. Approach leadership about earmarking money for personalization in the budget for social media marketing.
Remember that most financial institutions establish their fiscal budgets for the year and often don’t revisit those budgets for another year. 41% of marketing budgets are based on the previous year, with only 10% revisited quarterly, meaning you should plan ahead for social initiatives that might take more money down the line. You likely won’t get another chance to advocate for that money once the budget is set.
Personalized relationships matter, and it’s time to make the case for an expanded marketing budget to support better personalization. With any marketing strategy, you want to approach the right audience with the right message at the right time. Then, with funds secured, your team can get to the exciting part: attracting prospects with education, keeping customers engaged with personalized messaging, and driving bottom-line impacts.
*This article was originally published in BAI.
With a less than rosy outlook, it’s essential that every mortgage loan officer maintain an edge on the competition. The marketing tactics of the past may not be successful when there are fewer buyers in the pool of prospects. Now is the time to be more strategic and paid social advertising can help loan officers make the most of every marketing penny.
One-third of internet users find new products and brands through paid ads. That’s a lot of opportunity. Paid social is one of the most effective ways to introduce people who aren’t yet following your loan officers to your financial institution at the right place and the right time.
Let’s start with some good news. Although paid social media may feel intimating, if you’re already doing organic social media, you’re off to a great start. But if you’re not using paid social advertising, you’re missing out. Here are three reasons to add it to your marketing strategy:
1. Understand what’s working in social media
With paid social media ads, you can see immediate results, which makes them great for testing. If a post is underperforming, use A/B testing to experiment with different images, copy, and calls to action and make improvements for the future. A/B testing helps you isolate what elements of your ads need to change by showing what resonates and what doesn’t. This means you’ll never waste a dollar on the wrong creative or message.
Think about it this way, does a billboard ever provide performance data? Didn’t think so.
Further, paid social media insights can even be applied to your organic social media strategy. Did a paid post have unexpectedly high engagement? Use it as a blueprint to try to isolate why. As you see what’s performing, invest more dollars into posts that convert while cutting or changing content that doesn’t.
2. Reach new audiences
Another reason paid social is so important is that organic content only reaches an average of 2.2% of followers of social media platforms. But this doesn’t mean it’s time to ditch organic social media and put all your eggs in the paid basket.
Paid social is complementary to organic. While organic social builds first-degree connections and facilitates awareness, engagement, and branding, paid social allows you to reach larger, more tailored audiences.
Both organic and paid social media can help increase your reach on social media, and it starts with activating loan officers. A social selling approach can increase your results tenfold and drive higher engagement. Paid social then supercharges your social strategy and helps you reach new prospects.
Complementary paid advertising, breaks through a loan officer’s first-degree social connections to reach second- and third-degree connections, who will include important professional referral sources.
3. Drive leads into conversions.
Don’t let your marketing funnel lead to dead ends. Make sure loan officers are linking back to a website or other relevant brand content. Paid social media ads can generate leads by offering call-to-action options that get attention and clicks.
With the right technology, clicks on social media ads can trigger a loan officer’s CRM. That’s warm leads in their inbox.
With spring buying season on the horizon, now’s the right time to start formulating a plan to differentiate. Paid social media advertising can give loan officers a leg up on the competition. Ready to learn how to start? Check out Denim Social’s guidebook, Getting Started with Paid Social Media Advertising for Financial Institutions.
*This article was originally published in MBA Newslink.
People buy from people. It’s an old adage in business that still holds true today: Trust and relationships are the bedrock of insurance. A deeper agent-customer relationship means more products sold over a longer period. It’s crucial to understand that trust extends to the world of digital, especially social media.
In today’s environment, it’s not enough to release content from your carrier’s social accounts and hope that consumers will connect with it. Your strategy needs to include agents, the advisors building customer relationships in their communities. Enabling agents to leverage social media to engage and form bonds with existing and potential customers opens the door to agent-centered digital sales. As part of a bigger digital strategy, a social selling program for intermediaries helps establish their presence within the digital landscape, showcasing thought leadership, building relationships, and ultimately growing business.
Why Is Social Selling Important for Building Trust in Insurance?
As digitization continues to be a hot topic, one thing has remained steady: the agent’s role. Although many customers are accustomed to buying auto coverage online, for example, that isn’t the case as their needs mature. Just because a customer is digital-first doesn’t mean they don’t want human guidance, especially when protecting their futures.
Social selling is a powerful addition to an agent’s toolbox (and your marketing toolbox!). After all, most consumers spend roughly two and a half hours online daily. So, agents who engage their online networks through social media are more likely to expand their prospect and customer relationships.
However, it’s not enough to show up in digital spaces. “Being there” is a great first step but doesn’t ramp up trust-building in a systematic, measurable way. Instead, you need to establish digital marketing strategies that lean on social media and social selling as powerful sales tools (which they are!).
Here are some key steps:
1. Identify your agents’ social maturity.
There will always be varying levels of social media experience from the agent perspective. From naysayers to dabblers to experts, evaluating and segmenting your agent group is critical before constructing a social selling program.
The agents most comfortable and active on social media often become early adopters and champions of internal social selling programs and digital marketing strategies. With some education and profile optimization, this elite team is an incredible tool for securing more buy-in. Getting them started on social selling before their peers allows them to gain experience with the process, build interest, and better advocate for the strategy.
2. Educate agents on the value of social media as a sales tool.
Agents might assume that because they have social accounts for their business, they must be social selling. They’re not. Social selling is much more than “keeping up” a social media account. It’s consistently posting organic content, strategically weaving in paid advertising, and engaging with an audience. Just like in-person relationship building, the value comes in the conversations and connections. Agents should continually engage and turn those conversations into digital-first relationships to grow their business.
It’s worth the effort to teach your agents about the unique benefits social selling can bring to their roles. Patience and demonstrating value are key. One way to demonstrate that value is by sharing a striking social selling statistic: 80% of salespeople who hit at least 150% of their goals say they’ve leveraged technology consistently to connect with consumers. That statistic is hard for ambitious, high-performing agents to ignore. More agents will be willing to get on board with social selling when they believe it can directly affect their paycheck, promotions, and commissions. (And it can!)
3. Invest in a comprehensive social selling platform.
Social selling at scale can seem overwhelming for even the most seasoned leaders. Understanding that not all social media management tools are created equal is the best place to start. Finding a platform dedicated to social selling, especially one that’s industry-specific, is key.
A solid social selling tool should do several things. It should enable a small and mighty team of marketers to manage a robust content library, analyze the broader story of the value of agent social selling, and monitor and archive from a compliance and regulatory perspective. Most of all, it needs to be easy for agents to use.
After choosing a social selling platform that does all these things, it’s good to run some test drives with your expert social media users (the agents who were first identified as being active on social media). Beginning with a concentrated group of agents allows everyone involved to learn the social selling tool’s nuances before scaling. After the initial user group is up and running, it’s easy to fold more agents into the process.
4. Collect data and optimize over time.
Getting your agents to believe in social media as a powerful relationship-building tool is the foundation of any successful social selling program. Building a content library to help position them as thought leaders within their social networks is the next layer. Once agents have adopted the concept of social selling and are posting regularly, you can establish benchmarks for what social selling means for your organization.
It’s important to track social selling like any other marketing or sales program. You can set general KPIs to start, such as agent adoption, basic content usage, and engagement. More KPIs can be added to the mix later, such as return on ad spend and leads generated.
Finally, it’s essential to make sure agents know social selling is a slow-and-steady process. The power of social selling grows over time — the way trust and good relationships do. When done correctly and patiently, it can move the sales needle in trackable ways.
Whether in person or online, consumers will always value the guidance of a trusted advisor. Building that trust and providing value through an effective social selling strategy with the above steps is crucial to establishing your agents’ positions within the digital landscape. Some things change in business, but others never do: “People buy from people” will always be true.
*This article was originally published in Digital Insurance.
Denim Social has been named to the HousingWire 2023 Tech100 list for mortgage. The exclusive list of honorees recognizes the most innovative technology in the mortgage industry.
The Tech100 program provides housing professionals with a comprehensive list of the most innovative and impactful organizations. The list can be leveraged to identify partners and solutions to the challenges that mortgage lenders and real estate professionals face every day.
“In a competitive environment, every edge matters for mortgage loan officers,” said Doug Wilber, CEO at Denim Social. “A social selling program managed with our platform empowers mortgage loan officers to use social media to reach prospects, build relationships and close more deals.”
This is Denim Social’s first appearance on the HousingWire list. The platform is used by more than 250 institutions in mortgage, banking, wealth management and insurance.
To learn more about how Denim Social can help mortgage loan officers activate social selling, read our guidebook, Helping Mortgage Loan Officers Achieve Success with Social Media Marketing.
Connect & Convert on Social