While the pandemic and the refinancing boom are really separate phenomena, it’s unclear which is causing which consumer behavior, said Nick Belenky, chief revenue officer for Top of Mind, which offers the system. Surefire customer relationship management and is now owned by Black Knight.
Lenders “are looking for ways to influence borrowers to interact with their websites, interact with them socially, through social media posts, and research sources of content,” Belenky said. Thus, Surefire creates social content for its clients to help them cope with what it calls the “rebound of the refi boom”.
But it’s not enough. Against prepandemic research indicating diminished influence for direct mail, Surefire creates omnichannel marketing elements such as direct mail to improve contact. Consumers are inundated with emails, especially now that many people are working from home, Belenky said.
As part of the omnichannel experience, “we are asked to provide physical closing giveaways, physical postcards for lead generation in addition to mobile outreach.
“They work from home and receive physical mail in a location which is the same place where their decisions are made,” Belenky said. “So sending physical goods home just becomes more efficient when people are at home most of their day. “
These mailings work in tandem with video text messaging, on, for example, a person’s milestone on their home-buying journey, Belenky said.
Big Purple Dot recently added SMS / MMS video marketing to its CRM lead management platform.
The pandemic meant that initiators had to “not only conduct their business virtually, but also stay in touch with borrowers without interaction,” said CEO Roxana Davidoff.
Unlike Belenky, Davidoff views physical parts as a victim of the pandemic. “They were so obsessed with mailers but overnight because no one wanted to handle anything from the mail because of the contamination, that everything changed,” she said. “Because nobody wanted to handle anything anymore, we had to find a more creative way to interact and communicate with borrowers. “
Consumers expect a seamless mortgage loan experience that they can do from the comfort of their own homes.
“We are seeing more and more lenders take advantage of marketing that combines SMS, MMS, AI, text messaging and personalized multimedia with what Big Purple Dot does, video,” said Davidoff. “So all of these things have now kind of moved this industry forward in terms of communication and how we communicate with borrowers.”
And that led to adding video to text messages. Users create personalized messages in these videos to connect with the prospect.
“It’s much more geared towards the borrower and what their specific needs and wants are,” Davidoff said. “We try to connect with them because we can’t connect with them in person.”
Leaving a voicemail message won’t work, she said. On the contrary, many people have stopped checking their voicemail, especially if it seems to have come from a mass marketing explosion. They would prefer to have this text message.
“People want things now, they want it personalized and they want it to connect with them,” Davidoff said. “If it doesn’t connect with them, if it’s not personalized, they don’t want it.”