It’s official: Millennial home buyers are on the loose according to a joint study conducted by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the University of Southern California (USC). Millennials have been the largest demographic group of home buyers for the last four years according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), but they accounted for only 34% of the purchasers in 2016, down from 35% the previous year.
The Fannie Mae/USC study indicates those percentages will rise, and so will the usage of social media, mobile apps and other technology to nurture leads and conduct business. Are your marketing and compliance departments ready for how this massive market segment wants to interact and transact?
Companies and mortgage loan officers (MLOs) may understand – and have the tools to accommodate – how consumers want to shop, communicate and do business. Maintaining quality, compliance and consistency across multiple channels, however, can be difficult and drain resources. It’s more important than ever to have a single system of record and distribution for the messaging, disclosures and disclaimers required in consumer outreach today.
Just as consumer preferences evolve quickly, MLOs and their Realtor partners are easily seduced by new systems and tools that promise to fill their pipelines and make their lives easier. As a result, companies are running in circles trying to manage multiple marketing efforts, leaving them vulnerable to audits and their brands unprotected. Companies need solutions that fulfill the needs and goals of all aspects of the business: management, marketing, compliance and producers. Finding the right solution requires a review of your current situation:
- Do you have a library of direct and email campaigns, print and digital assets with approved branding and compliance that’s easily accessible?
- Can your branding be standardized – and easily adjusted if necessary – across all the marketing assets used by every MLO and team member throughout your organization?
- Do you have a fail-safe way to manage co-marketing that ensures proper cost-splitting, payment collection and accurate records for accounting and audits?
- Can you monitor and manage social media marketing for compliance and branding?
- How quickly can you create marketing assets and make them available to your producers?
The ability to have all of these things in place requires commitment to a technological framework and procedural changes, but rewards can materialize quickly. Automated marketing assets housed in a system with layered permissions for different user types can make jobs easier and increase production across the organization:
- MLOs and teams can easily access a variety of marketing assets and deploy material to specific groups
- The same technology that helps companies control their brand and compliance enables MLOs to help Realtor partners generate leads and business with minimal effort using cutting-edge tools like single property websites, custom landing pages and apps that facilitate automated lead follow-up
- Co-marketing is executed easily and compliantly
- Marketing departments can focus on creating fresh, relevant assets and respond to market conditions and company needs
- A centralized system of record collects and archives all information needed in the event of an audit
Companies need to be nimble as Millennials begin entering the market in larger numbers. People in this generation grew up with screens in their hands and research is a huge part of their buying process and behavior. Being visible and available to this massive market segment requires wide reach across multiple channels. Is your organization prepared to do what it takes to win with the largest group of home buyers to enter the buying process in U.S. history?
