Understanding how millennials consume media is a sure way to connect your mortgage business with the largest demographic of homebuyers.
As millennials are gearing up to buy houses, they’re researching incessantly. This includes everything from lenders, Realtors®, and title companies, to the closing process, disclosures, and first-time buyer programs.
They’re doing this research by going to search engines and on social media to read customer reviews, forums, news articles, and company blogs. As they go searching, these buyers should end up on your Zillow or Trulia page, your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, and especially your website.
The more you connect millennial homebuyers with your content and mortgage brand, the more trustworthy you become, also making it more likely that you’ll win their business.
How Millennials Consume Media
It’s no secret, millennials are online constantly, sometimes consumed by technology, but that’s not a bad thing.
It’s how the world is today, and those who see success with this demographic find themselves engaging with millennials in familiar places: social media and search engines.
Millennials are more trusting than the general population when it comes to consuming different types of media, the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer showed. About 51 percent of millennials trust information they found on social media. The general public: 44 percent.
Similarly, the majority of millennials (66%) trusted information found through search engines more too, topping three percentage points higher than the general public (63%).
What this means is that millennials are most likely going to these channels to find the information or services they’re looking for, which places a higher importance on the resources found there.
Create Content Millennials Need
About 73 percent of consumers look for educational content when deciding on a financial services provider. For younger generations, they’re combing through blogs, scrolling through their timelines and Facebook feeds to find out what’s ahead.
Part of connecting with this generation is being where they’re at, but also sharing content that’s useful to them on those channels. You can’t spend every waking moment online trying to reach out to them directly, but you can dedicate a reasonable amount of time to educational content creation.
Educational content aims to help consumers find the answers they’re searching the internet for. When you’re looking to target millennials, bear in mind that the majority are first-time homebuyers, so this is their first time going through the process.
The content you create should clearly communicate every stage of the mortgage process, including fees, disclosures, underwriting, and closing.
Then, it’s best to share them across multiple platforms to ensure they’re seen.
Create A System For Sharing
You want to have a system in place that allows you to share content across multiple channels quickly to help save time and stay organized, because you also need to stay available for meetings and interactions, whether in person or online.
Ensure your presence online gives millennials the type of consumer experience they expect, dealing mostly with the initial impression and usability of your website, while also offering a range of content, including success stories and an active blog.
That’s going to give them a place to spend time researching you, your team, and your mortgage business, after they’ve been following your social media accounts and reading reviews on Zillow.
In Closing
Millennials are looking to search engines and social media to find reliable content about financial services providers.
As you begin targeting millennial homebuyers, it’s most important to cater content that’s specifically for them, and offering it on multiple channels to ensure the most versatile and contemporary consumer experience.
