Mortgage Marketing - How to Find Your Niche

Your success in the mortgage industry is dependent on you becoming an expert. A mortgage marketing plan built around a niche helps you become one.

For instance, if you were remodeling a kitchen with top of the line appliances, would you go to a high end appliance store or a discount department store?

The department store will offer you all kinds of appliances, as well as tools, clothes, etc. while the high end appliance store is an expert at their products. The high end store has a reputation with being cutting edge and finding the best available appliances. And that reputation is well deserved.

With a reputation for excellence, these high end stores don’t have to spend time cold calling for clients. Instead, new prospects seek them out to do business with them. These businesses have successfully found their niche and they are reaping the profit of being positioned as experts.

It’s not difficult to become an expert. It’s possible that you are already on your way. You become an expert when you combine repetition with disciplined research, self-study, continuing education, and practical experience.

When you establish a position within a particular niche, you become a source of information, for clients and real estate agents.

Realtors want to work with someone reliable; someone that understands all the potential problems that can arise in a loan application process. Agents want to work with someone that can save them time and money.

Developing Your Niche

Your first step to developing your niche as your mortgage marketing plan is to take an inventory of your skills. Use the following questions to help you:

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* Are there problems that you frequently solve for Realtors?
* Have you completed any specialized training?
* Do you have a favorite loan program?
* Is there an area that you receive compliments from clients or Realtors?
* Are you passionate about one aspect of your business?
Is there a part of your business that you are best at?

As you look through your answers, are there any consistencies?

Narrow Your Focus

If you have discovered some consistencies from the inventory you completed, you’ve uncovered some potential niches.

When you focus on one niche, you are maximizing your resources. Instead of devoting time, energy and funds to pursue training and experience in multiple facets, or multiple loan programs, you focus on becoming knowledgeable on one.

The more you work in one niche, the more your reputation as an expert is disseminated. And people are more likely to seek out an expert to assist them. You are building your reputation for expertise and excellence. Few Realtors would walk away from a relationship that could be so productive, or from such an established knowledge base.

You also are conserving time and money on your mortgage marketing. Instead of investing double or even triple the amount of time and money on multiple positions, your narrow focus helps you be more productive and offers a greater return on investment. Saving time by focusing on one area also helps you to spend more time focusing on your clients and enhancing your reputation.

Realtors Need You

Don’t assume that other mortgage professionals share your same level of expertise. When you work at developing a singular niche, you often leave competition behind.

Realtors want to be confident about relying on your expertise. For example, ask Realtors to complete a survey about their needs. You’ll find that many of them are willing to share examples of inconsistencies in loan processing or problems with communication between lenders and Realtors. Use these experiences to refine your niche.

Expertise is a commodity that is highly valued. When you develop a niche market, you bring a consistent, expertise voice to service for clients and Realtors. A service that they can count on and that you can build your mortgage marketing plans around.

Jeff Nelson helps loan officers increase loan originations by attracting quality relationships with real estate agents from the development of customized relationship-building strategies.