Getting started with broker marketing
Marketing 101 – Getting started
Marketing also doesn’t just mean advertising. It’s much broader and probably includes lots of things you are already doing on a daily basis. Ultimately, the practice of marketing is to combine all customer insights, interactions, and communications to ensure a concise delivery to a defined profitable target audience. Therefore it will be no surprise that you may already be conducting:
Market Research
What type of customers are you targeting?
Product Design
What services do you offer?
Pricing
Do you charge fees, and if so, how much?
Promotion
How do you raise awareness of your brand and services?
People
How do you employ, train and educate people to facilitate positive customer engagements?
Distribution
How do you deliver your service to your customers? In person, online or over the phone?
First & last thought is 'Think Customer'
Who are your target customers?
The first thing to think about is who are your customers? Knowing exactly what type of people you are talking to and what it is you want to say to them is the most important element of any marketing activity.
At Pepper Money, for example, we segment our target customers into the following groups and we use these personas to help us more accurately target our product development, marketing and customer communications:
Hopeful Homeowners
Younger couples in their first home, starting a family, and others who are at an early stage of their career. Ambitious individuals and couples are understandably keen to get out of renting. Unfortunately, they might not realise a small credit mishap in the past – something as simple as a missed mobile phone payment – could have a dramatic impact on them getting a mortgage with a high street lender.
Recent Recoverers
Couples, families and individuals who may have had difficulties with money in the past and could well have county court judgements, but they have since turned the corner and are on their way back. They’re likely to believe their financial history will stop them from getting a mortgage and would benefit from professional mortgage advice.
Comfortable Consolidators
Young or settled families who are living comfortably but may be managing several credit card balances and unsecured loans. By consolidating their debts into one monthly payment, they can get to grips with these additional costs by leveraging the potential of a larger mortgage and higher LTV.
Almost Primers
These customers may have stretched their finances in the past but have learnt a lot about managing credit since then and they haven’t had any record of missed payments for a number of years.
Affluent Borrower
These customers may have benefited from significant increases to the value of their property in recent years. They may be exploring the possibility of taking out a second mortgage to finance home improvements, help one of their children get on the property ladder or to purchase a holiday home.
Understanding your Customers
Think about your customers and what segments they might fall into. For each of those segments ask yourself:
- What makes your customers tick
- Where are they?
- How can you reach them?
- What can you offer them?
- What questions do they typically ask you?
- What makes your business different or better?
There are many ways of promoting your business and not all will be relevant or affordable. What is important is to know your options so that you can find the most effective way of reaching potential customers and communicating with existing ones.
Have Clear Objectives
Before committing to any promotional activity, you should be clear about what you want to achieve. If you have clear objectives, your marketing will have a greater chance of succeeding. A typical objective might be, for example, to generate 50 leads.
You can have more than one objective but being specific and realistic about what you want to achieve over a particular timeframe will help you to identify the most appropriate approach.
Ways to promote your business
The first thing to consider when you start to promote your business is does your website give the best impression of your brand and capabilities?
There are many ways of promoting your business and not all will be relevant or affordable. What is important is to know your options so that you can find the most effective way of reaching potential customers and communicating with existing ones.
- Advertising
- Banner display advertising
- Press advertising
- Search engine advertising
- Direct Mail
- Leaflets and door drops
- Social Media
- PR
Broker Marketing Compliance
Compliance is an important consideration and you should ensure that you understand and apply the relevant rules in the Mortgage Conduct of Business sourcebook (MCOB).
It’s recommended that you seek professional advice to ensure your promotions are compliant. If you are a member of a network or mortgage club, they may be able to offer help or guidance.
A few general points to consider with Financial Promotional Material:
- Is the promotion clear, fair and not misleading?
- Is the name of your firm and the address for the main point of contact included?
- Have you used plain language and is it easily legible?
- Are all statements of fact accurate and can they be substantiated?
- Are any assumptions clearly and prominently disclosed?
- Does the promotion include details of any fees charged?
- Does it include the required health warnings?
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Social Media Marketing Hints & Tips
Social Media Marketing
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