How data analytics are advancing mortgage marketing strategy

It was in his past role as an originator and branch manager that Louis Zitting, CEO of borrower analytics platform MonitorBase, realized how data analysis  could propel mortgage marketing — and he also saw that few were trying to tap into its potential.

Zitting knew that those he already had an affinity relationship with were going to be more responsive to messaging. "But that doesn't mean you can just reach out to the thousand people you may know or are connected to and bug them about a mortgage," he said. 

Even though consumer data had been available for decades, few in the mortgage industry had thought about analyzing it for lead generation or identification of potential customers. His process of discovery eventually led him to found MonitorBase in 2007, a firm which tracks credit profiles on behalf of lenders.  

In the 15 years since, data analytics and its use in the mortgage industry has come a long way, marrying science, engineering and traditional marketing. With tools now able to capture details as granular as an individual's website clicks and word searches, mortgage lenders can personalize marketing to a target audience of one or create a wider campaign. Data tracking is also improving internal sales processes. 

"The biggest thing as far as marketing from our standpoint is to clearly paint the picture of what's happening,'' said Joel Kehm, principal data architect at Embrace Home Loans. "You have the marketers who come up with the campaigns and the ideas. You have the data scientists who are sort of identifying population targets. And then my group is bringing all the result data again, that allows the first two to do their job."

While lenders often rely on third parties for consumer information, the mortgage companies most active in digital marketing today have also created their own data collection programs. 

Churchill Mortgage invested heavily in proprietary content development, putting itself "out in the whitespace of the internet," in its efforts to drive new business, said chief marketing officer Whitney Blessington.  

"People come to us. We draw them in through the content that we create, and have lead magnets and create the web forms that capture their information to put in our database that we nurture."

With the ability to tie its internal data to third-party identity graphs, which provide details about what an individual posts on social media, Churchill has created a process that allows it to react quickly when a potential borrower approaches any of the life phases that often trigger interest in a mortgage — periods Blessington refers to as the six D's: diplomas, dogs, diamonds, diapers, divorce (or downsizing) and death. 

The strategy involves segmenting out its database into various personas, making it easier to deploy targeted marketing. 

"What we try to do is create playbooks at each milestone and use the data to inform when people are about to transition into those different milestones, so that we are there in their time of need," she said.

Lenders also rely on credit data, which is where companies like MonitorBase fit in the marketing cycle. Through an agreement with Experian, Zitting's company has access to consumer credit data and can keep an eye on the potential mortgage borrowers lenders are tracking.

Through analysis of hundreds of credit attributes,  including FICO scores, equity and revolving balances, MonitorBase can notify lenders when names on their contact lists appear to be mortgage ready.

While a detailed picture can be drawn through personal details, data collection starts even before any identifiable information is revealed, said Rich Smith, chief marketing officer of home loans at Pentagon Federal Credit Union.

 "We've built our marketing analytics to the point where we can track a member or visitor from the first time that they get an impression — they see a display ad or they click on a paid search ad all the way through — through to becoming a lead and an application and closed loan," he said.  

Like Churchill, PenFed also publishes articles and mortgage educational material on its website, from which it can glean valuable clues about visitors. "We use that kind of behavioral data to tell us when a member might be in the market, and then use our automation tools to drive messaging," Smith said. 

The targeted messaging can determine the type of information that appears to existing members on PenFed's website or mobile app, or behind the password on its online banking site, all intended to keep its mortgage business top of mind.  

"We really try to use the data sources that we have to determine when one of our members is in market and try to reach out to the right member at the right time with the right offer," Smith said.

In addition to housing terabytes of information obtained from first- or third-party sources, digital repositories — or in Embrace's case, a data lake — available can also record details and statistics of virtually every electronic interaction with a consumer. Those details provide vital clues to mortgage marketers trying to gauge a campaign's performance and allow them to tweak it quickly. 

"It might be something as simple as color schemes. You have a split campaign, and you see what's hitting way better. It's literally the same campaign, same wording, but maybe the pictures, the colors are different," Kehm said.

Like at Embrace, PenFed's data analysis helps them refine their outreach. Data, such as click-through rates, can give "great understanding of what marketing techniques are working and which ones are not and where the breakdowns occur in our funnel," Smith said. 

At Churchill, data analysis has also accelerated how quickly marketing campaigns can be introduced. "What would take maybe two weeks to do, maybe five years ago, takes us, I would say two days now," Blessington said.