Charles Dickens said it best when he boldly stated, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities written in 1859. Although I highly doubt he said that with the 21st century mortgage industry in mind, it is an apt way to describe lenders’ sentiments as of late.

On the one hand, recent rate cuts by the Fed have fueled an unprecedented level of consumer demand. In addition, a recent Morgan Stanley report found that almost 75% of consumers can now benefit from refinancing (defined as a difference of 30 basis points between the consumers’ current rate and the rate they potentially could now get) up from about 25% in December. This is good for the industry and for consumers. Further, this is an area of focus for presidential candidates. Initiatives such as Project Lifeline and talk of increasing conforming loan limits increase consumer awareness. The result of all of this is a dramatic increase in interest from consumers to research mortgages and refinancing options online.

Yet, this level of consumer demand also makes it much more challenging for mortgage marketers and lenders alike to provide homeowners with the help and guidance they need.

• Mortgage marketers and lenders alike get slammed with consumer inquiries.
• The consumer experience suffers because service levels tend to drop.
• Consumers become frustrated by unrealistic expectations set by media and advertisements.

Under these circumstances, both mortgage marketers and lenders need to partner closely, and increase their focus on marketing and operational effectiveness to provide the best possible experience for consumers.

What does this mean for the mortgage industry:

• Mortgage marketers must set appropriate expectations for consumers with their marketing messages. Advertising messages and consumer expectations must align with what lenders can actually fulfill.
• Maximize the number of desirable consumers that respond to the most relevant marketing messages.
• Offer transparent data sharing that allows both sides to see which traffic sources, creative, messages and consumer types are converting best for lenders.
• Leverage technology, particularly in the online space, to continually maximize the performance of leads in real time
• Micro-target segments within the consumer audience to deliver the most relevant loan offers to consumers.

A specific example: After the fed rate cut, Adchemy saw a dramatic change in impression to conversion rates across multiple web publishers. Due to our predictive algorithms, we were able to figure out how to allocate our traffic in order to maximize efficiency both for us and for our lender partners. Today, our customers have experienced a two to five time average increase in return on investment.

At Adchemy, we know that past success does not beget future success. Traffic sources, creative and messages that worked well in the past may not do so in the future. It is only by partnering closely with our lender partners that mortgage marketers can stay on top of a rapidly evolving market to deliver the best results to lenders and the best experience to consumers.

To that end, we are open to any and all creative ideas about how to partner better with lending partners. Drop us a line to give us your thoughts at ideas@adchemy.com or comment here.

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