“It’s really important to get your name out there”
Social media plays a huge role in brand awareness and marketing, and for a mortgage broker, credibility is often one of the key ingredients to attracting new leads – particularly if you’re competing against larger brokerages.
Christchurch-based brokerage The Mortgage Girls recently won Regional Mortgage Brokerage of the Year at the 2021 NZ Mortgage Awards, and adviser Elyce Peters said the win would be a big boost for the firm. She said that using an award win in parallel with social media brand awareness can be a strong tool when attracting new clients, particularly within the substantial first-home buyer market.
“We were pretty excited to win our awards, because it was the first year that we applied – so we’re definitely newbies with regards to being an award winner,” Peters said.
Read more: NZ Mortgage Awards – Brokerages of the Year revealed
“Although we knew that what we were doing was awesome, it was great to have that recognition on a New Zealand-wide scale so that other people can see what we do too.”
“We’re quite a small firm, and we probably don’t have the same turnover that other, bigger firms might have,” she continued.
“But we’re really looking forward to being able to tell people about what we’ve done, we’ve put it out there on social media, and we’ll continue to use that in different ways to further our brand.”
Peters says that a significant chunk of referrals come from social media, but that unlike word of mouth, those leads can also take more time and effort to develop into a trusting client-adviser relationship.
When it comes to building your business, she said that networking was the other key tool, and the more you can get your name out there, the better.
“Most of our clients are first-home buyers, and they do tend to need a lot more hand holding,” Peters said.
Read more: Why use a mortgage adviser? Explained
“We get a lot of leads from places like Facebook, but they’re not like leads from existing clients. When you’re dealing with a word of mouth referral, they know how you work and they already have a level of trust with you. If it’s been generated purely through social media, then that trust still needs to be built.”
“Networking is also really important in all businesses, whether that’s using that social media or going to networking groups, it’s all about being around other professionals who can help your business grow,” she added.
“Make sure that when you do go to those networks that you pair up with other people who have the same goals and credibility that you do, and it also gives our clients more options.
“It’s really important to get your name out there, and there are so many different ways of doing that now.”
