Using AI tools doesn't need to be difficult. Here's how to use AI to maximize your marketing impact
In today’s fast-paced mortgage market, integrating AI into your marketing strategy isn’t just a newfangled luxury – it’s quickly becoming a necessity.
For many brokers, the journey into AI-powered marketing may seem daunting. You might struggle to know where to begin, or find yourself overwhelmed with the range of tools available. According to Jessica Yang, Marketing Manager at Neighbourhood Holdings, you don’t have to dive headfirst into the deep end – instead, you can start by automating some simple everyday tasks.
“Brokers can try out some easy AI tools such as ChatGPT to help generate social media posts or email marketing content, to get a feel for how AI can lighten their workload,” Yang tells CMP.
Yang notes that when it comes to AI, the saying “garbage in, garbage out” couldn’t be truer. Feeding badly worded or irrelevant prompts won’t provide helpful results, and so making your prompts as detailed and precise as possible is vital for maximizing AI’s effectiveness.
“Don’t just stick to the prompts you already know,” Yang adds. “Explore your own, or take advantage of online resources to understand AI’s capabilities better.”
The power of an Ideal Client Profile (ICP)
If you’re targeting the wrong market or demographic, even the best AI-driven marketing strategy won’t get you very far. That’s why the concept of an ICP is central to creating a strategy that delivers the most impact.
This involves creating a detailed picture of the client who best fits your services and specialty, and outlining their financing, property and mortgage needs. Jared Stanley, senior director of operations at Neighbourhood Holdings notes that “a clear picture of your ideal client enables you to target your time and energy on the right people, and gives you insight into where to look for clients.”
An ICP will also help you position yourself as an expert that caters exclusively to a specific segment of the market. We all know that brokering is a crowded market, and so specialization is one of the best ways to set yourself apart from competitors.
“We expect brokers who effectively use their ICP in their marketing strategies to observe significant changes in crafting more specific and impactful messaging, leading to niche market leadership,” Yang comments.
“This precise approach to marketing and client engagement ultimately results in higher-quality leads and more successful client interactions.”
Maintaining the human touch for success
At the end of the day, brokering is driven by human relationships – and that’s never going to change. While AI is an excellent tool for data analysis, content creation and even in personalised marketing, the key is to leverage AI tools to do the heavy lifting for repetitive tasks. That way, brokers can free themselves to develop meaningful personal relationships with their clients.
Yang says this balance can be achieved by being smart about how you incorporate AI into your marketing, and using it to compliment rather than take over your marketing.
“Such strategic use of AI allows brokers to maintain the personal touch, while also benefitting from the efficiency and scalability that AI provides,” she says.
When it comes to measuring success, many brokers assume this will require a completely new set of metrics and a fresh approach. However, this is far from the case. To assess the effectiveness of your AI-driven marketing, you can build upon your existing practices and consider the KPIs already in use by your business – whether that’s website traffic, conversion rates or email open rates.
You can also consider using AI-specific metrics such how much time you’ve saved on content creation, and the effectiveness of AI-driven SEO strategies. Neighbourhood Holdings’ Vision-To-Action Broker Package helps set up clear and measurable goals, and is like having a roadmap and checklist all in one.
Ultimately, AI is an exciting new tool and it’s here to stay – and using it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Mortgage brokers looking to get ahead can get free access to The AI-Driven Marketing Guide for Mortgage Brokers, which is built by Neighbourhood Holdings to equip mortgage brokers with practical, ready-to-use ChatGPT prompts needed to navigate the AI marketing landscape effectively
We are witnessing a remarkable transformation as AI-driven marketing strategies pave the way for improved efficiency and workload optimization,” Yang concludes. “This is not just about keeping up with the times; it’s about leveraging the power of AI to forge a more productive future in our industry.”
