With the massive growth of the online mortgage market, it is safe to say that technology has had an astonishing impact on the industry.
In this day and age, customers are more likely to discover a mortgage brokerage online and are even more likely to get their first impression of a firm by visiting and reviewing websites.
Websites are essential for sourcing and submitting business and providing clients with product information, so why doesn’t every broker have one?
First port of call
Mortgage broking is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, a process that is all about giving clients face-to-face advice, but admittedly borrowers are increasingly using the web to validate the advice they receive.
More and more people are turning to the internet as their first port of call when researching the products that are available to them.
They will use search engines to check out the competition within the mortgage market, and so when making that all important decision of which provider to choose, it is becoming more and more likely that they will be sat in front of a computer screen.
According to Foolproof’s OFSS report, 80 per cent of online shoppers use a search engine when looking for information about mortgages, followed by 78 per cent who would go to a lender’s site and 74 per cent who would expect to consult a comparison site.
Shoppers tend to research the mortgage market using the internet as a central pillar. But it seems that this important asset to any business is still a lonely feature at the bottom of a broker’s ‘to do’ list.
Pete Ballard, managing partner at Foolproof, says:: “Without a doubt, the internet will continue to grow in importance in the mortgage sector. And while less than 10 per cent of the UK’s mortgages have been bought online I would expect that figure to rise over the next few years.
Establishing a presence
Attractive designs with compelling and useful product and service information serves to populate any website and establish a web presence that gives the potential customer all the information they could need about the financial products or advice being supplied.
It is true that direct marketing and advertising can result in new clients for your company. But, surely a new client obtained on the back of an existing client recommending your firm’s services and saying how efficient and knowledgable you are is much better?
Ballard comments: “For any mortgage intermediary who is serious about using a website to generate more mortgage business, there are three points things I would recommend to be taken into consideration. The first is to make sure that the website is rich in content and information about the types of mortgage available, clarity on terminology and charges and have answers to the many questions that online shoppers may have about mortgages.
“Secondly, don’t ask people to register their personal details before they have had a chance to explore your website as chances are they probably won’t stick around. And, thirdly, take search engine marketing seriously. Get yourself listed highly on search engine results through the provision of specialist content and bid on pay-per-click terms.”
Keeping up-to-date
People like drawing their own conclusions. They don’t like to be coerced by sales material – no-one likes to think they’ve been sold. They like to look at the information available from their own insights, in their own time, and draw their own conclusions.
A website with worthwhile content can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business, and moving
your business online is now easier and cheaper than ever before.
Websites may seem simple from the outside, but generally offer brokers a range of application forms and tools to make the process run a lot smoother.
Every intermediary should have a website that, at the very least, gives consumers information about their business.
However, with the growing interactive market, having an ill-presented or out-of-date website is not good news at all.
Changing details and updating information on the World Wide Web can be done in an instant, and the internet is fast becoming a key player in the mortgage industry, businesses should not be missing this ideal opportunity.
Payam Azadi, head of marketing at Mortgage Times, comments: “It's one thing to have a website, but it's another to keep it up-to-date. You have to work at it to make it work for you. Working online is the fastest way for information change – together with that, it is the ease of availability that makes a website more appealing.”
Mortgagetimes.com is updated more than 30 times a day to give its users the most up-to-date information available.
Websites can offer anything, from basic company information to interactive applications. Online case-tracking is the latest trend for broker websites.
Online case-tracking allows immediate access specific information regarding a certain case, making sure that individual mort gage intermediaries know exactly what is happening in the process.
Azadi explains: “One of the main objectives of the website is to ease the process, with online case-tracking, brokers can see the case manager at work, and have the option to contact them immediately via e-mail.”
No need for high-tech
Websites don’t have to be flashy or high-tech to get attention – all they need is the right information, and for that information to be presented as clearly as possible. A website should be treated like any other ‘brochureware’ for a company, with the added benefit of making mortgage applications easier and limiting the amount of paperwork involved.
Azadi adds: “Mortgagetimes.com is updated more than 30 times a day and the website helps us to manage workflow and keeps us up-to-date allowing us to provide a whole resource, immediately, to our intermediaries.”
“Websites can legitimise a business. There are many companies paying a great deal of money to generate leads and use search engine optimisation – you have to spend a lot of money to gain a result from the internet, especially in the mortgage industry.”
It is becoming more and more important for intermediaries to have a website. There has been a significant increase in the number of enquiries from both appointed representatives and directly authorised brokers about the availability of white-label websites.
Many companies, including Loanoptions.co.uk, offer brokers the chance to create their own company website, offering templates which intermediaries can use to create a simple but effective website in order to attract interest.
Research into the industry’s need for online technology found that more and more businesses wanted to expand their company awareness and marketing strategies through the web.
With a website probably being the last thing that any intermediary would think about creating on any given day, having it done for you is a perfect solution.
With the mortgage market becoming more and more competitive, having a presence in cyber space is becoming increasingly imperitive for any company, financial services or other.
Many smaller intermediary firms have historically concentrated on a localised market. However, with the internet being, in many cases, the initial source of a much wider stream of business, the opportunity to reach a more extensive client base should not be ignored.
