Even though reverse mortgages are a tiny little niche within the mortgage industry. You can dive deep within this niche to create marketing messages that work really well. And that is the key to any successful marketing campaign, get the right message to the right market.
I was inspired to write this article due to an article on ReverseMortgageDaily.com. A loan officer got coverage due to his idea of marketing to real estate agents. But not for H4P referrals. The message was that a reverse mortgage can take the pressure off “having to make a sale to make a mortgage payment”.
Obviously that message could be taken to any senior that owns a home and is commission based or owns a business.
That message being:
“Eliminate the stress of mortgage payments caused by commission sales”
Pretty simple. And quite brilliant.
You can see the postcard he designed here.
The beauty of this idea is that it takes a broad message and condenses it down to a very simple solution to a big problem people face. He takes the tired worn out marketing message of “no monthly mortgage payments” and applies it to a very specific problem that real estate agents face.
This idea also narrows down the market that this message needs to get in front of. Instead of trying to target every homeowner 62 or older in a certain area that has a mortgage payment. He can focus this down to just realtors. It would be easy to get a list of realtors in the area that are 62 or older and send this postcard out to them.
Or he could set up coffee/lunch meetings with every realtor in his area that is 62 or older.
In other words, he is able to laser focus his efforts to a very specific niche with a very specific problem and show them a solution.
Not to take anything away from Donald, but I was simply amazed at how much people were falling all over themselves about this idea. Don’t get me wrong, it is a smart idea, but it made me realize how inept our industry is when it comes to marketing reverse mortgages.
For the most part, what I constantly see is marketing that pushes the no payment option of reverse mortgages. The problem with this is that it is just to general and people can’t understand how they would benefit from it. In other words, they can’t relate the message to their problem. The following quote sums it up perfectly.
It is your job to create a marketing message that solves a very specific problem that the homeowner is facing. The more focused your message, the easier it is to figure out who to send that message to. The more focused the message, the better the person can relate to the message. The more they relate, the more likely they are to respond.
It is all about clarity.
One of the major problems I faced when I was originating all types of mortgages was that I was never clear on who I should be marketing to. I was never clear on who I should be targeting. I was never clear on who I should be networking with. And I was constantly chasing shiny objects.
When everyone is a prospect, no one is a prospect.
When I began originating just reverse mortgages I gained clarity very quickly. It narrowed my focus down to where I could see exactly what I needed to do, who I needed to network with, where I could get referrals, where to focus my efforts, what my message was etc.
You need to do the same thing with your marketing. You need to have clarity.
When you have clarity:
– Everything falls into line.
– It’s no longer overwhelming.
– It narrows down your market.
– It gives you a message that resonates with the market you are targeting.
– The money you spend is much more efficient.
– You get a better return on investment of your marketing dollars.
– You have better response rates.
– It’s easier to solve specific problems.
– It helps you determine which media to use.
– It’s less expensive.
– You can spend more money targeting very specific niches.
– You know where to get the data you need to market.
Think about it this way.
The Way Most Reverse Mortgage Originators Approach Marketing
Imagine you just want to target homeowners in your area that are 62 and older. There are 35,000 of them. You think how am I going to market to all of those people. It would cost me $35,000 to do a direct mail campaign to hit each one of them.
Then you think about what the best message would be to get them to respond. Then you think about where you should get the printing and stuffing done, where you should get your list. Is it a good list?
Then you think, wow, what would happen if I spent $35,000 and nobody responded. IT’S OVERWHELMING when you look at large generic markets. And when things are overwhelming you end up doing nothing because you don’t know where to start.
The Way You Should Approach Reverse Mortgage Marketing
Instead you decide that you are going to market to homeowners that are behind on property taxes. You get a list and there are only 300 of them. Well that is pretty manageable. Heck, you could print the sales letter and stuff the envelopes yourself.
The marketing message is pretty simple. If nobody responds you are only out a couple hundred dollars. But even if you got one deal closed the return on investment is really high. It would be easy to send out the same letter again. Maybe close another deal or two. And keep sending out the same letter until there are no more responses.
And the best part is, once you know that you have a viable market and a marketing piece the works, it is easy to scale up and start doing the same thing in other counties. Pretty soon you have a lead generation money making reverse mortgage marketing machine.
How To Find Reverse Mortgage Niche Ideas
Finding niches within the reverse mortgage market is very easy. Think about the problems a reverse mortgage could solve. Solving problems people are facing is the key.
I would highly suggest that you do a deep dive into your past reverse mortgage clients:
– Who were they?
– What problems were they trying to solve?
– What was their financial situation?
– What were the risks they were facing?
– What were they trying to accomplish?
– Why did they say they were getting a reverse mortgage?
The last one on the list is where Donald got his brilliant idea. The realtor told him she was getting a reverse mortgage so she no longer had to stress about whether or not she was going to make a sale in order to make the mortgage payment. The light bulb went off for Donald when she said that.
Here’s another brilliant idea, call up your past clients and ask them. They want to hear from you anyway. Why not kill two birds with one stone.
There are all kinds of niche markets out there that you can focus your marketing message to and get significantly better marketing results than trying to go broad with a generic advertising message.
Here are just a few thoughts and niche ideas of my own who you could target:
– People currently behind on mortgage payments
– People currently behind on property taxes
– People recently divorced
– People considering divorce
– Recently widowed
– People in foreclosure
– Single people
– People relying on just Social Security
– People interested in flipping homes
– People with lots of debt
– People with no long term care insurance
– People with certain household incomes
– People just turning 62
– People 85+
– People with acreage
– People still working
– People in Chapter 13 bankruptcy
– People with a discharged bankruptcy
– People with significant consumer debt
– People that hit the Medicare donut hole
– People with high dollar homes
– People with condos, town homes, manufactured homes, multi story homes, multi unit homes
– People with credit problems
– People that don’t think they need a reverse mortgage
– People with commission sales jobs (stole this one from somewhere)
– People that snowbird
– People that want to buy rentals
– People on Medicaid or other public assistance
– People that received Single Purpose loans
– People considering a HELOC
– People that currently have a HELOC
– People that are relying on family to care take
– People that refinance every few years
– People with liens against their property – i.e. judgements
– People that want to remodel / upgrade their home
– People with age specific homes i.e. homes built in the mid to late 90’s that may need a roof, paint, HVAC system etc.
– People that are older with large lots
– People that want a second home
– People of a certain age, younger for LOC growth, older for cash flow
– People in the LBGQT community
– People that are conservative
– People that RV or want to RV
– People in golf communities
– People that like to hunt or fish
And of course you could combine all of these to find a perfect prospect for a reverse mortgage. For instance, it could be someone recently divorced in a high dollar home that has income below a certain threshold.
Some of those niches are going to be easier and less expensive to target than other. For example, I doubt you could get a list of homeowners that are on Medicaid. I don’t know that for sure as I have never looked into it, but I doubt it. But there are still ways to target that market.
On the other hand, it would be easy to get a list of homeowners that have a HELOC, are behind on property taxes, in foreclosure, have a lien on their property, recently divorced, are in or were discharged from bankruptcy as all of that is public information.
Some of those lists will be more expensive. The public data lists will be much less expensive than a credit based list.
I would highly encourage you to start doing some digging, thinking and strategizing about the niches that you could market to. This is a great exercise that you will find very exciting once you realize the amount of opportunity you have right in your own back yard to originate reverse mortgages.
