Exclusive Mortgage Leads, Done Right.
The lead-buying models of Zillow and Realtor.com are dying. As mortgage lead generation companies scramble to find ways to squeeze loan officers for more money, quality is eroding and truly exclusive mortgage leads are harder to identify. Learn more about how our revolutionary model empowers you to take control of your leads, and take control of your mortgage business.
Exclusive Mortgage Leads Can
Be a Database Anchor
For Your Business
The benefit of generating exclusive mortgage leads goes beyond having an easier time converting them when you don't have to compete with 5 other lenders. Generating a mortgage lead can be the beginning of a potentially long and mutually fruitful relationship. We tell our loan officers to "generate leads so someday you don't have to." What this means is that the power of exclusive leads is the steadily increasing size of your database. At some point, if you market to your database
correctly, you should have enough contacts between
prospects, realtors, and previously closed clients to where
you'll never have to buy a mortgage lead again.
When it Comes to Mortgage
Leads, "Exclusive" Doesn't
Always Mean Exclusive
Most mortgage lead generation companies operate under a business model that gives them room to compromise the quality of your leads without you even knowing it. Most mortgage lead providers have exclusivity agreements that limit the period of time that the leads are exclusive to you, and allows them to resell leads that claim they haven't been contacted by you. In addition to this, when lead generation companies run out of leads to sell, they tend to hire third-party affiliates to send them traffic and/or leads. The problem with this is that the mortgage lead companies don't have any ability to guarantee that the leads they're buying haven't been sold to other vendors as well. The companies get away with calling these exclusive mortgage leads because they are selling them exclusively to you, regardless of what
has happened prior to them receiving the lead from the affiliate.
How Can You Be Sure Your
Leads Are Actually Exclusive?
When you work with Empower, knowing your mortgage leads are 100% exclusive is made VERY easy for you. Starting with the live demonstration, we show you EXACTLY how we generate every lead and give you your own exclusive landing page, Google Ads account, and backend login to ensure you're receiving only 100% exclusive mortgage leads. However, most marketing companies that sell "exclusive" mortgage leads will not be this transparent, so you may have to get creative. The first thing you should do is reach out to your sales representative and ask him directly a few questions:
1. How are my leads being generated?
2. What traffic source? Display ads, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Organic Search, Affiliate/Referral marketing, or some combination of these? (If affiliate/referral marketing is being used, RUN. You can never be sure you're getting exclusive leads as long as your lead vendor is buying leads and reselling them)
3. Are my leads 100% exclusive, forever?
4. What do you do if my lead inquires again through your marketing?
5. How many other loan officers do you sell leads to in my market?
Now the answers to these questions may not give you a 100% definitive answer, but the level of confidence that your representative can answer those questions is crucial to understanding whether or not the marketing company you're working with has a business model that profits over quality/longevity.
Is it Worth It To Buy Leads That Aren't Exclusive?
It can be tempting to purchase leads that are advertised at insanely low prices. After all, if you can get leads for $5 apiece and convert 1/200, that's still less than $1k per closed loan right? Wrong. You have to factor in a couple of other elements into the equation. For example, if you're buying a mortgage lead that isn't exclusive, you're likely purchasing a rate-table lead. What this means is that the person who filled out their information was expecting to shop 3-5 lenders against each other to get the lowest rate. If you're not the most competitive in your market, this typically will mean smaller margins, and a higher amount of time invested per loan (back and forth with customers, losing customers to rate at the last minute). In fact, this is a problem with most refinance leads in general, which is why we specialize in exclusive purchase mortgage leads.
Not All Mortgage Leads Are
Created Equal
Even if you can verify that the leads you're generating are 100% exclusive, you haven't necessarily ensured that you're receiving quality leads. Exclusivity is one of a few different factors that are really important to understand when you're buying mortgage leads. Arguably the most important thing to look for in a mortgage lead is the proper amount of intent. Through the questions that we shared earlier, you can help identify whether or not the exclusive mortgage leads you're purchasing have the proper intent to be worth your time.
Some examples of leads with a high level of intent would be leads that are searching for prequalification information on Google, leads that have enquired for a mortgage in the last 30 days (trigger leads), leads that respond to direct mail campaigns with
realistic rate estimates, and many more. Some examples of lead sources with low intent would be any lead generated with Facebook or Banner/Media ads. These are typically not being targeted while they searching for information and instead are just engaging with advertisements that catch their eye, distracting them from their original intent.