Creating blogs and articles isn’t always the easiest task for mortgage professionals, particularly when you consider that client meetings, calls and applications will take priority.
However, writing and publishing blogs on your website and promoting them across your social media channels is a rewarding and valuable exercise.
You can keep prospective customers up-to-date with the latest mortgage market news, provide tips to prospective borrowers, share key brand messaging, get any professional gripes off your chest, reinforce your status as an industry authority and provide consumers with another opportunity to engage with you.
Having a content marketing strategy is a key element to marketing your business effectively in the modern age, so here are some top tips to help you get started…
Engaging, consumer-friendly titles are a must
You’ll need a good title or headline for your articles so you can engage the potential reader and encourage them to read your article. Make sure it’s succinct, relevant and summarises what’s in the article.
If the reader isn’t sure what the blog is going to be about or how it will affect them, they’re highly unlikely to read it. Advice pieces, in which the reader understands what they are going to get out of the article just from reading the title, are often highly effective.
Meanwhile, asking a question in the title – which you then answer in the body of the piece – is a good way of getting the attention of consumers.
Be educational and focus on advice
Writing articles is your opportunity to show off your mortgage market expertise and educate prospective customers. Readers will be looking to benefit from your experience and guidance, so make it count in your content.
Although the odd professionally-focused piece is no problem, try not to regularly focus on issues affecting mortgage brokers. You will see much better results if your content centres on topics borrowers want to learn about, whether that’s interest rates, the application process or remortgaging.
Readers will come away happiest – and be more likely to return to your website – if they feel they have learnt something from your articles.
Who is your target market?
At the outset of writing each article, think about who you want to read the piece. Is it first-time buyers, remortgagors, buy-to-let landlords or older borrowers?
Make sure the article has an eventual aim and try to link back to this aim throughout the piece. Think of it as asking a question at the beginning and gradually answering it during the article.
The more targeted and specific your articles are, the more engagement you’ll get and the more effective they will be.
Don’t be afraid to mix things up
As with all types of marketing, there are various ways you can write blogs and articles to keep it interesting for you and your readers.
For example, you could write a top tips article like this one, cover a relevant news story, carry out a Q&A or put together a ‘listicle’ (e.g. five things to do before applying for a mortgage).
Taking this approach can put your content in front of a wider audience and appeal to different demographics with your various writing styles.
Structure and formatting are all-important
Make sure your articles are easy to read. This means a legible font, strong colours and no tiny or obscured text. It’s also important to note that many of your readers are likely to be viewing your articles from a mobile device, so ensure your content is responsive.
Images are a must to keep things visually engaging for readers. There is no problem with using stock images as long as they are not too bland. And remember, only use images which are fully licensed.
You’ll also need to think about structure – keep things moving with sub-headings as stodgy blocks of text with no breaks can become arduous for readers.
Finally, there is the length of articles to consider. Feel free to mix things up, but generally keep things between 500 and 1,000 words so people don’t lose interest but have enough to get their teeth stuck into.
Don’t go for the hard sell
You might be tempted to bombard readers with all the reasons why you are the perfect mortgage broker for their needs. However, this is unlikely to go down well and a direct approach should be saved for advertising campaigns.
At the end of the blog, you can provide a few pieces of key messaging and also your contact details, but make sure the majority of the piece focuses on useful, non-sales information.
If the article is engaging and genuinely helpful, the reader is more likely to get to the end and then take in your brand messaging and contact details.
Let’s get writing!
As mentioned above, having a content strategy in place is crucial if you want to get your brand out there. You need to be publishing content regularly and sharing it across all your social channels.
Taking into account the above advice can help you to create engaging content which promotes the professionalism of your brand and the expertise of your staff, all the while providing people with more opportunities to contact you.
