April 30, 2019

By Intrigue

Are you looking for help with marketing your mortgage brokerage in Ontario? The task of marketing mortgage services can be challenging and it’s important to understand what tactics and initiatives will work — and what won’t work.

At Intrigue, our team has in-depth experience marketing to homeowners and developing strategies for mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders. We have firsthand knowledge of what strategies are able to effectively generate leads in the mortgage industry.

Read our case study for more details:

The Client

Main Street Mortgage came to Intrigue near the end of 2017. Their goal was to create an approachable and professional brand, and build a marketing campaign that would increase lead conversion — they also wanted to be known as the top alternative lender for A- and B+ mortgage clients. They needed help to develop a multi-channel campaign to build their brand and generate leads for their business.

Main Street Mortgage’s promise is to make it simple to access a mortgage, regardless of your situation. They believe that everyone should be able to access the resources required to secure a mortgage for their home — even if they are struggling with bruised credit, a lower declared income, or other challenging circumstances.

The Marketing Campaign

To help Main Street Mortgage build a new, reputable brand and achieve their marketing goals, Intrigue developed and implemented a marketing campaign that would accomplish both of the client’s primary goals: (a) brand-building and (b) lead generation.

The marketing campaign for Main Street Mortgage included:

  • Strategic Messaging & Buyer Personas Creation
  • New Branding & Logo Design
  • New Website
  • SEO Work (Blogging & Link Building)
  • Conversion-Optimized Landing Pages
  • Google Ads
  • Facebook Ads
  • Email Marketing
  • Video Advertising
  • Video Production

Building a Marketing Strategy

To set a solid strategic direction for Main Street Mortgage’s campaign, our team developed four distinct buyer personas in collaboration with the client, as part of their strategic messaging session. These personas aligned with their target audience and lay the foundation for the content writing and the development of their website.

The four buyer personas were:

  • Divorced or Separated Couples
  • Discharged Bankrupts
  • New Immigrants to Canada
  • New Entrepreneurs

Intrigue ensured that these personas were factored in when building a mobile-responsive, user-friendly website. The new website was strategically built to convert website traffic to leads, using four specific landing pages (one for each persona), and was optimized with researched keywords to help the site rank well in organic search.

Creating High-Quality Video Content

Along with the development of the website, Intrigue’s team produced six 30-second tip videos, which supported the new brand, the customer experience, and the goals of the marketing campaign.

An individual video was created to address the specific challenges of each of the four buyer personas and marketed towards them as a cold audience on Facebook. If someone engaged with a specific video, either by watching it or clicking through to the website, then they would be served additional videos that talked about the overall vision and approach of the Main Street Mortgage brand.

These videos were responsible for reaching over 120,000 users on Facebook and generating over 5,000 link clicks to either the landing pages or the Main Street Mortgage Facebook page.

The Brand Creation Process

The Brand Creation Process- New Main Street Mortgage Brand

The first phase of the campaign was to develop a new brand name and logo design, which would be used in the campaign and in future marketing materials.

During our initial strategic messaging session, our team collaborated with the client to identify the brand vision and core values, and to generate ideas for potential business names — in addition to the four buyer personas mentioned earlier.

A few weeks after the strategic messaging session, our team presented the client with two final concepts, including logo designs, preliminary branding guides, and mock-ups showcasing examples of the new logo on web pages, in print designs, on signage, etc.

Creating A New, SEO-Focused Website

Main Street Mortgage Organic SERP Results

After completing the branding process, our team began developing the new website. The website was launched on a new domain in mid-April 2018 and was supported with a paid search campaign to showcase the new brand and raise awareness in select geographies.

The new site’s content included four conversion-focused landing pages (one for each buyer persona), which were designed for both organic search and to support paid search campaigns, as well as eight blogs targeting specific keyword topic clusters related to the buyer personas.

As we were launching a new domain, our team put a heavy focus on off-page SEO to mitigate what’s known as the Sandbox Effect (a Google filter that prevents new sites from ranking in top results initially), including a comprehensive citation audit and cleanup, as well as a link building package.

The new website build and SEO work resulted in over 2,500 users in the first year, a bounce rate under 60%, and 33 conversions from organic traffic alone. The site was also able to capture a number of featured snippets and top organic rankings for popular search terms, which were closely related to the buyer personas that we had created.

Main Street Mortgage Featured Snippet

Planning a Search & Remarketing Campaign

In addition to the website work, Intrigue’s team used researched, integrated marketing strategies to build a sophisticated search and remarketing campaign that would drive lead generation and boost brand awareness. To accomplish these goals, we built two different campaigns targeting two different audiences.

We used remarketing strategies with Facebook Advertising and Google Ads to drive consumers to a specific landing page.

  • If the consumer entered their contact information they would be entered into an automated email marketing campaign.
  • If the consumer did not input their information, our Facebook Pixel and Google Remarketing code would target them with specific ads related to the page they had just visited.

We also ensure that existing clients received email marketing and advertising with valuable content and information that related to the additional services offered by Main Street Mortgage.

In combination, the search and remarketing campaign brought over 3,500 users to the website and resulted in over 40 conversions. Every landing page generated qualified leads for Main Street Mortgage.

Conversion Results for Main Street Mortgage- Intrigue

Campaign Overview

So what does all of this mean for Main Street Mortgage?

Intrigue’s digital marketing efforts have helped to establish Main Street Mortgage’s new brand and provide solid traffic to their new site. From a new domain with zero presence, the site has grown over the past year to receive an average of ~500 users and 5 conversions on a monthly basis, mostly from organic, direct, and referral traffic.

With paid search and remarketing campaigns as an option to provide an additional source of traffic and leads, the Main Street Mortgage website and brand is well-positioned for continued growth as a premier provider of A- and B+ lender mortgages in Canada.

Want to find out how your mortgage company can achieve lead generating results with your marketing? Contact the team at Intrigue today.

Intrigue is a Canadian digital marketing company delivering solutions to help businesses get noticed and found. Guided by a commitment to empower leaders to strengthen communities, Intrigue offers website design and development, branding, online advertising, content marketing, graphic design, video production, SEO, and analytics. Take your marketing to the next level and Get Noticed. Get Found.® intrigueme.ca

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