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Could there be a shift in the way mortgage companies market themselves? The topic of the final session at the 2006 Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention was "The New Reality of Customer Acquisition and Retention." The three speakers did not come from the world of mortgage banking.
Rather, they work for Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. Their message is that to get the customer, companies need to address and adapt their online marketing methods.
Zack Hilton, national director, financial services, Microsoft Inc., said consumers are embracing the digital lifestyle. Approximately 70% of households have Internet access and half of those have broadband. Almost all of those are researching products on the Internet. "There is a huge opportunity to acquire customers online," he declared. This is because Internet users prefer using the World Wide Web to other media to look for financial information.
Mr. Hilton did point out what he feels is a disparity between where people spend their media time and where advertisers spend their media dollars. Consumers, he said, spend 17% of their media time online but advertisers spend just 8% of their dollars on online advertising. It is the opposite for newspapers. Consumers just spend 4% of their media time reading newspapers but those outlets get 30% of the advertising spending.
Peggy White, the general manager of Yahoo Finance, said while it is rare if a consumer makes an actual online purchase, they are using the Internet to gain knowledge, including researching which providers they want to work with. At one time just 5% of borrowers made their payments online. That number is now 28%, which means it is growing but still behind mailing it in. And today 54% research loans online.
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