How to Turn More Mortgage Leads into Mortgage Appointments

One of the problems mortgage brokers face when it comes to lead generation is how do you turn a mortgage lead that you’ve generated via your own website or bought from a mortgage lead generation company and turn it into a mortgage appointment.

With bought-in leads, this can be quite a challenge. 

In most cases, the potential client won’t have a clue who you are so they’ll be less likely to answer the phone to you or return your call if you leave a voicemail.

And, depending on which company you bought the lead from, that same lead may have been sold to several other mortgage brokers - all of whom will be trying to contact the client at the same time, meaning the chances of them taking your call are reduced.

And because you have no control over how these leads are generated or what messaging the prospect sees after they have submitted their details, there’s not really much you can do to increase your chances of being able to turn these leads into appointments.

But when you generate mortgage leads via your own website, it’s a different story and there are several things you can do as part of your lead generation process which will increase the chances of you being able to make contact with the potential client and get a mortgage appointment in the diary.

1. Be persistent

Let’s start with the basics. Never give up after the first attempt to contact a lead.

As we’ll talk about later in this article, there are all sorts of reasons why someone might not answer the first time you call. 

So try calling again at different times of the day. And whenever you don't get an answer, try sending an email or text as well as leaving a voicemail.

2. Have a dedicated thank you page

If you’ve got an enquiry form on your website, there’s a good chance it operates as follows.

The visitor fills in a form like this and clicks the button to submit their details.

Then, without a new web page loading, a small message appears above or below the form to confirm the information has been received. Often, as in this example, the message is very hard to spot:

(clue: it’s the grey text on a grey background just above the form!)

Even if the message were easier to read, I wouldn’t recommend using this approach. It’s much better to send the user to a separate dedicated thank you page after they have submitted their enquiry.

Not only does this make it more obvious that their enquiry has definitely been received, it also gives you the scope to give them some more information which will improve your follow up process and increase the chances of you being able to turn the lead into a client.

Here’s an example of what might appear on a very basic thank you page:

But you can do much more than this once you’ve got a dedicated thank you page…

3. Tell the prospect what happens next

As well as thanking the person for their enquiry, the thank you page should give them an idea of what to expect next. 

Is someone going to call them back?

What sort of timeframe will that happen in?

What’s the purpose of the call and what will happen during it? 

What outcomes will the client get from the call - in other words, why is it in their interests to speak to you?

Giving some basic information like this will help put the client at ease and make the call go more smoothly. 

Here’s an example of the kind of thing you might choose to say:

4. Tell them your number

A lot of people are wary about answering calls from withheld numbers or numbers that they don’t recognise. 

So if you want to reduce your chances of being sent to voicemail, add something to the message on your thank you page that says what number you’ll be calling from.

5. Text or WhatsApp before you call

Because people don’t like answering calls, it can be a good idea to send a text message or WhatsApp message before you call. 

This will prepare the client for the fact that you’re going to call and lets them know what your number is.

It also gives you the chance to say something like “If now isn’t a good time, just ping me a quick reply and let me know when you’re going to be around for us to chat and get your mortgage search underway.” (Again, remind them of the positive outcome they’ll get from the call).

6. Use a video

As well as having all the above as written information on the thank you page, you could also include a video of you saying hello and explaining what happens next.

This can be especially effective if you are a small business with only one or two mortgage advisers as it means there’s a good chance the person the client sees in the video will be the same person who is going to call them. And that helps break the ice and allows them to start getting to know you a bit even before you’ve actually had that first phone conversation.

7. Offer a self-booking option

I worked with a client once - a guy called Mike - who prided himself on the speed with which he responded to any leads that came in via his website. Whatever time of day it was and whatever he was doing, he’d always drop everything and call the lead immediately - even if it was the middle of the night or even, apparently, if he was in the middle of having a shower!

And Mike was genuinely surprised that, on a lot of these occasions, the prospect didn’t answer the phone or was quite shocked to have received a call so quickly.

As I explained to Mike, just because someone is in a position to fill in an enquiry form on your website at a particular moment, that doesn't mean that that’s a good time for them to receive a phone call. They might be sitting up in bed with their partner asleep beside them, or be on a crowded train where they don’t want to be overheard. Or they may even be on the toilet.

So why not let your potential client book a callback from you at a time that suits them.

This is really easy to do if you use an online booking system like 10to8 or Calendly. They both offer similar features but, personally, I prefer 10to8 as it does more things in the free version than Calendly does.

Here’s a screenshot showing what the 10to8 booking system looks like when you embed it in your website:

As you can see, it offers a choice of dates and times and then the client can pick one that suits them and enter their name, email and phone number. 

10to8 synchs with Outlook/Apple/Google calendar which means that all bookings made via the website go straight into whichever calendar you use. It also means it won’t offer people slots at times when you have other things already booked in your diary.

Of course, not everyone will want to book an appointment in this way, so it’s good to offer people a choice. If you’re going to include 10to8 or Calendly on your thank you page, I suggest you modify the example message I gave you above to say something like:

8. Offer a lead magnet

If you have a lead magnet, it’s a good idea to offer it to people on your thank you page. That way, more of your prospects will join your mailing list and receive automated follow-up emails from you. 

The beauty of this is that, even if you don’t manage to contact them or help them off the back of their initial enquiry, they will automatically be nurtured and kept warm by your email marketing system so that, when they are ready to do something, they are more likely to come straight back to you rather than start their online search all over again.

You can find out how to create a lead magnet in this article or you can click here if you'd like to save time and buy one of my ready-made ones.

I hope this article has given you some ideas for how you can increase the contact rate that you get with the people who submit mortgage enquiries via your website and turn more of your mortgage leads into mortgage appointments.

If you’ve got a tip that works for you and which I’ve not included here, do let me know in the comments.