The mortgage industry is highly competitive. As of 2021, there were over 340,000 employed mortgage loan officers in the US, and this number doesn’t include self-employed MLOs, nor those who gained an NMLS license and have yet to dip their toes in the industry.

How do you differentiate yourself and your business from the competition in an industry, such as mortgage, that relies on trust? Content marketing, especially – social media marketing.

However, content marketing requires continuous creative effort and continuous posting, and that, in turn, requires a lot of creative energy.

If you’re running a small business where you and your fellow MLOs each wear multiple hats, constantly coming up with new content while still dealing with clients and processing loans is an exhausting endeavor with a high risk of burnout.

The best way to avoid this scenario is to divide your content strategy into content pillars, AKA topic groups you would like to post about, and prepare posts in advance whenever you can. This way, you will have reference points, and even a few backup posts for weeks where you’re extra busy, taking time off for the holidays, or simply don’t know what to write.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of eight content pillar ideas mortgage loan officers can use to start building out their marketing strategy.

1. Mortgage Loan Officer Spotlights

Woman sitting at desk, resting elbows on the table and her face in her palms, smiling. On the desk, there's a laptop, a phone, a pen, and a ficus plant in the background.

Running feature posts on yourself and your coworkers is a great way to put a face (or faces) to the name of your business, and show potential borrowers exactly who they’d be working with.

There are many ways you can go about creating spotlights. It can be something as simple as featuring an image and key values, skills, and experiences of your fellow MLOs. Think of it as a sneak-peak of a resume: work experience, education, specialty, etc.

Alternatively, you can make announcements for your employee of the week/month/year and detail their key accomplishments with which they earned this badge.

If you’d rather not publicize employee performance, joint thought leadership is also a great way to give your MLOs some PR while building trust with your prospects. Think of things like a pro tip from each team member regarding advice for first-time homebuyers, FAQs on the loan origination process, or other topics that may be relevant and attractive to borrowers.

Make the information short and digestible and create a visual for socials with a nice headshot of your loan officer, a name and a logo, and a text box quoting their advice, and you’ve got yourself some great, easy-to-make content that your whole team can participate in!

Here are some other honorable mentions you can use for employee spotlight content pillars:

  • New MLO joining the company.
  • Anniversary of employment at your business.
  • Employee hosting a webinar/seminar.
  • New personal accomplishments (certification, education, upskilling…).
  • Features of daily life (hobbies and interests of your MLOs outside of work).

2. Borrower Spotlight

Man and woman holding a chalkboard and a baby, smiling and standing in front of a house door. The chalkboard has little harts drawn on it and "our first home" written out.

Not every prospect knocking at your door should have their face spread across their social media, however, once you have a successful collaboration behind you, promoting your client can function as a mini case study for your mortgage business.

You can use this content pillar to announce closed loans, share reviews and testimonials, or perhaps even call your past client a few months after loan closing to ask if they would like to share pictures of their new home on your social media handles.

This is a good opportunity to keep the post-close client nurture going and gain some good word of mouth.

3. Inspirational and Motivational Quotes

A hand holding a phone, with an image of a wooden background and a text quote on top saying "dreams don't work unless you do".

Putting quotes from other thought leaders in relevant industries that may empower your prospects to make decisions is a great way to increase your reach and engagement. Plus, let’s face it – they’re probably some of the easiest posts to source and make!

In the digital age, you don’t need to rewind a webinar or buy a book to source a good quote (although, if you have the time and means to do it, you absolutely can).

It’s as easy as hopping onto Google and looking up quote ideas via target keywords, for example: best quotes regarding money and personal finance. Just like that, you’re introduced to pages and pages of great material waiting to be formatted for social media and published! Don’t forget to credit the source, though.

4. Sharing PR features

Two women sitting in front of microphones and smiling, preparing for a radio show or podcast.

Got featured in an article or called to participate in a TV/radio interview? Share, share, SHARE! Getting press coverage establishes your credibility and legitimacy and is a great opportunity to get referrals.

If you have LinkedIn (and given that this is the largest business networking social media platform in 2021, we hope you do), then tagging the PR company in your post will give your account more reach and impressions. Tagging accounts in posts is one of the best ways to master LinkedIn’s algorithm.

Getting more traction by tagging referral sources isn’t just a good practice for LinkedIn, but all social media channels. If the account is smaller or has a good community management tactic set in place, chances are the company will see you shared the feature and re-share your post on their stories and/or react to your post, instantly giving you traction from their following, as well.

Remember to also post links to any relevant PR campaigns on your website. An “as featured in” section on your website will provide social proof for prospective customers who don’t know your brand through word of mouth and have stumbled upon it through organic search or while scrolling through their social media explore pages.

5. Introduction to the Loan Origination Process

Hand signing papers titled "debt", with a calculator, cup of coffee, keys and money on the table. Mortgage agreement.

How many times does one person take out a mortgage loan? An individual in the US can legally apply for up to ten mortgage loans, but it’s pretty rarely seen that people take more than four, and most stick to buying a house only once – renting in the meantime.

This is all to say that, unless your prospect has a background in legal and finance or they’re not new to home purchasing, you should assume that they are only just now learning the ins and outs of what applying for a mortgage loan actually entails.

Sharing some of this information on your social media can be extremely helpful for first-time home buyers. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing for this content pillar:

  • The roadmap of a loan origination process.
  • A checklist of needed documents.
  • FAQs on credit scores.
  • Mortgage terminology glossary.
  • An overview of mortgage plans.

You can expand this list based on the most common questions first-time homebuyers ask you when they come into your office.

6. Sharing your Lead Magnets

Tablet with an email subscription registration popup on the screen.

If you have lead magnets available that are evergreen (pssst, we’ve written a post on the best lead magnets for mortgage loan officers) then there’s no reason to not feature them over and over again.

However, remember to not spam your feed completely with lead magnets. Keep it balanced and have a feature once a week or once a month; a post calling your social media following to subscribe to your newsletter, join your chat group, download your ebook, or whatever other lead magnets you have.

It’s not going to be too redundant if you’re posting fresh content in-between, and it’s going to keep your unique selling points top-of-mind for new prospects who have just recently given you a follow.

7. Mortgage Industry News

Person scrolling news feed on Twitter on their phone while sitting at computer desk.

If you’re passionate about your job, you’re probably constantly keeping up with industry trends and news. These are valuable sources of information for your prospect base and a great networking opportunity for your own business.

Portals like National Mortgage News, CNBC, HousingWire, and Mortgage News Daily keep up with all things related to the housing market, with plenty of B2C content worth sharing on your own accounts.

Social media handles like Instagram still require visual content to be created for every post, which may be hard to pull together on a busy day.

However, just sharing a link to an article and tagging the source on Twitter or LinkedIn is a quick and easy means of keeping the posting cadence alive while not having to curate and adapt content yourself.

8. Celebrating (Social Media) Holidays

Star ornament in branches of Christmas tree with dim yellow lights, with text on it saying "Let's celebrate together".

There are loads and loads of holidays that are not often shared on social media, but that are relevant to the mortgage industry and mortgage marketing, or just to business marketing in general.

Financial Awareness Month, National Financial Awareness Day, National Checklist Day, and Get to Know Your Customers Day are a few good examples (you can find a comprehensive list of holidays on Hootsuite and Social Bakers), but you can post about “regular” holidays, as well. A nice Christmas card, New Year’s Eve wishes, or Fourth of July salutation will look great on your feed alongside the rest of your posts and provide some breathing room from talking about finances and mortgages.

Has this list of content pillars sparked some ideas for your mortgage marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments!