A woman friend of mine called me a few weeks ago and was totally frustrated in her quest to find a mortgage for the home she wanted to purchase. Shopping on the phone, loan officers quoted the normal rate, points and closing cost stuff—but when she wanted to ask questions—it seemed that all they wanted to do was get the face-to-face appointment or send her information in the mail.
Same thing happened to her online. In searching for information, there were only a few websites that specifically provided information that “inquiring (women) minds” wanted to know.
My conclusion is that not many originators know exactly how to relate to the woman mortgage shopper. Another mistake is that you are NOT just marketing to women in general, but sub-sets of women—like African-American/Hispanic women (or ethnic persuasion), single without children; single with children; widow or divorced and even lesbian women.
What you need to know when creating your marketing for women:
Between 70 to 80 percent of all financial decisions are made by women.
More than 9 million women own their own businesses.
Women buy more than half of all cars and homes sold.
Women are more pressured for time.
When men shop, they shop for themselves.
Women shop for themselves and their families—including their spouse.
Women are more risk-adverse than men.
Women want MORE information than just the basics.
Women want to build long-term relationships.
On-line, females today account for 52% of the population and it is predicted that within a few years, there will be 10 million more women online, than males.
According to Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment, women are more profitable customers because:
- Their current spending decisions are just the tip of the ice berg—as women advance in the workplace and baby boomer women inherit from first their parents and then their husbands, they acquire more and more buying power.
- Women are more loyal, making follow-up marketing more important than ever. Word-of-mouth constitutes free marketing of the most powerful kind.
- If a woman is happy with the service or information you provide, the men in her life will be more apt to do business with you as well.
- Women’s segments are still untapped which provides a greater opportunity for you and will have greater impact.
What others are doing in positioning themselves as female-friendly.
Cathy Bishop-Martinez calls herself the Real Estate Diva and holds seminars for African-American women who want to invest in rental property, apartments or small commercial. She has teamed up with a mortgage company to offer financing options.
Citibank and Charles Schwab have created entire departments for women investors.
Office Max and Best Buy have created a small office/home office division with emphasis on working with women. Instead of just showing 15 different desks they can purchase, they show entire office spaces and how they might look with different chairs, credenzas, tables and office equipment. It’s the one-stop shopping concept because of the time-pressures of most women.
Women outnumber men, 2 to 1 in the fields of human resources and purchasing agents. If you plan on creating a corporate mortgage savings program, you will need to provide step-by-step details on exactly how it will work and how it will save employees time and money (after all, HR people look at the employees as their extended family). As far as purchasing agents go—it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that that’s what they do anyway—that is, SHOP.
A couple of women loan officers in New Mexico give home buying seminars for women only. In addition to bringing in a home inspector, buyer’s real estate agent and appraiser, they also invite the local police to provide crime stats for different areas of the city.
Based upon the examples above, brainstorm as to what you can do to incorporate marketing to women in your own mortgage practice.
Female-Friendly Mortgage Websites:
www.MsFinancialSavvy.com (Click on the mortgage button and read ”The 6 Things to do Before Shopping for a Mortgage or Look for a New Home”.) The site also includes info on how to comparison shop and recommended books.
www.WIFE.org (which stands for Women’s Institute for Financial Education) and includes a Q & A section and E-Newsletter for women.
www.efanniemae.com has a PDF. Brochure called “Empowering Women to Homeownership” that you can print and download.
www.WFN.com (which stands for Women’s Financial Network) that offers courses online; ask a question and specific articles written in womenese.
www.4-mortgages.com.uk is a mortgage company in the UK that is a great example of marketing to women with a button that says, “Mortgages for women”.
www.MortgagesForWomen.com.au is an Australian site that contains detailed explanations of different types of loans. Read the “About the Owners” page where they describe the seminars they hold for women with a team of professional women specializing not only in mortgages, but financial planning, property investment, wills, etc.
Your largest, fastest growing markets are waiting.
Women control consumer spending.
They are accumulating assets faster now, than any time in history.
They are the decision makers.
What are you doing to insure the future of your business?
Karen Deis…when in-house training is not enough.
Copyright, 2005, LoanOfficerMagazine.com
