When it comes to selling home loans online, Town & Country Credit finds that personalization works wonders.
Finding a home loan certainly isn’t like finding the latest release from your favorite band. For the latter, consumers have learned to simply log on to Amazon.com or CDNow, type in an artist’s name, fill in their credit card info, and, voilá, the CD arrives in their mailbox.
The acquisition process for a home loan isn’t that simple, but one company is trying to change that.
With the recent relaunch of its Web site, Town & Country Credit aims to condition consumers to go to the Internet, not only to get loan information but also to fill out loan applications—essentially, purchasing home loans the same way they purchase CDs.
The new site delivers a customized, personalized experience to consumers based on where they are in the purchasing cycle. That has boosted the number of online loan applications 18 percent.
Serving 25 states, Town & Country offers a full range of mortgage lending services to homeowners and homebuyers. Its Web site functions as an indirect sales channel, capturing and qualifying leads from Web and direct mail campaigns and funneling prospects to local branches for sales conversion.
White Horse, the agency behind the redesign, analyzed the old site and found that it didn’t give users directions or options they needed to complete critical steps in the application process. As a result, users grew more frustrated with the experience and didn’t complete the process.
“Since the initial 2002 launch of our Web site, it has played an increasingly important role in lead generation,” says Michelle Larsh, director of marketing for Town & Country. “As we saw the online marketing channel becoming a significant contributor to our overall sales efforts, we realized that to maximize its potential, we needed to enhance the site’s marketing and technological capabilities. White Horse recommended a scenario-driven user experience powered by ATG’s (Art Technology Group, Inc.) personalization capabilities, which has optimized our online marketing efforts by providing a targeted, meaningful experience for our customers. This strategic, customized approach is helping us to generate more leads.”
White Horse and ATG used Town & Country’s existing data models to develop distinct customer profiles that would drive different scenarios. Town & Country serves a vast array of the mortgage market, from credit-challenged prospects seeking to pull cash out to A-paper prospects buying a home. The motivations of these prospects are vastly different, and thus communication to these prospects needs to be personalized. For example, the prospect who comes to the site through a paid keyword that denotes credit-challenged status would see messaging that speaks to their specific pain points. Follow-up communication also speaks to their status and needs.
“This process is vastly more efficient than the usual method of building out separate jump pages and user experiences, tracking segments separately, attempting to balance self-selection from the home page, etc,” says Jen DeVoe, White Horse principal.
The system also enables Town & Country to use the most appropriate and effective follow-up. For example, if a prospect provides contact information but doesn’t commit, that behavior triggers a scenario for an automated email, which may include incremental offers.
Town & Country is now able to use multiple touchpoints, such as these targeted email campaigns, as well as online content to move customers through the sales cycle. The improved level of online customer self-service has generated longer site visits, increased site traffic and a better perception of the Town & Country brand among customers.
Future marketing efforts would include personalized direct mail and email campaigns that align with the site’s segmentation strategy.
“This solution works very well for integration with outbound direct marketing: It enables us great efficiency in developing very targeted campaigns for specific loan products because we can drive multiple campaign scenarios through a single dynamic-content landing page, and customize the experience throughout,” says White Horse’s DeVoe.