Though there are many marketing strategies that loan officers employ on a regular basis, all of these efforts need to stem from a solid foundation — a strong brand identity. Your brand refers to anything from the visual components (logo, font, and colors) to your interactions with clients. If you haven’t spent much time considering the power of a strong brand, think about companies like Apple who have built an empire off of a reputable brand. LOs who want to scale new heights should focus on establishing a brand identity that they intentionally create and maintain. I wrote before about the key to a strong brand, here, but this week I wanted to explore some of the common mistakes loan officers make when it comes to building their brand. Here are the top branding mistakes LOs should look out for:
Passivity
For busy LOs, approaching their brand passively is a common but harmful tendency. Rather than building and curating their brand intentionally, they let it shape itself. Every element should be considered — content, images, color scheme, testimonials, blogs, videos, and your customer service/client experience. When you’re clear and confident about how your brand looks and the message it conveys, you’re able to make sure it stays cohesive. Every aspect of your brand is an opportunity to communicate something positive about your business, and you have to make the most of that opportunity.
Neglecting the Visual Aspect
While a loan officer’s brand isn’t only about visual elements, they do make up an important segment. Things like your profile picture, logo, and your color scheme all contribute to your visual brand. When you use outdated or incohesive visuals, you can send the wrong messages to prospects and clients. They could see you as out of touch, or worse, your visual brand can fail to communicate anything about you at all. Make the visual component of your brand a priority — use a high-quality logo, recent photos, and a color scheme that is uniform wherever you appear.
Inconsistency
Another branding mistake I see with loan officers is inconsistency. Your website, blog, social-media profiles and posts, emails, and printed materials should all work together to create a unified image and identity for you and your business. Make it easy for your prospects and clients to identify your business from the competition, and allow them to get a sense of who you are and how you operate. It’s also important to maintain your brand consistently by keeping it up to date. This means posting regularly to any pages you have and engaging with your network. Regular posts show that there’s a person behind the business, and it works to keep your brand fresh.
Inauthenticity
Your brand should be about you, not about what you think your clients want to see. Hopefully, those two things align in most ways, but designing a brand with the sole intention of appealing to prospects can be a recipe for disaster. If your brand misrepresents you, you’ll undoubtedly lose credibility. If it feels inauthentic, it can turn off your prospects before they ever make contact. You want to create your brand from things that are important to you. Your personality, your style of service, and the things that make you love what you do should all be expressed in your brand. It’s a great way for prospects to get to know you before ever meeting you.
Whether you run your own shop or you work for a giant corporation, your brand is an integral part of your business. By avoiding these mistakes, you’ll have an easier time differentiating yourself from the competition and making a stronger impression.
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