Power New Loan Growth With Better Marketing Precision

Marketers, let’s face it. Finding ways to drive customer growth is always a challenge. But it’s even more of a challenge when your business and your customers are faced with a changing economy and a volley of hits to budgets and priorities.

Marketing resources are tight, and many of us are bracing for near term budget cuts. So, marketers need to extract maximum impact from the resources they have.

One route to efficiency is better campaign precision. If you're a lender, the trick is to find consumers seeking new credit and deliver your offers when they are most likely to say yes. The result: improve your chance of winning more new customers and expanding existing relationships.

Lender Challenge #1: 

We know thousands of consumers are actively looking for new lines of credit right now, but we don’t know how to identify them quickly enough before they go with a competitor.

Equifax estimates about 700,000 U.S. consumers are seeking a new line of credit at any given time. But, consumers often make their loan decisions quickly. If you don’t act fast, there is a good chance they will choose another lender. Check out these stats:

• Overall, 49% of open trades happen within the first 15 days of an inquiry for new credit.

• For consumers seeking a new auto loan, over 48% make their lender choice on day one. Over 86% decide by the 15th day.

• Over 61% of consumers that open a new personal finance loan make their decision on which firm to borrow from within the first 15 days.

You need to get your offers in front of these in-market credit seekers ASAP. Waiting just a day to deliver an offer could be a lost opportunity. 

Here’s what you can do: Receive daily alerts of consumers who initiate new credit inquiries. That could be from either prequalifcations or applications. Then, you can respond with your own firm offer. 

Let’s dive into this: Corey applies for a personal finance loan at another firm. You get the alert, and you quickly append an email and phone number to his record. Then, you immediately reach out via email, phone, text message, or direct mail with your own competitive offer. If Corey is a current customer, you could even post an offer for him in your online app. Now, your offer is on Corey’s radar as he makes his decision about who to choose for his lending needs. Act fast - and you have a higher chance of capturing or keeping Corey’s business.

Lender Challenge #2: 

We have several Prescreen campaigns in the works and we want to deliver them to individuals who may be making a life change and need credit in the near future - a new auto loan, a new mortgage, a new personal finance loan, a new credit card. Who are these consumers?

Consider the following. Who would you rather include on your auto loan campaign target list - a person who looks like Mary, who just opened a new auto loan? Or a person that looks like Julie, who meets all of the criteria for your typical Prescreen campaign. Ideally, both!  

With intent scores, you can send your offers to consumers that have the same characteristics as consumers who have recently acquired the credit product you want to promote. These consumers have the propensity to open new credit in the next two to four months. Couple this with your Prescreen criteria to reach qualified audiences who are likely to be receptive to your offers.

But you might think “my company is already using response models to target consumers for our offers.” 

Here’s what we know: By using intent scores in conjunction with your response models, you could improve your performance. In fact, our Consumer Finance Intent Score offered a path to capture 50% more loans over one client’s existing response model - using the same marketing spend. 

If you really want to boost your targeting and campaign response, try combining intent scores with daily alerts of in-market credit seekers (see Lender Challenge #1!). You will have the combined power of reaching consumers with both the propensity to open new credit in the near future AND have taken action to open new credit. These audiences are more likely to be receptive to your offers.  

Lender Challenge #3:  

Our acquisition budgets are tight. Besides prescreen, what are some other options for attracting new audiences, who will respond to our offers, on a limited budget?

As you know, prescreen campaigns can be an investment. And since they are regulated, they come with restrictions. Instead, consider Invitation to Apply (ITA) campaigns. They can be a more flexible and cost-effective way to get your lending messages distributed to a broad audience. Here are a few options to ensure your ITA campaigns reach consumers likely to respond.

First, leverage the best of Prescreen learnings to power your ITA targeting. By using non-FCRA based lookalike models, you can target consumers that have similar credit and economic characteristics as those of successful prescreen audiences. So, if a consumer, Jim, responded to your prescreen offer for a new bank card, then a bankcard lookalike model will help you reach audiences that look like Jim for your ITA bank card campaign. 

Second, target audiences that are likely to open or respond to a credit offer. Sounds similar to Lender Challenge #2 right? It is. You can do this much more cost-effectively for ITA targeting by using non-FCRA intent indicators to trim your ITA target list. These measures help identify consumers who are likely to take action to acquire credit in the next 90 days.

Finally, fuel your digital ITA campaigns by reaching optimal online audiences. For example, deliver ads to the 9.5% of households that are millennials who are likely to respond to a credit card offer, or the 13.5% of households who are very likely in the market for an auto loan with good credit. There is a wide array of digital targeting segments that can help you get your online ads in front of desirable consumers.

Drive response. Reach consumers that are ready for your credit offers.

With the potential of marketing and acquisition budgets shrinking, you know you need to make the most of every dollar spent. That’s why you should make sure that your Prescreen and ITA campaigns are reaching audiences that are most likely to respond to your lending offers. 

With the right scores and measures, you can capture more new customers and expand current relationships. Discover how the latest economic shifts could be affecting your lending strategy with a complimentary Market Pulse Advisory with one of our experts. Explore our ebook to dive deeper into our in-market solutions and discover new ways to reach and capture in-market audiences before your competition.