Buying a first home is something many people look forward to. We all dream of that space to call our own, even if most of us share it with a partner. Especially in land scarce Singapore.
So much so that one of the most common proposals isn’t “Will you marry me?” but “Do you want to BTO?” or in Singapore colloquial “Ai BTO mai?”.
Even if we have to share that space with a few hundred other couples and families.
So much has to happen for us to buy our first home that a lot of us forget that the place we are going to call home will need to be paid for. If you’re buying a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat (it’s a subsidized apartment also known as public housing in Singapore), most likely, you’ll go with the HDB (Housing Development Board) loan, paid out via your CPF OA (Central Provident Fund – Ordinary Account. The CPF accounts are essentially a government enforce savings from our salaries). Otherwise, for private property owners, usually, you’ll be taking on a loan via either your bank, or one recommended by the agent who sold you your property.
For most people, that’s as far as they’ll go with regards to the mortgage that they take up, even though it is one of the most expensive things they’ll ever buy (their house).
That’s where our clients come in. They’re a boutique mortgage brokerage which helps clueless homeowners find the best mortgage for their homes. Even a 0.1% decrease in interest rates can save us as homeowners thousands of dollars over the course of the mortgage. The problem comes when homeowners either just take the HDB concessionary loan (which currently at 2.6%, is one of the highest in the market) or whatever their bank offers them at that point in time.
However, as you know, interest rates rise and dip from time to time. The secret is to refinance (or Refi) when the time is right, to lock in the best rates. Now, unless you are in the finance industry, or the mortgage industry, you would not be likely to pay attention to stuff like SIBOR (what’s that? It’s the Singapore InterBank Offered Rate, which is the interest rate banks lend to each other at) or mortgage interest rates. And, who would call up 8 or 10 banks just to find the best rate?
Maybe you turn to your property agent? But again, his or her job is to sell you property, and earn the fat stacks that the developer gives them. He probably can’t give you the best answer. So you head back to office, to another day at work, to pay off your property loan.
However nice the office, more free time would be great, right?
On the flip side, if you’re a mortgage broker and you want to help your customers save money on their mortgage (and earn you a some commission from the bank), how do you find these customers and convince them that you can save them money?
Do you just randomly start dialing numbers, telling whoever is on the other side of the line you can help them save a few hundred dollars a month?
Singaporeans are already quite jaded with insurance agents, property agents, and even their telco for such sales calls. Why should they listen to you, or even pick up the call from an unknown number in the first place?
What if you could find a way to reach out to a huge group of property owners, convince them of the truth – that they are overpaying for their mortgage, and that money can be better used for a holiday at the end of the year?
Imagine if instead of educating those customers on how much they can save, they learn about how you can help them to save, almost on autopilot, and they come knocking on your door to ask for your help?
And best of all, imagine all of this happening while you are asleep. Homeowners sending you their contact details, the amount of loans they have outstanding, what type of property they’re looking to finance / refinance, without you lifting a single finger.
That was what our client wanted.
They were a little sick of cold calling all day and getting rebuffed, buying lists of homeowners who have been pitched to multiple times, and the homeowners who responded to them would just block their calls the second the call ended.
Just like going on a first date and getting ghosted afterwards
So we did a study into their business, and found out about the various types of homeowners, as well as what those homeowners did. We broadly segmented the homeowners / customer base into 3 types of people:
- The HDB homeowners. Maybe they just got their BTOs, or maybe they’ve been living in their HDBs for quite a while. It’s likely that they took whatever loan HDB offered them (usually at CPF interest rate +0.1%) and ran with it. While this group was the largest group of homeowners, they also have the lowest loan quantum, as prices of HDB are subsidized, and thus, their prices are lower.
- The private property owners. Usually they’re already financed with their bank, and would not have shopped around for a better rate, or expect their RM (Relationship Manager) to inform them of any rate changes. While this group is way smaller than the first group, they are well heeled, and their loan quantum is larger than the first group, so on a one-to-one basis, one of the private property mortgage is more profitable for our clients than one of the HDB homeowners.
- The property investors. Snagging a property investor (with multiple properties) is like scoring a perfect 300 game at bowling. Or winning the top prize at lottery. The property investor is usually a savvy person, and would follow mortgage interest rate closer than the first two groups of customers. The bank they finance with would usually give them a better deal than the published rate, and it’s harder to break into this circle. However, you can still engage them by sharing knowledge. They care more about your expertise than just a simple “I can save you money on your mortgage” line.
Once we’ve segmented out the broad audience groups, we start to find out more about what makes each of the groups tick. What separates a condo owner from a landed property owner? What separates the private property owner from a HDB owner? What are their fears, their dreams, their goals and aspirations?
We then tailored our ads on social media and search engines to align with the goals of the homeowners. And while saving money for the homeowners is the goal, the different groups of property owners and investors have different lifestyles, and are attuned to different needs.
Our landing pages would have to be tailored to the different groups, with different USP (Unique Selling Proposition) targeted at each group, along with different types of testimonials and even slightly different information and CTA (Call-To-Action).
By understanding our client’s customers, almost as well as they do, we were able to set up a campaign that was profitable from the first month, and generated tons of referrals for extra revenue for our client.
Money in the hands of those who know how to utilize it will bring better results
Are you in the finance industry, looking to supercharge your funnel of leads? Or maybe, you want to tweak your marketing campaign to bring in better results in this period of uncertainty.
Drop us a message and we’ll get in touch with you.
