Evocalize announced a big new deal this week with mortgage company Guaranteed Rate. The deal seems to signal the future of how digital marketing platforms will work with clients in the era following the FCC’s recent decision to close the “lead generation loophole.”
That ruling makes it much harder to send marketing texts to protect consumers. Anyone who has filled out a form to view real estate listings or check mortgage rates knows what this experience is like. The FCC ruling seemed designed to protect customers from an experience that to many feels like spam.
However, some industries rely on leads generated this way and the ruling makes acquiring customers much more difficult.
When we spoke with Evocalize CEO Matt Marx on our This Week in Local podcast days after the ruling, he noted that mortgages was one of the industries most impacted by the ruling because of its reliance on lead generation sites for leads.
New Way to Generate Leads
The new partnership with Guaranteed Rate involves creating a new way for mortgage brokers to generate leads in the post “lead generation loophole” era.
Back in December, Marx was sounding alarm bells that closing the loophole would make life harder for many of his company’s clients.
“Many small businesses rely directly or indirectly on leads purchased through comparison shopping websites and industry portals,” Marx told Localogy Insider at the time.
“It’s easier, in some cases, to do so than investing in their own lead generation programs. We believe these lead aggregators are likely to adjust their practices to continue post-enforcement operations. It’s a broad consensus at this point that the cost of the leads they sell will go up and the number of leads available will fall.”
Engaging More Directly
Marx also said back in December that Evocalize was recommending “that our clients begin diversifying their lead generation strategies. Including enhancing their online presence and engaging more directly with potential customers through digital media and content marketing,” Marx said.
The new deal with Guaranteed Rate appears designed to blunt the FCC’ ruling’s impact. Many companies that once relied on lead aggregators will now need to figure out how to generate their own leads. And in a manner that isn’t cost-prohibitive.
“Together, we’re making it easy for their users to leverage their local data to automatically run highly sophisticated digital programs to generate their own leads,” Marx said.
“This is especially important given the pressures from the recently announced FCC/TCPA changes. And the need for loan officers to control their own lead generation and nurture efforts. From first touch to funded loan.”
Via Evocalize’s Collaborative Marketing Platform, Guaranteed Rate will offer access to Evocalize’s EVOLVE technology. EVOLVE features real-time data for automation and machine learning algorithms to optimize performance across multiple ad platforms.
“Together, we’re making it easy for their users to leverage their local data to automatically run highly sophisticated digital programs to generate their own leads. This is especially important given the pressures from the recently announced FCC/TCPA changes. And the need for loan officers to control their own lead generation and nurture efforts from first touch to funded loan.”
Control Their Own Destiny
Evocalize’s VP of Marketing explains it further.
“Not only do loan officers need sophisticated tools to effectively grow and engage their spheres, they also need the ability to build their own database, especially in light of the recent FCC changes,” Evocalize’s Justin Ulrich told Localogy Insider.
“Now more than ever, it’s imperative that they have the ability to generate their own leads. And control their own destiny. This partnership will do just that for the network of Guaranteed Rate loan officers.”
