DATA STRATEGIES FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKETERS

Tranzact Information Services is now Datamyx

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Tranzact Information Services has rebranded its identity to “Datamyx”.  However, it’s not just a new name and new look.  With it comes new energy to provide an enhanced ability to meet the marketing demands of our customers in both the online and offline space.  “Datamyx” is a name that encapsulates the value we can provide to marketing programs through our unique blend of Data, Technology, and Analytics.   This unique “myx” is designed to offer real solutions to your marketing needs ultimately leading to real results that are measureable.

Data has always been and will continue to be the driver of our success.  In addition to the very unique relationship we enjoy with all 3 credit bureaus, our quality is second to none in the industry.  It is these data assets that fuel successful campaigns for many of the top financial services marketers and has been the backbone of our organization since its inception.

Intelidata Express is the most sophisticated system to get access to over 220 million consumers within minutes.  Marketers enjoy not only the lightning quick access, but the platform is also designed to support cross-sell and retention programs so that lenders can focus on maintaining and growing their existing customers.

Our hidden gem is our vertical expertise in tandem with deep modeling and analytics expertise.   Having all elements in place (data, technology, and analytics) combined with the brainpower of our specialized team has enabled us to maximize ROI for our customers as part of a strategic, comprehensive, approach that has launched us to the forefront of Risk-Based Marketing companies.  These capabilities combined. allow us to provide these services at a fraction of the costs of standalone analytic providers.

Web-based marketers can experience the power of a relationship with Datamyx.  Real-time access to our data assets can offer countless opportunities to strengthen web lead generation and increased web lead conversion.  Identifying prospects that are most likely to convert and then gaining the intelligence to refine campaigns and scale business is our specialty. 

Financial marketing has evolved dramatically over the past 5 years and Datamyx is uniquely positioned to provide cutting-edge and technologically-advanced information products and services to optimize customer acquisition, retention and cross-sell programs.

Find More Veterans Eligible for VA Mortgages With New List Source

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There is an old saying, "Do well by doing good."  Helping a veteran refinance into a lower cost mortgage or obtain a first-time mortgage truly benefits individuals who have served our country.  Plus mortgage marketers can now more efficiently and profitably reach this desirable segment using new lists and lead sources from Tranzact Information Services (TIS).

Months of Testing Preceded the December Rollout

Long known for providing data solutions for mortgage marketing, TIS recently added information on more than 9 million veterans to our database.  This new data greatly expands the universe of prospects for VA mortgages.  Before adding the information numerous tests were conducted with large mortgage marketers and mailers to test the accuracy of the data and results were favorable.  To keep the offering fresh, the database will be updated every other month.  The veteran data is multi-sourced but comes primarily from surveys.

List and Lead Options that Fit Your Processes

TIS maintains one of the largest consumer and mortgage databases that also has information from all three credit bureaus.  Clients create marketing lists in one pass using credit, mortgage and demographic criteria, such as the presence of a veteran in the household.  More and more marketers are also using the data to score inbound leads from websites or call centers in real time, to appropriately route the lead and offer the most logical mortgage product.  

The biggest question for most marketers is which type of credit data should be used along with the veteran data to best fit your organization's marketing goals, budget and compliance process.

1. Prescreen lists - These lists are based on actual credit information from one or more of the major credit bureaus.  These highly accurate lists require a firm offer of credit, often called a pre-approval.  Another benefit of these lists is that the current mortgage balance and payment can be used to identify the best prospect for a refinance to a lower rate.
2. Prescreen daily triggers (leads) - Every business day the credit bureaus provide a list of consumers that have applied for a mortgage. These consumers have started the mortgage application process, which shows commitment.  Triggers are available for the current customers of banks, credit union and mortgage companies or non-customers. Mortgage triggers can include an indication on the data output that the prospect is a veteran, so the loan officer working the lead knows a VA mortgage is an option.
3. Estimated credit lists - TIS' proprietary proxy credit score, called Risk Insight, can be used to estimate the credit score of an individual or household.  This score can be combined with veterans and mortgage information to create a highly targeted list, without the requirement of a firm offer of credit.  The creative for mailers or phone scripts does not have to be approved in the credit bureau compliance process, which allows for fast creative changes and speed to market.
4. Lead scoring - TIS can append information to an incoming lead, including presence of a veteran in the household.  For financial organizations that rely heavily on purchased leads from a variety of sources, the quality improvement and insight from scoring makes lead follow up more efficient.

Credit Triggers...The Surest Shot For Mortgage Marketers

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There's a lot of competition out there. Mortgage marketers are firing off direct mail, email, keyword buys and outbound calls to acquire new customers during this refi boom.  Everyone wants to make the most of the low rates.  But how can marketers target with pinpoint accuracy...the consumers most likely to close?  The best prospect is a consumer who has already made the decision to buy or refi, and has started the application process.

How Can I Find a Consumer Who Applied for A Mortgage With My Competition?

All three credit bureaus offer "triggers" which are "lists" of consumers who applied for a mortgage the previous day or week with any lender.  (The schedule varies depending on the bureau.) Trigger prospects can be downloaded daily from Tranzact Information Services, or we can automate the feed.  These trigger consumers are such hot prospects that marketers should contact them within seven days, by mail, email or phone.

How Can I Get the Most Triggers?

When customers are in the early stages of a mortgage application, the credit inquiry often goes to just one of the three major credit bureaus.  So the best way to ensure that you get all the triggers is with a tri-bureau solution.  Every business day, Tranzact Information Services (TIS) aggregates the triggers from multiple bureaus and provides them to clients for use in approved marketing programs. Only TIS has the files of all three credit bureaus and can perform this process in one pass.

Are There "Rules" for Using Credit Triggers?

It's not the Wild West.  Credit Triggers are governed by FCRA regulations. That means a firm offer of credit must be made to consumers if their credit is accessed for marketing purposes.  These firm offers, typically called "prescreens" or "pre-approvals" can be made based on your mortgage underwriting guidelines. So you don't pay for names that will never be approved by your lenders.  We can set up trigger programs for FHA, VA or HARP based on credit criteria plus information about an existing mortgage such as LTV.  One of the benefits of working with Tranzact Information Services is that we walk marketers throught the data selection and onboarding process with all the bureaus. In addition, we provide suggestions on what script, mailer or email will meet the bureau guidelines. 

Don't Guess. Accurately Project Your Incremental Lift.

Sophisticated mortgage marketers can use A/B testing to analyze results from marketing programs using trigger data vs. other types of data segmentation. You can learn more about incremental lift by downloading our November 2011 white paper, Universe Expansion.

Give Us A Call for the Counts.

Or skip reading the white paper and just call Tranzact Information Services' direct marketing professionals to run counts for you in real-time.  Call us at 800-488-9113 or complete a contact us form.  During a live online meeting, our professionals will show you just how easy it is to use trigger data and make the most of the refi boom.

Use Auto Lease Maturity Data to Conquest Other OEM's Owners

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A consumer with a lease ending in the next twelve months should be one of the most sought-after prospects for OEMs, regional auto marketing divisions, and dealership groups.  Yet few auto marketers seem to use lease maturity lists at all, much less in well-planned and measured conquest programs.  In the next 24 months more than 1.4 million consumers will have maturing leases.  Segmented by a credit score of 720 or higher, you may be missing out on 360,133 possible customers with maturing leases in 2012 and 537,990 in 2013.  (Tranzact Information Services maintains credit information from all three bureaus and can provide counts for consumers by many different credit criteria, including near prime and subprime.) 

The time is right for conquest programs.  Share is shifting, according to motorintelligence.com (a division of Autodata) and reported in the WSJ data center.  In October, year-over-year sales, Chrysler was up 27%, Toyota was down 7.9%, Nissan was up 18%, Hyundai was up 22.8% and Honda was down .5%.  That is just one month in a year of significant changes, caused by vehicle shortages, hot new models, a strong yen, and the fluctuating financial situation of consumers.  Loyalties and buying patterns are in flux, so now is the time to conquest.

What data makes for the BEST Lease Maturity list?

The best lists are created from multiple sources. Tranzact Information Services maintains all the sources mentioned below, in house.

From the credit bureau files

• Lease maturity date
• Estimated monthly payment amount
• Credit score, including special scores based only on auto payments

From third-party files

• Make/model of current vehicle
• Demographics of the lessee and household (e.g. presence of children)
• Estimated discretionary spending

(Not all data may be available on all consumer records. When using lists sourced from credit files, a firm offer of credit must be made.)

Important steps that lead to conquest

The right data is the foundation of a conquest program, but it is just one part of a well-planned marketing project. Keep these tips in mind:

1. Timing - if you wait until three to six months before maturity to start talking to lease customers, you may be too late to reach many consumers.  Some dealers are calling customers six months prior to maturity and pulling them forward.  
2. Offer - Consider making a two-part offer in the same mailer or email.  For example, offer a reward just for taking a test drive (such as a $25 restaurant gift card) as well as $500 or more in discounts or a down payment incentive.  Of course, the marketing materials must also include a firm offer of credit, such as pre-approval.
3. Repeat - Consumers often spend months considering vehicle purchases and search many web sites.  Don't lose touch through this long process.  Consider multiple touch points and marketing activities, such as mail/mail, mail/call or email/mail/email.

Don't let a conquest program become a frustrating quest

At TranzactIS, we focus on making complex programs easy to administer and more effective. We can pull maturing lease customer names from all three credit bureaus and suppress your customer names - in one pass.  No need for multiple vendors.  Call 800-488-9113 or complete the contact us form to speak to one of our data professionals and get counts for your markets.

Also sign up for our free blog and recieve future postings about making prescreen offers by email, targeting for auto refi offers and a variety of "best practices" of interest to financial marketers.  Recent blogs of interest include: Credit Proxy vs. Prescreen Data: Rules for Auto Marketers.

Be Smart about HARP: Guidelines for Marketers to Maximize ROI

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"Start with the end in mind."  That quote serves as a guideline for good strategy, efficient time management and in this case...strong ROI.  In today's blog, we'll provide marketing tips to help you originate loans under new Home Affordable Refinance Program, better known as HARP, which was announced on November 15, 2011.  The key is to start by targeting HARP prospects that will sail through underwriting and close quickly.

The Starting Point - Managing Response

Many consumers who are underwater on mortgages are eager to refinance but have not been able to - even under the prior HARP program.  Direct mail and other marketing programs for the new HARP program should have very high responses.

The prospect of strong response may elicit groans from loan officers and production teams.  Those complaints are because they experienced high fallout or non-qualification of prospects from the previous program, primarily because of LTV (loan to value) or credit issues.  The new program virtually removes the LTV limitation, so the biggest obstacle is gone.  Plus, Tranzact Information Services (TIS) has a simple solution that identifies consumers that are highly likely to qualify under the new guidelines:

For HARP prospects, look for:

1. Very good mortgage payment history.

2. Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac must be the investor in the current loan.

3. The current mortgage must have been originated on or before June 1, 2009.

4. A consumer with a credit score that meets your lenders' guidelines.

(Check the Fannie Mae announcement from 11.15.11 for full details.)

Tranzact Information Services (TIS) offers acquisition lists, data, appends and real-time scoring for all these criteria.  Plus the data can be pulled in one pass from all three credit bureaus from TIS' Intelidata Express platform, to maximize the available universe.

Try Lead Screening and Scoring to Identify the Quality Leads

Consumers are already running searches on the Internet to learn more about the program.  While some mortgage companies may market using only keywords, spending $10 or more per lead, many respondents will be unqualified.  That's true even with leads purchased from outside sources.  The key is to take advantage of the media coverage in the next few months to create urgency, yet identify and target only those able to truly qualify.  Let other companies sort through inbound response and spend valuable loan officer time speaking to prospects that will not qualify.  Focus on outbound mail, outbound telemarketing, or even a component servicer armed with a list of qualified prospects.  If you do rely on inbound leads, use a professional lead screening company, such as Tranzact Information Services to score the lead for the "best eligibility" for HARP or other mortgage products, and route the lead to the appropriate loan officer.

Where Can You Find the Most Qualified Prospects and Instantly Run Counts?

Tranzact Information Services, with 15+ years of experience providing mortgage data for marketing, has solutions to identify the best HARP prospects using our Intelidata Express platform. 

Get FREE Counts Today

Simply call 800-488-9113 or complete the "contact us" form and we'll set up a demo of Intelidata Express and run counts for your market area, for HARP or any mortgage program.

The End...At Last

If you "start with the end in mind" you will see that good strategy and smart targeting can kick off an efficient and profitable loan origination process.  Before you go...consider signing up for our free blog, which covers best practices in financial services marketing.

Reach More HARP Refi Prospects withTri-Bureau Prescreen Credit Data

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Guidelines for the enhanced HARP program are still being finalized, but many mortgage marketers are ALREADY checking prospect universes and planning marketing programs.  You can identify the largest universe of qualified prospects by relying on Tranzact Information Services (TIS) data and our Intelidata Express Platform to pull it quickly.  We help mortgage marketers to quickly and easily take advantage of the hottest opportunity for December 2011 and perhaps all of 2012.

TIS' unique offerings for HARP refinance programs include:

1. Credit data from all three bureaus - Since TIS maintains prescreen credit data in-house from all three bureaus, you will see the most prospects and can select only those most likely to meet HARP and your underwriting guidelines.

2. Accurate mortgage data - Using the TIS platform you can combine credit data and mortgage information to pull lists based on the LTV that your financial institution or lender will approve.  TIS has one of the most accurate LTV models in the country.

3. Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Lender Model - TIS created a proprietary lender ranking process to identify homeowners with a high likelihood of having a Fannie or Freddie mortgage.

4. Intelidata Express platform access 24/7 - Marketers can run counts and scenarios, as well as download data any time.  Or set up automated subscriptions to pull data every day, week or month.  TIS' Intelidata Express platform makes it easy to provide data to marketing agencies, mailers, call centers, or most important of all - your loan officers.

Leveraging our extensive mortgage files, pre-screen credit data and lender models Tranzact Information Services can identify more than 5 million HARP refinance candidates nationwide.  Due to their lack of refinance options in the past, these candidates are some of the most responsive mortgage prospects available.

Feel free to contact your Tranzact Information Services Client Manager for more information.  If you are new to TIS, we invite you to call us at 1-800-488-9113 for free counts and a demonstration.  Or contact us via the web. 

We also encourage you to sign up for our blog to keep up with the latest in mortgage marketing, including HARP, Veterans and purchase programs.  For financial services marketers that also offer auto loans and credit cards, this blog will be featuring ideas for 2012 programs in the coming weeks.

DMA 2011 Reflections: Balancing Online & Offline Lead Generation

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The Tranzact Information Services (TIS) team just returned from the 2011 Direct Marketing Association Conference in Boston. Billed as the Global Event for Real-Time Marketers, the show's presentations focused on the integration of all types of direct response channels, from mobile to direct mail.

That leads us to today's topic, which follows up on many of the discussions started at the DMA.

1. What is the smartest way to balance online and offline lead generation?

2. How can marketers in different industries use traditional, offline targeting techniques to improve their online targeting and lead scoring?

Measurement

The key to smart balance is measurement and testing.  Track not only customer acquisition costs but lifetime value by all channels, offline and online.  It is not surprising that companies that excel at tracking, such as insurance organizations, are believers in a variety of customer acquisition channels.  At the DMA we heard that direct mail channels are continuing to perform well and in many cases outperform online channels.

Strategy

Another notion of how to balance is whether your company wants to only reach active shoppers (often online) or to reach out to prospects that have not thought about your services but are highly qualified and look like best customers.  Large Mortgage lenders have robust PPC spend and purchase online leads. So they reach active shoppers. But they still mail heavily to highly-targeted lists based on credit score and property value.  A balance of both online and offline channels keeps a steady flow of qualified applicants in the Mortgage pipeline.

Real-time Lead Scoring

Many marketers don't know that they can score online leads, using the same data attributes they use to target customers in other channels. This scoring can help in offer optimization and sales treatment.  For example, automotive marketers can score their online leads with information such as: Risk Insight (TIS' estimate of actual credit score), Income Insight, current make/model, presence of children, age and other demographic attributes.  These data elements, which are used for highly-targeted mail and email programs, can now be used in real-time for online lead scoring. 

Lead Scoring: Standard or Custom?

Some organizations are relying on a standard package of lead scoring.  Tranzact Information Services has created lead scoring programs for specific verticals including: Education, Mortgage, Financial Services, Auto, Insurance, and Home Services (warranties, alarms, etc.)  These pre-configured packages provide lead scoring using that data elements and models that traditionally perform well offline.  We also help clients compare offline and online customers and then recommend scoring and workflow that is different, and then test performance.  Our insurance and financial services clients are leading the way with customization and testing.

Change is the Only Constant

If you are constantly balancing online and offline lead generation programs, it's important to have a data and analytics partner that can support both and measure results. 

If you'd like to talk to one of our lead generation specialists about offline compared to online, simply call us at 800-488-9113.  Plus we welcome your postings about the DMA show and the latest ideas in customer acquisition and targeting.

3 Trends in Bank Marketing from the ABA Conference

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Two weeks ago, I joined bank marketing executives and agency partners for the annual American Bankers Association Marketing Conference in Baltimore.  Presenters discussed more effective online programs, rolling out mobile projects and the bulls eye of ROI - growing customer profitability through retention and cross-sell initiatives.  Here's my take on the top three trends...

#1 - It's the Right Time for Real-Time Services

It's no surprise that attendees talked about the boom in web, social media and mobile marketing.  However the desire for a killer-looking Facebook page was not as important as measuring and increasing ROI from all online interactions with customers.  Banks are looking for ways to identify best prospects for a specific product - from among the flood of web leads or site traffic.  Marketing managers want to target customers intelligently and deliver relevant offers immediately.  Real-time web services are an absolute must now. At Tranzact Information Services (TIS) we offer a real-time services suite, which can be used to append estimated credit score (TIS' Risk Insight) to web visitor or to create a customer profile.  Using this profile information banks can offer financial products to those most likely to qualify.  We've created several other scores that also work well in real-time, including Risk Insight, Wealth Insight, and Spending Insight.  Plus TIS can append demographics, auto make/model, auto loan status, and property information in sub-second time.  Research has shown that better targeting through real-time offer optimization, can increase response and ROI.

#2 - How to Increase Analysis but Reduce Analytic Expense

Bankers love "profitability" (as you would expect.)  However the analytic cost to understand customer profiles and profitable behavior can chew up budget.  Most bank marketers were surprised to learn that TIS will conduct analytics activities at low cost, as part of a larger marketing strategy. With our abundance of data, we can profile customers and uncover profitable opportunities.

#3 - Tools to Cut Attrition and Build Revenue

It was no surprise that Regional Banks are in the market for a strong retention and cross-sell program, at a reasonable cost.  Along with our channel and advertising partners we presented Loyalty Assurance to several organizations.  With our Loyalty Assurance product TIS hosts the bank's customer base and watches for customers' activity across all three credit bureaus.  On a daily basis, TIS sends a file to the bank or marketing partner, with a list of which customers applied for an auto loan, mortgage, credit card, insurance or installment loan - with a competitor.  We offer a no-cost analysis to see how many customers applied for loans in the last 30 days.  This free offer was very popular at the show.  Plus it uncovers a powerful way to cross-sell and retain customers.

Always Learning

As a final comment, we learned quite about the ABA's own educational initiatives.  Its programs are first rate for building skills and relationships.  Smarter marketers help their organizations grow faster.

How can you leverage the ideas in this article or other insights from the ABA show?  Give me a call at 1-800-488-9113.  I'd like to talk to you about the top trends in bank marketing.  Or post a comment. We'd like to hear your takeaways from the recent event. 

Using Prescreen to Size the Real Market for Mortgage Refinance

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If you are counting on incoming calls to fill your mortgage pipeline...you may be facing a declining number of applications and you may not be seeing the most qualified consumers.  An article recently released by Reuters made an interesting observation - despite record-low rates, refinance application volume has fallen for the third straight week - and remains more than 35% below levels of just a year ago, when interest rates were actually higher.

How could this be? Well, let's face it, with more than a third of homeowners underwater, unemployment at all-time highs, a recession that is chipping away at discretionary income, and the most stringent underwriting guidelines the industry has ever seen, it really is no surprise that the overall universe of eligible/qualified borrowers is shrinking.

However, it is NOT all gloom and doom. While industry analysts believe that most borrowers who are qualified to refi have already done so, this is simply not true. What IS true is that mass marketing is no longer efficient at identifying eligible/qualified prospects. Highly targeted marketing leveraging prescreen credit data, on the other hand, can, and will, unearth these diamonds in the rough.

There are still eligible/qualified borrowers out there. Based on a review of not only credit scores, but loan-to-value and real estate records, Tranzact Information Services analytic team ran counts.  There are more than 1.4 million well-qualified borrowers who have not refinanced since 2005 - in just nine states (AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, FL and GA.) These are people with at least 80% LTV and credit scores above 680.  The trick is, you must leverage prescreen credit data to find these coveted prospects.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not proposing that the majority of homeowners in your marketing area are going to fall into the qualified/eligible bucket. Try to find the needle in the haystack using mass marketing techniques, and you will not only be wasting valuable marketing dollars, you will also create a highly inefficient sales process by talking to a bevy of unqualified prospects.

Furthermore, in order to MAXIMIZE the number of eligible/qualified prospects you are able to identify, you need to leverage a tri-bureau prescreen credit solution. Learn more about how to maximize your marketing universe leveraging tri-bureau credit data by reading our post entitled, "The Trifecta of a Tri-Bureau Prescreen Marketing Solution".

But don't take our word for it; call one of our direct marketing professionals at 1-800-488-9113 to request counts of borrowers in your market area that will meet your specific qualification guidelines. Our team would be happy to outline a direct marketing strategy that will help you bring a higher level of targeting to your efforts.

Make the Most of the Refi Boom !

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Contrary to what may seem logical, the best time to optimize your marketing efforts is during a refi boom...as it is the only way to ensure you maximize the number of loans you are able to fund. Why?

It's quite simple, actually - and the concept applies to both inbound and outbound marketing:

INBOUND MORTGAGE MARKETING
While your originators may have their hands full with inbound calls, how many of these borrowers are actually qualified to take advantage of a refinance? How much time are they wasting talking to those who will not qualify? Today's stringent underwriting guidelines have narrowed the field of qualified candidates.

How can you make sure you are talking exclusively to borrowers who are more likely to qualify? By leveraging our Risk Insight model and real-time screening platform to filter out unqualified borrowers. Risk Insight allows you to approximate credit score ranges...giving you the opportunity to feed your sales team with only the most viable prospects. You can also overlay LTV and mortgage amounts on top of our Risk Insight attribute to get even closer to your desired target. The best part? This filtering process can take place in real time...and we all know how important it is to get in front of hand-raisers before they consult a competitor.

By filtering out unqualified prospects, your loan officers can spend more time talking to those who qualify, allowing you to fund incremental loans during periods of low interest rates.

OUTBOUND MORTGAGE MARKETING
What about those borrowers who are not actively pursuing a refinance? Believe it or not, there are plenty of qualified prospects out there who are not even aware of the latest interest rate trends. Leveraging our exclusive tri-bureau prescreen credit data, you can pinpoint exactly the type of borrower you are looking for. In addition to actual credit scores from all three bureaus, we offer hundreds of powerful attributes that can be combined to create a highly targeted mortgage prospect list that meets your specific underwriting guidelines.

Be the first to knock on these doors, and you will put yourself in a position to capitalize on the latest refi boom while it lasts.

In the face of a declining housing market, economic recession and tighter underwriting guidelines, mortgage marketers have been forced to become even more targeted in their efforts to identify those who are eligible and qualified to take advantage of the latest dip in rates. Laser-focused campaigns leveraging only the most accurate and reliable data are the only way you will ensure you maximize the number of loans you can originate and fund during these short windows of opportunity.

Let our team of experienced direct marketers show you how to make the most of a refi boom. Call 1-800-488-9113 for a free mortgage marketing consultation!