Why Your Mortgage Marketing Plan Failed (And How to Actually Build One That Works)

Octo Strategies header reading 'Why Your Mortgage Marketing Plan Failed And How to Actually Build One That Works



Let's be honest about something most CMOs won't admit: your 2025 marketing plan didn't perform the way you had hoped.


Not because you're bad at your job, but because you likely rushed through it last December to meet some arbitrary executive deadline, recycled 80% of the previous year's initiatives, and watched it collect dust in a PowerPoint deck by February.


We’ve seen this play out countless times. Marketing teams wasting effort on disconnected tactics, event coordinators requesting booth materials for a conference that doesn't connect with anything, loan officers asking for "an email blast" with no clear audience or message, or digital teams tweaking channels instead of focusing on outcomes.


The real issue? Most mortgage marketing plans aren't actual plans. They're just wish lists sorted by channel.


Here's what actually breaks:


The Five Ways Your Plan Dies Before It Launches:


  1. It's too vague to act on. "Increase brand awareness" isn't a specific plan. "Drive 500 qualified broker applications in Q1 through targeted LinkedIn campaigns highlighting our 24-hour turn times" is a clear plan.
  2. Your team isn't sure how it relates to them. The content manager defaults to blogging about interest rates because no one explained how their work connects to the acquisition strategy.
  3. Nobody looks at it after January. It's buried in slide 47 of the annual deck. When someone asks, "what's our Q2 priority?" people guess instead of checking.
  4. Everyone created their own plan. Digital has a plan. Events have a plan. Content has a plan. None of them communicate with each other, so you're running three campaigns for three different audiences with three different messages.
  5. You don't really have a plan. You just have a list of tactics sorted by month. That looks more like a calendar than a strategic plan.


If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone. When leadership doesn’t set clear company goals, when budgets change monthly, and when you're overwhelmed with reactive requests, strategic planning seems impossible.


But here's the thing: the companies that expanded while everyone else shrank? They had a plan. And they stuck to it.


What Actually Works: The Filter Questions

Before saying yes to any new campaign, initiative, or "quick win," run it through these questions:


  • What goal does this accomplish? (Specific number, specific timeframe)
  • What strategy achieves this goal? (Not the tactic—the strategy)
  • Who exactly are we targeting? (Not "real estate agents", which real estate agents, and what are their pain points?)
  • What message do they need to hear based on where they are? (Not what we want to say—what they need to hear)
  • Does this tie to a broader theme we're running? (Or is this a random one-off)
  • How do we determine success? (Be specific)
  • Does this overlap, contradict, or dilute something already underway?


If you can't answer these clearly, the initiative isn't ready.


Using AI to Build a Real Strategy (Not Just More Content)


This is where it becomes practical. You can use an AI assistant, such as Claude, to genuinely build the strategic foundation instead of guessing or recycling last year's plan.


Start with your value proposition. Here's the first prompt:


I'm the CMO at [mortgage company type: retail/wholesale/reverse]. Our differentiation is [what makes you different: speed/service/technology/pricing]. Our primary customer is [loan officers/brokers/consumers/real estate agents].

 

Help me articulate our core value proposition in one sentence that speaks to what our customer actually cares about, not what we want to brag about.


This emphasizes clarity. Most mortgage marketing plans fail because the value prop is "we're a great lender with competitive rates and excellent service." That's not differentiation. That's baseline offering.


Next, identify your actual priorities. Use this:


Based on our value proposition [paste what your AI assistant gave you], what are the 3-5 strategic priorities our marketing should focus on this year to drive [revenue goal/market share/channel growth]?

 

For each priority, tell me:

- The measurable outcome we're driving toward

- The audience segment most critical to achieving it 

- The biggest obstacle preventing us from reaching that audience today


Now you have focus. Most teams try to do everything and accomplish nothing. Three to five priorities. That's it.


Then build your audience strategy:


For our primary audience [brokers/LOs/real estate agents/consumers], break them into segments based on their current relationship with us and their needs. For each segment, tell me:

 

1. What stage they're at (unaware/aware/considering/customer)

2. What their primary pain point or goal is right now

3. What message would resonate based on where they are

4. What proof or credibility they need to move forward

 

Format this as a table I can use to guide campaign development.


This is where most plans fall apart. They treat "brokers" or "real estate agents" as one audience. But a broker who's never heard of you needs different messaging than a broker who closed 50 loans with you last year.


Finally, turn strategy into campaigns:


Based on our strategic priority [paste specific priority] and our target audience [paste segment from previous output], create a 90-day campaign framework that includes:

 

1. Campaign theme and positioning

2. 3-5 key messages that build on each other

3. Content types needed (emails, social, webinars, etc.)

4. Success metrics tied to the original priority

5. How each piece of content moves the audience closer to our goal

 

Keep this focused—I need a plan my team can actually execute without burning out.


Now you have a campaign that ties to strategy, speaks to a specific audience, and has clear success metrics. You can repeat this for each priority.

 

The Part Nobody Talks About: Execution


Having the plan is 20% of the work. Getting your team to use it is the remaining 80%.


Here's what we've found effective:


Monthly strategy reviews. Not tactical status meetings, strategy reviews. "Are we still focused on the right priorities? What's working? What needs to pivot?" Thirty minutes. Key stakeholders only.


Create a one-page plan. If your plan exists in a 40-slide deck, no one will review it. Condense it to one page: list priorities, audiences, key messages, and success metrics. Print it out. Hang it on the wall. Refer to it often.


The "does this fit the plan" checkpoint. When someone presents you with a new idea, quickly pull out the one-pager and go over the filter questions together. If it fits, great. If it doesn't, explain why you're passing and what needs to change.


This isn't about being rigid. It's about being intentional.


The Reality Check

If your C-suite lacks clear goals for the year, your marketing plan is already ineffective. You can't build strategy from confusion at the top.


But even amid chaos, you can promote clarity. Hold monthly strategy meetings with key stakeholders. Ensure alignment on what success looks like. Agree on who you're targeting and why.


And if your company is fighting for survival? Your plan might just be "support sales however we can." That's honest. That's a plan. Just don't pretend you're doing brand building when you're doing lead generation.


The mortgage companies that expanded during the refi boom and survived the crash afterward didn't offer better products. They had better strategies and marketing leaders who understood the difference between activity and impact.


Your Turn

At this point, you have two paths:


  1. Take these principles and turn them into a plan your team can run weekly.
  2. Or, if you want help building the plan, the reporting cadence, and the accountability loop—bring in outside support for a sprint. The goal isn’t more ideas, it’s a plan with priorities, owners, timelines, and metrics that leadership aligns around.


At Octo, we’re a fractional team for lenders who want clarity and execution without adding full-time overhead. We've developed marketing strategies for high-performing lenders in the country. No excessive overhead, no empire building, just clear strategies and execution that truly drive results.


If you’re tired of recycling last year’s plan—or watching your team chase tactics instead of outcomes—schedule a call. We’ll walk through where your plan is breaking down and what to change first.



And if this resonates (or you’ve seen these failures firsthand), drop a comment. Mortgage marketing gets better when we’re honest about what isn’t working.