Even before social-distancing became a part of everyday life, pushing businesses to communicate in new and different ways, the use of video for marketing and customer engagement was already considered one of the biggest trends of the last couple of years.

And with good reason.

Studies have shown considerable growth in the amount of video being consumed by people on a daily basis, with recent estimates indicating that the average person spent 84 minutes a day watching online videos in 2019 and will rise to 100 minutes a day in 2021.

Now that businesses and their customers are having less in-person contact than ever, live and recorded video has become a critical and much-appreciated component of a working relationship.

Being able to not just hear but see a loan originator brings back the human component of the process that is beloved by borrowers and one of the primary reasons a consumer chooses to do business with an LO or broker instead of a technology-based lender such as the Quickens of the world.

When it comes to humanizing the origination process for existing borrowers, LOs can take advantage of the flexibility of Floify’s template-driven automated communications in a creative way to add a touch of video to their updates and notifications.

Adding Video to Floify Email Templates

Because many of the major email service providers, like Gmail, do not support directly embedded video in an email, we don’t recommend that LOs try the seemingly quick-and-easy method of dropping their video into a template.

Not only will many borrowers not be able to watch the video from inside the email anyway, but then the LO also loses some control over what the borrower actually does see in their email communication.

What we do recommend is a widespread approach that involves adding a thumbnail image or GIF to the email and then linking that object to the video where it is hosted (YouTube, Vimeo, etc) or better yet to a well-designed page on the LOs website where the video is embedded.

In Floify, there are six different automated notifications sent by the system, plus all of the LOs loan milestones. That’s up to 20 different touchpoints! Each of these notifications and milestones has a customizable email template that is ripe for the addition of a video element.

Video is a great way to interact with borrowers in a more personal fashion. LOs can offer timely information in an easily digestible format, helping educate a borrower about the origination process and what to expect during the next stage of their home buying journey.

Got videos but need a hand adding them to your templates? Drop us a line!