Lessons from Spending $30 Million Marketing Direct to Consumer
Josh Friend shares what he learned spending $30 million marketing mortgages directly to consumers, focusing on speed-to-lead, omnichannel follow-up, and CRM automation. He also weighs in on the NAR commission lawsuit and what LOs should do now. Best for LOs curious about consumer-direct infrastructure or who suspect their follow-up system is leaking deals.
Speed-to-lead and systematic multi-channel follow-up beat budget every time — less than 50% of the top 1,400 lenders ever contact an inbound lead at all.
Takeaways you can run this week
- Call every inbound lead within 30 seconds. Insellerate's MBA Contact Study found fewer than 50% of top 1,400 lenders ever contact an inbound lead — beating that baseline alone puts you ahead of most of the industry.
- Build a multi-channel follow-up sequence for every lead: phone call + text + email + social retargeting. Don't let any single channel carry the load — consumers choose when and how they engage.
- Upload your pre-approval and active-lead list as a Facebook Custom Audience (you can do this manually without a CRM: export list, go to Facebook Ads Manager, create Custom Audience, upload). Run a retargeting campaign so leads see you between calls.
- Time-block your weekly prospecting by day and activity — e.g., Mondays: call past-referral agents, Wednesdays: follow up active pipeline agents, Fridays: database touchpoints — then track completion weekly, not just outcomes.
- Use the NAR commission shift as an opening with agents: acknowledge their revenue pressure and position yourself as a compliant revenue solution (non-producing branch manager structure lets agents collect on loan origination without dual-agency violations).
- Audit your own lead response process by doing what Insellerate does: submit a contact form on your own site with a burner number and track whether you get called, how fast, and how many follow-up attempts occur.
Useful? Get the full Vault free — plus Marketing Worth Stealing, weekly.
GET FREE ACCESSThe playbook
- 1. Capture inbound lead (web form, phone, referral).
- 2. Trigger automated call/text within 30 seconds of lead entry.
- 3. If no contact, enter multi-touch sequence: calls + texts + emails at defined intervals.
- 4. Upload lead list to Facebook Custom Audience for social retargeting in parallel.
- 5. Tag all inbound/outbound calls within the lead record so nothing falls through.
- 6. Set milestone-based automation rules: e.g., 'Lead at pre-approval status for 6 months → enter Facebook campaign XYZ.'
- 7. Track contact rate weekly; if under 100%, identify the gap (timing, volume, channel) and fix the rule.
Worth quoting
“First person to talk to a customer gets the business.”
“My easiest, most profitable years have been after a major market down cycle.”
Best for
LOs buying internet leads or running any consumer-direct marketing who suspect their follow-up speed and consistency are costing them conversions.