USA Mortgage’s Chelsea Vonder Haar on staying agile to meet loan officer needs

The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2024 Marketing Leaders are open until April 30, 2024. Click here to nominate someone from your organization today.

If there’s one word to describe today’s successful marketers in mortgage and real estate it’s “adaptable.” The best marketers are driving origination volume, purchase demand, buyer and seller leads and listing awareness by staying attuned to market trends and swiftly adjusting strategies and messaging to effectively communicate.

HousingWire’s Marketing Leaders award recognizes the industry’s top marketers who have perfected the art of adaptability. Marketers like 2023 Marketing Leader and USA Mortgage’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Chelsea Vonder Haar, who has been a driving force behind USA Mortgage’s marketing success. Vonder Haar was selected as a winner based on her crucial role in expanding the company’s offerings and developing its digital marketing to meet the needs of its loan originators and their real estate partners. 

Vonder Haar spoke to HousingWire about the strategies that set her apart in the competitive residential lending market. With a keen focus on tailoring marketing approaches to individual loan officers and fostering strong partnerships across the industry, Vonder Haar emphasizes a customer-centric approach that prioritizes problem-solving and ease in mortgage transactions.

HousingWire: What are the key strategies you employ to differentiate USA Mortgage’s brand and offerings in the highly competitive residential lending market?

Chelsea Vonder Haar: We tailor our marketing strategy based on the individual loan officer and the details of the market they are in. This helps them get a more targeted strategy that will work for them, instead of trying to fit them inside a box.

We put our loan officers’ marketing needs first and help them solidify relationships with partners across the industry to provide a consistent referral network. They are the ones that keep the company going, so we do everything possible to offer customized marketing solutions for every single loan officer.

Our marketing typically has a theme of problem-solving and making mortgages easy for our customers.

HousingWire: With the rapid evolution of digital marketing and technology, how does your marketing team stay ahead of trends and innovate to effectively reach and engage with customers in today’s digital landscape?

Chelsea Vonder Haar: We have a digital, social media and video team internally to make sure we have a well-rounded digital marketing strategy. I am also a Certified Digital Marketing Professional, so I am always using the tools that I learned in my certification to implement new digital strategies.

Our marketing team gets feedback from our sales team to see what problems they and their partners are having and how our marketing can provide a solution. We do what it takes to make it happen for them, and we experiment with different marketing tactics and use the results to continue evolving what we do.

Lastly, we study other industries and what they are doing with their marketing and adapt it to fit into our industry. We connect with marketing professionals across the country to share ideas and learn from them.

HousingWire: As you think about your career, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Chelsea Vonder Haar: When I was growing up, my dad used to preach to me that the key to career advancement was all about how hard you work, how much you care about your work, and how you treat the people you work with. He would say that there will always be someone smarter, with more experience and a fancier education, but you won’t easily find someone that cares enough to give 100%, and do the real, hard work it takes to make change happen. I’ve used that mindset throughout my career to determine the kind of leader I want to be and implement that same philosophy into my team.

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