Why Does Most Mortgage Broker Content Attract Rate Shoppers Instead of Quality Clients?

Many mortgage brokers eventually ask the same question.

Why am I attracting rate shoppers, time-wasters, and clients who are not ready to proceed?

As a mortgage business coach working with UK mortgage brokers, this is one of the most common frustrations I hear. Brokers are posting consistently. They are getting views. Some are even getting significant reach. Yet their diary fills with low-intent enquiries, fee resistance, and price comparisons.

This is not a lead volume issue.

It is a content positioning issue.

In this article, I will break down:

• Why certain types of mortgage marketing naturally attract rate shoppers

• Why high views often produce low-quality mortgage leads

• What mortgage brokers commonly misunderstand about social media content

• How to create content that pre-frames and persuades before the first call

Why Does News-Based Mortgage Content Attract Rate Shoppers?

One of the biggest drivers of low-quality enquiries is news-based content.

This includes posts such as:

• Base rate updates

• Swap rate changes

• “Rates have dropped” announcements

• Housing market commentary

• Government scheme updates

• Deposit scheme announcements

On the surface, this appears helpful and timely. It often performs well from a reach perspective.

However, the problem is structural.

News content is designed to interrupt people who were not already committed.

When a mortgage advisor posts, “Rates have dropped this week,” the message often triggers curiosity rather than commitment. It attracts people who were not actively planning a move but now feel they might explore options.

These individuals are not high-intent buyers.

They are speculative.

In practice, this means:

• They are early-stage

• They are comparing multiple brokers

• They are highly price-sensitive

• They lack trust in any specific advisor

As I explain frequently on my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@AshBorland), content must be designed with intention. High reach does not equal high trust.

News content creates attention.

It does not create authority.

In coaching sessions, I often show mortgage brokers how this pattern repeats where brokers compete on visibility but fail to build positioning. The result is a diary full of conversations about rate comparison rather than advisory value.

Why Does Trending Content Weaken Mortgage Authority?

The second category is trending content.

This includes:

• Lip-sync videos

• Trending audio clips

• Meme-style mortgage content

• Viral challenges

• Trend-based humour

Trending content often delivers dopamine.

It generates:

• Higher views

• Faster engagement

• Increased follower numbers

But these metrics are misleading.

The algorithm pushes trends because they are trending. Not because the content creator is authoritative.

This creates a subtle but serious issue for the mortgage broker.

You are attracting followers of the trend, not followers of your expertise.

There is no parasocial relationship forming. There is no depth of understanding of how you work as a mortgage advisor. There is no structured positioning of your process.

Without that foundation, the only comparison left for the client is price.

Rate shopping is rarely about rates alone.

It is usually about lack of trust.

When trust is low, clients default to cost as a comparison tool.

As a mortgage broker coach, I regularly see brokers with thousands of followers who privately admit their mortgage leads are poor quality. The issue is not effort. It is misaligned content strategy.

Mortgage marketing must build familiarity and authority, not just engagement.

Why Does Generic Mortgage Content Fail to Convert?

The third issue is generic, broad content.

This includes posts such as:

• What is a fixed-rate mortgage?

• What is a tracker mortgage?

• How does a mortgage work?

• What is loan-to-value?

FAQ content can be powerful when structured correctly.

However, when it is overly broad and interchangeable, it creates no differentiation.

If your content could be written by any mortgage advisor in the UK, it builds no positioning.

Generic content fails because:

• It does not show your perspective

• It does not demonstrate your process

• It does not reveal how you operate

• It does not signal standards or boundaries

Clients do not choose a mortgage broker purely because they understand what a fixed rate is.

They choose a broker because they feel safe, understood, and guided.

This is why I consistently teach that structure beats noise. In the frameworks I outline on https://ashborland.com, clarity of positioning matters more than volume of posting.

Mortgage brokers often assume that educational equals effective.

In reality, undifferentiated education creates undifferentiated enquiries.

Has “Talking Head” Mortgage Content Become Oversaturated?

There is also a presentation problem.

Many mortgage advisors still rely on the static talking-head format:

• Holding the phone

• Single-shot explanation

• Minimal movement or visual variation

This format was effective when social platforms rewarded raw authenticity.

Now it is oversaturated.

When combined with generic mortgage education, it creates what is effectively banner blindness. Audiences scroll past because the format feels repetitive.

The result is:

• Lower retention

• Lower emotional engagement

• Lower perceived authority

This does not mean mortgage brokers must become entertainers.

It means content must evolve.

Dynamic visuals, varied environments, and thoughtful editing increase engagement without sacrificing professionalism. On my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ashborland/), I demonstrate how subtle variation can improve viewer retention while keeping authority intact.

The objective is not performance.

It is familiarity.

Familiarity builds trust. Trust reduces rate shopping.

What Should Mortgage Broker Content Actually Do?

The core principle is simple.

Content should pre-frame and persuade.

This is where most mortgage marketing goes wrong.

What Is Pre-Framing in Mortgage Marketing?

Pre-framing defines expectations before the client ever speaks to you.

Your content should communicate:

• How you work

• What standards you expect

• What documents you require

• How your process runs

• How long your client journey typically lasts

• What you believe good advice looks like

For example, instead of posting, “Rates have changed,” you might explain:

• How you assess suitability beyond rate

• Why protection is integrated from the start

• Why affordability is only one part of the decision

• Why you require specific documentation upfront

This positions you as structured and intentional.

Clients who resonate with this approach self-select.

Clients who want speed and price comparison self-filter out.

This is a concept I expand on frequently inside my 30-Day Mortgage Broker Boost framework (https://ashborland.com/boost), where I outline how systems shape perception.

What Does Persuasion Look Like Without Being Salesy?

Persuasion in mortgage marketing is not hype.

It is repeated exposure to competence.

As viewers watch:

• Your tone

• Your consistency

• Your process

• Your standards

They build a parasocial relationship.

By the time they book a call, they feel familiar with you.

This dramatically reduces:

• Fee resistance

• Rate comparison behaviour

• Trust hesitation

Mortgage brokers who apply this approach consistently see fewer “just shopping around” conversations and more committed enquiries.

How Does AI Affect Mortgage Broker Authority?

AI tools are increasingly used in mortgage marketing.

They can support:

• Drafting blog outlines

• Structuring email campaigns

• Repurposing video transcripts

However, over-reliance on AI creates sameness.

If every mortgage advisor publishes identical AI-generated explanations, differentiation disappears.

Authority weakens when:

• Tone becomes generic

• Examples lack lived experience

• Frameworks feel copied

AI should support structure.

It should not replace perspective.

This is something I discuss in more depth on my Mortgage Career Hub channel (https://www.youtube.com/@MortgageCareerHub), particularly for newer mortgage advisors building confidence in their communication.

Your insight must remain human.

Clients choose mortgage brokers, not scripts.

Why Is Rate Shopping a Symptom, Not the Problem?

Rate shopping is often blamed on the market.

In reality, it is frequently a signal.

It signals:

• Low trust

• Low positioning

• Low differentiation

• Low pre-framing

When mortgage brokers build authority through structured content, rate comparison conversations reduce naturally.

This is not about eliminating price discussion.

It is about elevating the conversation beyond price.

Mortgage brokers who implement structured marketing, structured sales processes, and structured retention systems create compound effects.

Marketing attracts aligned clients.

Sales converts with authority.

Retention multiplies referrals.

This ecosystem approach is something I see repeatedly when coaching mortgage brokers earning between £60,000 and £150,000 who want calm, predictable income rather than viral reach.

How Can Mortgage Brokers Attract Higher-Intent Leads?

To summarise, if you want better mortgage leads:

• Reduce reliance on news-based content

• Avoid trend-chasing for engagement

• Move beyond generic FAQs

• Improve visual presentation without losing authority

• Focus on pre-framing and persuasion

• Use AI carefully and selectively

Most importantly, shift the objective.

Stop creating content for views.

Start creating content for positioning.

When content clarifies how you operate as a mortgage advisor, it filters effectively. It attracts clients who align with your structure and repels those who do not.

That is not a marketing trick.

It is strategic clarity.

And in mortgage marketing, clarity is what converts.

If you want to understand how structure affects income consistency, you can explore more of my educational breakdowns across my platforms and resources at https://ashborland.com.

The brokers who thrive long-term are not the loudest.

They are the clearest.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

 So why is it the 📍 majority of content that mortgage brokers create attracts rate shoppers, clients who aren't really ready, just bad clients in general? It's very much the common thing I've seen play out again and again and again, especially people who talk to me. And there is a reason why, and I'm gonna unpack it for you in this video today.

In this episode, we're gonna talk about it because I see it all the time and it's one of the things I try to do with my clients to fix that problem. So I've actually written it down the whiteboard as always on these episodes. We've got the. Three things. The type of content that people create, that is the problem.

And then I've also added an extra one on there, which is what the type of content you should be doing in order to fix that long term. So stick around to the end, 'cause that's that little bit of the end to give you the solution. So the very first thing is the reason why you're getting rate shoppers specifically, this is rate shoppers,   📍 📍 is you are creating news content.

So I see people make  news content all the time. So swap rates have changed, base rates have changed, rates have gone down, rates have gone up. Housing market has changed. I saw one recently about, I think it was like, you know, like a new deposit you can get for like five grand or whatever it may be. These are all news-based things.

And so because they're news-based things, what the whole design of that content is, is to attract people who aren't ready yet or considering not really considering it yet. So by nature, if you think about that content, you're going, Hey look, if you weren't thinking of buying a house 'cause you couldn't afford it, well now maybe you could.

And then don't get shocked when people then come to you and they are. Rate shoppers, they're looking around and seeing is one, is it possible I'm not really ready, I should have a go. And those people, by the way, if your content has been pushed onto their feed because of it, 'cause those type of videos do very well.

This is the issue. The issue with the first two ones we're gonna talk about today is that the, the content does well from a views perspective, from a reach perspective, but that then in turn brings the wrong type of people in and fills your diary with the wrong type of people. And news content does that because it does very well.

People like it, but it doesn't mean that they are high trust. They're not high trust. They're not high intent. They just have found that you've, that the news you've put in front of them has made 'em go, oh, I'd consider it. So that's the first type of thing, and it's massive. You really don't wanna be doing that.

The next one is, the next one with this one, which is,   📍 📍 is creating trending content. Okay. So trending content, trending audio.  This one is very tick toy, but it's also, you see it on Instagram, on Facebook, on on, on all of them, really. . This idea of trending content is riding a trend. Maybe it's a funny thing to do.

Your voice, your voice, lip syncing, you're doing whatever it may be. And the problem with that is big problem. There's multiple problems with it. First thing with it is most people are getting bigger views on it, so it makes 'em feel good. You see this? There's so many people that come to mind on this that I know specifically.

One person that I know of who has like loads and loads of views, like millions of views and loads and loads of followers and pumps content out, but behind the scenes has been speaking to me. He even worked with me at one point who it just weren't really very good. Like the leads were bloody awful.

Everything kind of wasn't really working, but they were addicted to the adrenaline and the dopamine of constantly having the views and not realizing there was a better path. And there's, there is a much better path, which we'll talk about at the end. Now, the reason this is a problem is what's actually happening here is you are get, you are, you are getting people who are.

Followers of the, of the trend, not of you. So there's no trust there. There's no parasocial relationship, meaning that they haven't built a relationship with you without actually speaking to you. There's none of that. You've just appeared on their feed because you just happen to, they happen to like that trend with the same audio, with different, different things.

And so what's actually happening is your content's being pushed because of the trend, not because of you. Big problem because then you're gonna get rate shoppers, tire kickers, people who aren't really bought in because rate shopping for the vast majority of people, it's not, it, it's, it's usually a sign of a, a greater sign of something else.

Rate shopping normally means I don't trust you yet. So I'm shopping around to try and find something that makes me feel, um, feel safe around it. And so the, uh, the honest truth is the easiest thing we can, we can go to is cost. Because if I don't have any comparison to anything else, I'm just gonna compare on cost.

But we also know there's so much more than cost. There's lots of other things. It's how people feel. But if they don't know you, they're gonna go straight to cost. It's, which is a commodity. That's the whole point. You're a commodity based product. You don't wanna be that trending. Is that The problem with trending, and I do see a lot, is people are drawn to it and it is that big views, as you said, stop yourself.

I really wanna say it because it, it's, it's so. Easy to do. It seems easy because it's like, oh, okay, I can just don't have to even talk. I can just stand and hold my phone and do stupid videos with stupid noises and like, oh yeah, and this is a funny meme. A lot of them are offensive, which is never great in the industry that we're in.

It's financial services sensitive, sensitive industry don't be offensive. And two, a lot of them are, they're not building anything. They're really not. I mean, when I see them to the point where. If a client's coming to work with me and they were consistently doing that type of content, when I met them on discovery call or like when they, they filled in the application forms, so to speak, to go onto the waiting list.

If I saw they were doing lots of that, I probably wouldn't actually speak to them because I'd think, Hmm, it's not great. So that's very important that you think that through. Now that would be, that could be the biggest one. The next one then. This is actually a bit different to the other two. So the first two have decided you're creating news content and then the other one creating trending content.

The whole point of that is it gets you lots of views and lots of traffic lot, but, but a lot of it's very poor, very bad. I call it the classic TikTok lead. The other one is actually a bit of a strange one 'cause I've done videos in this before,   📍 📍 is creating generic, broad content.   Generic broad content is content that is like everybody else's.

So there's a number of things with this one. First thing is the generic board con, like broad and board content is stuff that's very, if it can be Googled, I mean, to a point, it is that FAQ style content. But I've got a whole podcast talking about how FAQ is great. FAQ is great when done in the right way,

but the generic kind of, what is a mortgage, what is a fixed rate, what is a variable rate? They're pretty rubbish. No one really cares about them. And so if you, if people come that way, 'cause they find that anyone who's motivated by that video to get in touch with you. Is not gonna be that bought in. 'cause there's no, there's nothing being built there.

There's no, there's no personality being shown. There's no authenticity being shown through the content. There's nothing that's making people go, oh yeah, you are the person I wanna speak to. None of it. There's just literally nothing. So that's the last thing you want to be doing to, to, to generate leads and it's very simple.

Now, on top of this, what I see a lot of people do, and this is a new one, is it's the talking within this kind of generic broad content is, I'd put this in the same bucket of, does it look the same and sound the same? And so the looking the same is the talking head, holding the camera, you know, the whole like, hi, this is a fixed rate mortgage, da da.

That stuff sadly is very 2022, and it doesn't work in the same way anymore. On, on, on the social platforms, on Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn, if you look at my content, you can go on my Instagram, you'll see things like that and that's the best place to go for it probably is Ash Balland. You can see it on the beginning of this video.

And so it tells you, um, you. If you go to my Instagram, you'll see I do videos where I'm walking about, I'm, I'm doing, it's like kind of like jump cart edits. It's like four or five different scenes in the, in the video that makes life more interesting. The generic kind of hold the camera on and just talking and it's like shaking 'cause you're holding it and it's just like, Hey, I've got this.

It used to be really, really great because it was very raw, very real, very authentic. It's now just massively oversaturated. So when you pair banner blindness of just boring. Content in regards to like very generic, boring FAQ content, and then you pair that with the walking down the street and talking, which I built my entire business off of.

So it is, I'm not, it's just not really relevant anymore. When you pair it with stuff that people are constantly seeing every single day, you've got a recipe for a low level of, of, um, action and impetus, which means that the people who are gonna come, come through it are not gonna be that bought into you in the same way that some more dynamic content and more specific content is gonna do.

So that's one of them. And it's an odd one because people don't think about it. So it's like the complete reverse now. Yes. Brownie points. You are actually. You know, giving yourself a, um, you're actually, you know, you're actually putting your face on camera, your voice, which is the two big ones, which the, the trending audio wasn't doing.

The trending content is putting your face, but it's not your voice. At least with that, you put in your voice. But what you're doing is you are reinforcing the kind of dullness of, um, the, the mortgages has a stereotype of being, but it doesn't need to be dull. Like it doesn't need to be dull at all. And so.

So it's, uh, it, it is important for that, which then brings me onto the type of content you should make then. So what should you do? Well, actually your content should do, should be, have a few different things going on in it. The main purpose of content is the first thing you have to understand.   📍 📍 So content should pre-frame and persuade.

 That's what it should do. So that's what this, the main thing that content should pre-frame and persuade. So what I mean by that, well, pre-framing is. Effectively defining the lines of what it is you do. So when you watch my content right now, this is literally this. I'm pre-framing and persuading to you right now.

If any of you ever became a client, we are framing the, the world, the kind of outlines we're drawing, the outlines of where we define ourselves. So you are pre-framing of your service. So this is my process. We are gonna do, you know, so your content should be designed to do that. It should be talking about.

What I see when a client send me documents, what I want to see, when clients do like you, you are pre-framing exactly how they should be working with you. That's what your content is for. It's not some marketing thing, it's actually more of a sales thing. So you're pre-framing exactly what the world box that they're kind of gonna operate in.

So your content should pre-frame and then persuade is that you are trying to get them to. Start to know, like and trust. That's pre persuade before they actually speak to you. Meaning that by the time they get on the call, they're already sold. And that's how you stop rate chasers and that with your content.

Because if they've pre-framed the world that they know when people talk with me, they know it's gonna take 18 months to work with me. They know it's sales, marketing, retention. These are all pre-framing. And then the persuading is the more and more you watch me, the more and more you go, Hey, this guy's absolutely wicked.

He's amazing. I love him. Obviously that's exactly what you all say. And, um, that is the goal of content. Now, you should do this in an authentic way. Now, an authentic way means something that is engaging and real and human and personality driven in the background. So you can do this in many different ways.

If you look at the content that I create, the easiest way to do that is to create dynamic four or five different shots on a video, and then. To create, to shoot it in different locations. The locations will drive people to want to be nosy. They'll look at the, your surroundings. They'll look at what's behind you.

They'll look at my, like with mine, we bought a new house. We're renovating our house. You're watching it as it slowly renovates. You know, they're gonna see that people are nosy. They want to see it. And as your house changes, your life changes, your garden changes, whatever it may be. You change your, your facial hair grows out, your hair grows long, whatever it is you wanna do.

What will happen is that they come along that change with you, and that is very, very, very valuable. And that stops these rate chasers and these tire kickers because rate chasers and tire kickers are just a symptom of a cause, which is that they do not like, know, like, and trust you enough. So that's the type of content you wanna make.

And if you go and look at my, my, um, Instagram, you're gonna be able to see that in a very clear defined way. 

Our big thing that mortgage brokers do use when it comes to their marketing is ai. Very much so now they're leaning into it. They're using it a lot more. And it's really important to know when and where AI should be used because it seems like a good idea, but a lot of times it can be a very bad idea.

It can weaken your authority depending on how you use it. And so in the last week's episode I made, which I'll put up on screen right now, you'll be able to check out. Exactly where brokers should and should not be using AI in their entire business really in order to make sure they don't lose authority with the client once they've got them or join the marketing process.

However, we all the way through it. Okay? So make sure you check that one out.