Most mortgage leads aren't ready to buy the day they find you. The brokers who win are the ones who stay top-of-mind for 6, 12, even 18 months, automatically. Here's the exact email system that does it.
Start with Mailchimp free. It handles everything in this guide until you grow past 500 contacts.
Most brokers make the mistake of having one email list and blasting everyone with the same message. The people buying next month need different emails than the people buying in 18 months. Set up three segments from the start.
The fastest way to build your email list: create a simple "First-Time Homebuyer's Guide" PDF (use ChatGPT to write it, takes about an hour). Offer it free in exchange for an email address. Even a basic 5-page guide adds 20–50 new leads to your list per month if you promote it on social media.
When someone joins your list, whether they booked a call, downloaded a guide, or were referred by an agent, this sequence greets them, delivers value, and starts positioning you as the expert they'll call when they're ready.
In Mailchimp: Automations → Classic Automations → Welcome New Subscribers. Set trigger to "When contact is added with tag: New Lead."
After the 3-email welcome sequence, most brokers go silent. That's a mistake. Leads who weren't ready in month 1 are often ready in month 4 or month 8, but only if you've stayed in touch. This sequence sends one email every 3–4 weeks for 6 months, delivering pure value with no hard sell.
Build these in Mailchimp as additional steps in the same automation, spaced 3–4 weeks apart:
Screenshot: Mailchimp automation timeline showing 9 emails over 6 months with delay settings
When mortgage rates drop meaningfully (0.25%+ in a short period), it's an opportunity to capture refinance business AND re-engage prospects who were waiting for better rates. This template is ready to send within 30 minutes of a rate move.
Create this as a Mailchimp Campaign Template (not an automation, you send it manually when rates move). Send to your full list except Unsubscribed.
Before sending any rate alert email, confirm current rates through your LOS or a rate aggregator. Never quote rates you haven't verified today. The template above uses placeholder [X]% and [Y]%, fill these in manually from a reliable source before sending.
Your best source of new business is satisfied past clients. But most brokers never ask for referrals systematically, they rely on clients to volunteer them. A 90-day post-close email does the asking for you, at the exact moment when client satisfaction is still high and the experience is recent.
Set this up as a Mailchimp Automation triggered by "contact tagged: Past Client." When you finish a closing and tag someone as a Past Client, this email fires 90 days later:
Build one more step in this automation: send a 1-year homeowner anniversary email that congratulates them, shares a homeownership tip, and gently mentions refinancing if rates have moved. Past clients who hear from you regularly are 3× more likely to refer you than those who don't.