Why 2026 represents the biggest opportunity for new brokers

“Right now is the biggest opportunity for new entrants into the mortgage industry in the history of the industry,” Weekes said.

“Because right now there is technology that you can use as a new entrant to literally leapfrog people have been in the industry 10 years and get in front of potential clients.”

The shift from SEO to ‘answer engines’

According to the Purple Thread Marketing founder, who has been at the forefront of developing broker marketing strategies over the past 30 years, the traditional rules of search engine optimisation (SEO) are shifting as consumers move away from short Google searches and toward conversational queries on AI platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude.

Unlike previous marketing strategies, which require long lead times and large budgets to generate business, AI platforms can harness freely available information and recommend brokers to consumers, utilising far less lead time.

Unlike standard search tools that return a list of blue links based on keywords, generative engines synthesise data to recommend highly specific answers.

“People use AI platforms as quasi search engines,” Weekes explained. “The way people use the AI engines is to actually type out a more comprehensive question. So they treat it like having a conversation...

“The way that AI works isn’t the way Google works. It’s not scraping a page, it’s looking for trust signals, it’s looking for you – the broker – being quoted in different places. It’s looking for reasons to provide you, the broker, as the answer to that question.”

To capture this organic traffic, Weekes will unpack the core four-step framework designed to build digital trust at the New Broker Academy 2026.

A key starting point, he emphasised, is that brokers must populate their digital assets with specific, localised content rather than broad generalities.

“The search engines are no longer search engines, they’re answer engines,” Weekes noted. “So one blog that covers a whole heap of stuff is ignored by AI. But if you’ve got questions and answers on your website and you’ve got the questions and answers on your Google Business Profile page... if you’ve got specific answers to specific questions, and here’s the key, write the questions yourself.”

For brokers unsure of where to start, the marketing maven suggested leveraging the technology itself to identify consumer pain points: “Ask your AI tool: What are the top 20 questions the first home buyers are asking AI right now? And then take those and put that what are the answers to those questions and then put those on your website or put those on your Google Business Profile page.”

He also urged brokers to maintain absolute consistency across their website, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile pages to ensure AI models can verify their identity.

“The key here is you’ve got to have consistency in your messaging,” he said. “The problem is everybody wants to tell you what they want to tell you. I’m good at this and we do this. No one cares. What people care about is what’s for them. And the AI engines look for that consistency and they go, hang on, you’re saying the same thing the same way on these different platforms.”

Balancing analogue and digital marketing

While digital optimisation provides a rapid pathway to visibility, Weekes cautioned that it must coexist with traditional “analogue” networking. Citing industry data, he explained that digital profiles act as the ultimate verification tool for word-of-mouth referrals.

“Around 93 per cent of people will Google you or search for you after being referred to you,” he said. “So there’s a combination of both analogue marketing that you need to do (networking events, being seen and known in your local area), supported with digital marketing. Because you want to be found both organically and deliberately.

“If you’re not understanding that 93 per cent of people will Google you or search you after they’ve met you or after you’ve been referred, then you’re actually losing those clients because they won’t, they won’t call you because they can’t find you.”

For new brokers looking to benchmark their progress, Weekes offered a simple starting strategy: “Go into Perplexity and type in who’s the best mortgage broker in your local area for first home buyers see what they’re doing and then copy it and do it better.”

Register now for New Broker Academy 2026

Weekes will be delivering a highly practical, in-depth session on these digital frameworks at the upcoming New Broker Academy 2026.

Supported by principal partner Bendigo Bank, this free-to-attend roadshow is designed to give prospective and new brokers a complete blueprint for business success.

For the first time this year, the New Broker Academy 2026 will include exclusive networking opportunities with new real estate agents who will be attending the concurrent, co-located event, the New Agent Academy.

The academy roadshow will hit the following cities over the coming month:

• Brisbane: 28 May

• Melbourne: 5 June

• Sydney: 12 June.

Seating is strictly limited and filling fast. Avoid missing out and visit newbrokeracademy.com to secure your free ticket today.

Tune in to hear more! You can listen to the full New Broker podcast with Darrell Weekes on The Adviser’s New Broker podcast here.

[Related: New Broker – The secrets to building a solid client book fast]