Have you got the message? – by Peter Downey of Source Marketing Communications

Photograph: (Left to Right): Peter Downey, Source Marketing Communications and Nick Smith, Reward Finance Group

At Source Marketing Communications we look after an eclectic mix of clients from bingo halls to a solicitor and from the launch of a new hair extension product to the promotion of industrial cable cleats. One thing they all have in common though is that they each have their own messages we need to communicate to their target audiences.

Reward Finance is no different; we pick out key messages and make sure the right people hear them.

Some of those messages include:

Reward Finance is:

  • Keen to lend, and with an additional £50m invested by Foresight this year, it has the money to do so
  • Friendly, experienced, flexible, responsible and makes quick decisions
  • Works to the old fashioned principle of meeting the management team, checking out the business plan and making decisions on what they see and hear, as opposed to a box ticking exercise in some other part of the UK

But you are not going to get a press release published in newspapers, magazines or online by just trotting out these phrases. It will be seen just for what it is – an advertisement for the business.

Instead we look for ways of weaving them into a newsworthy story, ensuring it is of interest and value to the reader, while still promoting Reward.

That’s why, when one of Reward’s clients allows us to use them as a case study we look for ways that sets them apart from other lenders.

For example, Reward provided finance in double-quick time for a renewable energy business, enabling it to take advantage of an extremely attractive discount offered by the manufacturer, before other interested parties could beat them to the deal.

In another case Reward showed its flexibility by providing finance for a very unusual transaction. It was used to pay an inheritance tax bill allowing three of the East Coast’s most famous pubs to remain family owned rather than being sold to settle the bill.

Both of these case studies set Reward apart from other lenders and encourages brokers and introducers to come to them first, because they demonstrate Reward will do the utmost to find a way to get the deal done and quickly.

As well as using the media to communicate the messages, Source also broadcasts it on social media.

In fact we use any method we can to get across Reward’s USPs…even through a blog.