How we beat KPI by 29%, landed 142 links and moved a non-prime lender up page 1 for ‘personal loans’
The Challenge & Opportunity
US personal loans is one of the most contested search verticals in finance - banks, long-standing specialists, and fintech challengers all fighting for the same page-1 real estate. Our client, a long-standing non-prime lender, was defending that position with a strong in-house SEO team but no digital PR capability.
They needed a search-first digital PR agency who could work directly with their SEO team, navigate a multi-stage legal and compliance review - including legal, brand, and in-house PR sign-off on every angle - and help build the internal process to deliver digital PR activity at scale.
Our client needed a team who could get digital PR ideas through a rigorous internal approval process without losing the creative hook. That hook is what lands coverage in the publications their audience actually reads, and what builds the topical authority that supports SEO.
- Chloe Osunsami, Head of Digital PR
This partnership had two parts: standing up and navigating the internal review-and-approval process, and delivering a high-impact digital PR programme tied to the 'personal loans' SEO strategy.
The solution
While we helped the in-house SEO team sell digital PR internally and stand up the approval process, we also built out a three-part delivery plan.
1. New data-led creative campaigns - to earn coverage in target press
We focused on the intersection between the brand, their target personas and what they cared about (wants, needs and desires) and what the target media were covering and interested in at the time.
We used free, robust data sets, such as government data, NGPF reports, and The Survey of the States, to fuel our ideas and stories, and ensure our campaigns demonstrated credibility and authority. We also delivered this in the level of detail required for the compliance team, to help build trust.
The team front-loaded production in the earlier months so we had multiple campaigns in the pipeline. This meant that once processes were in place and we’d started getting approvals flowing we could build a bank of creative content ready for upload and outreach.
- Chloe Osunsami, Head of Digital PR
2. Evergreen campaign - for ideas to be approved once and updated annually
A proportion of the new data-led creative content campaigns were proposed as evergreen. Approved ideas therefore had greater longevity, and as long as the same data sets were updated annually, this would keep approval processes more streamlined.
3. Repurposing existing on-site content - to build momentum while campaigns cleared review
We identified on-site content that we could update or turn into tips to use for digital PR stories to key press. As we knew it’d take time to get the first creative content campaign live, this ensured we still had outreach material in the short term and could start building momentum. Building a strong relationship with the in-house traditional PR team was key here, so we could get any quotes or new angles on the content, or any reactive opportunities, approved as quickly as possible.
The Results
The client started the engagement with a mature but plateauing referring-domain profile. Despite the slower start with new content, over our two-year partnership we landed 163 pieces of coverage, with 142 containing links - 29% above the 110-link KPI we set with the client. Referring domains grew by more than 30% over the two years.
Our digital PR stories were featured on key target publications such as CNBC, Yahoo!, Nasdaq, The Globe and Mail, TimeOut, The Motley Fool, Go Banking Rates, Morningstar, MarketWatch and TheStreet.
Looking at the wider benefits, the campaigns also moved rankings. Target personal loan keywords climbed - including 'personal loans' itself, one of the most contested terms in the vertical. Positions improved on average by 3-4 places, moving further up page 1, defending and growing their visibility in this key space.
One thing we'd do differently next time is push harder, and earlier, to tie digital PR output as much as possible to metrics closer to the bottom line, like loan applications. We started that work in year two with the client's analytics team (following our focus on the internal approval process), but internal changes and attribution setup meant we didn't land the measurement model before the partnership ended. For any finance brand we work with now, we build that conversation into month one.
- Chloe Osunsami, Head of Digital PR
We've built approval processes with legal and compliance teams at finance brands like this one. Contact us to book a 30-minute call with our Head of Digital PR and we'll walk you through how we'd approach your sign-off workflow.