Pursuit Lending
A mission-based business lender and SBA specialist focused on the Northeast U.S.
Services Provided
- Marketing Strategy
- Brand Strategy
- Identity Development
- Website Design
- Website Development
- Content Marketing
- SEO
- Social Media Marketing
- Paid Media Advertising
Amplifying Marketing Power: Merging Three Organizations into One New Brand
The Challenge
Pursuit Lending reached out to CSTMR when they were at a crossroads. A 60+ year old business lending company originally formed by New York state bankers, the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC) had evolved into three distinct and separate public-facing brands. They came to believe that they could likely realize greater internal efficiency, market exposure, and brand-name value if the three entities were merged into a single, new brand – and they needed expert guidance to make that happen and go to market.
Goals:
- Define and launch a compelling new brand that could embody the merger of all three existing brands
- Express the new brand through a new, modern website and marketing collateral
- Extend the marketing reach of the brand by focusing on content strategy and editorial planning for articles, webinars, SEO, and social media.
- Drive 350 new newsletter sign ups per year
- Increase web traffic by 1% MoM
- Average email to app submit rate of 3%
The Solution
CSTMR worked with the marketing and leadership team at NYBDC to develop a brand strategy for merging the three brands into one. After a name for the new brand was confirmed, we led the NYBDC team through the identity development process to the final logo, color palette, typography, imagery and other assets that would visually define the new brand – Pursuit Lending.
Next, we planned out the website migration strategy of merging three websites of content, services, and other details into one new site. This included defining and delivering the new site’s information architecture, content needs, SEO and domain considerations, UX and visual design, and web development. We also worked with the Pursuit team to assemble a content strategy for the site’s resource center and ongoing content publication, based on audience value and SEO best practices.
With the launch of the new Pursuit visual identity, we worked with their team to design and develop new marketing collateral to extend the new brand’s exposure to both existing and new audiences. This included updated email newsletter and announcement templates.
Since the new brand and website launched in 2020, we continue to advise and support the Pursuit team through strategic recommendations, monthly analytics and progress reporting, email marketing, social media campaigns, and website services to help them grow their brand presence and reach their monthly business goals.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) launched for small businesses, Pursuit reached out to us again to help them quickly pivot to accept PPP applications by designing, building, and launching a new loan application portal within one week. They were live and ready to accept applications on the first day of the new program, allowing them to play a pivotal role in the support of small businesses in the areas they serve.
"The team at CSTMR are thoughtful, skilled marketers that go above and beyond for their clients. We recently wrapped up an SEO project that resulted in a 30% increase in website traffic..."
Tactics
- Employed a multi-step process for design, refinement, and acceptance of the new brand visual identity –– concept development, sketching, and then typography, color, and graphic exploration. Combined into logo renderings and final identity.
- Combined content and SEO strategy with user experience best practices and business goals to develop new site architecture, merging three sites into one new site.
- Utilize Elementor Pro page and theme building tools in WordPress for efficient, powerful custom development and ease of ongoing site management.
- Implemented A/B testing plan to optimize website forms for newsletter subscriptions.
- Provide ongoing SEO recommendations for targeted content development opportunities.
- Provide ongoing social media strategy and assets to optimize audience engagement and drive website visits.
Results
New Brand Takes Flight to Support Small Businesses & their Communities
The new Pursuit brand launched to great success and harnessed the power and momentum that the team was hoping it would. It proved to be an exceptional upgrade and springboard for rolling out digital marketing efforts that established the new brand name and drove excitement and growth.
- Successfully merged three existing brands and websites into one new brand identity.
- Improved organic search traffic by 30% in the 3 months post-launch of the new site.
- Launched a new PPP applicant portal in 5 days.
- Grew newsletter subscriptions from 0 to 1,200 in 13 months.
- Average 76% list growth QoQ.
- Average email open rates reach 37%.
- Average social engagement 4.39% vs 0.5% industry average (8x).
- Email to application submit rate as high as 12%.
- MOM organic traffic increased as high as 27%.
30%
Improved organic search traffic 30% in 3 months post-launch.
1,200
Grew newsletter subscriptions from 0 to 1,200 in 13 months.
76%
Averaged 76% list growth QoQ.
37%
Average email open rate reached 37%
8x
Average social engagement 8x the industry average.
12%
Email to application submit rate as high as 12%.
