The financial crisis in 2008 led to massive upheaval for SMEs… Credit markets froze, traditional lenders stopped lending and it was all but impossible to find funding.
But where other lenders saw risk, Blenheim Chalcot – a renowned business incubator – saw the opportunity. And so the idea for BusinessFinanceCompared.com was born – an online portal where SMEs could instantly see what credit was available and apply for it online.
The Challenge
Before investing in developing the service, however, Blenheim Chalcot wanted to be sure it was worth it and, if so, where to focus their sales and marketing efforts.
To make informed decisions, Blenheim Chalcot required fact rather than opinion or perception. The research was already out there – it just needed to be unearthed and turned into a usable tool.
Our approach
After working with Blenheim Chalcot to produce a set of clearly-defined goals, Savanta identified a list of potential information sources. These included official statistics, Regulatory and Government reports, trade body and media reports and analysis, third party market surveys and competitor publications. No stone was left unturned.
The next step was to thoroughly review the accumulated data for reliability and relevance. A mammoth but worthwhile undertaking. It provided a hugely comprehensive knowledge base that could then be distilled into market insight and linked back to the decisions Blenheim Chalcot needed to make.
The outcome
The resulting series of evidence-based business recommendations clearly indicated that the opportunity was a good one. The insights that Savanta generated enabled Blenheim Chalcot to focus on segments within the wider SME population that were the most attractive, with marketing messages that the research indicated would resonate most.
BusinessFinanceCompared.com launched in 2015 and receives around 5,000 monthly visitors looking for financial advice. In the past six months alone it has enabled 3,500 lending enquiries.
The experience has been excellent. Even though the approach to mapping the market was extremely thorough, insights were communicated in a way which was easy to digest, and gave clear and sound recommendations for action.