Barclays offers small businesses banking packages across a full suite of transactional, savings and lending products, plus a range of practical support services.
Challenge
Its objective was to generate leads to increase the number of small businesses calling to open an account, with a view to acquiring a total of 23,900 new customers. To do this, it needed to overcome the cynicism associated that had come to be associated with banks and show that Barclays was open for business.
Solution
Small business owners with a company turnover of less than £1 million and budding entrepreneurs were the focus. Barclays used existing customer testimonials as the basis for its campaign. The rationale was that using real customer examples put all customers and potential customers at the heart of the communications – and made the messages relevant and compelling because they were formed of the voice of customers themselves.
Press was the lead channel, with above the line advertising consisting of press ads in The Sun and The Times plus London’s Metro newspaper. Below the line advertising consisted of in-store branch posters, plus the customer case studies featured on online business support pages.
Results
As a result, 32,321 sales were generated over the period – amounting to 135 per cent of the original 23,900 target. In fact more sales were generated than in the successful campaign of the previous year, despite a market contraction whist using the same budget.
Direct lead generation, both online and telephony, also showed an 8 per cent uplift versus the previous year’s campaign – with 22,425 leads generated versus the previous 20,711.
