Our client came to us with an idea and a goal. They planned to develop a business around the servicing of SBA loans, alleviating the problems that traditional banking institutions face after underwriting a new loan. Their goal — $10B in revenues in the first year.
Scale of that magnitude would require a marcom stack which was streamlined alongside operational systems to automate loan onboarding.
As we engaged with our client’s new team, we quickly realized we would have limited ability to scale that team up as quickly as would be needed, a new solution was in order. To best utilize the team’s skills, and to grow as quickly as possible, we had to onboard loans in bulk, not one-by-one. A strategy for bringing in portfolios and partner institutions would be critical.
As we gained a deeper understanding of the target audience, it became clear that a simple and straightforward process was a critical component of the user journey. With limited time and understanding of business lending, small business owners needed to be handheld through what was traditionally a confusing and redundant government regulated process.
We integrated our working team with the new startup team, allowing for fast communication, deep understanding of day-to-day operations and the ability to steer certain aspects of the business to best facilitate marketing automation and technology implementation.
We built a custom marketing and sales ecosystem bringing in partner institutions that already had or were looking to transfer a large number of new small business loans — think traditional banks and loan providers. Each partner institution was provided a private, co-branded mini-site that informed existing loan holders about loan servicing and the actions they needed to take. Loan holders were essentially ‘transferred’ from their original loan provider to a qualified servicing partner in an elegant way.
Digital marketing tech stack
Utilizing their public facing website as a backbone, we developed a nimble and unified marketing ecosystem. It allowed for quick evolution of messages, content and resources. This worked in tandem with a private and customized partnership website ecosystem. This technology solution facilitated the bulk loan growth necessary to achieve our client’s goals.
Streamlined onboarding system
Onboarding thousands of new members (loan holders) required a private portal entrypoint to allow new business owners to be funneled into specific and tailored experiences. Each partner institution was approached with highly personalized marketing/sales materials. Once onboarded, we provided a custom mini-site and communication instructions. Each of these components could operate at scale by the technology systems we identified and implemented up front.
Software development partnership
As the technology needs grew, we leveraged a best-in-class software development partner to supplement the work our client was doing, for loan servicing. Working directly with our client and this software partner, a completely custom online experience was able to be implemented. With the ability to determine optimal user journeys, and an understanding of all the inputs and outputs, our teams were able to efficiently build a client portal that could grow beyond loan servicing and provide complimentary business services to the rapidly growing membership base.
Aligned teams and smart technology implementations allowed this startup to grow to $11.3B in less than a year — the initial revenue goal, delivered.
Our client was able to realize the second stage of their business through an intentional and simple software build. This evolution allowed them to capitalize on the initial success and keep their member base engaged with much needed adjacent support services, all able to be managed in one place.
Scale, achieved.
