How Nine Stones Built Trust and Traffic for 365 Business Finance

365 Business Finance is a UK lender that offers SMEs merchant cash advances of up to £200,000 to help them grow. Its Marketing Manager, Mandy Warren, saw a gap in the content on its website and social channels, and asked Nine Stones to fill it.

The Challenge

Financial services firms often struggle to write content that both informs and engages. 365 Business Finance needed a content strategy that would bring visitors to its site and build trust with the small businesses it lends to, and a team with the time and skill to deliver it.

The Approach

The work began with a strategy workshop, where Mandy joined Nine Stones' account manager, project manager and copywriters to plan a content roadmap.

Together they set content pillars that followed the customer journey, built around SME pain points and the stages of the buying funnel. Much of the content landed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many of 365 Business Finance's customers faced an uncertain economy.

A hospitality comeback guide. The standout piece gave practical advice to hospitality businesses trying to recover after lockdowns.

Client blogs. Nine Stones wrote blogs built on 365 Business Finance's own customers and how they had come through COVID.

Social media. The team supported 365 Business Finance on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

When COVID paused 365 Business Finance's marketing for six months, Nine Stones adjusted to the team's bandwidth and budget, then picked the work up again as soon as it restarted.

The Outcome

The optimised blog content increased traffic to the site, and engagement grew on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. 365 Business Finance saw more inbound interest and growing authority as a lender SMEs could trust.