Start Up LoansSEO, Content Marketing& Design

The strategic challenge

The British Business Bank needed to raise awareness among UK small business owners and entrepreneurs in the early stages of starting a business. The aim was to educate them on the government support available.

A key driver was to increase diversity engagement from Black, Asian and Other Minority Ethnic groups.

With tens of thousands of new businesses starting each year in the UK, government support through funding, as well as access to information, guides and mentoring is a critical plank in helping ensure long-term viability for smaller businesses.

There are also emerging issues that affect smaller businesses – from economic downturns, sustainability goals, supply chain challenges, and new technology such as AI – that SMEs and start-up business owners needed to be aware of to help them more effectively compete both in the UK and overseas.

Our approach

Working with The Open University and business journalists, Submerge created and delivered a wide-ranging SEO content programme that covered all aspects of starting and running a business, as well as the skills required to achieve start-up success.

Submerge created and delivered over 400 long-form articles, guides and interviews with expert advice in plain English on how to start a business, as well as inspirational interviews with a diverse cohort of new business owners charting their start-up journeys over four years.

Submerge also created in-depth, downloadable guides that cover core start-up challenges such as marketing, hiring staff, setting up a business, social media and access to funding.

The team at Submerge work closely with Start Up Loans in-house marketing experts, including creating and hosting content ideation and planning workshops with stakeholders across the organisation. We also attend agency days with Start Up Loans to ensure that content is aligned to overall priorities.

The result

Organic traffic grew by 300% over four years, with a high take-up of government loans. Content-led customer journeys were created that encouraged new start ups to upskill and sign onto national learning courses.

Traffic is now accelerating and (as shown below) learning, guides and how-to content created by Submerge now attracts around 37,000 monthly visitors. For Start Up Loans, this is valuable traffic from visitors looking for information on starting and running a business, and provides a lead generation pipeline to introduce them to the government-backed Start Up Loan and support programme.