Linear Financial Solutions.
Linear Financial Solutions has been through a 180-degree pivot in 2022, shifting from direct consumer marketing to adviser recruitment. Your Marketing Doctor has worked with Linear for the past four years – so we were in the perfect position to help re-vamp the proposition to fall in line with the new business strategy.
Project date: January 2022 – Present
About the business.
Linear Financial Solutions is a mortgage adviser network covering the whole of the UK. It works to recruit and mentor self-employed mortgage advisers. Advisers are given the chance to function under the Linear brand or create their own brand with the support of parent network, PRIMIS Mortgage Network.
Linear welcomes new advisers at any stage in their career, whether they are already established, gaining more qualifications, or starting their career from scratch. With expert mentorship and academy programs, advisers get all the support they need to secure their career at a pace that suits them.
“I have had operational oversight for Linear Mortgage Network since March 2020 and part of this work has involved regular engagement with Sophie who has been a pleasure to work with (and very patient on occasion!). The Linearfs.com website is a brilliant example of what a progressive Financial Services businesses website should look like. The website would not be what it is without the marketing expertise and vision of Your Marketing Doctor.”
Donald Fraser, Regional Sales Director
The problems.
Linear Financial Solutions had gone through quite a drastic management change at the beginning of 2020. It meant most marketing efforts were halted while the new management looked at where to take the business.
- Linear faced tough competition in a very busy B2C market
- While marketing was focused on the consumer, many advisers were taking it upon themselves to promote themselves locally
- This meant inconsistent messaging across the brand
- Little buy-in from higher management on the current strategy, meaning very low budget was agreed
- Linear had no clear direction, and there was a risk that it would be merged into PRIMIS
At this time, a forward-thinking regional sales director from PRIMIS (David Woodbridge) was brought in alongside a caretaker sales director (Donald Fraser) to help drive the business forward. Their plan was to focus on the recruitment of advisers who want to build their own business at their own pace. This meant repositioning the brand and completely pivoting their marketing and communications to a new audience.
The Proposition Clinic
The first step was to hold a Proposition Clinic with Donald and David to work out the new value proposition. In the workshop, we spent a day defining the target market and profiling each. We discussed the big problems faced by each target audience – helping us to define the needs of each.
The Proposition Clinic also focused on what the Linear brand stands for, aside from its parent company. It was important to make sure that Linear had its own brand personality, as it offered something unique to its market.
The outcome.
The proposition clinic delivered three key outcomes:
- A clear proposition statement for each target market
- Defined market positioning strategy
- A comms strategy, that included the creation of a completely new website
- A copywriting guide, to help keep all comms consistent
The first step was to create the new website design and copy that would fall in line with the new proposition. We were able to design and commission a new website with absolute ease. The website is now the central point of communications and is used as a sales tool for recruiting new advisers.
The renewed proposition.
The Linear Financial Solutions website was only possible thanks to the Proposition Clinic. We worked on defining the target markets and stepped away from the usual rhetoric from other mortgage networks. Self-employed mortgage advisers want to build a business that fits around their life, and Linear is now the perfect opportunity to do that will the full support of its expert mentors.
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