Funding Circle has best online presence among business finance brands
Funding Circle is the UK’s most prominent business finance brand in terms of online presence, new research has found.
Salience Search Marketing analysed the number of monthly searches for each brand and calculated an ‘owned social score’ which combines the number of followers and engagement rate across major social platforms for each brand.
Funding Circle topped the list, with 40,500 brand searches per month, more than 13.6m social media followers and an owned social score of 13,846.
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Tide came in second place, with 74,000 brand searches per month but just 40,254 social media followers, giving it an owned social score of 60.
The brand prominence rankings make up part of a larger report on business finance from the search marketing firm.
Salience also assessed current industry trends to see what topics consumers are searching for. It found that ‘small business loans bad credit’ had seen the largest year-on-year increase in searches, with 118 per cent growth.
This was followed by searches for ‘private money lending’ which grew by 115 per cent and ‘best commercial mortgage rates UK’ which rose by 113 per cent.
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Searches for ‘best business loans UK’ increased by 72 per cent and ‘bridge loan for house’ rose by 67 per cent.
“With mortgage rates skyrocketing in the UK, the growing search interests align with the current economy,” Salience said.
The report also looked at brand visibility. Start Up Loans was the brand with the biggest year-on-year growth in visibility, with a 48 per cent increase.
This was followed by British Business Bank which saw its visibility increase by 35 per cent.
Conversely, Funding Options saw the biggest drop in organic visibility with a 35 per cent decrease.
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“The business finance sector has seen a successful year, as the industry records an 18 per cent increase in overall organic growth,” said Brett Janes, managing director at Salience.
“This growth coincides with the increase in those seeking financial support following the pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis that has largely impacted the economy.
“With high-interest rates and mortgage rates skyrocketing, more and more business owners turn to business finance to help deal with the challenges within the industry. This has resulted in the likes of ‘Start Up Loans’ seeing the biggest growth in visibility, with a 48 per cent jump since June 2022.
“Topics trending in the industry, assessing what people search for, include small business loans and the best commercial mortgage rates in the UK.
“Overall, building a strong following and online presence across multiple channels becomes crucial in driving sales and capitalizing on the expanding market demand.”