Portman Asset Finance

Sector:
Private sector, Finance
Team:
Business development, marketing
Expertise:
Brand strategy, website design and development, bespoke development, copywriting

Our introduction to Portman came through a recommendation from A2Z Cloud, who provided Portman with their Zoho CMS solution. We were subsequently invited to compete in a five-way proposal process and won. EllisJames went on to deliver a richly branded online experience for Portman’s target market, demonstrating alignment with their pains and desires, and with super slick functionality to improve engagement and drive increased sales.

What’s the deal?

Portman Asset Finance is one of the UK’s leading independent finance providers, supporting SMEs across the country with tailored finance solutions, delivered with excellent levels of customer service.

However, and by their own acknowledgement, their outgoing website failed to capture the spirit of the brand, or highlight their key points of differentiation in what is a highly competitive marketplace. In addition, the site was suffering some ongoing technical issues which threatened to undermine lead capture.

So what?

Portman know their customer base very well. They understand the pains they experience and how crucial funding routes are to their ongoing survival. This is exactly the sort of insight that we need to apply human-centred design thinking to full effect.

Building on some preliminary work that Portman had undertaken in-house, we were able to develop the site design into a refreshing and very positive user experience that built trust quickly.

We also redeveloped the two main functional modules on the site – the finance calculator and contact form. These two elements not only provide useful information to site visitors, but through data capture and integration with Portman’s sales system, are instrumental in new business generation.

Yeah, but, so what?

We also provided a significant chunk of SEO-focused copywriting for the site. In such a competitive market, SEO – both paid-for and organic – is hugely important. Our approach is to research well, and create meaningful content, written in natural language (we never write keyword fodder).

The bespoke development we undertook for the finance calculator was so successful, Portman requested a modularised version that could be deployed on third-party referring sites. This opened a new avenue of sales and revenue generation that Portman hadn’t been able to consider before this project.

Overall, the site has performed incredibly well, returning a three-fold improvement in behavioural metrics. That includes length of time visitors stay on the site, the amount of enquiries generated, and of course, actual sales generated.

Favourite element?

The collaboration between Portman’s project managers and within the EllisJames team was excellent, and really enjoyable. This, despite working to a highly compressed programme for Portman.

The design is really detailed throughout, but never feels heavy. You get a really nice sense of the Portman brand as open, down to earth and relevant – which we can tell you is bang on, having worked so closely with them.

The site is one of the most technically challenging projects we’ve worked on, due to the essential functions and integration with Portman’s back-end, so it is rewarding beyond measure to see the performance statistics validate our design thinking process, and approach to content and user experience.

Early results show a 3-fold improvement in behavioural metrics!

I have been extremely impressed. The team’s approach has been to create best in class user experience, with simple and effective touches right across the site. The end result exceeds what I expected from the original concepts and the team have been a pleasure to work with, very responsive and a considered approach.

Saul Michelson, Portman