How Rika helped Finova earn the attention of the UK's most hard-to-reach lending decision-makers

Because the target audience was defined, senior and deliberate in how they evaluate technology decisions, the strategy was built around sustained, coordinated presence across multiple channels rather than a single-channel push optimised for volume.

Each channel was assigned a specific role. LinkedIn ABM would deliver broad account-level coverage and build familiarity over time. Physical direct mail would create a genuine, high-impact touchpoint with named individuals. Trade editorial in Mortgage Solutions would establish authority in the environment where these buyers already conduct their research. An email workflow would adapt messaging to engagement signals and flag higher-intent contacts to the sales team in real time.

The creative strategy ran a consistent line across all of it: speed-to-market and de-risked implementation. For a Head of Lending worried about being outpaced by competitors, the promise of a live specialist BTL proposition in four months is immediately relevant. For the COO who has lived through a failed core system replacement, the ability to run Finova in parallel with existing infrastructure removes the single biggest objection. Both messages were present in every channel, adapted to format and context.

The campaign was was designed to build presence and credibility within a defined account list over a sustained period, in a market where enterprise technology decisions routinely take months from first awareness to contract.

The specialist lending market is growing, but the decision-making audience within it is niche. Reaching them with digital advertising alone creates a particular problem: these executives are among the most digitally saturated B2B audiences in financial services. LinkedIn is their professional home, which means it is also where every other fintech vendor is competing for their attention.

Finova's own research, published through the campaign's commissioned thought leadership, illustrated the pressure these decision-makers are operating under. 78% of lenders said they were more open to innovation than a year earlier, rising to 83% among building societies. Yet 35% cited margin pressure as a constraint on innovation decisions, and legacy systems were consistently identified as the operational barrier between appetite and action.

This combination, cautious buyers operating within constrained systems, required a specific kind of campaign. Messaging needed to resolve the risk objection as much as it articulated the opportunity. And channels needed to break through in a way that generic digital advertising would not. Physical mail, when it is premium, personalised and arrives at a desk rather than a feed, commands a different quality of attention. It is passed around, kept, returned to. For a campaign targeting 100 named senior contacts, that that distinction leads to higher attention and recall.

The campaign ran across five channels, each with a defined role in the overall plan.

LinkedIn ABM: Single Image, Carousel and Document Ads

LinkedIn served as the primary digital channel, with targeting built around Finova's tiered account lists. Creative was segmented across business, technical and combined audience groups to ensure coverage of both commercial and operational decision-makers within each account. This is important, as technical procurement decisions are rarely influenced by a single stakeholder. Single image and carousel ads ran across the campaign period to build awareness and drive traffic to the dedicated landing page.

Document ads promoted the campaign's commissioned research report, New Foundations: Building the Next Era of BTL Lending, via LinkedIn's native lead gen form. This format allowed prospects to preview the report directly in the LinkedIn feed before submitting their details,  capturing identifiable contact information without requiring a visit to an external page. 

Direct Mail

100 personalised mailers were sent to senior decision-makers across Finova's top priority accounts. This was a deliberate, high-production physical touchpoint designed to reach named individuals in a way that digital channels cannot: physically, on a desk, with their name on it.

The mailer was built around a premium tactile experience, including a personalised letter and a die-cut rocket ship piece carrying the platform's core proof points. A branded QR code linked directly to the campaign landing page. 

Mortgage Solutions: Native Editorial

To reach the target audience in the environment where they conduct their own research and due diligence, Rika negotiated and managed a native editorial series with Mortgage Solutions, one of the UK's leading trade publications for the mortgage and specialist lending market.

The series comprised of three emails to the full specialist lender database. Two were built around original editorial articles written by the Mortgage Solutions team and attributed to Finova's spokesperson. A third reinforced both articles and introduced supporting case study content.

ABM Email Workflow

Rika designed and implemented a behaviour-led email workflow in HubSpot to support cold outreach to a defined lender contact list. Rather than a fixed linear sequence, the workflow adapted messaging based on whether contacts opened, clicked or did not engage, routing higher-intent signals to the sales team in real time via automatic internal notifications and list updates.

Campaign Landing Page

All campaign traffic was directed to a dedicated /btl landing page, built around the campaign's core message: Transform your specialist buy-to-let proposition in 4 months, risk-free. The page addressed  lender-specific pressures, with operational proof points, product visuals, and multiple conversion routes including demo booking, case study access and supporting content.

The campaign's creative tension was built around two things that enterprise lending buyers need to take-away simultaneously: that the opportunity is real and time-sensitive, and that acting on it does not require them to bet the business on a core system replacement.

"Transform your specialist buy-to-let proposition in 4 months, risk-free" carried both. Speed-to-market addressed the competitive anxiety of the Head of Lending. Risk-free addressed the operational caution of the COO. Every channel adapted this tension to its format, from the carousel ad sequence that moved from problem statement to product capability, to the direct mailer that led with a question ("Losing buy-to-let deals to faster competitors?") before introducing Finova as the answer.

• Multi-channel ABM campaign strategy and execution across LinkedIn, direct mail, trade editorial and email.
  
  
• LinkedIn single image, carousel and document ad creative, copy and campaign management.
  
  
• Premium, personalised direct mail concept, design, production and fulfilment across 100 personalised mailers.
  
  
• Native editorial series in Mortgage Solutions.
  
  
• HubSpot email workflow with behavioural branching, CTA triggers and automated sales notifications.
  
  
• Dedicated campaign landing page structure, copy and visual design.
  
  
• Account-level engagement tracking mapped against Finova's Tier 1, 2 and 3 target account lists.
  
  
• Lead generation for Finova's thought leadership report: New Foundations: Building the Next Era of BTL Lending.