With a portfolio of more than 20 online community titles and face-to-face events, covering subject areas including accountancy, HR, training, CRM, cloud computing and finance, Sift Media offers a unique opportunity for businesses to engage with their clients and prospective clients, in ways that go beyond the traditional banners and buttons approach. 

Engaged members

Members see the online communities as more than simply a source of information and debate. Feedback from members of the 120,00-strong AccountingWEB community showed, for example, that the site provides reviews and debate alongside a genuine sense of human engagement, particularly for small firms and sole practitioners. 

This placement of the portfolio as a genuinely useful business tool allows for highly effective campaigns, delivering brand engagement and, ultimately, highly qualified leads. In this case, Lloyds TSB's objectives were to: 

• Raise and renew awareness of the brand across small, medium and large companies
• Encourage growth of the new prospects pool
• De-mystify and de-jaron the offering whilst demonstrating expertise in the area through thought leadership
• Develop a dialogue with the target audience to further encourage prospect nurturing
• Use multiple touch points and engaging formats to differentiate the brand from the competition
• Produce campaign metrics including leads / new prospects and brand engagements

A 4-phase strategy delivered against these objectives. 

Phase 1: the business finance survey

A co-branded, multi-site, editorially drivem member survey was developed, gathering business community opinion, forecasts and pain points with responses and data used to forumulate co-branded collateral. 

Phase 2: the cash flow forum

An co-branded area on the UK's largest SME community, UK Business Forums, where small businesses could share their cashflow tips, experiences and questions with their peers. 

Phase 3: thought leadership exercise

Positioning Lloyds TSB's Simon Featherstone alongside live budget coverage on Business Zone, with pre- and post-editorial coverage and follow up interview. 

Phase 4: business tools whitepaper

Drawing on responses and survey data, a multi-site, co-branded whitepaper produced by Finance Week editor Rachel Fielding. The whitepaper offered analysis of the initial survey results to identify the key issues raised by members, highlight key trends affecting business and members' tips in response to the issues raised, supported by expert comment from ABFA and Lloyds TSB. 

The results

Over a 5 month campaign, members engaged directly with Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance 19,792 times, measure via clicks, reads, dwell time, comments and downloads. 

This brand engagement equated to prospect nurturing, thought leadership, influence and goodwill.