Premier Partners provide the American Financial Services Association with significant support to ensure the success of not only the association, but the entire consumer-finance industry. We asked the SourceLink team, AFSA’s March 2020 highlighted Premier Partner, to provide insight into the industry and their AFSA membership.
What is the most important issue facing your company right now?
We want to be sure our clients and prospective clients leverage and optimize all marketing communication channels to exceed their goals. We are making big strides; this year we ranked 16th in the “U.S. CRM/Direct Marketing Networks” category in the Ad Age Agency Report rankings, and 126th in the overall “US Agencies” category, jumping 23 spots from last year.
We partner with clients in the consumer finance space on their overall business goals. We listen to understand their challenges, whether getting more new business or retaining existing, we assist with an overarching campaign plan that can integrate multiple channels into a full service omni-channel campaign. And in order to service our clients with a complete suite of services, in December 2018, we acquired Path Interactive. Path is a highly respected digital agency, which allows us to provide best in class digital marketing solutions. In November 2019, we partnered with Vision Integrated Graphics Group to expand our overall capabilities even further. With these changes, we are establishing ourselves as a scaled leader in omni-channel marketing services, able to offer clients differentiated solutions across offline and online channels.
What are some key trends your company is tracking?
Since we offer Invitation to Apply (ITA), prescreen, live checks, email, and digital services (such as SEO, display, and social), we are constantly tracking to monitor our client’s success in generating new customers and expanding current customer relationships. We used this data to measure against industry averages and our own personal best. In addition, with more clients taking advantage of omni-channel marketing, we also track the lifts received when incorporating multiple channels. We continue to exceed our past results with our clients because of our culture of continuous improvement.
Why did your company join AFSA?
We began working in the consumer finance industry about 25 years ago. With several clients in the consumer finance market, we wanted to be active participants and contributors to the associations in which our clients were members. We have been a part of the association for almost 23 years. SourceLink is more than a vendor, we partner with our clients to be sure we understand their goals and help them reach or exceed them through marketing tactics that increase customer acquisition, customer retention and continue to nurture the relationship through ongoing communication.
How has being an AFSA Premier Partner benefited your company?
Our AFSA Premier Partnership has allowed our company to stay integrally involved in business partner networking systems and the industry as a whole. Being a part of AFSA allows us to stay up to date on legislative issues affecting our client base and alter programs based on restrictions set forth by the CFPB and other government agencies.