Media Innovator Awards 2021

Best Specialist Marketing Team – Southern Africa “In a nutshell, we’re a team of right-brained creatives, digital gurus and a CFP® professional who all know the financial services industry backwards,” Linda begins. “But let’s start at the beginning: I graduated with a Business Science Degree from the University of Cape town and embarked on a career in corporate marketing in South Africa and Australia. After ten years of developing strategies, running campaigns and managing marketing portfolios for leading brands, I decided to reinvent myself as a financial planner. I went back to university and requalified. You’re never too old to be a student!” Linda loved the process of helping clients make savvy financial decisions that would ulti-mately afford them financial freedom. But, at the same time, she missed the creativity of the marketing world. Luckily, Linda saw an opportunity to combine her previous marketing life with her financial one, and so FinCommunications was born in November 2017. “Experience has taught me always to hire an expert,” she elaborates. “So, I immediately set about building relationships with the best copywriters, designers, digital marketers and web developers in South Africa. “Nick Dall wrote the initial copy for FinCommunications’ very first website, and he’s added his narrative flair and pernickety perfectionism to every project we’ve worked on since. Nick soon brought his colleague Jon Minster on board as an additional ‘word nerd’, and Jon has played a pivotal role in taking our digital marketing to the next level. Meanwhile, Bardin Ellis’ coding skills are behind every financial website we’ve built for our clients over the years, and graphic designer Megan Sourgen has added a dash of award-winning aesthetic pizzaz to staid financial brands in our five-year history.” Today FinCommunications provides a full marketing service to financial services clients including branding, website development, bulk mail management, social media management and public relations management. It works for banks, asset managers, a financial planning software development company and an array of financial planning businesses. The firm operates with full integrity and transparency – fully disclosing and explaining its fees to clients, keeping detailed time sheets for each client, employing only the best suppliers, and paying them as much as possible. These core values haven’t changed over the years since it was incepted. “I don’t think greed on my part would hold an excellent team together!” states Linda. “Our clients love dealing with FinCommunications because we understand the financial industry intimately. We know what can and can’t be said regarding compliance regulations, and we have in-depth knowledge of the world of finance and insurance. “ As FinCommunications is still growing, it is able to provide a high level of client service and respond to all emails within the day. It also always provides a date of delivery and ensures that it delivers on time. “Most of our work is based on communications and we’ve pioneered a new fresh style of financial writing that’s conversational and human on one side and factually correct on the other,” Linda enthuses, speaking of the firm’s distinguishing features which help differentiate it from other in the sector. “This is quite different from other financial writers and is the reason we get a good success rate when we pitch articles to the media. Aug21008 There’s nothing like a brand story to assist others in getting to know a company. And, in the wake of being awarded the prestigious accolade of Best Specialist Marketing Team – Southern Africa, here is FinCommunications’ tale, as told by Founder/Owner, Linda Graham. “I also believe that we are pace setters in that we’re the first ‘friendly’ financial marketing house in South Africa. We understand our ‘clients’ language’, which makes it easy for them, but never assume that we know it all.” Following on from its more recent success of being crowned with the prestigious title of Best Specialist Marketing Team – Southern Africa in the Corporate Vision Media Innovator Awards 2021, Linda sees further accomplishments further down the live, including setting up a new business, FinSubscriptions, which will provide financial advisors with a bank of quality articles for their clients at a fraction of the cost of a bespoke article. “Five years into our journey, we’ve learnt a few valuable lessons, but we’ve benefitted from being flexible and embracing opportunities as they arise.” Contact: Linda Graham Company: FinCommunications Web Address: www.fincommunications.com