Sustained PR & content delivers for Corporate-to-Bank Integration Scale-Up AccessPay
Since 2012, AccessPay has helped finance and treasury teams to achieve excellence in payment operations. The scale-up’s cloud-based platform merges bank and finance operations into a single interface, which improves efficiency, reduces the risk of fraud and error and optimises cash visibility.
In 2019, AccessPay engaged The Comms Crowd to help raise the company’s profile and build industry awareness of its offering. At the time, it was well-known in its home city of Manchester but had less brand recognition outside of Northern England. It wanted to establish itself as an authoritative voice and thought leader with key fintech media titles to position it as the vendor of choice for finance and treasury leaders.
What we did
The Comms Crowd started small with AccessPay. We worked with the CEO and marketing team to help it articulate its key messages of payment modernisation, helped it to develop a news pipeline and provided PR support for press releases. We also undertook projects, such as authoring bylines and white papers to support specific thought-leadership campaigns.
As AccessPay has grown, Comms Crowd’s early low-level support has become a full-service retainer. Comms Crowd has two key roles: the first is as a halo content creator to support wider marketing initiatives, and the second is as AccessPay’s PR team.
As a content creator, we work closely with the marketing team to understand its wider marketing campaign plan and to create content to support key aims. Content ranges from blogs, LinkedIn articles and media bylines on hot industry topics to position AccessPay’s CEO and senior management team as thought leaders to long-form white papers and guides to serve as lead-generation tools.
As a PR team, we help AccessPay demonstrate thought leadership by putting it forward for relevant features and providing comment opportunities on industry issues and trends. We have also helped it build its profile by providing press release support and setting up an awards programme identifying relevant accolades for AccessPay to enter.
Both activities are underpinned by ongoing strategic guidance, training and feedback from The Comms Crowd to ensure that efforts in both areas are optimised for maximum success.
This success most recently manifested in March 2024 with AccessPay securing over $24m in Series C funding.
The results
In 12 months, The Comms Crowd has helped AccessPay:
- Write 24 pieces of content
- Secure 21 media opportunities
- Generate 115 pieces of coverage with 208k views.
These activities have helped AccessPay to raise its profile by securing coverage in several tier-one publications, including Electronic Payments International, Finextra, Fintech Finance, Fintech Futures, Fintech Times, IBS Journal, The Paypers, Payments Journal, Treasury Management International and Treasury Today.
“The Comms Crowd has been an indispensable partner in driving our PR and content success. Since 2019, they’ve helped us become a recognised thought leader in the payments automation space. Their strategic guidance and ability to create impactful content—whether it’s thought-provoking white papers or insightful media bylines—has positioned us as a go-to resource for finance and treasury teams. They’ve also been instrumental in raising our industry profile by securing high-quality media coverage and award recognitions. Their commitment, creativity, and deep understanding of our business and the industry continue to play a pivotal role in our growth.” – Rachael Hicketts, Content and Communications Manager, AccessPay
Key highlights
Drive to Digital report
In 2022, Comms Crowd helped AccessPay develop a new lead-generation tool, its Drive to Digital report. We proposed that AccessPay conduct a survey at planned client events and helped it develop a questionnaire based on its key themes. We analysed the results and created a report, which was placed as gated content on AccessPay’s website, and drafted a press release to announce the report’s launch. The report generated 132 leads, and AccessPay has since made the report an annual feature of its marketing calendar which influences their marketing efforts for the following year, based on the Finance Trends found within the report.
“The Drive to Digital report was a standout success for us. Comms Crowd’s data analysis and compelling report provided us with valuable insights into the challenges faced by finance teams, helping us refine our marketing focus. The report has become a pivotal resource for us; it has positioned us a thought leader in payments transformation, and guides a lot of our content for the year. It’s a key resource we use to address the real pain points of our audience while driving conversations for our commercial team” – Rachael Hicketts, Content and Communications Manager, AccessPay
Funding news
In March 2024, The Comms Crowd helped AccessPay break the news that it had secured $24 million in funding. We drafted a press release detailing the investment, liaised with the investors and secured an exclusive with Axios. Over 40 pieces of coverage were generated following the release which totalled a staggering 20 million audience views.
