As the pandemic continued into 2021, its impact on small businesses continued to worsen. In addition to a continued struggle with an unpredictable market and fluctuating government regulations, small businesses were also met with a myriad of operational disruptions caused by a supply chain breakdown across nearly all industries. As a result, many of Coast Capital’s small business members suffered significant delays in inventory replenishment, disrupting payment timelines and putting even more strain on a merchant’s ability to manage their cash flow. Although the Federal Government continued to offer financial relief with the extension of the CEBA, business was still left to navigate the tax implications, debt repayment and loan forgiveness all on their own—all while continuing to run a business in a struggling economy. Coast didn’t view this initiative as a marketing campaign; rather, we saw this as a call to arms to help our small business members with as much advice and support during the pandemic as we could. We set target engagement metrics for this work aligned to financial services industry benchmarks from Gartner to ensure our efforts were resonating. We set an open rate target of 21.56%, click through rate of 2.72%, and click to open rate of 0.43%. To help our members navigate the financial uncertainties that come with increased debt loads, resiliency planning, and the tax implications of collecting government relief, Coast Capital launched an educational newsletter program exclusively catered to their small business member base. By providing simple, actionable advice to improve their financial well-being, better manage their debt and cashflow and even tackle hurdles beyond banking like employee retention and grant applications, Coast Capital was able to make members feel not only capable, but confident in their ability to make smart money decisions. Each month members received a newsletter featuring easy to follow cashflow, debt repayment and resiliency planning guides as well as tutorials and links to proprietary financial tools and partnership opportunities exclusively available to Coast Capital small business members. Small businesses have enough on their plate running a business, and with the added stress of unpredictable variables to their cash flow caused by an on-going pandemic they don’t need to be sold on a product. They need real advice that will actually give them breathing room in their books, and the peace of mind that comes with it. The campaign drove significant value for our small business members, as witnessed by our incredibly strong email and content engagement rates that significantly outperformed industry benchmarks. Our open rate was 68% above benchmark (36.2% vs. 21.56%), our click through rate was 73% above benchmark (4.7% vs 2.72%), and our click to open rate was 1341% above benchmark (6.2% vs. 0.43%).