JTR Collections: Building credibility in an industry that doesn't do LinkedIn

The brief

JTR Collections works with local authorities across the UK, collecting council tax arrears, unpaid parking charges, and similar debts on their behalf. 

Michael Line, Managing Director, has built the business around a people-first approach: digital payments, self-serve portals, affordability calculators, and multiple communication touch-points before an enforcement agent is ever dispatched. 

The company slogan is ‘We’re here to help’ which shapes every decision the business makes.

The commercial model creates a specific challenge. JTR can’t market to councils through advertising or conventional outreach. New contracts come through tenders – but, for the most part, only when a council chooses to invite them. 

So to get the invitation, JTR needs to already be known and trusted by the right people.

The starting point

Michael had the right instinct. He began posting on LinkedIn himself in May 2025, but without support the output was inconsistent and by August 2025 posting had stalled.

The company page was averaging 2,554 impressions and 50 reactions per month with 750 followers, and we knew we could build on these foundations with a solid content strategy, brand voice and content pillars.

The civil enforcement industry, as a whole, was largely absent from LinkedIn – very few firms were taking the opportunity.

So, in September 2025, JTR Collections asked Social with Ryan to run their social channels.

The approach

We started with a full audit and a content strategy built from scratch. Three pillars were established to reflect JTR’s positioning: 

• Leadership and Change 
• Innovation and Tech
• Human and Compassionate

The business objective shaped the content philosophy. Tender invitations require visibility and credibility, so salesy content would’ve been the wrong approach entirely. 

Every post connects to one of those pillars and moves the brand consistently in the same direction.

Post frequency jumped from 5-7 posts per month to 8-10 and that cadence has run consistently since September 2025, with a single planned Christmas break. 

As of May 2026, 63 posts have been published under our social media management versus 22 in the equivalent pre-management window.

↳ The result: A brand that shows up weekly, looks credible and says something worth reading – in a sector where that combination wasn’t the norm.

The results

Monthly impressions are up 83%, from 2,554 to 4,682 per month on average. Monthly reactions have increased by 130%. Engagement rate has moved from 5.6% to 8.9%. The page has grown from 750 to over 1,000 followers.

The numbers, though, are only part of the story.

At an industry event, a woman Michael had never met came up to him unprompted. 

She said she had been following JTR on LinkedIn and was worried that JTR wouldn’t tender for her council after seeing a post where Michael had written about being selective with tender invitations. 

He had never pitched her. She had never requested a meeting. Nine months of consistent content had done that work already.

Nick Houlton, Finance Manager at Barnet Council, appeared as a 10 Minutes With guest. He isn’t a JTR client (or not yet, at least), but after filming, he now has a relationship with Michael and, if his local authority went to tender, it’s highly likely JTR would be invited.

Posting consistently on LinkedIn has generated opportunities for JTR Collections that wouldn’t have existed before they were active on social media. Opportunities that sometimes came to them, rather than the JTR team hunting them down.

The lesson

Civil enforcement is niche, relationship-driven, and not the kind of sector most people would point to as an obvious home for LinkedIn strategy. 

That turned out to be an advantage.

There is a route to market through social media for every business, whatever the sector. The work is in finding the story worth telling and building the consistency to tell it. When you do, the right people start to notice.

And sometimes, your next client finds you first.