Whether you’re a fintech startup looking to ramp up your marketing efforts, or you’re a veteran of finance seeking new ways to innovate, fintech marketing is something that should be on your mind.
As the market becomes more and more saturated, it’s becoming significantly harder to cut through the noise and make your brand stand out, but it’s by no means impossible.
In this article, our marketing experts have put together everything you need to know about fintech marketing, helping you to make informed decisions when planning your marketing strategy moving forwards.
How saturated is the fintech market?
In Q1 of 2022 alone, global fintech startups raised £26.4bn, up roughly 27% year on year.
In the UK fintech market, there’s more venture capital investment than in any other industry, a trend that we’re not expecting to slow down anytime soon.
With this amount of investment and competition, it’s no wonder that you may be struggling to get your voice heard.
However, with the right messaging and strategy, you can disrupt the market and make your fintech business truly stand out from the crowd.
Adjust to your target audience
Everyone knows what fintech is, and most people understand the techniques that you want to use to convert them into customers.
As a result, fintech marketing relies on some kind of differentiating factor; it’s no longer enough to offer the best prices or a slightly above average service, you need a USP that really makes you stand out.
The main issue with this is that there are so many fintech businesses, that there’s bound to be someone else out there who shares your USP, so you may need to differentiate your business in other, more unique ways.
One key method for achieving this is adjusting your branding and messaging to meet your target audience’s needs.
You need to be speaking in your decision maker’s language. Be candid and honest, provide real insight and let them know that you understand their needs.
In an oversaturated market, the personal touch works wonders – always remember that. Take brands like QuickBooks and Xero, for example. Both are simple accounting software, but they both have strong branding and messaging that communicates perfectly with their target audiences.
Readjust your targeting
In addition to the above, we recommend readjusting your marketing targeting.
Sure, you’ll likely need to grab the attention of business owners and directors, but these people are typically swamped, inundated with emails, calls and more.
This means that adjusting your targeting and instead talking to accountants, salespeople, company management, etc., can help you gain a foothold with your target market.
Consider targeting the people in the company who are directly impacted by the pain points that your business solves. If you can educate them about your brand and get them on board, then they can introduce you to the higher ups.
Align your sales & marketing
Are your sales and marketing teams pulling in the same direction?
In order to improve sales, you need to ensure that your sales and marketing teams are agreed on strategy, targeting, responsibilities, KPIs and much more.
From experience, we find that many fintech businesses lack convenient communication channels between the two arms of their business.
The most successful strategies rely on two-way input from the sales team to inform the marketing team’s work, including:
- Audience insights (likes, dislikes, pain points, etc.)
- Feedback on leads that are coming through
- Active conversations that the sales team are having
This information allows your marketing team to fully customise your business’ approach to generating leads and educating potential customers.
On the flipside of this, marketing need to communicate to sales the:
- Number of leads coming through and what stage in the funnel they’re at
- Where leads are coming from & what messaging has been successful
- Any content that is doing particularly well
By sharing these details, your sales team can then tailor their sales calls and outreach efforts to include language that resonates with your target audience.
Aligning your teams allows your business to work synergistically, which will greatly affect your success.
Improving your fintech brand
Your brand is so much more than your logo and colour palette. It’s the forward-facing element of your organisation; it’s what potential customers are going to see/hear about you before anything else, so it’s got to be absolutely spot on.
It’s essential that you create an industry disrupting brand. A dull, corporate message and uninspiring visuals aren’t going to cut it; the most successful fintech brands out there are doing something unique that really makes them stand out, such as Klarna using quirky video marketing that completely breaks the mould for what people expect from fintech.
Consumers, no matter whether you’re B2B or B2C, are looking for brands that meet both of their key needs:
- You must provide an excellent product/service
- You must align with their values and principles
Potential customers want to know that your fintech business is a perfect match for their needs and requirements (this includes your stance on environmental and societal issues, too).
This means that, in order to conduct a successful fintech marketing campaign, you need to craft your brand to say the right things while remaining memorable. Easy, right?
In order to do this, you need to carve your unique brand out of three key elements.
- Education – Finance is inherently confusing and often laden with jargon. While many people in your target audience will understand you just fine, there’s a large contingent that will not, so you need to ensure that your messaging accommodates & educates the end user.
- Building trust – Banks and other large financial institutions aren’t regarded highly, and often struggle building trust. Fintech businesses are (unfairly) lumped in with the big boys, meaning that you have a fair bit of work to do to build trust with your customers. The best way to build trust is to keep your messaging and marketing relatively simple.
- Exceptional service – People expect high-quality service. We’ve all grown accustomed to fast food delivery and Uber; your fintech offering needs to have an intuitive experience and a superb (often personalised) user experience.
This may seem like a lot of work and, to be honest, it is. It’s not unusual for fintech businesses to struggle to create a brand that truly encompasses everything that they need to. If you’re finding it hard getting your marketing going, we recommend getting in touch with our team of fintech marketing specialists here at Catalyst.