The fintech, or financial technology, industry is on the rise. Anything from simple mobile payment apps to complex blockchain networks all fall under the fintech umbrella. The market is expected to reach $340 billion this year and continue to grow by 16.5% annually for the next eight years. While this could mean tremendous growth potential, it also creates fierce competition for a piece of the pie.
If you’re one of these firms, you’re in luck! Here is a comprehensive guide to fintech marketing that will help you choose the best strategy for your business.
What is Fintech Marketing?
Fintech marketing brings financial technology companies and their customers together. This includes activities such as branding, content creation, social media marketing, and mobile advertising.
Creating an effective marketing strategy and understanding best practices is critical for any fintech company’s survival. In 2021, there were over 30,000 Fintech companies worldwide, up from just over 11,000 in 2019. This sharp increase highlights an important fact: in order to stand out, your company must implement a well-thought-out marketing plan.
Essentials of A Fintech Marketing Strategy
With financial services, it’s more important than ever to understand the needs of your customers first. So how do you differentiate your fintech company from the pack? Consider the following simple but effective marketing strategies.
Build a Reputable Brand Image
Trust is the pillar that makes the financial system function properly around the world. Therefore, it is imperative that financial institutions nurture a positive relationship with their client base. However, acquiring this trust can be a challenge for fintech companies. After all, your organization is attempting to persuade customers to embrace something new and potentially risky. Even though many customers are eager to try out new products that best fit their needs, few are willing to put their trust on the line with an unproven product.
The right branding can reduce consumers' apprehension about a new financial services provider. It should emphasize stability, dependability, and consistency. Every aspect of the brand, from the font to the color palette, must convey trustworthiness.
PRO TIP: How do you know which brand messages resonate most with your customers? Ask them! Customer interviews are the perfect way to tap into the messaging themes that are critical to your brand. Document your findings into a brand messaging guide that serves as the foundation for your brand.
Educate Your Customers
Smart branding will undoubtedly get you off to a good start, but you must continue to nurture the relationship once it is established.
Consider creating educational content that you can share with your audience regularly to establish a long-lasting relationship with them. You will gain credibility, expand your audience, and increase your revenue if you execute an effective content strategy.
In digital marketing, valuable content is as good as gold. So, ensuring that every piece of content you create, whether it is a how-to guide, a listicle, or a social media post, is valuable and informative will go a long way in building that trust and credibility.
Consistency is key as well. For example, if you're going to blog, be sure it's on a regular cadence that you can maintain. Creating a content calendar for a given period of time (whether that's a month, quarter, or year) that's chock full of keyword research is one of the best tools your team can have. This way, you know what content is coming out when and who is responsible for putting it together.
PRO TIP: Thought leadership is key in maintaining credibility. For both new and existing customers, you want to make sure you’re providing unique viewpoints that your readers find anywhere else.
Engage Your Customers
Long-term success is largely dependent on customer engagement. Social media marketing is not only an effective channel for content distribution, but it is also where most of your customers hang out. After all, social media platforms are used by more than half of the world’s population.
A content marketing strategy without an equal focus on customer engagement is doomed to fail. Even if you post many blogs, posts, or videos, failing to respond to customer questions and concerns could push them toward your competitors.
It all comes down to giving your customers a unique experience. Make sure your customers feel appreciated and cared for. The more you connect with your customers, the more they will want to interact with your fintech brand.
PRO TIP: Don't be afraid to meet customers or potential leads where they are. Join industry groups so that you can share the solutions with your target audience. Just be sure to strike a balance–comment on other's posts with insights or encouragement more than you share a sales pitch (no matter how subtle).
Consider Investing in Paid Ad Campaigns
Organic exposure is great, but to get more qualified leads faster, you’ll need to supplement it with targeted ad campaigns.
Advertising on billboards, television, radio and other mediums has been standard practice for traditional financial institutions since the dawn of time. While this approach is fine, remember that your target market is now mostly online. That’s why you should focus your advertising efforts there as well.
For today’s fintech firms, Facebook, YouTube, and Google advertising are far more effective than traditional media, such as television and radio. Ensuring maximum success for your ad campaigns will depend on your ability to target the right keywords, demographics, interests, and call-to-actions. In the coming years, companies that use paid media wisely and convey a compelling message will be in a better position to succeed.
Consider Referral, Affiliate, or Influencer Marketing
Influencers have the power to alter consumer preference, build brand personality, increase sales, and even change public opinion on social issues by leveraging the trust they command among their followers. In the financial technology space, affiliate programs are a common growth tactic and one of the best ways to gain direct access to your target market and build trust with your customers.
Case in point: the US fintech company Coinbase created an affiliate program to encourage its users to spread the word about their product. Coinbase paid a $10 USD commission to both the referee and the referrer for each time a buy or sell-off at least $100 USD within the first 180 days of opening an account. It was the high earning potential that drew the attention of many industry bloggers and influencers, more than doubling their userbase from 2018 to 2021.
PRO TIP: Try to work with both macro- and micro-influencers. While the former helps showcase your work to larger audience, micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates and can often be better for longer-term relationships with a more reasonable budget.
Don’t Forget About Gamification
So, how does this gamification work in marketing? If you want to make your content more appealing and shareable, you can hold contests, reward points for completed purchases and transactions, or even create quizzes, puzzles, and visual games.
Gamification is especially effective in pre-launch campaigns to generate buzz, and awareness, and gain new users. Financial companies can reduce bounce rates and increase profits by implementing the gamification concept. For example, Extraco, the largest Texas-based independent bank, used gamification to educate customers about the services and benefits it provides. The result was a 700% increase in new customer acquisitions.
Final thoughts on Fintech Marketing
The fintech industry is set to grow exponentially over the next decade, giving both startups and established firms the opportunity to get in front of a ton of new clientele. As your opportunities grow in the marketplace, so should your marketing strategy.
Your fintech company can benefit from implementing the marketing essentials and best practices outlined in this guide. This will help your company soar and give you a leg up in this competitive market.
Worried you don’t have the resources to support your marketing goals? It may be time to consider outsourcing! Contact our team today to learn how we can boost your efforts and work with your team to meet your goals.
