Fintech marketing: essential guide for founders

Having spent much of my career in fintech, I’ve often noticed how marketing in a fintech is different to your traditional SME or SaaS business. Each industry has its own intricacies but the fintech sector in particular presents some unique challenges that, over time, I’ve had to grow quite fond of.

Whether you’re in payments, open banking services, digital banking, insurtech, investments, financial advice, trading or even investment technology this article covers the essentials of what you need to know about fintech marketing.

Too many disruptors

Fintechs, like their name would suggest, occupy the challenging middle ground between traditional financial services and cutting-edge technology.

Tipping too much into either direction can be bad for a brand: you can’t be seen as safe and traditional because that’s not innovative enough, but you can’t be too experimental with technology because risking people’s money isn’t very responsible.

This middle ground forms a strong part of most fintechs’ identity which is to improve a legacy process or financial system with technology. For this reason, every other fintech tends to describe themselves as a disruptor. While there is nothing wrong in modernisation, which is why fintechs exist, the term ‘disruptor’ is too overused and is not much of a differentiator. In short, if ‘disruptor’ pops up as a possible adjective to describe your brand, keep searching for a more unique description!

Navigating regulatory waters

One of the most critical aspects of fintech marketing that makes it different from many other industries is regulatory compliance.

Fintech marketers must carefully navigate strict regulatory requirements from the FCA for certain products and services.

In brief, when writing financial promotions, you can't say you’ll make people richer, promise financial returns or guarantee specific outcomes.

When it comes to writing financial promotions for specific audiences and industries, compliance is your friend: get it checked by someone who knows the rules inside out. If there’s something you can’t say, ask why so that you can avoid the claim or subject in future.

The trust aspect

Trust is fundamental in fintech. Since money is inherently sensitive, customers need strong assurance of a company's reliability and responsibility.

While trust develops gradually, fintechs can build trust with the customer through a number of ways.

Having a founder with proven success in scaling fintech companies will add credibility to your brand.

Consistently delivering an excellent service, showcasing genuine customer feedback, and entering the market with authentic purpose and clear values can also help establish the confidence essential for building long-term trust.

B2B2C… what?

Fintech products are often multi faceted, the same product can be used by seemingly different groups of people.

For example, an AI-powered financial advice platform can help financial planners serve their customers faster (B2B). It might also have a self-serve option for people to get financial advice instantly (B2C), as well as a white label offer for clients to use the platform in their own branding (B2B2C).

When addressing multiple distinct audiences, messaging can get complicated quickly so requires some thought. Sub branding is an option but not one to be taken lightly. Each new brand needs its own strategy and ongoing maintenance and marketing teams don’t just double overnight. This is a common fintech problem which unfortunately cannot be solved in this blog article either!

B2B is becoming B2C

I specialise in B2B, where products and services can get overly complicated very easily. Some believe that long words and jargon make you sound sophisticated, when in fact the reality is you’ll just end up alienating your customer.

The crucial truth is that whether you’re B2B or B2C, you’re still talking to humans. B2B fintech marketing has a lot to learn from B2C brands that are daring to be more approachable and sassy.

Fintechs shouldn’t be afraid to use content that resonates with a broader audience, breaking away from traditional, overly serious communication strategies. Clear, jargon-free communication always wins over corporate buzzwords and acronyms.

The fintech founder’s mini marketing framework

Define your core differentiators (not disruptors!)

Before diving into marketing tactics, clearly articulate:

• Specific problems you solve: What are the customer pain points your product helps with?
• Key differentiators from competitors: Why should customers choose you over the competition, what do you do well that they don’t?
• Your unique value proposition: In a sentence, why should a customer buy from you?

Segment, target, position

• Decide which segments are the priorities, you’ll dilute your efforts if you go for them all.
• For each segment, develop a persona and list the features and benefits which are relevant to them.

Go to where you users are

In the scrappiest sense, find out where your customers hang out, and go there. I know, not as simple as it sounds but you’ve got to start somewhere. For example, is there an event that HR people attend? Is there a publication that accountants read? Is there an influencer that tests marketing tools? You’ll likely come up with a combination of channels depending on who you’re targeting and what budgets you’re working with.

What do you say to them?

In the first instance, you’re building awareness and authority in your area. Write content that is informative and useful. Good fintech content will:

• Educate users about their problems and solutions
• Demonstrate your expertise
• Build credibility in your space

And remember, don’t fill your content full of jargon, and don’t be bland, make the appeal wider than it should be.

Consider working with a Fractional CMO with fintech experience

Shameless plug, but if you’re a founder and you’re already overloaded, reach out to get some help with your marketing and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.