The dynamic landscape of modern marketing has evolved within the realm of fintech. Marketing is central to a company’s mission, success, profitability, and trajectory. Gone are the days when marketing played a secondary role to sales functions. Instead, we’re witnessing a shift in the role of marketing. Reports show that fintech success will depend on an alignment of factors influenced by a strong marketing team. Marketing is set to amplify product development, drive sales and build partnerships. It is set to orchestrate PR initiatives, fortify brand identity, attract top-tier talent, and nurture customer relationships. Read on to hear examples of how modern marketing will power fintech.
Marketing as a Revenue Driver
Marketing is at the “heart of driving revenue,” says Payal Raina, Founder of Fintech B2B Marketing Community. She urges businesses to reject the notion of it being a “cost driver.” She stresses that marketing is “a growth driver.” She says marketing “sits at the forefront of innovation and at the heart of the organization.” The entire team should link the firm’s mission, vision, and monetary goals.
Marketing as an Educator
Sonia Mazzotta-Morrison is a Founder of Disrupto, a fintech digital services agency. She believes that marketing should play an educational role. She explains that fintech products must “be accessible to be adopted.” She explains that fintech has a lot of jargon that needs to be “broken down and translated.” Users of any system can navigate it better and utilize its benefits if they clearly understand its impact on them.
Marketing for Personalization
Rashee Pandey agrees, saying that increasing understanding allows for “hyper-personalization.” She is the Associate Director of Membership and Growth at Innovate Finance, the UK’s industry body for fintech. She says, “Effective marketing plays a crucial role in continuously demystifying financial products and services for consumers.” She emphasizes the need for consumers to feel assured that their financial needs are catered to, regardless of who they are and their financial situation. Marketing has the potential to personalise and educate consumers throughout their financial journey. This includes presenting tailored products, having solutions at the forefront of consumer experience and providing clarity on how those solutions can address their financial needs.
Marketing Requires Ongoing Investment
Emmy Granstrom, Global Head of Marketing at SteelEye, says that in a time when many firms are cutting budgets, it is time to grab market share by upping your marketing budget. “Marketing paves the way for future sales and revenue, so in recessionary periods, continued investment is critical.” There is huge potential for a company to make a mark in the wider sector by not cutting back on marketing expenditure. “This represents an opportunity for marketers to grow their brands but requires a long-term outlook.”
Marketing as the Voice of Purpose
Meredith Odgers founded the sustainable fintech marketing practice BambooWorx and is now the Programme Director of Digital Learning at CISL. She says we must address marketing as a “connection function” that “drives a better future.” She points out that alongside revenue considerations, there are responsibilities elsewhere, too. She notes the “purpose of marketing should be to drive human, environmental, and economic value” for all, not just for profit at all costs. She calls out that marketing has great influencing power to drive the development of inclusive financial products to reach new audiences and improve financial literacy. This is seen in the inclusivity of products and how they are marketed to various audiences. When marketing “buys into purpose,” that purpose can be “seen through the whole business and right through to the customer offering.”
Marketing Drives the Partnership Ecosystem
Sumeet Vermani, Founder and CMO of SKV Consulting, is an advocate for the partnership ecosystem. He believes that the success of fintech is grounded in regulatory, technological and customer alignment. He says these partnerships boost “collaboration, go-to-market and world-class customer experiences.” Marketing can be a great enabler through events, communities, and thought leadership. They rally people to “come together to navigate current global economic challenges.” Improving the sector’s messaging towards collaborative growth has great benefits. A partnership approach “creates better products, for more customers and reduces missed market opportunities – a huge revenue opportunity.”
Marketing to Build Trust
Natasha Gay, Head of Client Services at Inbound Fintech and founder of Alpha Alliance Consultancy, says future success is rooted in trust. She believes that marketing has a responsibility to showcase key differences across businesses. These will be found in product, diversity, technology, ethics, sustainability, talent, inclusion and mission. Natasha says knowing how to define each of these topics will be crucial. She says providing case studies and use cases will “be the key driving force to help individual firms” stand out in the future. Marketing will be able to build trust by providing evidence on how the company affects partners and customers positively.
Marketing to Excel Innovation
Mia Mohamed, head of marketing at Toqio, talks about “orchestrating more financial solutions.” She says, “fintechs that are not innovating to orchestrate more solutions probably won’t succeed.” She says it is crucial that the industry keeps disrupting by seeing problems as “solutions in the working.” This will include innovation across personalization, experience, and deployment. Having a better marketing strategy will drive this further and at a pace.
Marketing Influences Perception
Vanessa Lovatt, a strategy leader for the Financial Times wanted to add to innovation. She describes fintech marketing as a constant “disruptive contributor.” Marketing can bring freshness and challenge into the community. She says it has an incredible power to influence inclusion through its messaging in the workplace and society. She says “Marketers have a great opportunity to make an impact every day.” They are responsible for “sending out messages that can influence people’s perceptions.” These perceptions will go beyond simply whether people will buy or use a product. They will influence who decides to partner, who believes they can establish their career here, and who wants to join the industry.
Marketing That is Agile
Liesl Smith, SVP of Global Marketing at FreedomPay, believes that the “consumer is constantly changing.” She highlights that marketing must understand that the customer, partner, or client has evolving needs. Marketing, therefore, should be agile, data-driven, trustworthy, authentic, and prepared to pivot. She emphasizes that businesses must understand their target audience and cater to their needs with “products that speak to them.” When there is a need, the desire and urgency to progress fintech as a whole will increase.
Marketing can influence so many facets of fintech, each of which will be pivotal to future growth and success. As economists predict a brighter economic future, it will be exciting to see the crucial role of marketing in powering growth.
