With 2019 just around the corner, chances are good that you are planning for the year ahead and putting together the best marketing strategies that will take your Fintech brand to the next level. In one of the most competitive and cut-throat industries, getting your fintech marketing just right is key if you want to succeed. To help achieve your marketing goals and KPIs for 2019, we’ve put together some tried-and-true marketing strategies to consider.
Develop quality content
Perhaps one of the most important factors to remember when marketing your financial services business is that quality content coupled with a top-notch SEO strategy will trump all other marketing techniques you might try.
Traditional advertising through banner ads and pay-per-click may still have a purpose in some cases, especially if you’re rushing to hit end of quarter goals for sign-ups/ downloads. However, if you can create quality content that evokes a good reaction from your audience, you will be able to position your Fintech business as a key player and stand out from the crowd.
Quality is, of course, subjective, but you should take a regimented approach and create a plan that works for your business and target audience. Experiment with content techniques and do your best to create something truly brilliant. With content, the basic strategy is the same as with building software: have an agile approach, launch experiments frequently, test the results, then optimize.
Localization and honing your niche should also help. When developing a plan on how to market financial services, it really helps when you specialize in a particular field.
For example, an article on ‘10 ways to save money using Fintech’ may perform well if you point hundreds of links at it, but going deeper and helping a specific industry, niche, or audience type will help create more effective content. ‘10 ways Fintech can help international entrepreneurs secure funding’, for example, is far more specific and is more likely to perform better in a search, by getting a much more qualified audience to click on and check out your article.
Then also consider creating content that is specific to your exact location or, at least, the metropolitan area you live in. Most of the searches in Google today are tied to local needs online users have. Which means that your content must also be inherently local. So for example, if you work for a medical billing Chicago company, then create articles around local topics such as how the legal framework in Illinois may impact medical billing and coding practices in the state.
Rethink your branding & communication strategy
Fintech has never been more competitive. With physical banks also upping their game and offering quality financial services with consumers in mind, you have to go above and beyond in order to compete.
Indeed, mainstream banks and lenders have an advantage in that their brands are already established and many customers have already seen their ads or news articles mentioning these brands, so if you want to create the Next Big Thing in Fintech, you’ll need to go ‘out there’ with a brand.
Tear up the rulebook and forget everything you know about traditional financial services branding. You don’t need to be corporate or stiff with your branding, neither do you need to be overly familiar with nor focused only on the Millennial audience.
Work with loyalty program management companies to create a digital communication strategy that speaks to your audience, using bold colors, a conversational tone, friendly animations and lots of educational content (don’t forget most people don’t understand complex financial concepts so they need help and guidance from your brand!).
Nail social media
As a fintech brand, you need to have a presence everywhere possible. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the four big platforms with which everyone is working. You should also try experimenting with Snap, Reddit, and TikTok as we head into the new year. Some emerging social media platforms are significantly more cost effective and could deliver the same results, from a marketing point of view. So be bold, embrace experimentation and try to new things in the year. It will pay off, we promise!
In addition, rather than adopting a cut-and-paste approach to your marketing, you should narrow your audiences on each network and create targeted segmentations for your marketing messages for each platform.
Snap, for example, is focused on the Millennial and Generation Z markets. So on Snap, the marketing campaigns that perform the best include lots of vibrant images and a branding focus on lifestyle and things you can do with your friends. Versus, for example, running a Fintech marketing campaign on LinkedIn where you’ll have to take a more professional approach with the focus on saving money, managing your finances and the long term benefits of your service.
On the other hand, you may be surprised to learn that Facebook is now the professional network of choice for a growing number of CEOs, so targeting business owners and key decision makers through Facebook will help you to sell to B2B markets.
Bottomline: creating personalized content for your audience, based on which social media platforms they love and use, will put you head-and-shoulders above the competition. So get to work now!
Choose your influencers wisely
Influencer marketing is another growing trend in the world of financial marketing services. Choosing the right influencers for your business is critical. As corporate ad budgets become tighter and brands try their luck with influencers ranging from 1,000 followers to 20 million followers, it’s important that you calculate your return on investment and understand who is a genuine influencer, and who simply has a few followers and no real clout to help you and your mission to get positive user engagement metrics.
Our advice is simple: don’t throw money at the wall of influencers to see what sticks. Instead, research the preferences of your target audience extensively and see what content they’re consuming, who they’re following, and who best aligns with your brand and ethos.
At times, you may also have to look beyond influencer marketing and towards more traditional content sponsorships on news outlets and magazines in your niche. Other times, you might use influencers to promote your products as part of a referral program, reducing costs and risks and ensuring you can reach as many people as possible with minimal involvement.
Go above and beyond
As a digital financial services provider, chances are that you seldom meet customers – so being able to offer a personal touch can be challenging. However, there are ways to go above and beyond and ‘overdeliver’ to your users, so to speak.
For example, you can always send a quick ‘thank you’ email on your customer’s birthday, on Christmas or New Year’s Eve. You can offer customer service options on social media through live chat, and through a simple and responsive ticketing system. Sometimes you can give gifts or gift cards to long-term customers who can then help to spread the word about your business. All these strategies cost very little but make your financial users feel special and acknowledged.
There are so many companies in the world of financial services who only care about their bottom line. And while it’s important to maximize profitability, you should not do so at the expense of delivering a good service to your customers. Do the right thing, keep researching and developing your product offering, and your marketing will take care of itself.
Promoting a fintech business in today’s crowded market isn’t easy, but with the right strategy and some creative ideas in place, you’ll be able to truly excel at it. Remember that the key is to focus on delivering the best user experience, to educate customers about the benefits of your product & services, and be proactive, engaging, and authentic.