Over the years, we interviewed 50+ senior marketers and executives for our Fintech Marketers and Leaders podcast, worked with 40+ Fintech brands, plus consulted and advised over a dozen others. 

There are some common themes successful brands share which we compiled into eight powerful lessons you shouldn’t miss.

Not got time to read the blog? Watch our Founder and Manager Director cover these 8 lessons at the Fintech Marketing Hub Summer Conference...
‍

Lesson #1: Data maturity is non-negotiable

Notes from the episode “How Zilch grew from 0-2 million users in just 18 months” with Philip Belamant, CEO and Co-founder of Zilch. 

• Having full visibility of your funnel, customer behaviour, and metrics/KPIs is table stakes if you want to scale. 
• The brands that have really grown exponentially have complete end-to-end tracking. 
• Your data will inform your marketing strategy (think channels, audiences, creative), help you optimise paid channels and develop your product. 
• One of the biggest growth blockers is not prioritizing metrics and not implementing tracking.

‍

According to Philip, leveraging mature data is one of the main reasons why Zilch has scaled so quickly.

Lesson #2: Never stop experimenting

Notes from the episode “Taking a Fintech from Startup to IPO” with Jasper Martens, CMO at PensionBee.

There are two key ways to look at experimenting: 

1. at a macro level—what new channels should we test?
2. at a micro level—what to test on a channel that has shown traction

‍

From a macro perspective, it's easy to gravitate towards obvious channels and stay there, but there should always be a budget ringfenced for new channels. From a micro perspective, you should continuously test ad types, messages, and conversion pages. 

‍

In the episode, Jasper explains exactly how PensionBee tested TV with a £30K budget and scaled to 2 million users in just 18 months.

‍

Lesson #3: Speak to your customers

Notes from the episode “Why Data-Driven Fintech Marketing Matters” with Cal Graham, VP of Customer Acquisitions at Wayhome

• There’s a strong correlation between brands that have scaled and those that have rigorously collected feedback from their customers. 
• The most common ways brands collect feedback is through structured IDIs, surveys, customer support or the marketing team directly speaking with users. 
• The anecdotal information marketers get will make their marketing approach significantly more potent, help them narrow down channels, communicate the value proposition more effectively and influence the direction of their product. 

‍

Sometimes, talking to your audience can even help identify new audiences. Cal Graham, CMO at Wayhome, shares how they found a whole target segment by listening to their customers. 

‍

Lesson #4: If it's not working, you’re probably not doing paid right

‍

These were the exact words of Yoann Pavy, CMO at Nude.

• For many B2C propositions, paid search and paid social has been at the core of their growth—i.e. Nude, Zilch, Tembo, Wayhome.
• Paid is not a silver bullet but a foundation to build from, closely linked to data and experimentation.
• If paid advertising is not working for you, you need to take a step back and review your channels, message, creative and customer journey.
• When everything else fails, you need to look at your product/commercial model.

‍

Lesson #5 : Branding is about attention & trust

Notes from “Breaking the B2B Branding Mold”, With Marc Winitz, CMO at Rapyd.

• In a crowded space like Fintech, the silver bullet every CMO has is to stand out.
• If you can stand out, you’ll get your audience's attention and begin to win their trust…if you live up to your brand promise. 
• The brands we look up to have a story that underpins every touchpoint in the funnel. 

‍

To Marc, branding is more than just a logo or visual identity—it's about building trust, telling a unique story, and delivering on your promise to customers. 

‍

Lesson #6 : Build a community around your brand

Notes from “Behind Monzo’s Social Media Fame” with Richard Cook, Social Media Manager at Monzo

• Among the benefits of building a vibrant community are the following:

1. People will help promote your brand
2. People can help you identify what features to build
3. People will let you know their pain points

• An engaged community indicates that your brand and proposition fully align with your target audience.
• A community of brand advocates helps improve lifetime value, reduce churn and receive great referrals.

‍

Richard speaks about his fascination for all things social media, which has helped him create one of the most influential social media accounts out there today.

‍

Lesson #7 : Influencer marketing is about ‘values’

Notes from “Inside The World Of Fintech Influencer Marketing” With Julia Lucas, Head of Influencer Marketing and Creative Strategy at Growth Gorilla 

• Influencer marketing is so much more than paying a creator to promote your product. 
• It has to do with values, and you need to answer this question first: does the creator share the same values as your brand?
• Forging a long-term partnership with creators goes both ways, so it’s also important to understand if your product adds value to the creators' audience.

‍

Julia, our Head of Influencer, has been helping brands build long-term relationships with creators before it was cool and shared all you need to know about it.

‍

Lesson #8 : Go big. Or go home.

A proven, hard-tested lesson you want to walk away with.

• Every successful marketer or CEO we spoke to has had one key trait: confidence. Whether they’re testing a channel or dipping their toe in the water, they have set the test up for success—i.e. they have solid tracking in place. They don’t have time for half-measures.
• They have put a stake in the ground and have used every data point to their advantage.
• They have moved fast and iterated, put out the product, its features, and the creative ads in front of their audience as soon as possible and collated feedback.
• Wherever a successful CEO has seen a win, they have doubled down.

‍

These are the eight key learnings from speaking with 100+ fintech marketers and leaders. We hope you find them useful. 

Want to hear more insights from industry legends? We post our weekly episodes featuring the industry's best and brightest, from brand names such as Monzo, Shares and Zilch. Head to www.thefmlpodcast.com and subscribe to never miss an episode.

‍