November 3, 2022
It can be difficult to market traditional financial services and products and we understand that. Tight regulations, fierce competition, and saturated markets can make it a challenge to stand out from the crowd, but here at Growth Gorilla, we believe all businesses have something unique and exciting to shout about.
Wealth managers, mortgage brokers, and even insurance specialists; there are loads of marketing tricks at your fingertips to boost business and pull the right customers through your doors. So, what are you waiting for? Quit monkeying around and get your hands dirty with our juicy marketing tips to maximise business growth.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it…right? If your business has done things a certain way for a long time, it can be daunting to break with tradition. Why rock the boat if the ship is sailing smoothly? Well, the simple answer is that the financial services sector is changing and those changes are happening fast.
Competition from aggressive fintech firms is making it harder than ever to stay ahead of the fleet. In fact, 88% of financial institutions believe part of their business will be lost to independent fintech companies in the next five years.
We believe businesses should never settle for mediocre results. There are always clever innovative ways to push your business to the top of the canopy. Revitalising your fintechs marketing won't come without its challenges, but it’ll be worth the effort. Here are some of the roadblocks you might find when promoting a financial services company and our tips to come out on top.
Fintech is serious stuff —. When it comes to personal finances customers want to know they're in good hands. With 87% of organisations saying customer loyalty correlates directly with professionalism and commercial success, it’s important to give off the right signals.
Many businesses worry that scaling up and expanding their customer reach could jeopardise existing customer/brand relations and reduce the level of trust associated with their brand. If you’ve spent years building trusted customer relations, the last thing you want to do is destabilise that trust with marketing messages that don’t fit with their established perception of your brand, or worse, create expectations you are unable to fulfil.
Here are some top tips on how to build customer trust and loyalty with clever marketing:
Learning how to improve the marketing of your business and building a brand that people trust is the first rule of thumb for fintech success. Whether it’s content marketing, online reviews, or video testimonials, there are tons of ways to build trust with potential customers.
The challenge when marketing your fintech company is reaching the right people. With every customer having a unique buyer position, it used to take a lot of work to target specific groups using generalised marketing messages.
The rise of social media has opened the door to a whole new era of marketing, where businesses have access to tons of customer data to broadcast hard-hitting messages to the targeted audience. Nowadays, the modern marketer can filter potential customers not only by age, location, interests and income, but by job title, and even where they sit in the buying cycle, based on their searches. And, of course, marketers can use existing customer data to improve client retention by identifying their best customers and keeping them sweet.
Break your targeted marketing into two parts:
It’s estimated that 63% of worldwide consumers are frustrated by generic marketing messages which don’t suit their personal situations. Improve conversions and unlock the power of social media marketing to deliver a tailored service. For example; ABC Financing wants to target business owners with an annual revenue upwards of £1 million and looking for investment advice. At the click of a button, targeted marketing can put ABC Financing right under the noses of potential customers who fit these exact criteria.
Online marketing channels give you more access than ever to a goldmine of contacts and audiences. Here are the hottest marketing channels to put your business in front of the right people:
Too many fintechs use jargon to confuse their marketing messages. If you use complex language and technical lingo to communicate your services, customers will quickly lose interest.
Roughly 15% of adults in the UK have a literacy level of a 9 year old (yes, you heard it right), and complex jargon can leave many people confused and frustrated. Keep your message simple, whether it’s “encrypted payment systems” or “automated accounting technology”, companies often assume their target audience is as educated as they are. Focus on delivering a clear message that your customers will understand. Avoid too many buzzwords, and keep things simple when providing practical solutions to customer problems.
Explainer videos are an excellent way to capture the essence of what you do. And don’t rely on your old content, be creative with how you present your business to new and existing audiences
It can be difficult for fintechs to find a competitive edge and stand out in such an overcrowded market.
If you want to achieve business growth, you need to do everything you can to pinch customers from the competition. In the words of the late Steve Jobs, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Innovation is key to getting ahead in today’s market.
Think beyond the outside of the box and take daring leaps to try the things your competitors won’t. Winning customer loyalty is extremely difficult, but it's well worth the effort. In fact, it is 16 times more expensive to build long-term relationships with new customers than to maintain loyalty with existing customers. So don’t hide in the shadows! Shout from the rooftops and tell the world why your business is different.
Looking for marketing inspiration? Well, look…as they say… no further.
This rise of challenger fintechs has turned the world of finance on its head. Whether it’s personal finance apps like Monzo, or mobile investment providers like Stash, tech-focused ‘disruptors’ are tearing up the financial marketing rulebook.
With this fintech revolution comes changing customer journeys, shifting loyalties and evolving consumer habits. With the worldwide fintech industry being valued at a staggering $4.7 trillion, fintechs can’t be ignored. There’s loads to be learned from fintech marketing strategies to help elevate established fintechs into the 21st century. Here's how you can get started.
Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup explains how small businesses can build better products by adopting a lean growth model. Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) are sold to customers, and usage data is collected to identify how the next version of the product could be improved. This continual process of testing, analysing, and improving gives businesses the agility they need to satisfy developing customer demand.
Similarly, many fintechs are adopting agile marketing strategies. Instead of investing huge amounts of time and money into ambitious marketing initiatives, they’re testing the water with nimble campaigns; if the campaign is successful, great, if it sucks, reevaluate and find ways to improve.
Many fintechs have found success by focusing their energy towards solving specific problems. Whether it’s taking the pain out of mortgages with Molo, Wonga offering speedy loans, or streamlined invoicing with QuickBook, fintechs are delivering bespoke solutions to make lives easier. Concentrating on their expertise and experience, fintechs are striving to be the best at one thing.
Gone are the days of rigid customer journeys that map the movement of customers. Nowadays, building customer loyalty is all about offering positive user experiences and giving the customer the power to steer their own path.
Nick Worth and David Frankland’s Marketing to the Entitled Consumer explains how “the problem with journeys is they assume the consumer will follow a defined path.” Whether it’s onboarding programmes, retention campaigns, or win-back initiatives, traditional customer journeys assume the business is in control of their journey.
The new customer journey requires a flexible and accommodating approach to customer relationship management (CRM) to recognise individual needs and offer bespoke solutions. Fintechs are now making it easier for customers to pave their own paths, giving them the flexibility and control they want with speedy onboarding processes, intelligent customer support, and digital apps to replace branch visits.
Research shows that 87% of consumers think financial services firms' social presence is “annoying, boring, or unhelpful”. It doesn’t matter how big your marketing budget is — if you fail to engage with your customers and provide stimulating content, you won’t see the results you need.
Now fintechs are embracing unique online personas which buck the trend and give customers something to get excited about. The mobile banking app, Revolut, has made a name for itself with its confrontational LinkedIn presence, and no-nonsense approach to kickstarting conversations on Facebook. Fintechs must learn from the likes of Revolut, creating engaging online campaigns and finding a voice which can be heard above the noise of social media.
Creating a brand ambassador who truly believes in a product or service is a powerful way to build trust and communicate company values. Director of Marketing and Communications at Revolut, Chad West, is a champion of brand endorsement and is passionate about solving problems within the banking worldposting engaging (and sometimes controversial) content to generate interest in his social channels.
Challenger bank and fintech disruptors are the new kids on the block when it comes to marketing strategies, and traditional financial services are looking to them for inspiration.
Here are some simple ways traditional financial services brands can mix things up to compete with emerging fintechs:
At Growth Gorilla, we only do fintech. We create and execute strategies to help well-funded fintechs go to market, grow, and master market entry. Our team of experts has already grown over 30 fintechs. When you come with us, there’s no confusion and no wasted time. You stay flexible, slash acquisition costs, and stop worrying about what the hell to do next.Contact us for a FREE consultation today.
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