November 3, 2022
Fintechs have been securing their spot within the banking, investing and trading mainstream. No longer the digital outsider, Monzo, Starling and Revolut are giving legacy financial institutions a run for their money, accelerating the digital transformation that started taking place across the industry several years ago.
But the battle to engage, win and retain customers is far from won.
Check out these marketing techniques and trends shaping the fintech landscape, plus the things you need to be aware of (or consider adopting) as you grow your brand.
Digital marketing activities revolve around moving prospects through the funnel—from awareness to engagement and conversion. Thanks to innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots increasingly fulfil a customer service function later in the customer journey.
Providing delay-free answers around the clock—unlike a traditional call centre—chatbots reach people on their preferred platforms and messaging apps. For example, Cleo sits on Facebook’s Messenger platform and proactively helps users save, budget, borrow and build credit through tailored notifications. Similarly, digital payments provider Square uses conversational AI to power its virtual assistant, answering 75% of customers’ questions.
Another AI-powered trend combines real-time data analytics and machine learning to create personalised products and services and provide customers with instant responses. For example, personal finance-focused fintech NerdWallet uses machine learning to match its customers with the best-fit financial products, such as mortgages and insurance.
So whatever your marketing plans are, using AI to predict customer insight is the present and the future.
The pandemic has forced people to review their spending and saving habits, and more money conversations have been taking place on social media. With the #finance hashtag on TikTok racking up an incredible 989.3 million views, UK-based fintech Snoop has identified it as a key channel for customer acquisition.
Fin-fluencers who’ve established a loyal following through their finance, money management or investment-themed content are big right now.
Finance trends regularly go viral, like the 52-week savings challenge launched due to Plum’s partnership with finance influencers like @mrtradingrobot, which means increased brand exposure and reach. Challenger bank Step gained access to Charli D’Amelio’s 91 million followers when they teamed up for a $100,000 giveaway.
Digitisation has created more opportunities for finance brands to get creative in how they shape and support the online customer experience.
We’ve seen fintechs incorporating gamification elements and interactive content—like quizzes and puzzles—into their marketing campaigns, apps and platforms. Allowing customers to earn points on every transaction or action or to receive a kickback for new customer referrals is also a popular tactic for reaping results. Using gamification can help a company increase customer interactions by 40%, leading to higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
For example, Ukraine’s leading digital bank Monobank uses a badge reward system to drive behavioural change. Bill-tracking and budgeting app Mint has a goal-orientated progress bar to keep users engaged. Fortune City is a gamified finance app that combines accounting with city simulation.
When was the last time you paid for coffee with coins? The pandemic has accelerated the cashless trend, with reports suggesting by 2026, the UK will be almost entirely cashless, while many Nordic countries are aiming for digital-only transactions by 2023.
In 2021, more than 52% of online purchases were made using a digital wallet. According to Visa, almost 33% of businesses now accept only contactless payments.
And while mobile payment apps (Vibe, Loop and Google Pay) and digital wallets (VitraCash, N26 and Curve) move us one step closer to a cashless society, “buy now, pay later” platforms (Klarna, Clearpay and Laybuy) are busy moving shoppers away from credit cards.
Contactless and mobile payments are valued for their speed of transactions and better security, while environmental, social and governance (ESG) directives favour companies that move away from bank notes and plastic payment cards due to their ecological impact.
Crypto has received strong endorsements from companies such as:
Cryptocurrencies are gaining acceptance due to the transactional safety for both merchants and consumers by cutting out the middlemen and the opportunity it presents to populate the virtual space with diverse, tech-backed options.
In 2022, we predict a crypto renaissance with retail firms and e-commerce brands slowly accepting Bitcoin payments and the continued evolution of crypto unicorns.
There’s also the potential of blockchain technology to support the growing peer-to-peer lending industry, set to grow to a value of $1,000 billion by 2025.
The Financial Services: State of the Nation Survey 2021 found that more than 9 in 10 respondents at global financial institutions agree that open banking (OB) is important to their organisation, and 97% of those already using OB with benefits to their business.
Open banking grants access to consumer data (with their consent) using an application programming interface (API) without transferring banking functions. Look at Mint, which relies on open banking to collect real-time data from multiple finance accounts to verify credit score ratings and review transactions, giving users a detailed view of their current financial situation.
OB can reduce the cost of peer-to-peer payments and borrowing, while also potentially widening eligibility. For example Plend examines a person's transaction history to offer a loan rather than basing lending rates on credit scores.
White labelling happens when a product or service created by one company (the producer) is then rebranded and sold by a different company (the marketer). Using this approach integrates the service or product into the marketer’s company and makes it look like they created the final product or service.
Off-the-shelf tech has made it easier than ever to set-up a banking infrastructure, so more new banks will pop up. What’s great is that they now cover diverse audiences. Incard, for example, is the world's first payment solution designed for online entrepreneurs and e-commerce owners. Greenwood is a digital mobile banking platform made for Black and Latino customers.
Which of these trends (or others) are you already on board with?
At Growth Gorilla, we help fintech companies determine the right market positioning for your white-label solution, create a marketing strategy to promote your offer and build the infrastructure for a successful partnership.
We can help you take advantage of marketing trends to ensure your fintech is always relevant and top of mind. Get in touch with us today.
Catalyse your fintech’s growth.
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