Financial technology has always been at the back burner of industrial disruptive technologies until the previous decade. In a saturated market, where traditional players are now catching up with emerging tech and excellent user experience, FinTech products and solutions face a highly competitive marketplace. Truth be told, it was not until the pandemic imposing restrictions on day-to-day operations that the current plight of unoptimised financial services was revealed. And thereafter, multiple sectors realised the ultimate solution that was contained within FinTech.
The Middle East rises above all as the upcoming industry leader with 42% of customers (aged 20-50) regularly using FinTech solutions in 2020. As a result, a burst of ‘unicorns’, FinTech-based innovations, and governments’ exceptional interest in financial technology – all combined have made the Middle East a major FinTech hub.
But that’s where you draw the line. Saturation is only advantageous to the country’s economy. A hot marketplace means you must double or quadruple your efforts to cut through the noise. And for any FinTech startup, this is a big problem.
The biggest challenge of FinTech startups: How to make the noise and turn it into ear-pleasing music?
Let’s face it; the domain of financial services is usually quite boring for layman consumers, or at least until they don’t know how it makes their lives easier. When talking about financial technology; it gets even duller – thanks to the extravagant industry jargon and unnecessarily complex concepts. The biggest challenge of FinTech startups, hence, boils down to one main point: How to make just enough noise to be heard? And turn that noise into some ear-pleasing music!
The primary concern for your company as an emerging services provider should be to build trust. What is true for traditional financial players is true for FinTech; you cannot thrive without first building your credibility in the market. The music that you are seeking to create must be made by your consumers, instead of by yourself. And that is where YourTarget comes in.
As a research-based, B2B inbound marketing agency, YourTarget is helping various industries across the Middle East and GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, UAE to successfully elevate their game, convert sales, and secure the desired returns on investments.
FinTech is an entirely new market force for the millennials and Gen Z who are first-handedly experiencing this digital revolution. To capture your targets, you have to capitalise on the evolved consumer behaviour and take unconventional, sometimes even daring approaches to marketing.
Inbound Marketing Strategies That FinTech Startups Need
YourTarget inbound marketing techniques work for the present, keeping in line with consumer behaviour, the marketing trends, and existing FinTech challenges. Below are some of our time-tested strategies to successfully build brand awareness, acquire new clients, retain customers, and propel your FinTech startup into a prosperous future.
1. Content Marketing To Educate
The first rule of thumb for FinTech startups is to educate their audience(s) before proceeding to market their services. Financial literacy is now more important than ever – and your content marketing strategies must be designed and executed to reach the right customer at the right time and the right stage of the funnel.
An effective and well-executed content marketing strategy can boost your company’s organic traffic via SEO, earn consumer confidence, and establish you as THE FINANCES EXPERT in your consumers’ lives. While you educate your audience with easy-to-consume, value-adding content, you ultimately establish yourself as an authority.
Some excellent content marketing policies can include (but are not limited to):
- Bite-sized informative videos for social media channels and the official website.
- Thought leadership, in-depth, and insightful pieces of content to establish your expertise.
- Valuable content resources blended with helpful tips and tricks integrated with SEO strategy to pop up better in rankings.
- Regularly publishing on professional and heavily interwoven platforms like LinkedIn Pulse, Medium, and your own blog to build a strong and consistent online presence.
- Creating a mobile-friendly website to become optimised for all demographics.
- How-to videos, tutorials, demos, and other educative materials to be positioned across all digital touch points.If you want a more in-depth guide, read our previous article on content marketing and how to use them.
2. Social Media Marketing To Engage
Making social media your best buddy is our next suggested step in the process. However, the key here is to identify the market sector you’re targeting before you can decide how much time and energy to spend on them. Whether it is LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram; it is the job of an expert to learn the difference and capitalise on the best opportunity.
Social media marketing has a particularly amazing advantage for FinTech startups. Unlike traditional advertising platforms, it promises the biggest pool of ready-to-convert customers – who spend a minimum of 5 hours daily on these social engines. All you have to do is to research the demographics of your targeted consumers, identify the social channels they use the most, and curate personalised content accordingly.
The best inbound marketing strategy for social media is not one size fits all. At YourTarget, we have come to know that the techniques for Facebook do not apply to LinkedIn; that Snap is different from Instagram. You have to engage with your audience while subtly feeding them with product-based information. The realm of social media is enormous, where your target audience has millions of options and the shortest attention spans. To make social media marketing really work without coming off as pestering, we deploy smart tactics and strike the right balance between interaction and value for quick conversions.
If you want to be more specific with your social media campaign for your FinTech startup, here are more social media topics for you to choose from.
3. Branding to Imprint
That brings us to our next strategy and perhaps the central of all – BRANDING!
Like, what’s the use of a fantastic social strategy, great content, and a mobile-friendly platform if you are not being recognised as a brand?
Put it like that and branding may seem like no tough game. However, brand recognition is a separate entity when it comes to inbound marketing requiring dedicated research to align your tactics with your company’s goals and culture.
If you’re a FinTech firm targeting the young generation for Neo banking or digital banking, for instance; you can go all bold and colourful. If strong, powerful, and imposing is your voice, make your branding equally courageous. From your website layout to designs, logo, and marketing content, it is your branding strategy that dictates the tone.
YourTarget inbound marketing not only helps you build your brand from scratch but ensures things are kept fresh and memorable that they make the impression without slipping into nothingness.
For further reading on branding, check out the various branding topics recommended by the team of YourTarget here.
4. Influencer Marketing To Build Credibility & Trust
While other forms of inbound marketing help you gain the trust of your audience in many ways, your ultimate credibility is a lot more dependent on what the industry influencers say about your product/service.
Influencers are the power ingredient to spice up your FinTech marketing turnover. Since only a few financial companies tap into the potentials of influencer marketing, this becomes a great leeway to beat your competition. Social influencers, especially micro-influencers (with 50k to 500k followers), do not only have the fanbase and attention of your audience but an unwavering trust and confidence that you need at the early stage.
YourTarget carefully hand-vets the influencers that align with your company’s goals, visions, and the image you’re trying to portray. Then we partner up with them to create explosive awareness of your product, nurture consumer trust and confidence and get them involved to create a joint event such as webinars, podcasts, or live Q&A. KABOOM!
Bottomline
Your customers will always deal with personal (or organisational) finances no matter what time and age. In a digital-first world as of today, it means your future is ever-green. With that said, financial technology sometimes appears to be boring from a customer’s point of view but your marketing style need not be.
The biggest, and by far, the toughest obstacle for FinTech startups is cracking the marketing code. They have to engage and keep on engaging with target customers to make the noise (or music) – videos, influencers, email incentives, social media, etc. To sell your product, you have to strike when the iron is hot.
A prospective buyer searching for frictionless mobile banking? A reader seeking knowledge on Neo banking? A company looking for insurance? You’ve got the opportunity to land as their superhero!
Allow YourTarget to optimise your FinTech marketing tactics – or start from scratch – to boost organic traffic, increase sales, and propose a cost-effective solution to a seemingly impossible plight. And if you’ve enjoyed reading this article, feel free to share it with your friends and network!
