According to GlobeNewswire, fintech market value is estimated to reach over $305 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of over 20%. In addition, as per Statista, digital payments will be the market’s largest category in 2022, with a total transaction value of US$7,860,739m.

The numbers clearly show that the fintech industry is booming, and as a CEO or brand manager in a fintech company, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends in this rapidly growing sector. 

While launching marketing campaigns for customer acquisition can be a costly and time-consuming process, fintech brands can use various marketing strategies to create awareness. These include social media marketing, videos, podcasts, building a responsive website, influencer marketing, and more.

Before you start, you have to identify your goals clearly to make the most out of your marketing budget. For a fintech brand, these goals can include the following: 

• Create trust and credibility.
• Educate the market with a creative approach.
• Get people spreading the word about your fintech brand.
• Create a ‘flywheel’ of client acquisition that leads to increased sales and revenue.

Realizing the importance of having the right communication objectives, some famous fintech brands have taken marketing to a new level. Here’s a roundup of selected marketing case studies that tick all the four points mentioned above:

1 – Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple, a Canadian online investment management firm, has made major investments in its content marketing approach. They created Wealthsimple Magazine. The company’s digital publication covers worldwide financial subjects ranging from bitcoin news to NFT releases, gives guidance in an “Ask Lizzie” section curated by columnist Lizzie O’Leary, and offers useful step-by-step explainers in a series called “Finance for Humans.” Their content marketing approach was to educate readers through relevant media pieces.

One of the most important ingredients in this marketing formula is relatability; from the magazine to the recently launched podcast, all of Wealthsimple’s marketing content is focused on personalized stories that highlight the profound humanity inherent in most people’s relationships with money. “Money is strange!” says Wealthsimple, obviously hinting, “and we can assist you with that.” 

In addition, they also created a mini Youtube series named “Money Diaries” where famous celebrities shared their personal experiences while managing their finances. 

The actors talk about their tumultuous connections with money, how their family taught them (or didn’t teach them) about money management, and what has changed once they started making huge sums. 

The company collaborated with Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris to film these interviews with actual individuals, including their own clients. People spoke about their financial anxieties, aspirations, and goals. In total, they interviewed almost 250 people, taped 40 interviews, and produced 50 short videos as a result of the campaign. 

Wealthsimple leverages these content buckets to further personalize common issues among its millennial demographic, normalizing the experience by implying that successful individuals share their problems and habits.

Source – Wealthsimple

2 – Klarna

Klarna, a Swedish fintech company, provides a mobile app that allows customers to divide payments for any number of goods into four interest-free installments.

Influencer and celebrity collaborations are a driving element behind the company’s marketing approach. When Snoop Dogg became a shareholder in Klarna, the business launched a financial marketing campaign for their target group (millennials). Snoop Dogg transformed into Smoooth Dogg with Klarna’s consent (and on-brand pink veneer) and became the face of the company’s “Smoooth” payments campaign.

Source – Klarna

In addition, Maya Rudolph’s presence in Klarna’s 2021 Super Bowl ad is perhaps the most notable celebrity cameo in Klarna’s campaign. Four small Rudolphs ride four tiny horses through a dusty old West town for a dazzling pair of pink cowboy boots in the fittingly named “The Four Quarter-Sized Cowboys” ad.

They split the cost of the boots, and each small Rudolph pulls out a phone to make one of four tiny payments. The premise is bizarre, and the visual is bizarre, but the campaign is a successful — and rather literal — illustration of Klarna’s buy-now-pay-later service.

Klarna’s many celebrity-filled campaign triumphs demonstrate that, while influencer marketing might be costly, it pays off when combined with great branding ideas.

3 – Current

One of the most prominent positioning strategies used by fintech brands is that of “challengers for traditional banking.” Even when it isn’t explicitly stated in their marketing, many fintechs pitch themselves as a new way to banking. Current, a mobile banking app, struck the connection between readily transferring money and the easiest means to transport New Yorkers: the NYC subway in early 2021.

The campaign by Current – “What Do You Think We Are, A Bank?” was displayed over subway carriages for weeks, subtly criticized traditional banking. One campaign commercial states, “Banks: we’re here for you.” and “Also, banks: you owe us money since you ran out of money.”

Source – Current

Educating customers about fintechs may be a difficult task, but persuading the general public that conventional banks do not have their best interests at heart is much easier.

With meme-friendly language, Current’s campaign exposed banking’s most vexing concerns. Bringing up the pandemic wasn’t just a marketing trick. Current was one of the first fintech businesses to deliver 2020 stimulus money into people’s pockets, courtesy of its proprietary ledger technology. The company set out to design a fintech marketing strategy that would highlight its challenger status while giving voice to actual working people’s difficulties after realizing that many of its customers were part of the newly recognized group of “essential employees”.

It was a leap forward in digital banking. In 2020, Current doubled their membership in less than six months. The company had approximately three million subscribers as of June 2021, up from one million a year before.

4 – CLEO

Cleo is an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that functions as a digital-only bank. You communicate with Cleo, an intelligent assistant who assists you in managing your finances. The company was founded in the United Kingdom, but has subsequently grown and appears to be more popular in the United States.

The app takes an unorthodox approach to educating Millennials and Generation Z about money. It employs a chatbot, speaks honestly and playfully, and tailors money advice to the user’s interests.

Cleo distinguishes itself as a banking/financial app by employing hilarious memes through its chatbot and advertising. Funny pictures or messages frequently go viral if they are relatable, making them a profitable medium for marketers. Cleo’s memes appeal to people who desire to attain financial objectives without taking themselves (or the process) too seriously. Meme pages from social publishers are followed by Millenials who are Cleo’s core target audience.

Source – SmartInsights

In Conclusion

Fintech marketing doesn’t have to be technical or full of jargon. Your brand can adapt to the changing environment and be creative in its approach. To do that, it’s important to identify the pulse of your audience. Secondly, the type of problem it addresses, as well as the demographics of the target market, will heavily influence the optimal branding strategy for a fintech brand.

There is no one “right” solution. Teams that conceptualize their marketing approach at the initial level are more likely to create a lasting impression. Since the communication strategy stems from their original business idea, it resonates well with their target audience. Ultimately the goal is to create a brand identity that acts as an idea that consumers cannot stop talking about.