Is anyone else as astonished as I that we’re quickly approaching the end of Q1? We’re rolling full-steam ahead into March after a year-long January and a blink of a February. Take a break from disinfecting your hands and refreshing your stock market apps and peep some fintech marketing and news highlights from the first months of 2020.
Ron Shevlin’s (@rshevlin) recent Forbes article, The Next Revolution in Personal Finance: The Financial Feed, takes a look at how an actionable feed that provides insights, guidance, or direction will be the next big thing from financial institutions, fintechs, and other providers. Rather than a static list of updates on account information, the financial feed will provide things people can actually use: account-related alerts, insights about market shifts and their impact on an investment portfolio, notifications for any anomalies in monthly bills, etc. He raises some interesting points about consumer adoption as well as what is needed to create a truly effective financial feed. Read the full article here.
Maghan McDowell published a piece in Vogue Business about how brands are leveraging partnerships with fintech startups to acquire customers. How exactly? Take Klarna — a Swedish bank that enables customers to pay for goods via installment plans — for example. Klarna stole the spotlight at Style360, a New York Fashion Week event held back in February. Some of this fintech’s clients include Saski Collection and Just Drew, both of whom debuted collections at the event that attendees were able to purchase on the spot. With Klarna, customers could snag their favorite items without paying in full at the time of purchase. The sleek marketing message is “buy now, wear now — pay later”.
Forbes recently posted its Fifth Annual Fintech 50 List, which included 13 fintech companies worth over $2 billion. Other highlights include the fact that global investors pumped over $53 billion into fintech startups in 2019 — with a sizable amount of that funneling into digital-first banks and insurtechs. Nineteen of the top 50 were first-time honorees (see: payments company Fattmerchant and insurance companies Hippo and Next Insurance) of the list, marking a strong start to an innovative season.
Jim Marous (@JimMarous) recently published an article on his site, The Financial Brand, that talks about the importance of content marketing for financial institutions. In it, he emphasizes the need to go beyond B2B audiences when it comes to content marketing. Retail customers can also be influenced by the right kind of content marketing — namely, one that inspires emotional connection. The best way to do this is often through personal stories that demonstrate how a brand solves financial problems for everyday customers. You can read the full article here.
Bring an umbrella to Jason Henrichs’ (@jasonhenrichs) recent post, Welcome to 2020 (Sailing into the Storm). The article dissects the myths surrounding the transformation of financial services. He asserts that 2020 kicks off the decade of massive transformation in the industry — one that will “change the lives of consumers more than the advent of the HELOC, ATM, and digital banking.” He warns that we are currently in the calm before the storm, though the entire ecosystem has been shifting and consolidating for some time. The moral? Don’t be lulled into inaction.
Alex Lazarow (@Alex_Lazarow) recently published a Forbes article: The Unique Challenges to Scaling Fintechs in Emerging Markets, which discusses the unique challenges fintech entrepreneurs face in emerging markets. The article references a recent survey from MIX that highlights three specific attributes of emerging market fintech entrepreneurs: they tend to create offerings that are inclusive, build multi-faceted solutions, and rely on partnerships and support to scale. He suggests that Silicon Valley approaches to scaling fintechs are not necessarily portable to emerging markets; however, there is plenty to be learned from the founders of the latter who are navigating new waters with success.
Got news that we missed? Fintech marketing tips that we should highlight? B2B fintech marketing stats that we left out? Send us a note and we’ll be sure to include you in our next fintech marketing and news roundup.
