Welp, it’s the end of Q1 – can you believe it? We can’t either. March was a big month for a number of reasons – from Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse to whispers about the Fed’s plans for rate hikes. This month’s roundup looks at several different trends making headlines and what people are postulating about SVB’s big fall. We also feature our own articles from the month to give you helpful advice and tips on putting your best marketing foot forward if you operate in the fintech space.
Also, don’t forget to download the Fintech Content Marketing Playbook. You can download this free guide to access -in-depth info on how to build audience personas, create a strategic content calendar, measure for success, differentiate your fintech message, and optimize for better results. We’ve already received great feedback and we’re open to any comments you’d like to share.
As always, if you’re looking to elevate to the next level of content marketing at your organization and produce more consistent, interesting content in 2023, reach out for a free consultation. We’d love to talk through your thoughts and offer some of ours to ensure you get started on the right foot.
In the meantime, here’s a look at some of the most interesting stories around fintech and marketing and…fintech marketing from March.
Top Fintech News from Around the Web
We’re only beginning to see the impact of Silicon Valley Bank’s implosion — We’ve been buckled in for some economic turbulence for a while now, but most people could not predict the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank – or the suddenness of it. Even with hints of a struggle, the speed with which the institution shut down sent shockwaves through global markets. People are still bracing to see the broader impact of this event, even as the Fed offers a new liquidity facility in the Bank Term Funding Program.
Fintech company Brex’s co-CEO: Next couple weeks are going to be pivotal for our industry — Henrique Dubugras, Brex co-CEO, joined ‘Closing Bell: Overtime’ to discuss the Silicon Valley Bank failure and potential long-term impacts. Perhaps one of the most poignant quotes from this interview was when Dubugras said “Founders don’t know what to do and what to trust anymore.” He emphasized that the next couple of weeks will inform how people should manage their money, but cautioned that having a knee-jerk reaction of moving all money to big banks could be detrimental all around. He also spoke to the need to educate customers on other ways to protect money, including brokerage accounts and fintech banking products are offering that enable customers to protect greater than the $250k FDIC amount per account.
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Produces An Early Winner: Digital Banks — Mercury is just one of the digital banks seeing a deluge of new account requests. The weekend following SVB’s collapse, Mercury doubled its account opening staff. Immad Akhund, Mercury’s CEO and co-founder reports that the 470-person company added more than $2 billion in deposits and thousands of new costumes to its existing 100,000 account base. Credit card startup Brex also took in billions in new deposits. It will be interesting to see how this shift plays out long term – and whether or not these digital banks will retain these new deposits and customers, especially as many are looking to big banks as a long-term solution.
FinTechs Forced to Decide If They’re a Business or a Feature as Investors Push for Profits — PYMNTS’ Karen Webster invited Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim and Bond CEO Roy Ng to discuss fintech profitability. Everyone agreed that COVID spurred hopeful startups that attempted to create entire operations around a feature that couldn’t translate into a viable business. Ng noted that many companies started that did not have long-term traction because the business model and economics simply were not there. Youakim echoed this sentiment but also pointed out that cheap capital and “irrational exuberance” can lead to founders taking big swings to suss out whether something is merely a feature or a business. Even those that fail to launch can lead to innovation further down the road.
Top Content Rewired Posts from March
And of course, here’s a curation of Content Rewired’s top posts from March:
6 Mistakes Your Writers Are Making — Writing is both an art and a science. Great writers use both right and left brain skills, though they usually excel in one area over another. The key to out-of-this-world content creation is the ability to identify your weaknesses as a writer and find solutions that make you stronger. Knowing your audience, accepting critique, creating vibrant headlines, using understandable language, editing, and providing a clear call-to-action are foundational to great writing. If you fall short in some areas, not to worry! We’ve put together six solutions to help with these common mistakes.
What is Fintech Thought Leadership? — Your audience is starving for high-quality content. They use it to do their own research. They use it to sate curiosity. They use it to make important buying decisions. Are you giving them what they want? Fintechs often struggle in this area. In many ways, it’s a Goldilocks conundrum: some produce too little content, and some produce too much low-quality content. Some focus on just blogs; others produce just one high-value piece of content per year. The key is to find your “just right” when it comes to thought leadership – and to make it count. This is how fintechs can differentiate and position themselves as thought leaders in a crowded space. This article walks you through what fintech thought leadership is – and how to get great at creating it.
5 Necessary Fintech Content Marketing Skills for 2023 — It’s the end of Q1, so if you haven’t already audited your content and skill sets, now is a good time to do so. Excelling in this industry requires specific fintech content marketing skills – and many are outside of the box. Of course, the basics (personas, intriguing topics, strategy) are key. But we look at 5 necessary fintech content marketing skills that you may not have thought of to succeed in 2023. We look at why focusing on the big picture is important to stand out and why thinking outside the box can make or break your content program.
Looking for more in-depth fintech marketing tools and content? Check out one of our helpful guides:
- Fintech Customer Acquisition Playbook
- B2B Fintech Lead Generation & Marketing During a Recession
- Fintech Marketing Playbook
- Payments Thought Leadership Playbook
- The Financial Marketer’s Guide to Content Marketing
