Finding The Right PR Strategy For Your FinTech Startup
If you’ve seen that ubiquitous Capital One Banking Reimagined ad, you know even brick and mortar banks are viewing traditional 'banking' as a dirty word. There’s a reason for that pivot.
For example between 1990 and the end of of 2018, the number of banks in the United States, decreased from 12,000 to 4,703 according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; while the overall FinTech market hit $55 billion worldwide in 2018. Innovations such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, crowdfunding, mobile, and second generations micropayments have disrupted the industry by making financial transactions cheaper and decentralized.
That's an environment that offers great opportunity but also represents a significant challenge for entrepreneurs. For instance in February 2019, Statista found 5,779 FinTech startups in the Americas alone. In such a crowded ecosystem, marketing and PR is more critical than ever in getting new FinTech ventures enough exposure to be successful.
Here are some key tips for creating the right PR strategy for your FinTech startup to stand out:
Articulate What Problem You Are Solving
The investment app, Robinhood which is currently valued at around $5.6 billion, allows users frustrated by brokers like Fidelity Investments and TD Ameritrade to trade stock commission for free, instead making money on interest and other ancillary fees.
How can you sign up for financial services online without typing in a huge amount of confidential information? The Singapore based DataDepot created BAASIS ID which stored that information on blockchain and is only disclosed to third parties with permission.
Whatever the example, FinTech brands should be able to describe in about 10 seconds what problem their product solves.
Identify Your Audience
As of December 2018, nearly 32 million Bitcoin wallets had been set up globally. On the other hand, Unobtanium, for super fans of the movie Avatar is a cryptocurrency designed to be the rarest in the world and is limited to 250,000 units in 30 years. Even when offering a similar product, FinTech brands can be relevant to wildly different sized audiences, often with separate interests.
While generally speaking, B2C FinTech companies will need broader awareness than B2B brands, in both cases it's critical to identify who the audience for your product is and focus on targeting just that audience.
For PR that means identifying the reporters and publications most relevant to your product. Focus on writers who have written about similar technology in the past and on media outlets your potential clients are most likely to read. What steps do you need to take to make those reporters aware of your company and engaged? FinTech brands don’t need the most press, they need the right press.
Leverage Social Media
Traditionally the financial sector hasn't had the easiest time cracking social media. For instance back in 2013, a survey by the Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group found 87% of consumers saw banks use of social media as annoying, boring, or unhelpful.
The perception of finance brands around social media has evolved since then, largely because FinTech startups realized they could do a better job of unlocking social media as a communication tool. Thanks to immediate customer service, improved audience segmenting, and the cheaper start ups costs; companies such as small business lenders Kabbage and OnDeck correctly gambled they could scale their startups faster by using social media as the centerpiece of their marketing strategy.
Additionally, an active social media presence helps FinTech startups to establish themselves as thought leaders. For example, a study by Mackenzie Investments and Environics Research found that 57% of investors are interested in interacting with their advisors on social media. A 2016 Twitter and Annalect study also found almost 40% of Twitter users saythey’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer.
Not only does advocacy on social media improve brand awareness, it can impact consumer behavior as well.
Keep That Content Coming
For brands that want to raise awareness or drive traffic to their website, creating relevant content is the multiplier that will make it happen. For instance, a 2015 HubStop study found B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0 - 1 times per month. An active blog is an effective way to further advocate for your FinTech products, to build up your thought leadership reputation, and improve SEO.
However, marketers should not just rely on maintaining a blog. For example, a 2018 surveyby Wyzowl found that 79% of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app; with 68% of respondents saying they’d most prefer to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video.
Other content options include email; a 2016 survey of US Marketers by the Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric found it has a median ROI of 122%; and long form content such as Ebooks and white papers, which in a 2018 HubSpot survey, 35% of marketers listed as top priority inbound marketing project for their company.
While specific strategies will vary, there’s no question a robust and consistent content creation plan is a must for FinTech startups to become top-of-mind.
Conclusion
The most important step in making a FinTech brand successful is of course coming up with a killer product, but no one’s ever going to know about that breakthrough without the right marketing plan. By following such steps as articulating how the product helps, whom it helps, and by amplifying that messaging through social media and content marketing, FinTech entrepreneurs can turn a great idea into a great company.