The rise of social media and digital marketing has created the opportunity for businesses to promote themselves to huge audiences.

The flip-side of this is that it has become increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd...

One important way to do this is to ensure your brand and messaging are distinctive.

Following the financial crisis back in 2008, the financial services sector desperately needed to rebuild trust with the general public.

While the big banks and mortgage lenders are still struggling to regain their standing, a new wave of Fintech competitors has emerged.

They are distinguishing themselves from the old school providers by making their financial services marketing different in a number of ways.

Fintech brand identity is not about ‘what you do’

Much fintech marketing energy is spent on telling customers that services are innovative and unique. 

The truth is that very few companies provide a unique offering.

As a fintech marketing agency, we can count the number of unique companies on one hand without even using all our fingers... Many fintech companies are simply too product-focused.

If you are indeed offering a unique service, then you are either truly visionary or providing a service nobody actually wants.

Nowadays, most markets are over-saturated with choice for the consumer so differentiating your fintech brand identity is less about ‘what we do’ and more about ‘how we do it’.

This is especially true when marketing new financial services.

For years, transparency, simplicity and value have been popular fintech marketing mantras. Old school financial services had a well-earned reputation for being complex with hidden fees.

So, new fintech marketing messages were a breath of fresh air for consumers.

Today, consumers have come to expect those virtues as standard. That’s great for consumers but it means that financial services marketing needs to work harder.

They now need to identify what makes their business different and create marketing that stands out. 

The golden rule is that marketing and brand must always align with the core truth of the business and the way it operates.

By ‘being yourself’ you are able to identify with consumers on a personal level which is only going to increase the financial value of your company.

Not only will you find it easier to gain new customers, but you can increase your brand equity and remain competitive with the competition.

Create a brand identity, not just noise

With so many channels through which to market your financial services business, you want to make sure that your brand identity is consistent across all platforms.

From your website, to print, to social media – every touch point is an opportunity to create a sense of what your brand identity is about and begin to create customer loyalty.

You can build on these touch points with seasonal campaigns, one-off creative campaigns related to your brand history or a long running series.   

Just make sure you have central themes and perspectives that binds them all together to represent your overall brand. 

Creating a clear content Strategy is critical to giving your brand a meaningful voice. And ensure that whoever is taking care of your social media knows what your brand is trying to say.

Otherwise you’ll end up just being white noise.

What you say is key to building your brand identity. But what you look like can also help create brand differentiation.

Monzo's fintech branding gets it right

Monzo is a great success story when it comes to brand recognition through visual identity.

Their hot-coral pink bank card has become iconic. Anyone who sees it being held aloft at a bar waiting to be used either knows exactly who that person banks with or will almost certainly want to find out.

Monzo has also made their customers feel part of a private club, tailor-made just for them with the knowledge that people love to feel part of something special and will tell their friends all about it.

Branding and trust

Branding gives you the opportunity to build trust with your consumers, which is more important for the Fintech industry than most.

People like knowing that their money is safe. It’s only recently, over a decade after the global banking crisis, that the public are starting to regain trust with and get excited by new financial services products.

Cryptocurrencies are a great example.

A few years ago, the cryptocurrency markets exploded and hundreds of companies sprung up and sold the ICO dream.

The promise of a decentralised future and a new way forward for global finance made people buy into this vision with their hearts, minds and a lot of money.

Predictably, there were initially many scams that took full advantage of inexperienced investors. But this market is beginning to mature - despite the lack of endorsement from governments and people in power.

Once trust is gained, consumer loyalty is established and they will promote your brand as if it was their own.

Reputation goes a long way so as long as you continue to deliver on your promises and don’t lose customer trust, your brand will continue to work for you.

Internal investment and your brand identity

Cultivating a positive fintech brand identity is not only important for your ability to gain loyal customers but also loyal employees.

Surprisingly, 50% of candidates said that even a pay increase wouldn’t persuade them to work for a company that has a bad reputation.

So, having a well-known, well-respected brand not only makes it easier to acquire talent, it makes it easier to hire the best talent.

The best people out there will want to work with you and will also convince others to do the same, something that will reduce your overall cost of hiring long term.

Working with an outside marketing agency

Fintech marketing more broadly is made up of many components. Fintech lead generation strategy and execution, for example, and creating high-quality fintech copywriting take time.

Outsourcing these different tasks to different agencies risks ruining the cohesion of your brand identity.

For example, perhaps your SEO content agency is not the same as your fintech content agency. In this case, your choice is to have both agencies communicate with one another (and risk bottlenecks), or lose control of your brand identity.

Running your business, focusing on multiple aspects of your marketing as well as macro trends in fintech marketing is hard work. Outsourcing it to the right partner can save you time and - in the long-run - gain you growth. 

Conclusion

The bottom line is that good financial services marketing will help communicate your core strengths and distinctive features.

But simply saying what you are is not enough.

Your customers will make up their own minds so always make sure your brand is in-step with the reality of the business.

The better your branding, the more people will trust you and want to be associated with your company both as customers, employees and even investors.