It’s hard to believe it’s already that time of year again. The time when the CSTMR content team writes a holiday jingle for me to sing on camera. I hope you have as much fun watching it as I did recording it.
Happy holidays to all of you, from all of us here at CSTMR.
See you next year!
Performed by Founder & CEO, Rory Holland
There’s a reason you operate an online-only bank, an enterprise-level SaaS, or a digital lending platform and not an in-person financial services business. And I’m willing to guess your decision had a lot to do with changing consumer preferences.
Because despite the changes happening around us, as business leaders, it’s our responsibility to ensure an intuitive, enjoyable, and seamless experience for our customers.
Which is why I’m so passionate about our second fintech marketing priority: multichannel marketing.
Psst. If you missed the first two articles in this series, we’ve got you covered:
To put it simply,
This time last year has been on my mind a lot lately.
As we wrap up the final weeks of 2020 and attempt to plan, project, and predict what the new year will hold—it’s hard not to feel wary. While no one knows what the next four quarters have in store for your business (or mine for that matter), there are things that you can do to help boost acquisition and minimize risk throughout 2021.
The last time you heard from me, I shared an overview of the top fintech marketing priorities for 2021. I’m calling these “priorities” and not “trends,” because they aren’t short-lived strategies. And while it’s difficult to predict the impact of a global pandemic on your business, these priorities can help insulate it from risk.
Today, I’m going to talk about the first “thing” on my list of fintech marketing priorities: how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in advertising,
Social media is a machine with a constant flow of posts, likes, mentions, retweets, and follows. Because of this 24/7 cycle, many brands choose to schedule content weeks or months in advance to keep up. And while doing this ensures that you’re always engaging with your customers, sometimes certain circumstances require you to rethink your entire strategy.
COVID-19 was certainly no exception. Overnight, weeks of scheduled social media posts suddenly became irrelevant.
PwC’s 2019 Global Crisis Survey found that 69% of business leaders have experienced a crisis in the past five years. Sometimes a crisis is global, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and sometimes it’s more local, like your company being named in a lawsuit. Whatever the situation may be, there are a few ways your brand can successfully navigate it without ruining your reputation.
When a crisis hits,
When industry experts were writing future trends articles in late 2019 (ourselves included), no one could have predicted that a pandemic would throw a wrench into all of our plans.
Despite everything our world has been through, I believe we can learn from this collective experience. For one thing, 2020 has taught us the importance of staying agile. We can use all of the industry data and expertise available to predict what’s coming next, but we can’t foresee something like a pandemic. This is why being able to quickly pivot strategies to match circumstances is so crucial for fintech companies.
In fact, Deloitte predicts that agility will be one of the top trends for marketers in the future, saying that it, “…encourages organizations to embrace immediate and novel ways of thinking while helping them restructure in a way that allows their brand to join conversations and moments organically.”
Future success for fintechs will hinge on the ability to react quickly to emerging trends and events.
While nobody enjoys a crisis, I’ve learned that hard times allow businesses to reflect, grow, and innovate. This has been especially true for fintech lenders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have had to innovate on the fly, adapt to the ever-changing market, and support the small businesses and customers in their communities.
In our recent Fintech Shares webinar, I talked to a few fintechs about how the COVID-19 pandemic sparked innovation and how they plan to move forward post-crisis.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is an SBA loan that helps businesses keep their workforce employed during the coronavirus crisis. And when these loans became available, the impact (and volume of applications) was massive and required lenders to adapt and innovate like never before.
Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF) founded Connect2Capital—a marketplace that matches small business owners to CDFIs—and recently launched a new product called Spark.
The current health crisis has forced many companies to shift away from traditional, in-person sales and marketing methods like one-to-one sales meetings, conferences, and other networking events.
To quickly solve for lost revenue streams, many businesses are shifting to digital marketing. According to Gartner’s recent CMO spend survey, digital accounts for almost 80% of marketing channel budgets in 2020 across paid, owned, and earned channels.
Digital marketing can be a game-changer for most businesses—especially fintech and financial services brands—which is why it’s important to be strategic. Costs can add up quickly, and your campaigns won’t be effective without a strong strategic foundation.
Here are a few simple strategy exercises we recommend to help set your fintech business up for digital marketing success.
Several digital platforms leverage very specific data parameters for audience targeting.
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic recession weren’t what anyone saw coming at the start of 2020. But when it did hit, we weren’t surprised that some of the clients we partner with, like Connect2Capital (C2C), stepped up to help their communities in major ways.
Powered by Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), Connect2Capital is a first-of-its-kind platform that connects mission-driven lenders with small businesses that are unable to secure traditional financing.
“Our team has been working around the clock, and we’ve brought on about 25 contract underwriters and loan ops personnel to keep up with demand,” said Patrick Davis, Vice President of Program Strategy and Development at CRF.
Connect2Capital actively supports economic growth in underserved communities by matching loans for businesses that are often unable to qualify for traditional financing. They also provide resources,
During economic uncertainty, it’s essential that your fintech or financial services company continues marketing. Right now, your customers need your services more than ever. In an economy like this, people are worried about their jobs, savings, and the future.
They need a financial partner to reach out and guide them through this. They need you.
Many businesses pull back on marketing spend during an unpredictable economy to cut costs and depending on your unique circumstance, that may make sense for you, too. But let’s look at history. During past periods of uncertainty, brands that kept marketing saw increased sales and bounced back faster once the economy recovered.
People may be buying less right now, but demand will return. This is why it’s more important than ever for you to continue communicating. You want to be top-of-mind for your customers when they’re ready to buy again.
Over the past month, there have been numerous conversations about the impact of COVID-19 sending the global economy into a recession. As more and more “shelter in place” orders are issued across the country, small businesses (especially those in the hospitality industry), are struggling to stay afloat.
According to a new Goldman Sachs survey, 96% of small businesses say that they have already been impacted by COVID-19. As an end to the shutdowns still remain unclear, many businesses are finding it difficult to pay their loans.
As for the employees at these businesses, several have been laid off and are worried about how they’ll make it through these tough times. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.82 million people worked in the leisure and hospitality industry in January 2020. The Labor Department recently reported that more 6.6 million people filed new unemployment claims during the week of March 23,
