Marketing in the Payments Industry: The Basics

In the payments industry, technology is everything.  However, no matter how many consumers are excited by the latest and greatest in payment processing and other financial technology, companies must invest in marketing to sell their products.  In today’s very noisy world, standing out amongst all the other advertisements is harder than ever.  If your fintech or other payment industry business hasn’t previously focused on marketing, now is a great time to start, and hopefully get ahead of the curve.  Not sure where to start? No problem, here are some great ways to make marketing a part of your company success story.

Understand Your Customer

If you’re thinking about ramping up a new marketing campaign, or even just reorganizing your website, think about who your core customer is and what they need.  It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, or what you’re selling, you have a core audience and they have specific needs and characteristics.  Before you can optimize your marketing for the best ROI, you should know these details.

Start by understanding the following:

• Age
• Job title
• Gender
• Industry
• Pain points
• Needs

A clear understanding of who your consumer is and why they might be drawn to your company’s product or services is the key to marketing messages that truly drive conversion.

Be Consistent

If your goal is to stand out to your consumers, be sure that your brand is being represented.  Again, people are being bombarded all day every day with messaging, sometimes from thousands of companies in a single day.  If your marketing messaging or creative across different mediums or platforms, isn’t consistent, your audience will have a pretty hard time remembering that your company has something they need or want.

How to maintain consistency:

• Keep your look and feel consistent across a campaign – Make sure that ads, emails, and even print materials have similar creative properties (color schemes, logos, images, messages, etc.)
• Reinforce your brand – Always represent your brand properly so that your company’s identity leaves a lasting impression time and time again.

Go Digital

Surely, no one needs to remind those in the payments industry that we are living in an increasingly connected, ever-changing, technology driven world.  Because of this, digital marketing should be a “no brainer”.  Marketers in the payments industry are encouraged to figure out how their targeted customer is using their devices and how they can deliver their messages to them.

A key part of marketing to your customers is knowing what works best for their unique characteristics or behaviors.  While you may not have a lot of consumers on Instagram, LinkedIn could be a great option for getting their attention.  Also, because most people have a pretty short attention span, you should ensure that your digital marketing is not only eye-catching but also uses an easy to understand message that will interest your customer.

Create an Omnichannel Presence

While digital marketing is especially important, especially in the tech-heavy payments industry, companies should not abandon other avenues for marketing.  While broad stroke approaches like TV ads or billboards are not ideal for the niche payment industry, marketers should take a look at other options like:

• Event marketing: Host, sponsor, exhibit at, or attend an industry specific event. This is a great way to not only show authority in your space, but also to gain a more personal interaction with a potential or existing customer.
• In-package marketing: It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than a completely new one. Take advantage of the prime marketing real estate in device packaging and present your customer with offers that you want them to consider.
• Product marketing: Payment industry companies should be finding ways to utilize their devices or software to market to customers without annoying them. Wherever you find a potential touch point, find a unique way to present your messaging.