Ever since your boss announced that the company's goal for the next 6 months is to drive product adoption by 60%, you have lost your peace of mind. Not because the goal is unachievable, but because you have to operate on a tight marketing budget.
You have so many questions running through your head. “How do I make every dollar of this budget work hard to achieve this goal?” “Which marketing strategy should I double down on?” “How do I allocate this budget on a marketing strategy that won’t collapse or, worse, lead to missed growth targets?
You don’t want to start looking for the best way to tell your boss you have missed your marketing KPIs or end up in a situation that threatens your job in the company.
This guide answers your questions, highlighting 4 sustainable fintech marketing strategies to drive product adoption even on a shoestring budget, how to implement them, and how to measure marketing performance.
4 Sustainable Fintech Marketing Strategies to Drive Product Adoption
To drive product adoption with a tight marketing budget, invest in organic marketing channels, build a loyal customer base using social media, outsource marketing, and partner with relevant influencers in your industry.
1. Invest in Organic Marketing Channels
Organic marketing channels remain one of the most effective and sustainable ways to drive product adoption, especially in the fintech industry. It provides a way for you to reach your target customers the moment they need your products without burning the entire marketing budget at the altar of ad platforms.
To achieve your goal with organic marketing, you need an in-depth understanding of content strategy, on-page and off-page SEO, and consistency.
How to Drive Fintech Product Adoption With Organic Marketing
To drive product adoption with organic marketing channels, display proof of trust, create SEO-optimized product-led content, optimize your website with SEO, and implement technical SEO.
I: Display Proof of Trust
Let’s face it, you are in an industry where you have to convince people that your brand is legit before they even get to know your product or how it can solve their problem. So, before you implement any marketing strategy, you need to build a foundation of trust.
Display your brand’s licenses, certifications, security measures, customer reviews, and testimonials as a signpost on your website and social media pages. Encourage customers to write product reviews on platforms such as the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Trustpilot.
II. Create SEO-optimized Product-led Content
You want to reach more people and, at the same time, teach them how to use your product to solve their problems. Product-led content gives you the superpower to do both.
To use product-led content to drive product adoption for your fintech product, identify your target customers, e.g., freelancers, Africans in Diaspora, e-commerce brands, etc. Then identify specific problems that will require them to use your product. E.g., freelancers who want to receive payments from international clients, companies that want to pay their international contractors, etc.
Then create content around these two main pillars and optimize them with purchase-intent keywords.
Here are examples of product-led content for a cross-border payment brand.
“How to Batch Pay International Freelancers: A Guide.” “7 Ways Freelancers Can Receive Money from International Clients.”
III. Optimize Your Website With SEO
Your website shouldn’t exist for “the sake of it”; it should consistently drive potential leads and convert them into loyal customers. That’s where SEO comes into play. It helps your website (brand) stay visible when people are looking for the product you offer.
However, your SEO strategy must align with your marketing goals so you don’t end up with results that don't move the needle.
For instance, if your marketing goal is to drive product adoption, you should optimize your site with purchase-intent keywords that potential customers often enter in search engines.
A keyword such as “how to send money from the UK to Kenya” is an example of a purchase-intent keyword for a cross-border payment brand.
You should also create individual landing pages for each product you offer and its specific use case. For instance, if your brand offers a payment link, create an optimized payment link landing page to increase the chances of ranking higher for that specific product in search engines.
IV. Implement Technical SEO
Money, friendship, love, and all the good things in life only make sense when you are healthy; the same applies to organic marketing. If your site's technical SEO is faulty, every other organic marketing strategy you invest in will eventually collapse.
To have a healthy technical SEO, improve your website speed and performance, optimize for mobile users, fix all indexation issues, and acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable sites.
How to Measure Organic Marketing Performance
To measure your organic marketing performance, monitor monthly organic traffic, track the number of keywords your site is ranking for, and calculate your conversion rate.
I. Monitor Monthly Organic Traffic
One of the most important organic metrics to measure is your organic traffic. It helps you know the total number of people who visit your website organically through search engines.
To monitor your organic traffic, use Google Analytics to track the number of active users, the amount of time spent on your site, and their locations.
II. Track Keywords Your Site is Ranking For
To measure the effectiveness of your organic marketing strategy, track the number of keywords your site is ranking for. For instance, check if you are ranking for random keywords or commercial and transactional keywords. This helps you know if your site is appearing at the right time on search engine result pages.
III. Calculate Your Conversion Rate
Conversion rate refers to the number of people who took a desired action when they interact with your website content, e.g., filling your contact form, making a purchase, downloading an ebook, etc.
To calculate this, divide the total number of visitors by the number of conversions and multiply by 100%. E.g., if you have 900 visitors and 60 of them make a purchase, your conversion rate is 6%.
2. Build a Loyal Customer Base Using Social Media:
Social media is another effective and sustainable strategy you can double down on to drive product adoption. A majority of your target customers already spend time on social media; you just need to make your brand visible there, engage them, and give reasons why your product will make their lives better or easier.
How to Build a Loyal Customer Base Using Social Media
To build a loyal customer base with social media marketing, identify the top social media platforms your target customer hangs out on, create engaging and valuable content, regularly host Q&A sessions, and create online groups.
I. Identify the Top Social Media Platforms Your Target Customer Hangs Out On
This is the foundation of all your social media marketing strategies. Get it right, and you will have no reason to second-guess if your strategies are indeed driving results in your marketing efforts.
To do this, identify the top social media platforms your target customers hang out on. For instance, if your target audience is freelancers, the majority of them hang out on X (Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn. However, if they are professionals, LinkedIn is your best bet.
II. Create Engaging and Valuable Content
Regularly posting compelling content is one of the best ways to engage your customers. Create content that relates to them; talk about how your product can improve their lives, and random content, like the company's behind-the-scenes, a lively interview with your staff, and user-generated content.
III. Regularly Host Q&A Sessions and Webinars
Social media marketing is not a one-way thing. You and your brand followers must actively engage with each other, and one of the best ways to do so is by hosting Q&A sessions, webinars, and online events.
You can also offer giveaways and branded merchandise to encourage participation.
IV. Create Online Groups:
Having an official company profile or page is not enough to engage your audience. Sometimes, your audience needs to interact with one another, ask questions, exchange ideas, and even promote your services. An official group provides that environment and flexibility to do that.
How to Measure Social Media Marketing Performance
To measure your social media marketing performance, track engagement rate, conversion rates, and website traffic, and monitor customer sentiment.
I. Engagement Rate
This shows how people are interacting with your social media posts. You should use the specific platform analytics to track the number of likes, shares, and mentions.
II. Conversion Rates
Calculate the percentage of people who take a desired action after clicking a post, e.g., filling out a form, clicking a landing page, subscribing to your newsletter, or making a purchase.
III. Website Traffic
Use Google Analytics to track the number of people visiting your site through your social media pages.
IV. Monitor Customer Sentiments
Regularly monitor what people are saying about your brand in the comments section, posts, DMs, etc.
3. Outsource Marketing
In the last three minutes, we have explored several marketing strategies you can implement to drive adoption for your fintech product. However, deep down, you know all of this only sounds easy. Implementing them with your other two team members without losing your mind is not a guarantee.
That's where outsourcing part or all of your marketing strategies to a marketing agency comes in.
Hiring a marketing agency for your fintech brand not only helps you scale your marketing strategies; it also gives you access to professional marketers across different niches without the commitment of paying them individually, paying subscription fees for marketing tools, or even offering the additional benefits of full-time staff.
How to Outsource Marketing Strategies for a Fintech Brand
To outsource marketing strategies for a fintech brand, define your goals, search for agencies specializing in go-to-market strategy for fintech platforms, and have regular check-ins.
I. Define Your Goals
What results do you want to achieve by hiring a marketing agency? The answer should be your anchor.
For instance, your goal could be to generate at least 2,000 leads within one month, increase organic traffic by 70% within three months, or increase sales by 30%.
II. Search for an ROI-focused Marketing Agency
Once you define your marketing goal, the next step is to find a marketing agency to achieve it. So you have to do your homework so you don’t end up choosing a marketing agency that will burn your budget or waste your time.
To do this, search for a marketing agency with a deep understanding of the fintech industry on Google or ask your network for recommendations. Edgerank is also a great marketing agency to consider, especially if you want to maximize the return on investment for your marketing budget.
The next step is to review the marketing agency case studies, past projects, and results achieved for clients in similar industries. Once you’re convinced, reach out to them and schedule a one-on-one consultation call to learn about their approach.
III. Have Regular Check-ins
Ensure you have regular check-ins with the marketing agency to stay updated, provide feedback on their work, and provide necessary guidance on the brand's messaging.
How to Measure a Marketing Agency's Performance
Measuring a Marketing agency's performance for your brand is subjective to your initial goal; the basic metrics to measure include traffic-to-lead ratio, customer lifetime value, and return on investment.
I. Measure Traffic-to-Lead Ratio
Compare your website's organic traffic to the number of visitors converted to leads. E.g., the total number of people who filled out a contact form, signed up for your newsletter, or downloaded a gated resource.
II. Measure Customer Lifetime Value
Measure the total revenue each customer generated over time to ensure the agency is driving high-value loyal customers.
III. Measure Return on Investment
Measure the profit generated relative to the amount you spent when you hired the marketing agency. This makes it easy to decide if hiring the agency is driving profits.
4. Partner with Influencers
Another effective way to drive fintech product adoption is to partner with influencers who already have your potential customers as followers and consistently engage them.
This type of partnership helps you tap into their existing audience and build trust, making them feel confident enough to trust your brand with their hard-earned money.
How to Run an Influencer Marketing Campaign
To run an influencer marketing campaign for your fintech brand, identify the right people, set realistic goals, involve your compliance or legal team, and build long-term relationships.
I. Identify the Right People
This is the foundation of every successful influencer partnership: identifying people who already have your target customers as followers.
For instance, if your target customers are freelancers, payment startups, or small business owners, look for influencers who already have this audience on social media platforms, such as X, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.
Identifying them is not difficult because they often post content that engages their audience. Someone with 10k to 20k followers who actively shares educational resources or job opportunities with freelancers is an ideal influencer if your target customers are freelancers.
While someone with active Newsletter subscribers, explaining cryptocurrencies and digital assets is an ideal influencer if you offer crypto wallets.
II. Set Realistic Goals
What goals do you want to achieve by partnering with an influencer? Do you want to increase product awareness or drive acquisition? Write them down before you partner with any influencers. This will help you determine in the long run whether the partnership is moving the needle for your brand.
III. Involve Your Compliance or Legal Team
You don’t want to add unexpected expenses to your company’s budget with a “fines” label or even get entangled with negative PR (public relations) that damages your brand’s reputation or decreases customer trust. That’s why involving your compliance team before launching any influencer campaign is crucial.
They help you vet influencers, set clear contact agreements, and monitor influencers' posts after they go live to catch any missing or incorrect claims.
IV. Build Long-term Relationship
Don't just do one-off post campaigns and expect them to drive tangible results. Instead, build long-term partnerships with influencers to earn people’s trust and get higher engagement over time.
How to Measure Influencer Marketing Results
Measuring influencers’ marketing results for your brand is subject to your brand's initial goals. However, you should monitor your website traffic, track audience growth, and calculate conversion rates.
I. Monitor Website Traffic
How many people visited your website during or after the campaign? To get answers, check your Google Analytics for new visitors, page views, referral sources, etc.
II. Track Audience Growth Rate
You should track the number of new followers you have on social media pages, post reach, video views, and even your email list, depending on your goal for the campaign.
III. Calculate Conversion Rate
Chances are, your goal for influencer marketing is to drive sales, so you should track sales rates before, during, and after the campaign and compare changes. To make this easy, set up affiliate links, promo codes, or link tracking to help you track the traffic sources that lead to conversion.
Conclusion
Operating on a shoestring marketing budget to achieve a seemingly high business goal can be scary, but it’s possible.
In this article, we highlight four sustainable and effective marketing strategies you can implement to increase fintech product adoption and how to measure marketing ROI for each strategy.
Whether you choose to invest in organic marketing channels, leverage fintech social media marketing, outsource marketing to marketing agencies, or partner with influencers in your industry, you can achieve your marketing goals without losing your mind.
Frequently Asked Questions About Driving Product Adoption for a Fintech Brand
How Do I Measure Fintech Product Adoption?
To measure fintech product adoption, track the total number of active users and their usage frequency, e.g., making complete transactions daily or weekly. Also, track the percentage of customers who consistently use your product after a trial and measure customer support interactions to identify common user friction points.
What Are the Main Barriers to Fintech Adoption?
The major barriers to fintech adoption include a lack of trust among users, perceived risks, lack of perceived benefits, and difficulty of use. People are afraid of entrusting their hard-earned money to fintech brands; most struggle to understand how a fintech product can solve their problem, and often find it difficult to use complex fintech products such as P2P lending platforms.
What is the Best Marketing Strategy for Fintech Product Adoption?
The best marketing strategy to drive fintech product adoption is a trust-first and educational approach. Adopting a fintech product means users have to trust you with their hard-earned money and financial data. To earn this trust, you must consistently display your brand's proof of trust assets, including licenses, certifications, customer reviews, and testimonials. Educational marketing strategy, on the other hand, helps you explain how users can use your product to solve their problems. This often includes creating blogs, white papers, how-to guides, and videos.
What is the Best Fintech Marketing Agency to Hire in the US?
The best fintech marketing agency to hire in the United States is Edgerank Agency. This team of marketing experts has a deep understanding of the fintech industry and knows effective marketing strategies to implement to help you achieve your unique goals and maximize your return on investment.
When Should I Hire a Marketing Agency for My Fintech Brand?
You should hire a digital marketing agency for a fintech brand if you have a limited number or no marketers on your team, and your budget cannot afford a full marketing team. You want to scale your marketing strategies, expand into a new market, or you need specialized marketing experts without the overhead cost of paying salaries.
What Are the Best SEO Strategies for fintech Businesses?
The best SEO strategies for fintech businesses include targeting product-focused keywords, optimizing site speed and mobile responsiveness, acquiring backlinks from high-authority financial publications, and building interactive tools such as rate calculators or expense automation calculators to increase user engagement.
