If you’re in the fintech industry, you know that there’s never a dull moment. New technologies, companies and trends are constantly popping up, and the market has a big spotlight on it.
It’s an exciting time to run a fintech business or work on its growth, but it can be tricky to know what to focus on. If you’re still looking for direction, this article is the place to be.
You’ll leave this page full of inspiration on how to better your business in tangible ways. Whether 2024 is about being more productive as a team, building your brand, working on compliance or improving customer relationships, there’s something in this for everyone.
The current state of the fintech industry
Things have been busy in the fintech industry. Central bank digital currencies are taking off. Embedded banking is seeing explosive growth, and decentralized finance continues to expand. It’s a sign that the fintech industry is onto something: people are looking for new ways to deal with their money.
And the numbers speak for themselves: the fintech market is expected to balloon from USD 228.24 billion in 2024 to a whopping USD 397.24 billion by 2029. Which is why fintech businesses need to evolve. As the market grows, so does the competition, and the expectations of customers.
In this article, we’ll cover a couple of following focus areas and give recommendations specifically for fintech. Let’s start with branding.
Boosting visibility for fintech
Let’s start with brand building. It’s an often overlooked priority for fintech companies, but a priority nonetheless. We know fintech likes to focus on numbers, so here are some tangible ways you can increase your visibility and build your brand – in ways that let you measure success.
- Invest in specialized SEO strategies
Stop focusing on only keywords. SEO has evolved into much more than that, and working with specialized fintech SEO agencies will help you rank in all the right places. They can help identify the best strategies and optimize your website for both search engines and users, which will drive high-quality traffic, not just high volume.
- Attend industry events and conferences
Being visible offline is just as important as being visible online. When’s the last time your team attended a conference?
Live events are back in full swing and have been for a while, and they are proving to be a great way to connect with customers, find partnerships and get support for your business. And the fintech industry is no different!
- Collaborate with influencers
Yes, even the fintech industry has its influencers. And if you have partnered up with any yet, you’re missing out.
Influencers are a great way to build your brand and expand your reach. But often brands feel like it comes off too gimmicky. So, it’s crucial that you first establish what value you bring to the collaboration, and the audience of your influencers of choice. This will help in enhancing your credibility in the fintech sector and get your product in front of your audience in a more organic way.
- Double down on video marketing
Many fintech products are a tad complicated. What helps explain complex products better than anything, is video. We’re not talking about spending millions on Pixar-like productions. A simple Loom will do. Have a human walk users through new features, explain updates or give tutorials. The better your audience understands your product and how to use it, the more likely they are to use it. Especially in fintech, where it’s all about trust and knowing what your actions in a tool lead to in terms of what is happening to your money.
- Nurture your online community
An online community for a fintech company can take many forms. It all depends on your specific audience, but the options are endless. From a dedicated forum on your website to communities on Reddit, Facebook, or other places. These communities are a great way to share updates, but they’re also a two-way street. Use these communities to provide value and get feedback in return. The insights shared in an informal community can be invaluable for product development and other improvements.
- Start a referral program
If you want to increase your visibility and tie it into conversions, an affiliate or referral program is the way to go. These are already hugely popular in the fintech world, so if your business doesn’t have one yet, it’s time to start it.
Boosting productivity for fintech
Now, let’s look at another way your fintech business can improve. Boosting productivity will help free up time for your team to focus on its core tasks, and your customers. Here is how you can make this your most productive year yet.
- Adopt automation, AI, and machine learning
It’s time to double down on integrating automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning into your processes. Because let’s face it: it’s not going away, and the developments have been steady. Now is the right time to invest in setting up these technologies to benefit your business’s productivity.
- Outsource non-core activities
Something less technical or sexy, but just as important: remember to outsource what you struggle with. This can be as simple as working with freelancers when the workload is too big to tackle in some teams. That way, you still stay in control over what is happening in your business, but you do get some extra hands. And there are plenty of freelancers out there who are specializing in fintech!
- Use a CRM for data-driven decision-making
Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system will be the foundation for your productivity growth-spur. If you have one in place already, find ways to get more value from it. These CRMs are a goldmine for data-driven decision-making and speed up and streamline so many processes – as long as you make use of all their capabilities.
- Deploy agile methodologies (or your own version of them)
Agile and fintech are a match made in heaven. As we’ve discussed, the fintech market is one that’s always in motion, and agile methodologies allow for more flexible and responsive project management. Even if you’re not a fan of the standard agile framework, think about a way you want to approach project management internally and build processes that fit your needs.
Boosting compliance and privacy
When it comes to compliance and privacy, you mustn’t let anything slip through the cracks. Here are some things to think about to sleep soundly.
- Add new tools to your arsenal for financial reporting
How are you making sure you’re keeping up with financial regulations and compliance? It can be a downright maze, but the right tools will lead the way. A great example of an overlooked tool that can help with compliance is a tool like Ledgy’s financial reporting software. Especially if you’re operating globally, software like theirs helps with automating equity and ensures that you are compliant in all countries.
- Streamline your privacy compliance with Consent Management Platforms
We probably don’t need to tell you how important privacy is in the fintech industry. But we can tell you how you can make it easier to ensure compliance using systems like Google CMP.
Consent Management Platforms (CMP) are better known as Cookie Banners, and they enable advertisers to track the consent of their users for marketing and data strategies in a way that is privacy-compliant. If you haven’t already, investigate what your blind spots are and look into how a CMP can shine a light on them.
- Invest in RegTech solutions
You’ve heard of fintech, but have you heard of RegTech? This is the more fun name for regulatory technology, and applies to solutions that help companies handle compliance. RegTech is on the rise in sensitive industries, such as healthcare, pharmaceutical, energy and of course, financial services.
Boosting customer satisfaction (and retention)
Last but not least in the slightest: your customers. Here’s how you can make sure that there’s a steady incline in customer satisfaction numbers, and people stay happy customers for a long time.
- Offer educational content and financial literacy programs
This is especially valuable for businesses in the fintech sphere. With inflation on the rise and a lot of financial ‘advice’ out there on social media (often with risky investment or get-rich-quick schemes) people are looking for a source they can trust. Consider starting a podcast with real experts, create courses or offer educational content in any other way.
- Be transparent in your communication
Every business should be transparent, but for fintech companies, it should be a priority. Nothing sets off more alarm bells with consumers than a business in the financial industry being vague. Be a green flag in a sea of red ones and always keep your customers in the loop with proactive, honest communication.
- Offer 24/7 customer support – with a combo of bots and live agents + train your team!
We all know how annoying and anxiety-inducing it can be to suddenly get doubts about a financial product you’re using. Make sure you’re here for your customers, no matter the time of day. You can do this with a combination of bots and human agents. And for the latter: make sure they are trained properly. Empower them to really make time for customers and deliver advice with empathy.
What’s the focus for your fintech business in 2024?
The fintech landscape is rich with opportunities for growth and innovation. In this article, we’ve given you inspiration for a more focused approach to ‘growth’ and ‘improvement’. If you’re looking to read on and find more fintech inspo, check out this article on 10 banking and tech innovations set to shape the 2024 financial landscape.
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