Several years ago, many traditional financial companies began to turn their services towards digital services in order not to be left behind by new companies that combine technology with finance (Fintech), which allow products to be obtained economically and easily from a smartphone or a computer. being a clear example of this trend, according to Finnovista, there are already more than 300 companies of this type in Mexico, while the number of banks does not reach more than 120 and in the coming years could represent 30% of the financial cake in the country.
What is the difference between fintech marketing strategies compared to traditional financial strategies?
According to Samy Road, growth of mobile banking of 1800% in the last five years, together with the expressions coming from the different banks, as it is for example what was said in the last month by Zorrilla director of Scotiabank who affirmed that the entity expects that digital customers are more than 50% by 2020, are a clear example of this acceleration towards the digitalization of financial services, however, this does not mean that all companies point to the same as there will always be a sector of the society that prefers the traditional formats, so the branches may decrease in quantity but never disappear.
The target of fintech marketing strategies
Referring to communication, one of the main tasks that marketing has is to achieve a precise definition of its target or target audience in order to develop appropriate strategies that achieve the expected impact.
In this sense and as it seems that some entities are left behind, what traditional financial companies do is to target a segment of the population that still does not have an Internet connection, based on the data provided by the Internet Association. .mx are today 33%.
In some other cases, users still do not trust digital transactions. If we analyze the statistics issued by the Condusef, we see that in 2013 13% of financial frauds were cybernetic while in 2018 this percentage increased to 59%.
The trends shown by the characteristics of e-commerce in Mexico also give us a clue as to where the marketing strategies of the fintech point, since Comscore Mexico conducted a survey that shows that more than 50% of commercial transactions carried out on the Internet have as protagonists to the Millennials (people between 22 and 34 years old), in this way, the age of the target audience of the companies that do not have the digital primordial goes from 34 years.
On the other hand, fintech marketing strategies focus on both Millennials and Centennials that are digital natives, both generations show a facility to take advantage of the advantages presented by the Internet in different areas and precisely in financial services. that, for example, online loans are not only faster in their evaluation and disbursement processes, but they use Big Data for these evaluations, which allows access to young people, many of whom do not yet have a credit history .
At the same time, many digital platforms and different technological proposals are being created by young people for young people, because, like forgetting the case of Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook (soon to enter the financial market in Mexico) than with less than 25 years already had this company valued at more than 10 million dollars.
The different channels that use both fintech and traditional financial
Marketing experts should also focus on determining which are the best channels to communicate with their target audience and this is where we notice another difference between traditional financial and fintech, then, you have to look for the consumer where it is located.
At this point, traditional channels continue to show a greater use of classic channels such as television, radio and graphic guidelines in magazines and on public roads, while the novelty lies in the strategies used by digital financial companies that do an interesting use of Big Data to recreate exact profiles of its consumers and thus communicate their concepts through social networks such as Instagram (social network that our country has more than 16 million registered as reported by the important Marketing Agency Latamclick) and Facebook in which they have found a way of immediate communication, which also has the advantage of bidirectionality of it being understandable the predilection of these channels by this type of companies, since that is where they can find the users most likely to use the services digital financial
What do they communicate?
Another aspect that every marketing manager must define precisely when communicating is the concept of what is meant, the message that is intended for the target audience to receive and as expected, this is not the same for the traditional financials that for the digital both because they are spoken to different profiles of consumers, as well as because the products and services they offer are different from each other.
Within the marketing strategies of the fintech, we try to communicate the ease of processing their services, making special emphasis that with them it is not necessary to go through the time of going through the box which infers waiting times and physical transfers to the branches.
Another specific point of the product to be communicated is the breadth of service hours, since, digital financials allow transactions to be carried out at any time. In short, this type of companies tell their potential customers that with them everything that has to do with financial services now is easier and faster adapting to a world increasingly accelerated in which people have less time to do their chores, also taking into account that Millennials spend more than 13 hours a day connected to the Internet as demonstrated by a study conducted by Reservamos.Mx, the well-known ticket purchase platform.
The place of marketing strategies
For its part, the marketing strategies of traditional financial companies should put, in order to differentiate themselves, the focus on face-to-face attention, which is more human and closer, a fact that values the target audience of them.
Another point to emphasize is the security that is perceived greater, for the moment, in the classic modalities of services than in the web platforms and the possibility of knowing the face of the employee especially when requesting advice or solving any inconvenience. Finally, the fintech show a more jovial and relaxed tone than the classic companies that, in many cases, still maintain the sobriety of the old times.
As can be concluded, the differences between digital and traditional finance companies are not only about types of services, products and customer service modes, but also about the marketing strategies used to reach and seduce future customers.
Also published on Medium.