Client marketing in capital markets fintech: From impossible to possible in 3 steps

Loreta Bahtchevanova
2 days ago
6 min read

When I began my journey as a fintech marketer four years ago, I quickly realised that this industry operates under a completely different set of rules from the broader software vendor landscape. Coming from the more flexible world of IT B2B, I was used to customer logos, success stories, and testimonials being some of the easiest and most effective marketing assets to produce. But in fintech, especially when selling to Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks and major financial institutions, this was no longer the case.

In a world defined by regulation, confidentiality, and risk aversion, small and medium fintech companies often find themselves unable to publicly promote the very clients that make their products credible. It can feel like you’re doing enterprise marketing with your hands tied behind your back.

But impossible doesn’t have to stay impossible. With strategy, creativity, and internal alignment, capital markets fintech companies can build a strong client-driven marketing engine. Here’s how.

The credibility challenge for fintech vendors

Every business relies on proof to build trust—logos, case studies, quotes, and stories from real customers. As buyers, we all instinctively look for this validation. In B2C, we scroll straight to the reviews. In B2B, we want to know:

Who else uses this product?
Did it actually solve a problem similar to ours?
What do their customers say, not their marketing team?

But in financial services, obtaining this proof is far more difficult.

Large banks and financial institutions work with dozens, sometimes hundreds of vendors. Publicising each relationship is rarely a priority for them. Why?

1. Competitive secrecy

Financial institutions are highly protective of their infrastructure. Sharing which vendors power their trading systems, risk engines, data pipelines, or compliance tools can reveal too much to competitors. Silence becomes a strategic advantage.

2. Complex compliance processes

Even when a product champion inside the bank is willing to support a marketing initiative, they often run into lengthy approval processes. Compliance departments review every phrasing, claim, and implication before ultimately rejecting the request or letting it time out.

3. Cultural and structural inertia

In many firms, nobody gets rewarded for helping a vendor with marketing. The risks outweigh the benefits. Even happy clients won’t volunteer unless pushed, and even then, “pushed” often isn’t enough.

As a result, many fintech leaders simply give up. They accept that they’ll never be able to showcase client success publicly, and they build their marketing strategies accordingly. But this decision often severely limits their ability to grow, especially into new markets where they haven’t yet built a reputation.

When I joined my first fintech company and talked to peers in the industry, the default assumption was always the same: “That’s just how it is.” But the moment the business made client marketing a priority, we realised there are ways to champion it.

Here are three steps that can make the impossible possible.

Step 1: Review existing contracts and make a client marketing plan

Before assuming you can’t do any client marketing, start by examining what’s already possible.

Audit your customer contracts

Many fintech contracts include some form of marketing permission. Check for:

usage of logo “for promotional purposes”
non-specific statements like “leading Tier 1 investment bank”
participation in co-branded webinars
anonymised case studies
press releases upon go-live

You might be surprised how many clients have already agreed to something you’re not using.

Segment your clients by marketing potential

Create tiers based on what each customer can realistically provide:

Tier A: Logo, testimonial, case study, PR
Tier B: Anonymous case study, joint webinar, reference calls
Tier C: Strictly anonymous data only
Tier D: No marketing permitted

This gives you a realistic starting point. Even Tier C clients can fuel strong content if framed well.

Build a plan, not ad-hoc requests

Most client marketing fails because companies ask clients for things too late or too randomly. Instead:

Decide which clients you want to feature and why.
Prepare proposals tailored for each client’s risk profile.
Get your legal and leadership team aligned before approaching a customer.

Once you know what’s contractually allowed and strategically desirable, outreach becomes much easier.

Step 2: Define goals and get creative

If a bank won’t give you a logo or a quote, that doesn’t mean you have no story to tell. You need to get creative with formats and positioning.

Set clear goals

Examples:

“Publish 3 anonymised case studies this year.”
“Get two clients to participate in a joint webinar.”
“Increase the number of reference-ready clients by 20%.”
“Produce one industry report supported by client data.”

Goals make client marketing something the entire company can work toward, not just a wish.

Focus on the value you can show without naming names

You can create powerful content even if your client remains anonymous:

“Tier 1 US Investment Bank reduces operational costs by 35%”
“Major European asset manager cuts reconciliation time from hours to minutes”
“Top-5 global exchange modernises post-trade workflows using X platform”

The industry is small and key decision makers can infer relevance without the logo.

Offer flexibility

When clients can't do A, they may still agree to B or C:

Instead of a full case study → short testimonial
Instead of public participation → private reference calls
Instead of brand exposure → internal success story
Instead of naming the client → name the region & tier

Meet clients where they are.

Create co-value, not just co-marketing

Clients are far more willing to engage if the content benefits them as well, for example:

benchmarking reports
joint industry research
invite-only roundtables
best-practice guides featuring aggregated customer insights

When the content positions them as thought leaders, the approval process often becomes easier.

Step 3: Win the sales team for the cause

Sales teams unlock or block 90% of client marketing. They’re the ones with relationships and influence, and they’re the first to fear “risking the relationship” by asking for a favour. But without their buy-in, no client marketing strategy will work.

Thus, it’s very important to educate sales on why client marketing matters and show them the revenue impact of reference calls, social proof, case studies, and validation from recognised clients. Help them see it as a sales enablement tool, not just a marketing vanity project.

Make their participation as easy as possible, requiring as little of their time as possible. Sales shouldn’t have to craft pitches. Give them already approved email templates, talking points, a simple one-page overview of the marketing request, what’s in it for the client and make sure you stress what’s in it for the salesperson. If you remove friction, the number of client approvals will increase dramatically.

Last, but not least, it’s very important to reward participation. You can’t force sales to ask their clients for marketing support, but you can motivate them. Appreciate every effort, praise them in broader meetings, stress the success of each client marketing initiative and how it impacted the account relationship development.

If your sales team is not cooperating, a good strategy would be to ask the Sales Manager or CRO for help with tying some sales KPIs tied to referenceable clients and making it a standard part of QBRs.

When sales sees that successful client marketing helps them close deals faster, they become your strongest allies.

Turning the impossible into a fintech advantage

Client marketing in fintech is undeniably challenging, but it’s far from impossible.

When you stop treating it as something that “just can’t be done” and instead approach it intentionally, you’ll find there are always ways to build credibility through contracts, creativity, and internal alignment.

And once you do, the effect is transformative. Sales cycles shorten. Trust accelerates. Differentiation becomes clearer. Prospects no longer need to take your word for it, they can see that clients like them have already succeeded with your product.

In a competitive and risk-averse industry like financial services, client validation isn’t just marketing, it’s your strongest growth engine.

About Loreta Bahtchevanova

Loreta is the Head of Marketing at Rapid Addition, a provider of high-performance enterprise trading technology to capital markets firms worldwide. Rapid Addition is recognised as an industry leader and pioneer in financial messaging protocols. Loreta joined Rapid Addition at the beginning of 2024 to support the company’s growth strategy, bringing her extensive capital markets expertise from leading the marketing function at Glue42 and interop.io – interoperability platform providers for financial institutions. Prior to focusing on the fintech industry, Loreta built her marketing experience working in the broader IT sector for Scopic Software and Kanbanize, as well as the European Parliament Directorate-General for Communications.