Hosted by Araminta Robertson, 'Market like a fintech' is the new podcast for fintech marketing professionals and enthusiasts who want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry, and level up their marketing knowledge. Subscribe here to never miss an episode.
In this episode of “Market like a fintech”, Araminta is chatting with Eric Fulwiler, CCO at 11:FS. Eric has spent over 10 years in the digital advertising world, working with global brands such as PepsiCo and Mastercard, and as a UK Managing Director of VaynerMedia. Earlier this year, Eric was also recognised as one of the top 30 most influential fintech marketers of 2021 on our annual honorary list.
He now works at 11:FS, a consultancy that works with financial services companies to help them deliver the next generation of digital propositions and technology. If you’re deep in the fintech space, you would have heard of the 11:FS podcasts, events and even their documentary. 11:FS recently won the British Bank Awards for Consultancy of the Year, and is one of the leading Financial Times Management Consultants for 2 years running.
In the episode, Araminta and Eric chat about what financial services marketing is, the power of using content to add value and where to get started with influencer marketing.
This episode is brought to you by VC Innovations.
VC Innovations is a full-stack marketing services agency dedicated to innovation industries with a special focus on Fintech. They work with businesses across 3 key areas of marketing infrastructure, demand generation campaigns and event properties including the must-attend Fintech Talents Festival. Check out www.vcinnovations.co.uk to find out more.
Podcast summary:
“Fundamentally, a lot of good, modern marketing principles apply to any industry. And I think that is a lot of the opportunity for people out there is not the tactical execution of things that is different industry by industry, but it's the sound fundamentals of good marketing, that are determined by human psychology and sociology.”
“At the tactical execution level and layer, things are different. Regulation is a big part of it, for sure. The competitive sets, just the products that financial service organisations offer - they hold a different place in the lives and do a different job for customers than products and services in other industries.”
"I think that if you practice good marketing fundamentals ... that will lead you in the right direction.”
“I have stuff that I read - podcasts and books, and resources online, of course, but ... I think the best thing that you can research, if you're a marketer, is your community and your customers.”
“The role of marketing is to make an organisation more customer-centric, if you're doing it well. And so I think there's a ton of missed opportunities to tap into, for people to just go study and listen to their customers and the community that's out there around their brands”.
“In order to add value [to the audience around your brands], you need two things. You need to really understand what you stand for ... but then you really need to understand what your audience cares about. Because good marketing sits at the intersection of those two things.”
“Good marketing comes from companies who really understand who they are. And as you scale, you need to be able to document that and simplify that to something that people can really grab onto, and then go execute and get on board with.”
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“We are always putting out content, creating experiences, communicating with clients, in a way that is authoritative - like, we know what we're talking about provocative. We're not shy - we're opinionated, we'll tell you what we think. But then also human - we have empathy for what it takes to run a big bank or a big insurance company, and how hard change can be”
“I think that speed is the most important factor for any organisation ... I'd say one of the biggest things you should be thinking about is how can you make your company/ team/ part of the organisation actually move faster [to react to things quicker than your competition when they change].”
“I really think that getting something 80% done is better than 100% perfect [in order to move much faster].”
"I think if you're if you're a marketer, you should be thinking about how do you create a culture that looks, feels and acts much more like a science lab [rather] than an art gallery internally."
“In general, I do think that there's a tonne of opportunity for more B2B businesses, particularly consulting firms, to be more brand and marketing-led.”
“There's a lot of different ways to add value, but in order to add value to a lot of people at scale, content or events are big avenues to be able to do that.”
“I do think that there's a lot of opportunity for traditional organisations in general, but certainly financial service organisations, to take more of a challenger approach in their marketing ... and [that's] much like how we think about the propositions that we build for our clients - marketing that is agile, marketing that is intelligent, marketing that is contextual to the world that we live in now.”
“I really think that the agile piece, if I had to pick one thing that I think could move the needle much quicker for [incumbent financial firms], it's agility, it's moving faster. It's 80% and done instead of 100% and perfect. It's the science lab instead of the art gallery. I think that's where the biggest low-hanging fruit is for incumbent marketing teams.”
"How do you make your marketing team and organisation more agile? ... You look at the talent that you have, the culture that they play in, the process that you build around them, the tools that they have - all of those things could probably be tweaked ... to be a little bit more speed oriented, [and] agile in the way that they work.”
“Where is your audience's attention? Where are the pools of your audience's attention that already exist, that you can tap into? That's what influencer marketing does - it's earned media at scale, really.”
"Almost everybody is spending time on Instagram, on YouTube, on social and digital media. They're paying attention to other people. Those are the people who potentially could help promote your brand or your product. So, influencer marketing doesn't have to be about the big name 100,000 follower type of people."
"You need to create good content, but then you need to distribute it as efficiently as possible."
"I think that the first step people need to get on board with is influencers as underpriced distribution, and more effective engagement. The next thing that I think is a huge area of opportunity is actually, influencers as content producers for the brand."
"I think it's been really interesting to learn and just see how valuable relationships are in the perceptions that people have in the behaviour that they take."
For more tips, listen to Eric's complete story below.