Earlier this year, Forefront Communications released its 2022 Fintech CMO Survey Report – a deep dive into the opinions and mindsets of a wide range of senior fintech marketers, including their preferred program elements, their shifts in philosophy amid an increasingly digital landscape, adjustments they have made due to the pandemic and more. Over the next few weeks, as firms across the industry prepare to set their marketing budgets for 2023, we are highlighting some of the report’s key findings in hopes that they will help our readers understand today’s fintech marketing landscape and make the right decisions to grow their business. Below is an excerpt. Follow this link to download the full Fintech CMO Survey Report.
Fintech Marketing: An Industry-Wide View
At Forefront Communications, much of our time is spent developing, implementing and assessing the results of marketing campaigns for our institutional fintech clients. We’ve learned many lessons since launching in 2016, but one stands out: In our business, change is the only constant.
That’s true not just for the industry’s hot topics – though there have been several major shifts on that front, from crypto to meme stocks to market data. It’s also the case for the marketing strategies and tactics we employ.
The maturation of digital channels, the rise of data-driven tools, the COVID-19 pandemic, global unrest and a host of other factors have combined to create a volatile environment, with marketers pulled in more directions than ever before and seemingly endless possibilities for how to spread your company’s message and generate interest in what you do.
This dynamic is reflected in Forefront’s own evolution. When we launched in 2016, we did so as a traditional PR/media relations firm. The majority of our engagements were centered around those elements, with varying amounts of ad hoc support in other areas. Today, we are a full-service integrated marketing and communications (IMC) firm, providing all the necessary services – media relations, content, digital marketing, communications and brand strategy, creative services and distribution – to help our clients properly build a brand and strategically differentiate themselves in today’s market.
Fintech CMOs and Senior Marketers Share Their Views
From our conversations with various senior fintech marketers – clients and prospects, former colleagues, friendly faces from the conference circuit and more – we know many firms are in various stages of making their own adjustments to their marketing and communications programs. We saw an opportunity to educate our readers on how these professionals see the fintech marketing landscape today, including the program elements they are pursuing, the ways that their philosophy has shifted and any adjustments they have made due to the pandemic. Thus, the Forefront Communications CMO Survey was born.
To start, we developed and distributed a survey that dove into some of the most pressing topics in fintech marketing. Then we set up conversations with several senior fintech marketers, picking their brains on their approach. The result is the following report, which shares a wide range of both quantitative insights and personal testimonials, along with our analysis of how they reflect the trends that define our space.
Marketing Insights for Fintech
The marketing insights that our respondents shared are numerous and diverse, but if there’s one overarching theme, it’s this: Fintech companies can no longer afford to put marketing and communications on the back burner. Chances are that your competitors are spending more money and pursuing more channels than ever before. If you’re not at least carefully considering doing the same, then you’re simply falling behind.
While our agency has evolved in many ways, one fundamental belief we have held from our initial launch to the present day is that marketing and communications can produce truly transformative results for fintech companies – but only with the right program elements in place and the right expertise to make them a reality. In this report, you’ll learn that fintech CMOs largely agree with that assessment.
It is our sincere hope that this report will help you gain a better understanding of today’s fintech marketing landscape, the people who are shaping it and the trends that will influence it now and over the long term.
Read on for the next blog in our series recapping the key highlights of our report — and find out why 70% of CMOs will increase their marketing/communications spend in 2022.
