Fintech (financial technology) is constantly transforming in recent years, with the emergence of innovations and technologies that change the game in the financial industry.
The said sector is anticipated to see massive growth this year. As businesses make the shift to digital solutions to handle their financial operations, more and more consumers turn to their mobile devices and smartphones to carry out banking and financial transactions.
2023 is an especially exciting time for fintech companies. The market has been growing since 2020, with COVID-19 being a crucial catalyst that changed customer expectations and boosted e-commerce and financial digitalization. We have also seen fintech companies catch up with traditional banks in gaining consumer trust.
Australia is one of the countries that created and enjoyed boundless opportunities in the fintech industry. In a recent report by BDO, it is stated that the said country’s financial services sector has historically been regarded as well-managed and secure due to the strict regulatory environment. This has resulted in banks with strong capital positions and a robust asset management sector dominated by business and retail superannuation funds.
Australia has recently strengthened its position as a pioneer in the fintech industry within the global financial services ecosystem. As a matter of fact, it currently ranked sixth in the world and second in Asia Pacific (APAC) according to the Global Fintech Index. Its booming global success is attributed to its innovative financial and consumer markets and developing regulatory environment.
Fintech trends in the NOW
Bill payments, investments, savings, and money transfers can now be done without the hassle of standing in long queues. Thanks to digitalization, these transactions can be executed with just a few clicks, a swipe, a tap, or through an ID-touch.
Fintech apps nowadays reduce the need to visit actual banks. However, with the increased accessibility comes the rise of cyber criminals too. To deal with this, businesses would need to focus on developing more secure and mobile-friendly solutions that satisfy their customers’ needs.
Reports reveal that Asia, Europe, and North America are the top 3 regions most affected by breaches in 2022’s Q3. 50% of these Q3 breaches took place in Europe.
Although tools like multi-factor authentication and digital payments have already been around for a while, new technologies are constantly developed to strengthen customer security, data protection, and make mobile baking transactions more convenient.
Here are some of these trends that help businesses and consumers have more accessible and hassle-free financial transactions:
Business-to-Business Payment Solutions
These refer to payment processing systems catering business-to-business (B2B) transactions. This involves transferring funds between two businesses.
The aim of these payment solutions is to simplify and streamline the payment processes between businesses, make fund transfers and payment tracking easier, effectively reduce payment processing time, and improve overall cash flow management.
Some examples of B2B payment solutions are Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT), Virtual Credit Cards, Automated Clearing House, Payment Gateways, and Purchase Order (PO) financing.
Online Transfer
An online transfer is where the conventional concept of wiring money meets the modern technology of electronic funds transfer (EFT). It allows the sender to send money by simply transferring the data that represents money to the recipient using an online banking platform or a mobile banking app.
Online transfers are also known as Internet Money Transfers since they are usually done via any computer with internet access. These can be used to send money domestically or internationally and can be done in real-time or in a scheduled manner depending on the payment system.
Digital Wallet
A digital wallet, or an e-wallet, is an online service, software, or electronic device that enables businesses and individuals to securely store, manage, and utilize their payment information for both offline and online transactions.
Digital wallets eliminate the need for physical wallets by securely storing a user’s payment information. They are often integrated into mobile devices and allow users to pay by tapping or scanning their phones.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a system for storing data that makes it difficult or impossible to hack, cheat, or change the system. It is defined as a decentralized digital ledger that records transactions and information across a network of computers. It makes use of cryptography to make sure that the transactions made are tamper-proof, verifiable, and secure.
Blockchain technology is most often associated with cryptocurrency but has many other potential uses across industries like finance, banking, and supply chain management. This technology has the potential to transform the financial industry by reducing costs, improving security, and increasing transparency.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) transforms the fintech industry by improving accuracy and efficiency, automating processes, reducing costs, and providing better services to customers.
Here are some ways AI is helping fintech industries:
- Fraud detection
Detecting money laundering using conventional approaches is challenging. With the help of deep learning AI algorithms, fintech firms and banks can uncover links between criminal activities and account activity. - Customer service
AI-powered chatbots are used in the financial industry to provide customer service. These chatbots can respond to queries, provide information, and even carry out transactions. - Risk management
Fintech companies can analyze and manage risks more efficiently with the help of AI algorithms. The system is able to detect potential risks and send out real-time alerts. This gives institutions time to prepare and take action beforehand, effectively reducing losses and improving the financial system’s stability. - Credit Scoring
Credit scores determine an individual’s capacity for borrowing cash for mortgages, auto loans, and even private college loans. This is used by lenders and other financial institutions to determine a person or a small owner-operated business’ creditworthiness.
AI makes this process faster and easier through its vast scope of data analysis, including social media activities, transaction histories, and online behavior to come up with more accurate and comprehensive credit scores. - Predictive analytics
This refers to the artificial intelligence-based technology that collects data from various sources and utilizes computer models to generate insights for a variety of practical applications.
Predictive analytics include the use of statistical algorithms, data mining techniques, and machine learning to analyze historical data and forecast future financial trends or events.
In addition, predictive analysis is used in the fintech industry to detect fraud, score a client’s creditworthiness, minimize risks related to crediting, investments, and other services, improve client service and data processing operations, and better allocate their funds.
Predictive analysis is a realm that many fintech businesses are now quickly adopting in their functions to better understand markets, workflows, and customer demands, and to gain an edge over competitors. - Personalization
Since customers are expecting more tailored financial products and services that meet their specific needs, goals, and preferences, personalization is increasingly becoming an important aspect in the fintech industry.
Using AI, businesses can use customer data to foresee customer interests, needs, and behavior to develop personalized marketing campaigns and provide tailored recommendations to customers. Your marketing efforts will be more effective since they will be personalized for each individual customer, leading to higher conversion rates.
Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT refers to the interconnection of physical devices, software applications, and sensors that exchange data with each other. By creating new data sources, providing automation, and enhancing customer experience, the advent of IoT devices is revolutionizing numerous industries, including financial technology.
From cars to smartwatches, the IoT connects devices and is now integrating itself into the fintech industry and a range of digitalization advantages like advanced financial security, fraud detection, and enhanced insurance strategies.
This technological advancement can be used to gather and analyze relevant data to gain insights for meeting the client’s specific needs, lowering the use of human labor, assisting in financial tasks like savings and analysis of spending patterns, financial planning, and balance estimation, boosting employee productivity and interconnectedness, and helping financial institutions manage risks more efficiently by gathering real-time information on client assets.
Challenges businesses face in acquiring leads
Lead generation isn’t easy, regardless of the industry you’re in and the tools and strategies you use. Like any other business out there, fintech businesses also struggle to generate leads. It can be due to the following reasons:
- High competition: With hundreds of startups vying for market share, standing out from the crowd of competitors and attracting new leads isn’t easy. To add to that, it’s difficult for fintech firms to differentiate themselves in the market due to the large number of companies that offer the same products and services.
- Limited marketing channels: Most often, fintech companies rely on more inventive and targeted B2B marketing strategies like social media advertising, content marketing, and influencer marketing to reach and engage with their target audience.
In this case, traditional marketing channels like TV, print, radio ads, and billboards won’t work since they lack personalization and limited audience reach. - Complex products: Fintech products can be hard to explain, especially to individuals not well-versed in financial jargon.
Because of this, it could be difficult to sell the product’s benefits and spark interest among prospective buyers. And besides, difficulty in communicating can make buyers hesitant to inquire or buy your fintech offers. - Trust issues: Fintech services deal with sensitive financial information and customers must be confident in your company that their data is safe and protected.
Customers could be reluctant to utilize or reveal their financial information with a fintech business they don’t trust, which can result in lower adoption and slower growth. - Regulatory hurdles: Fintech companies are often subject to stringent regulations, which are implemented to protect consumers, prevent illegal activities like fraud and money laundering, and maintain the financial system’s stability.
Some of the regulations that fintech companies must comply with are registration and licensing requirements, data privacy and security regulations, competition and consumer protection regulations, and anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations. Infractions of these rules may result in penalties, legal action, and reputation damage.
Overall lead generation can be difficult for fintech companies due to high competition in the industry, limited channels to market with, complex products and services it offers, the need to establish trust among customers, and challenges with the regulations that needed to be followed.
Fintech companies that succeed in generating leads depend on a combination of digital marketing services and strategies like social media marketing, content marketing, emails, websites, SEO, targeted advertising, and mobile apps. Consulting with digital marketing experts will enable you to direct your efforts to increase your online visibility, attract and engage potential customers, build your brand, and ultimately drive conversions and revenue growth.
Innovative marketing strategies for fintech in the APAC
Expand to New Markets
Expansion into Asia Pacific has become an essential and unavoidable stage in FinTech’s expansion and success. With more than 6,000 startups, the said region is home to some of the world’s largest FinTech players and is projected to bring in the most revenue in the FinTech industry.
Singapore, housing more than 1,000 fintech on the estimate, is ranked one of the best locations to start a business because of its corporate tax rate, sizable talent pool, and political stability.
The said island state is a well-known logistics, business, and financial hub with top-notch infrastructure and connectivity. Besides, it has a mobile subscription coverage that exceeds 100% and an ultra-high-speed fibre that runs across the county. Singapore possesses all these crucial elements for fintech expansion, which explains why fintech innovators are drawn to it.
Together with these elements, here are further considerations for scaling your fintech company in the APAC:
- Large consumer market and opportunities
The APAC region is the world’s most populous region with over 4.5 billion people. The said region provides a sizeable and expanding market for fintech businesses because of the fast-growing middle class and rising adoption of digital technology.
As online access and smartphone penetration rise along with population and GDP growth rates, APAC nations present a lucrative environment for fintech investment. - Growing need for online services
Digital financial services like investment platforms, digital payments, and online banking are increasingly gaining popularity as economies in the APAC region expand further. To address the specific needs of local customers, fintech businesses can capitalize on this need and offer cutting-edge solutions. - Strong partnerships and ecosystem
The APAC region has numerous established firms and operating startups in the sector that contributes to its robust fintech sector.
This creates opportunities for cooperation, knowledge exchange, and collaboration, which promotes the growth and success of fintech companies. - Supportive fintech regulatory environment
Regulations that are friendly to fintech companies have been put in place in several APAC nations, making it simpler for these businesses to enter new markets.
Going Digital
Financial organizations can successfully deliver the experiences their end–users and stakeholders expect by offering services digitally. They can also anticipate an increase in business innovation, employee satisfaction, and customer engagement. Fintechs can also work more quickly and effectively to compete better in the market.
Going digital enables fintech to reach a wider audience beyond their country or local area by offering their products and services online, save on rent and utilities by not having the need of setting up a physical office, improve customer experience by giving customers access to products and services from their mobile devices, improve efficiency and reduce errors through automation, and collecting and analyzing large chunks of data to identify industry patterns and trends and also to make data-driven decisions.
Given the digital age, fintech companies should engage with digital marketing strategies, and being visible on LinkedIn can be an important part of those. Having a strong online presence will help your fintech business reach potential customers and build brand awareness, given that LinkedIn is a social media platform for professionals
Fintech companies can use a number of LinkedIn features, such as sponsored content, targeted advertising campaigns, and company pages to strengthen their digital marketing campaigns.
Fintech businesses can give comprehensive details about their products and services, post updates and thought leadership content, and interact with followers by setting up a company profile.
Account-Based Marketing
ABM is a potent tool for fintech companies seeking to target high-quality customers. It aims to target the best and largest customers and sell directly to them, unlike the traditional marketing approach which assumes that people will discover your product through traditional advertising and purchase it based on the effectiveness of the campaign.
This vital strategy can be used by fintech companies for data capture and marketing. ABM functions best when it is part of a bigger consumer-focused strategy that tries to keep up with the ever-changing market through extensive data collection and client engagement.
Check this case study to see how ABM secured new sales leads for a fintech firm and helped it reach its business goals.
Event Marketing
Event marketing is a powerful marketing strategy that can help fintechs achieve their marketing objectives by providing a platform for generating leads, building brand awareness, upselling customers, increasing customer engagement, educating prospects and customers, networking with industry peers, and creating memorable customer experiences.
Some of the most common event marketing strategies that fintech companies use to engage with their audience are industry conferences, trade shows, networking events, meetups, training sessions and workshops, webinars and virtual events, and experiential marketing events. Whether it’s done in-person or online, event marketing is the best method to engage your audience, promote your brand, and generate results.
Joining events can be an effective way for fintech companies to expand their networks and establish new partnerships. Fintechs can meet potential partners and investors, engage with industry influencers, learn from industry leaders, demonstrate their products and services, and take part in industry discussions.
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Nurturing customer relationships with CRM tools
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool used for managing all interactions with customers, suppliers, and partners. In this sense, a CRM for fintech primarily focuses on the specific requirements and needs of businesses in the financial sector to increase prospecting and sales, and build customer loyalty as well.
CRM tools, which provide centralized customer data, segmentation, sales and marketing automation, predictive analytics, and personalized communication, can help fintech companies in developing and maintaining strong customer relationships.Most often, fintechs will spend weeks developing products that will have an impact on their potential customers, only to discover that they are not tailored to their needs. What CRM for fintech does is gather all relevant information gathered from customer-company interactions to get insights and improve the approach. By integrating valuable business information, decision-makers can focus efforts on satisfying potential customers’ needs and resolving their problems, while spending less time on leads who are less interested.
Consult with marketing strategy experts: Partner with Callbox
Fintech is gradually gaining popularity due to digitalization, but the majority of startup fintech companies still find it challenging to attract prospects and convert them into customers. Even so in the digital era fintech lead generation is still a struggle.
The good news (somehow), is, you are not alone. Generating leads is still the top priority for B2B marketers this 2023. By recognizing the benefit you provide to your target market, you can comfortably position yourself within the financial sector to drive higher-quality lead conversion.
This is why partnering with a qualified lead generation services provider is essential for your business’ success.
Callbox Australia is of the most acclaimed teams of marketing strategy that fintech companies trust with their B2B fintech lead generation efforts. With more than a decade of quality service, our team has proved its worth by providing warm and qualified B2B sales leads and appointments to over 1,500+ B2B companies across different industries all over the country.
We use cutting-edge B2B telemarketing lead generation and appointment-setting campaigns to generate warm financial service leads that convert into real business. We understand customer trends in the financial industry, allowing us to target appropriate prospects and convert them into paying customers.
Our Account-Based Multi-Channel Lead Management via Voice, Email, Chat, Web, Social Media, and Webinar helps companies generate leads, set appointments, engage customers, and promote their brand to target customers.
Callbox’s multi-touch, multi-channel marketing approach is well-suited for APAC fintech companies because it provides a customized, comprehensive, and data-driven approach that leads to measurable results. Being a very diverse region, APAC’s customer base is adaptable to different marketing channels.
Take a look at the reasons why Callbox’s all-in-one lead generation package is the best fit for B2B businesses in the APAC like yours:
Customized Approach: Our team tailors our marketing approach to the specific needs of every APAC fintech company. This allows us to create a marketing campaign that will resonate with the target audience and lead to more engagement and conversions.
Multi-Channel Marketing: Callbox’s multi-channel marketing approach ensures that APAC fintech companies are reaching their target audience through various channels, such as email, social media, and telemarketing. Through this, we are sure that the company’s message is being delivered to our prospects in the way they prefer. This results in higher engagement rates.
Comprehensive Lead Nurturing: Our multi-touch, multi-channel strategy incorporates thorough lead nurturing to make sure that prospects are engaged before they are ready to convert. With this strategy, it is more likely that prospects will become paying clients.
Experienced Team: Our team of skilled marketers at Callbox specializes in B2B marketing for the fintech sector. We are mindful of the specific difficulties faced by APAC fintech companies and are proficient at developing marketing campaigns that successfully address those challenges.
Measurable Results: Data drives our multi-touch, multi-channel marketing approach. This means that results are tracked and analyzed to optimize the campaign’s effectiveness continually. This strategy guarantees that APAC fintech companies receive the best returns on their marketing investment.
Be one step ahead of your competitors! Generate high-quality, high-converting fintech leads by providing cutting-edge financial solutions such as money transfers, mobile payments, loans, cryptocurrencies, asset management, and blockchain.
Partner with Callbox and achieve your fintech business objectives with us today.
