10 Best Pre-Launch FinTech Marketing Campaign Examples

Ever since e-commerce went mainstream, it has become apparent that the internet could develop credible channels to transfer and manage funds online. Two decades into the 21st century, we are undergoing a financial tech revolution.

What many perceived as a buzzword in the startup world—Fintech is progressively reshaping the way our financial ecosystem works. Though the Covid pandemic was the major catalyst in maximizing growth, fintech startups have challenged the status quo of conventional banking, and rightly so.

As the industry grows, the fintech marketing sector follows suit. Startups have conducted marketing campaigns to integrate financial literacy into the general public - while striding through strict industry regulations.

Need inspiration for your upcoming startup campaign? We’ve shared the 10 most compelling fintech marketing campaign examples that help you stay on top of trends in the future.

FinTech Startup Market: What it Holds for the Future

The fintech industry constantly evolves with consumer behavior and their rising demand for fintech channels over conventional banking institutions. People seek safer and quicker ways to carry out transactions, pay utility bills, manage their finances, and build investment portfolios through tech solutions.

With platforms like Venmo and PayPal becoming part of the mainstream finance sectors, fintech is in-line with brighter prospects in the future. Many accredit the Covid pandemic as the underlying cause for the widespread acceptance of fintech services.

The global fintech adoption, which stood at 16% in 2015, rose to 64% by the end of 2020. The hike in Fintech popularity worldwide brought in scores of venture capitalists and investment firms ready to leap into the sector.

By 2021, investors injected a staggering $239 billion into the fintech industry involving payment services, online trading platforms, cybersecurity, and insurtech. Meanwhile, blockchain and cryptocurrency markets are picking up pace as well. Given the current ecosystem, the Fintech startup market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20% over the next four years.

Why is Pre-Launch Campaign Important for a FinTech Startup?

Almost every major brand releases an opener before introducing its newest launch. Openers set the stage, create anticipation, and get the audience ready for the upcoming release.

Pre-launch campaigns benefit fintech startups the same way - except they build the hype before the digital footprints exist. A good idea isn’t enough to establish a startup, let alone expand it to an enterprise. As an entrepreneur, you need a practical and creative marketing approach to back it.

While the industry is flourishing, with new startups launching every year, the chances of business failure have multiplied - perhaps, due to ineffective pre-launch strategy. A proper marketing campaign checklist helps your product launch in two primary ways:

Facilitates User Acquisition

Fintech marketing isn’t all about technology and finance; it’s about making people realize how a certain innovation will help streamline their day-to-day business dealings.

Initiating the marketing campaign before launch allows marketers to tell their story, create brand awareness, build a healthy rapport with the audience, and generate leads. People are more likely to sign up for a startup that reinforces their existing beliefs and proposes viable solutions to their needs.

Achieve Product Market Fit

Your business idea, or product design could be groundbreaking in the field, but to ensure that it truly addresses the needs of its target audience demands creditable testimonials. As an upcoming startup, you need sincere opinions from your subscribers to deem your product market fit. It’s a two-step process:

• Enroll people onto your subscriber list and segment credible users who are willing to gauge your product.
• Record their experiences with your product, acknowledge the feedback, and optimize your product to make it user-friendly.

10 Successful Fintech Marketing Campaign Examples

No marketing technique is born out of scratch; rather, it’s imitated or inspired by strategies conducted before it. Learning from others’ successes keeps you from committing unnecessary mistakes.

As the saying goes, “nothing is original; steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.” Besides, you can’t divulge your creativity and genius in devising a marketing plan when you need to manage many other tasks as an entrepreneur.

Here are 10 best fintech marketing campaign examples that might serve as an inspiration to jumpstart your creativity.

Klarna

Founded in 2005 on the backs of three young entrepreneurs, Klarna was meant to be the Swedish version of PayPal - but with a slight twist. The startup presented itself as a “buy now, pay later” franchise, making online transactions fast and simple fast for shoppers and merchants alike.

Even though the idea didn’t click well with their initially plausible jury of investors, Klarna launched in the Scandinavian states with a single angel investor on board. The startup allowed buyers to divide their payments into four interest-free installments. It partnered with multinational retailers like Sephora and H&M, making payments ‘smooother’ in B2B and B2C spaces.

While the idea was charming in itself, Klarna became a global hit thanks to its impressive marketing campaign. Many might consider it outdated; employing celebrities and influencers for their commercial ads worked well for the company. Not only could they amass a larger audience, but the BNPL enterprise built massive hype, especially with their 2021 super bowl ad.

Robinhood

Even though the referral marketing campaign isn’t original to Robinhood, it’s probably the first startup to crack the strategy for stellar results. Robinhood made its way into the fintech industry as a commission-free stock trading platform that enabled average wage earners access to the stock market.

The startup founders, Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, presented themselves as unconventional, cause-driven startup ready to take on the Wall Street elites. While the business concept was convincing enough, Robinhood’s referral waitlist strategy carried on the hype.

The company registered a million signups onto its database a year before its application even launched, with no marketing costs. The idea was so eloquently displayed that it compelled users to spread the word to their friends and family and, in turn, move up the waiting list for early access.

Here are the three compelling tactics Robinhood used to break into its audience’s psychology.

• Simplicity - Tenev and Bhat designed a straightforward landing page that could easily communicate what the audience desired to know. The signup process was smooth and simple, which improved their waitlists.
• Gamification - Enticing people to stride forward in the waiting list by sending a couple of referral links built their interest and desire to win.
• FOMO - With scores of people joining the waitlists to get priority access to the application, many followed their lead in fear of missing out on something important.

WealthSimple

What makes taxes and investments confusing and problematic for laypeople is not knowing when and where to invest while keeping the tax sheet clear. Wealthsimple aims to solve just the misery, making investments hassle-free for a globally diversified portfolio and optimizing tax bills.

While the company was originally founded as an online investment management service, WealthSimple launched multiple subsidiaries under its wing as its popularity and market share multiplied. The enterprise hooks its audience by marketing relatable content, revealing personal stories and how WealthSimple helped them manage their relationship with money. As their slogan says,

“Money is weird! And we can help you with that.”

In 2018, the company introduced Canada’s first zero-commission stock trading platform supporting cryptocurrencies, WealthSimple Trade. WealthSimple Cash - peer-to-peer cash transferring application - was launched soon after in 2020.

WealthSimple trade received 130,000 user signups during the pre-launch phase, 7000 of which provided feedback on the app’s beta version. Unlike its traditional and most-preferred marketing route, WealthSimple adopted effective marketing practices hoping to generate valuable leads before the app’s launch - and it worked perfectly

Coinbase

DeFi or decentralized finance platforms, are probably the most popular genre in fintech startups. With the cryptocurrency market capitalization breaking the $3 trillion mark, crypto will continue to rule the fintech space in 2023. While many digital currency exchange startups have recently popped up, none have successfully earned the public’s credibility, like Coinbase.

Founded by Briana Armstrong and Fred Ehsram, Coinbase is the most in-demand crypto wallet and exchange platform for Americans and the first cryptocurrency company to join the exclusive club of Fortune 500.

Coinbase’s effective regulatory compliance, foolproof security fabric, and ease of use have helped with user acquisition, the brand has built its name through strategic marketing campaigns.

Even as a young startup, Coinbased believed in community-led growth. It leveraged early adopters to attract more leads by proposing referrals and incentives. The brand has marketed itself as a mission-focused crypto enterprise, serving as a haven for crypto-asset exchange.

Current

Even though fintech companies are meant to disrupt the conventional banking sector, not all of them market themselves as the public’s savior vowing to take on the traditional giants - except Current.

The NYC-based digital bank provides debit card, and savings account services to the underprivileged - adults and teens who banking institutions otherwise neglect. The company currently harbors 500,000 users on its database, offering free cashback, overdrafts, money transfers, and zero minimum balance requirements.

Current originally advertised itself with the tagline, “What do you think we are, a Bank?” The neobank pointed several witty remarks toward traditional banking, saying, “Banks: we’re here for you.” Another campaign ad read, “You owe us money for running out of money.” Such tactics enabled the startup to gather visibility and educate its audience for a more seamless marketing channel.

In order to captivate their target ‘Gen Z’ audience, Current partnered with the world-famous YouTuber Mr. beast. The company also sponsored the hyped boxing fight between Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather.

Monzo

Part of the reason why Fintech startups have been incredibly successful with the audience and captured massive leads is their impeccable pre-launch strategies. Monzo is surely one of the top fintech success stories that gathered 5 million users on its platform, much of which were acquired before launch.

Inspired by Harry’s success, the neobanking platform took on a similar approach by launching a referral waitlist campaign - with slight gamification. Once users signed up for Monzo, they were allowed to see their spot on the waiting list, counting the number of people ahead of them.

The developers ingeniously integrated a referral button that said, “Bump me up in the queue.” Knowing one’s spot on the waitlist and a shortcut to improve their ranking developed a sense of urgency in the users, compelling them to promote the platform to their network. The tactic helped Monzo gather 200,000 crucial leads while the mobile app was still in the development phase.

goHenry

Besides revolutionizing the traditional banking channels, fintech is seeping into the domestic ecosystem, transforming the way kids receive and spend their pocket money. goHenry is a prepaid credit card service for kids and teenagers, allowing parents to pay pocket money and teach their kids good money habits.

Soon after its launch in 2016, the fintech startup for under 18s raised a record £4 million through a crowdfunding campaign. Even though goHenry had the first-mover advantage and crowdfunding went incredibly well, marketing and growing the platform to more subsequent leads was still a challenge for the founders.

Instead of developing their marketing campaign in-house, goHenry developers signed up with a professional agency to boost their digital marketing. Given their audience was mostly smartphone users, the team pursued a mobile-led approach to marketing which pumped goHenry’s market share by 470%.

Here are a few strategies they implemented:

• The marketing team designed an extended landing page that addressed all possible objections their target audience could have.
• Instead of laying out information as a case study or blog, the team used powerful visuals to tell their story.
• By maintaining transparency and getting trusted financial institutions on board, the startup built trust and credibility with its audience.
• Leveraging social media platforms to execute their marketing campaigns ensured a 78% increase in user signups.

Revolut

In the ever-competitive fintech industry, earning a credible spot as a young startup isn’t everyone’s thing. However, one such company has taken the financial world by storm. Revolut - a digital-only banking app - is crowned as the UK’s most valuable startup harboring a $33 billion valuation. In fact, the neobank might be wealthier than many conventional European banks.

While it launched in the same period as Monzo, Revolut currently accommodates 15 million users and is only set for growth. What brought the fintech startup massive following is its ingenious marketing strategy. The marketing team employed the most reliable and organically driven promotion tactic - word-of-mouth referrals.

Unlike most other SaaS startups, Revolut has designed varying landing pages according to the promotional message in the advertisement. Any queries about the business land users on the business account page, addressing leads first and foremost.

CashApp

When ranking successful pre-launch fintech startup marketing campaigns, CashApp is often overlooked being a subsidiary of Square Block. Even though CashApp is not a standalone company, its impressive business tactics, which attracted 80 million users and ranked it the #1 finance app on App Store, are definitely worth a case study.

CashApp launched in 2013, exactly four years after the P2P money transfer giant Venmo, which had already captured the major cities across the US. To counter the Goliath in the market, the young startup had to bring something unique to the table - and they did just that.

CashApp knew Venmo’s dominance from the start, so it leveraged one thing its rival had missed out on - building social connections. The developers approached it as a social brand rather than a digital wallet and originally introduced it in place Venmo had little or no presence.

While the app gradually picked up in different communities, Square Block tapped in, turning it into a cultural phenomenon. They collaborated with celebrities like Travis Scott, Lil Nax, and Cardi B, bringing in the virality effect, and the rest is history.

Starling Bank

Who knew that a digitally-native mobile bank could challenge the hegemony of conventional banking institutions, winning Best British Bank for four years running? Anne Boden, the startup’s founder, secured a £48 million investment round before Starling was even acknowledged as a bank.

While being the best British bank and current account provider were feathers in the cap, their creative digital marketing campaigns kept them in touch with the audience.

Upon reviewing an image gallery for finance-related photos, the marketing team noticed a difference in how men and women were depicted in each launch campaign. To narrow down the disparity, they collaborated with Lensi Photography to create 100 photographs that presented both genders equally.

In 2019, Starling Bank appeared across the nation’s screens in their debut TV commercial, commemorating their upcoming launch of a euro business account and debit card. The company also sponsored sporting events during the same year, stretching its boundaries with new marketing platforms.

Summing Up

Building a unique SaaS product? Leverage the proper marketing channels and get the first-mover advantage. Entering an already crowded fintech market space? Devise a clever and out-of-the-box pre-launch marketing strategy that helps you get noticed.

No matter how complex or revolutionary your fintech idea is, you need a practical marketing campaign to transform it into a brand. Besides the successful launch stores we’ve brought before you, inspiration is just a review away.

In case it all seems too complicated to deal with alongside other launch tasks, get Prefinery.com on board and have your pre-launch marketing campaign taken care of.

FAQs

What are the most popular fintech startup ideas?

The current fintech industry is booming, with scores of new startup ideas entering the field. However, only a few are in high demand, such as; neo-banking (digital-only bank), peer-to-peer digital payment systems, DeFi (decentralized finance or blockchain), and digital lending.

How do I market my fintech startup?

Start by creating a mobile-friendly website and landing page to acquire leads. Educate your target audience through content marketing, and run promotional campaigns on social media to attract customers. Use gamification techniques, like a referral waitlist strategy, to spread the word about your new startup. Or you can hire Prefinery.com and save yourself from all the trouble.