By Michelle Lomas, Marketing Consultant & Founder, Chipkie
As a marketing strategist with over two decades of experience working with brands and tech startups, I’ve seen a lot of common marketing mistakes made by even the most enthusiastic and innovative tech founders. Generally, when a tech founder comes to me, they know they need help. They usually have been operating for a few years and have scaled nicely but have recently stagnated in growth. And I can tell you, in almost all cases, there has been one or a combination of the reasons below that have been holding their business back.
The good news is that these mistakes can be avoided with some extra thought and the right marketing approach. By understanding these pitfalls and implementing the following solutions, you can ensure your marketing strategy is on the right track to connect with your target audience, influence their decisions, and help you scale your business faster.
Using Too Much Technical Jargon
Tech founders are naturally proud of the inner workings of their product or service. They feel passionate about what makes their technology so much better than their competitors, and as a result, flood their website copy and content feeds with heavily tech-based communication to prove the superiority of their product.
But did you know that your decision-makers and influencers aren’t always tech-savvy? When I worked for Microsoft, we explored the customer journey for tech adoption and discovered that there may be up to 12 decision-makers and influencers in any one organisation. And guess what? Only a handful of them were actual tech experts.
Those technical terms and acronyms that you may feel add credibility to your product, could be flying over the heads of potential customers who are unfamiliar with your industry, and ultimately making it feel all too complicated. While showcasing your expertise is important, avoid bogging down your marketing materials with technical jargon.
- Speak plainly to your target audience. Imagine you’re explaining your product or service to a friend who doesn’t have a background in tech. Use clear, concise language that they can understand.
- Focus on the benefits, not the features. Don’t get caught up in explaining how your product works under the hood. Instead, focus on the benefits your product or service provides to customers. How will it make their lives easier, save them money, or improve their financial security?
- Find a place for the technical conversation outside of your core message. Create a ‘How It Works’ section on your site for those who want to learn more about your product. Provide downloadable fact sheets and consider webinars for the more tech-savvy to discuss your product in more detail. There are plenty of ways to get technical without it overcoming your communication.
Not Creating Regular Thought Leadership Content
Thought leadership content is a powerful way to establish your startup as an authority in the industry. It demonstrates your expertise and positions you as a trusted resource for potential customers.
More importantly, thought leadership is a powerful traffic driver to your site to capture prospective new customers in the consideration stage of their purchase journey. An intelligent thought leadership content strategy taps into terms called ‘mid-funnel’, essentially the search terms that people input to research products. For instance, if someone is looking for a lawnmower, they rarely start with a brand name. They might search for ‘most compact and reliable lawnmowers’ or ‘lawnmowers for large lawns’. By creating helpful content around this term and optimising your content to feature these terms, you can drive new prospective customers who are higher up the funnel and may not be aware of you…yet.
- Develop a content strategy, and consistently publish high-quality content. This could include blog posts, articles, white papers, infographics, or even videos. Your content should address the challenges and pain points of your target audience based on researched SEO terms, and offer valuable insights and solutions. And make sure they live on your site so you are generating that all important traffic.
- Become a source for industry news and commentary. Share your insights on current events and trends in the fintech space. Offer guest posts on relevant blogs and websites or participate in industry conferences and webinars. And make sure with every inclusion that you have a credible link back to your site. It will help with your link-building strategy and build credibility on your site.
Ignoring the Importance of Website & Brand Design
We all know the expression ‘never judge a book by its cover’, but unfortunately, when it comes to your website and social accounts, people do. Trust in new technology, especially those that require our data, is at an all-time low. Your company website often gives potential customers the first impression of your product or service. If it is outdated, poorly designed, lacks brand identity, or is difficult to navigate, visitors will run.
When I have a new client struggling to scale, the site is always the first place I go. And I can’t tell you how often it’s immediately apparent that the site is letting them down: cookie-cutter WordPress templates that every other competitor is using, too much text and not enough big headlines, use of stock imagery (or no imagery at all!), typos, and unclear communication. Most importantly, these sites lack brand differentiation, making them utterly forgettable to the average prospective customer.
When building my own fintech start-up Chipkie, it was extremely important to me that the site had strong brand differentiation. As a site that supports and encourages friend and family money lending, I needed it to feel safe and supportive. I knew from my research that people liked lending money because of the help it gave their loved ones, but they were also incredibly nervous about it due to the perceived risks. I built a brand and site that has warmth, positivity and actively demonstrates all the benefits to the relationship when you lend money to the people that you love. And most importantly, I built a colourful and happy brand that looks nothing like a bank or lending site – differentiating us from alternative options.
- Research what your competitors are doing, and do the opposite: If your brand looks the same as everyone else, how will people remember you? Work to build a visual identity that helps you stand out, not blend in. And consider what you want people to feel when they see your brand and incorporate that into your brand tone and personality.
- Invest in a professional website design that is visually appealing and easy to use. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and optimised for search engines. Your website content should be clear, concise, and informative. Incorporate UX strategy principles such as multiple strong calls to action that tell visitors what you want them to do next and make the website easily navigable with expected UX flow.
Not Optimising Your Site Content For SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is essential for driving organic traffic to your website. And best of all, it’s free! You can spend thousands of dollars each month on paid search terms (PPC), or you can build a strong strategic foundation for SEO so that you can, in time, lower your paid media investment while your SEO works harder for you.
I worked with a client who spent 10 years doing just that. They built a raft of content for their blog, and constantly tweaked their website to optimise to trending search terms. Over the course of 10 years, their SEO strategy had become the biggest attributor to sales out of any channel. As a result, they could focus less on paid media and more on product development to evolve their product offering and trial new innovative marketing tactics like podcasts and events.
What I often get asked, though, is why I need to use search keywords. Well, the answer is simple: How do you research new products? Most likely, Google is either the first place or one of the more trusted places that you look, right? So why would your customer be any different? If you’re not using the keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for, you won’t appear in the search results, and they won’t be able to find you.
- Conduct keyword research to identify the terms your target audience is using to search for fintech products or services. Once you’ve identified these keywords, integrate them naturally into your website content, blog posts, and other marketing materials. There are many free and paid SEO tools available to help you with keyword research.
By avoiding these common marketing mistakes and implementing the solutions outlined above, you can ensure your fintech startup is well on its way to marketing success. Remember, content is king in today’s digital marketing landscape. By creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that resonates with your target audience, you can build trust, establish your brand as a thought leader, and ultimately drive sales and growth for your fintech startup.
