Build a better product, advertise it well, and customers would come.
For years, fintech companies believed and operated with this mindset. And, to be honest, this strategy worked for a while.
A crypto exchange could buy ads on Google, partner with influencers, offer attractive bonuses, and watch thousands of users sign up.
A payment app could spend millions on television commercials promising "faster transfers" or "zero fees." Digital banks competed with cashback offers and colourful debit cards.
But something changed along the way.
Today, almost every fintech company is publishing articles, recording podcasts, producing YouTube videos, hosting webinars, running newsletters, building online communities, and teaching financial literacy.
Some companies now have editorial teams that rival newsrooms. Others hire economists, journalists, educators, creators, and researchers instead of simply expanding their marketing departments.
At first glance, this may seem strange.
Why would a company that processes payments spend money producing a weekly podcast?
Why would a crypto exchange write hundreds of educational articles?
Why would a digital bank launch a newsletter that barely mentions its own products?
The simple answer is this:
Because fintech companies are slowly discovering that they are no longer competing only on products.
They are competing for attention, trust, education, and relationships.
And those things are won through media.
The Product Is No Longer the Differentiator
Building financial products used to be difficult.
Launching a bank required enormous infrastructure.
Building a payment processor required years of technical work.
Creating a crypto exchange demanded significant engineering expertise.
Today, things have changed.
Cloud computing, open banking, APIs, Banking-as-a-Service platforms, and ready-made payment infrastructure have lowered many of the barriers to entry.
A startup can launch a payment product much faster than it could ten years ago.
A crypto exchange can integrate existing liquidity providers instead of building everything from scratch.
Many fintech apps now offer almost identical features such as:
- Instant transfers
- Virtual cards
- Currency exchange
- Crypto trading
- Savings accounts
- Investment tools
- Bill payments
To the average customer, all these begin to look the same. They begin to sound like extended synonyms of one another. Sometimes, they even present as buzzwords.
When products become similar and the market becomes oversaturated, customers start asking different questions.
Can I trust this company?
Does it understand my financial problems?
Will it still be around in five years?
Who teaches me how to use these products safely?
These questions cannot be answered by feature lists.
They are answered through communication. And that is where education becomes vital.
In a nutshell…
Education Has Become Customer Acquisition
While traditional marketing teaches companies to simply show people their products, modern fintech marketing requires that you teach people first.
Selling financial products is different from selling shoes.
Most people already know why they need shoes.
However, many people still don't fully understand concepts like:
- Stablecoins
- Credit scores
- Investing
- Cross-border payments
- Inflation
- Digital wallets
- Crypto security
- Foreign exchange
- Yield
- Tokenisation
If people don't understand the problem, they won't understand why they need your solution.
This is why educational content has become one of the most powerful customer acquisition tools.
Now, let’s imagine two crypto exchanges.
The first runs advertisements that say:
Trade Bitcoin with low fees.
The second publishes detailed beginner guides explaining:
- What Bitcoin actually is
- How wallets work
- How to avoid scams
- How to protect private keys
- How markets move
- How to manage risk
- When not to invest
Which company is more likely to earn the confidence of a complete beginner?
Usually, the second one.
The customer may spend weeks reading those articles before creating an account.
Yet those weeks are not wasted. They become part of the sales journey.
The twenty-first-century marketing truth is that education is no longer separate from marketing. Education is marketing.
Educating one’s customers about one’s products ultimately builds trust.
To market fintech effectively, you first need to understand that…
Trust Is Built Long Before Someone Downloads the App
Finance is based on trust. And why wouldn’t it?
People are handing companies their salaries. Their savings. Their investments. Sometimes their entire financial future. That requires a lot of confidence.
A customer might try a new music app after seeing one advertisement. In finance, however, customers are far less likely to move their money after seeing just one advertisement.
Financial decisions take time. These days, before making one, people need to research, compare, ask questions, search Google, watch YouTube videos, read Reddit discussions, ask ChatGPT, subscribe to newsletters, and follow creators on X, LinkedIn, TikTok, or YouTube.
Long before downloading an app, they have already consumed hours of information.
The company that consistently appears during this learning journey always has a significant advantage.
Not because it shouted the loudest but because it showed up with useful answers.
You know what they say about the emptiest drums and the loudest noise.
Now, let’s shift the attention to newsletters.
Newsletters Keep Companies in People's Minds
One advertisement lasts a few seconds. But one newsletter can build a relationship that lasts years.
This is why newsletters have become incredibly valuable in the finance/digital economy.
Every week, readers voluntarily invite a fintech company into their inboxes, and this single act of invitation changes their relationship with that company.
Instead of interrupting someone with advertisements, the company becomes a regular source of useful information.
And, you know what? The best fintech newsletters are not the ones that do too much, but the ones that rarely feel like sales material.
They explain market movements, analyse economic trends, simplify regulation, and answer common financial questions.
Sometimes they don't mention their own product until the very end.
Ironically, that often makes the product more attractive.
Why is that?
People trust experts, not constant salespeople.
What’s more?
Communities Are Becoming Stronger Than Advertising
Look at some of the fastest-growing fintech companies today.
Many of them have thriving communities. Telegram groups. Discord servers. WhatsApp communities. Reddit forums. Private Slack groups. Facebook communities. Customer ambassadors.
These communities do something advertising never could. They allow customers to teach each other.
In communities like these, someone could easily ask a question like: "How do I send money internationally?"
And another customer will swiftly give an effective response.
Someone worries about a suspicious transaction. Another member explains what happened.
Someone new asks whether stablecoins are safe. Experienced users share their knowledge.
At the core of this exchange chain, the company is still present, but it is no longer the only voice.
Customers become educators, and that dramatically lowers support costs while increasing trust.
People often believe another customer more quickly than they believe a company.
That is why word-of-mouth marketing remains one of the most effective marketing means.
Within this media ecosystem…
Podcasts Build Authority in a Different Way
For most of the history of financial services, expertise was communicated through formal channels.
Banks released annual reports. Economists wrote research papers. Investment firms published market outlooks. Executives appeared in newspapers when there was a major announcement.
The average customer rarely had direct access to the people building financial products or analysing financial markets.
Podcasts have changed that relationship.
They created a space where companies could have longer, more thoughtful conversations with their audience. Instead of explaining a product in a 30-second advertisement or a short social media post, fintech companies can spend an hour discussing the problems their customers face, the future of money, market trends, regulation, and technology.
Podcasts allow companies to answer specific questions in a way traditional marketing cannot.
Let’s establish an instance here.
Consider the difference between seeing an advertisement that simply says: "Buy and sell crypto easily."
And listening to a 45-minute conversation where a company's CEO explains:
- Why crypto adoption is growing in emerging markets
- How the company approaches security
- What regulations mean for everyday users
- How customers can avoid common mistakes
- Where digital payments are heading
The second experience creates familiarity, doesn’t it?
This familiarity creates trust, and trust, in turn, influences decisions.
This is why many fintech companies are investing in podcasts and long-form interviews. They are not only creating content but creating a public record of their expertise.
A podcast episode becomes an opportunity to demonstrate how a company thinks.
This strategy is especially important in industries like crypto and fintech, where public confidence has been affected by market crashes, security breaches, failed platforms, and misinformation.
Podcasts also humanise brands.
A financial app can feel anonymous and our interaction with it can sometimes feel robotic. A conversation with a founder, product manager, security expert, or industry analyst, however, creates a human connection.
Customers begin to associate the company with people, ideas, and expertise rather than just a logo on an app store.
This jhas become valuable for newer fintech companies competing against traditional financial institutions with decades of reputation.
A young fintech startup may not have a century-old banking history, but it can build credibility by consistently contributing meaningful ideas to public conversations.
The companies that use podcasts effectively understand that authority is not built by repeatedly declaring expertise but by consistently demonstrating expertise.
The Rise of Fintech Influencers Also Changes Everything
Financial education used to follow a predictable path, where people trusted banks, financial advisers, newspapers, and government institutions to explain money.
Today, that structure has changed.
Millions of people now learn about finance from independent creators.
A young professional learning about investing may not start with a bank's website but might seek out the videos of a YouTube creator explaining index funds.
Someone interested in crypto may not begin with an exchange's marketing page but may discover the industry through a creator explaining blockchain, market cycles, or security practices.
Someone trying to understand inflation, currency depreciation, or personal finance may first encounter the topic through a TikTok video, X thread, podcast episode, or newsletter.
The rise of fintech influencers has changed who controls financial conversations.
Attention has moved from institutions to individuals.
This creates both an opportunity and a challenge for fintech companies.
The opportunity here is that creators already have the trust that many companies spend years trying to build.
A creator who has spent years educating an audience has developed a relationship with their followers. Their recommendations often carry more influence than traditional advertisements because they come through a familiar voice.
This explains why fintech companies are collaborating with creators more and more rather than relying only on conventional marketing campaigns.
But the bigger change is that fintech companies now need to think beyond influencer partnerships.
They need to understand why influencers work.
People do not follow financial creators simply because they provide information. They follow them because they simplify complicated topics, share experiences, answer questions, and create communities around learning.
The strongest fintech brands are adopting the same approach by creating their own educational voices.
Company executives are becoming visible online. Product managers are explaining new features. Security teams are teaching customers how to protect their accounts. Financial experts are breaking down complex market developments.
The goal in this trend is not to turn every employee into a celebrity but to make the company more accessible.
This is mainly important in emerging markets, where many people are adopting digital financial products for the first time.
For example, a first-time crypto user may not only need an app that allows them to buy USDT, but may also need someone to explain why stablecoins exist, how to avoid scams, how wallets work, and how to manage risk.
The company that provides those answers goes beyond being a service provider to becoming a trusted guide.
However, the rise of influencers also introduces new challenges.
The fintech industry has already seen the consequences of irresponsible financial promotion. Some creators have promoted risky investments without properly explaining the dangers involved. Others have prioritised sponsorship payments over accurate education.
This has increased the importance of credibility.
As stated already, the future of fintech influence will not belong solely to the loudest voices but to those that consistently provide accurate, useful, and responsible information.
Another reason fintech companies are investing in media is economics.
The Cost of Paid Advertising Keeps Rising
For many years, paid advertising was the default growth strategy for fintech companies.
Their formula was to spend money on ads, acquire users, convert users into customers, and repeat.
This worked when digital advertising platforms were cheaper, and competition was lower.
But fintech has become one of the most competitive categories in digital marketing.
Banks, payment companies, investment platforms, crypto exchanges, and financial apps are all competing for the same audiences across Google, Meta, TikTok, and other advertising channels.
As more companies compete for attention, advertising becomes more expensive.
A fintech company is not only competing against another fintech company for an advertisement placement but is also competing against every company trying to reach the same customer.
The cost of acquiring a customer has become a major concern across the industry.
A company may spend significant money convincing someone to download an app, only to discover that the person never completes verification, never deposits funds, or never becomes an active user.
So, the problem is not just attracting attention but attracting the right attention.
This is where content becomes valuable.
A person who discovers a fintech company through an educational article, podcast, newsletter, or community discussion often arrives with more understanding and stronger intent.
They are not completely unfamiliar with the company. They already know what problem it solves, understand the product, and have some level of trust. This can reduce the amount of persuasion required before conversion.
Content also has a longer lifespan than advertising.
An advertisement disappears when the campaign ends. A useful article, on the other hand, can continue bringing traffic months or years after publication.
A well-produced podcast episode can continue attracting listeners, while a detailed guide on crypto security can continue helping new users long after it was created.
Can you spot the important difference here?
Advertising rents attention, while content builds an asset.
That does not mean paid advertising is becoming irrelevant.
Successful fintech companies still use advertising to reach new audiences quickly, promote launches, and support major campaigns.
The shift is that advertising is becoming only one part of the growth strategy.
Companies are recognising that the strongest customer relationships are not built through repeated promotion but through repeated value.
In the end…
The Smartest Companies Don't Separate Marketing and Education
One of the biggest mistakes fintech companies make is treating education as an optional marketing activity.
They create educational content only when launching a product and publish guides only because competitors are doing the same.
They see learning resources as a way to fill a blog calendar rather than as a core business strategy.
The smartest companies take a different approach.
They understand that education is part of the customer journey.
A person does not wake up one morning and decide to use a financial product without questions.
A potential customer moves through several stages.
First, they recognise a problem. Then they search for information. They compare options, look for explanations, and evaluate whether a company appears trustworthy.
Education supports every stage of that process.
A good educational article attracts someone who is searching for answers. A newsletter keeps them engaged. A community helps them solve problems. A podcast builds familiarity. A product guide helps them take action.
Each piece of content moves the customer closer to adoption.
The companies that understand this know how to leverage it to help people understand why their product matters.
The product becomes part of a larger educational ecosystem.
This approach also creates stronger customer loyalty.
When customers feel that a company has helped them make better financial decisions, they are more likely to remain connected to that company.
They are not just users at this point. They become members of an ecosystem.
That is ultimately why fintech companies are becoming media companies.
The goal is not simply to produce more content but to build relationships before transactions happen.
Because in financial services, the companies that win are not always the ones that convince people to buy.
They are the ones that help people understand.
But There Is a Catch
Not all fintech content is good.
Some companies produce content simply because everyone else is doing it.
They publish generic articles written for search engines instead of people. They recycle the same topics, and readers notice all this.
Educational content only works when it genuinely teaches something useful.
People can immediately tell the difference between education that exists to help them and education that exists purely to attract clicks.
So, the goal is not necessarily publishing the most content but producing the most helpful content.