Propeller’s panel on ‘The Importance of Marketing Fintech’ at Fintech Week 2015 provided useful insights for an audience keen to learn how best to begin a dialogue with potential investors via marketing and PR.

The panel included head of PR at Zopa Mat Gazeley, Capgemini global marketing manager Rosine Suire and CEO of Entrepreneurial Finance Hub (EFH) Richard Blakesley and was chaired by digital innovation strategist Julio Romo (pictured L‑R).

Fintech players have to market themselves to two audiences – potential investors/buyers and the end user audience. The panel gave advice for both targets:

• Building trust is key for success – adopting a “friendly and different style” and tone of voice from that used by established financial services, rather than “going really loud down the advertising route” worked for Zopa, said Gazeley.

• Marketing emails to a B2B audience should contain “one simple message” and not contain too much content or too many calls to action, advised Suire.

• Messages for the end user/consumer should focus on how the technology can help in realising their life goals and tie in to popular topics. Zopa did not talk about peer-to-peer or criticise banks in its messages but gathered customer stories for positive PR, for example one campaign tied into the ‘bank of mum and dad’ narrative.

• Pitch presentations need to be put together with a focus on what potential funders consider important. Presentations often suffer from a “lack of clarity” on the commercial application of the IP. “When pitching you have to get straight to the heart of the message and explain the user proposition and the business prospects”, said Blakesley. Trim the slide deck and use visuals.

• Don’t beat yourself up for a lack of PR skills – start-ups should focus on developing technology and should not be expected to be experts in other areas like PR, HR and sourcing finance.