We won’t be able to solve all your challenges in one article, but here are some market and marketing trends for 2023 that, adapted to your business, can help you make a real difference and stand out—every time.

Does embedded finance lead to embedded marketing?

One of the hottest trends for 2023 is embedded finance, where things such as payment or credit services are seamlessly integrated via API into a supplier’s app or website. This means customers can complete their transaction all without leaving the supplier's digital estate. Rideshare apps are a classic example. The likes of Uber and Bolt have embedded payment methods such as Apple Pay inside their app—reducing friction and creating a more efficient experience for customers and increased revenues for both parties.

For marketers in the financial services space, we predict that this trend towards integration and collaboration will extend to merchants and payment services reaching out to their customers together—leveraging both customer bases—to create a compelling proposition for both new and existing customers. More mature markets, such as the collaboration between phone manufacturers and network operators, point to the growth of this trend.

In fact, it’s already happening. Take BNPL provider Klarna as an example. They’re already embedded into hundreds of different merchants’ eCommerce platforms, and in their push to move into bricks-and-mortar retail have collaborated with the likes of National Record Day in the UK and Brookfield Properties in the US—promoting their brands together.

Whether your business is in the embedded payments space or not, the lesson for the future is clear. Partnerships and collaboration open up areas that sometimes one brand alone simply can’t reach—so perhaps it’s worth exploring your existing partnerships for new marketing opportunities in 2023.

Leaning into loyalty

Retaining existing customers and keeping them enthused about your brand is probably one of your top priorities—and that impetus shows no signs of going away. In fact, given how crowded the fintech market can be, and that Salesforce’s recent survey revealed that 71% of consumers have switched brands at least once in the last year—if customer loyalty isn’t your top priority, perhaps it should be. Loyal customers share their experiences with their friends, engage with your content, and help you spread it more widely. And given how much information that financial services organisations know about their customers—this can be a rich source of data to help you attract your ideal new customers.

Credit cards and banks have long offered rewards programmes—and today’s successful fintechs are no exception. The successful ones, however, know that your loyalty programme—and your loyalty marketing—need to be tuned and tailored to your audience. For example, Chase Bank launched in the UK with a simple 1% cashback on all purchases, promoted heavily at a time when most debit accounts didn’t offer any interest at all. It made a big splash for its simplicity and value.

Whether you have an existing loyalty programme or not, you can still use your existing marketing channels to focus on your current customers. Ask them questions and produce content that highlights how they can use your products (that they already have) to make their lives better.

Investing in social responsibility

Today’s consumers, especially younger markets, are increasingly turning to businesses that demonstrate their stance on ethical and social issues. HubSpot reports that 50% of Gen Zs and 40% of Millennials want companies to take a stance on social issues—from gender, race, and LGBTQIA+ concerns, to environmental and sustainability issues. Responsibility is important to these customers, which they demonstrate with their wallets and their loyalty. So, as marketers, it’s important to emphasise how your business engages with these issues. These customers demonstrate with their wallets and their loyalty that responsibility is important. So, as marketers, emphasising how your business engages with these issues is important.

But it goes beyond just changing your social icon to a rainbow during Pride month. Customers are savvier and for these markets, authenticity is key. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 80% of enterprise marketers will establish a dedicated content authenticity function to combat misinformation and fake material. If you choose to engage with these issues as a brand, it’s massively important that your response is consistent, truthful, and authentic. Consider sharing how your company hires, how they deal with under-represented groups, or the concrete steps that they take to tackle ethical issues.

An example here is the US-based digital insurer Lemonade, who openly talk about how they break down their revenue, and the percentage of their spending that goes towards good causes such as the ACLU or The Trevor Project. This approach is a fundamental part of their marketing strategy and is embedded in almost all their communications.

In the future, openness and transparency like this will be crucial, particularly for financial services marketers.

The fight for household names

In the US, Venmo has become the largest peer-to-peer money transfer solution, with millions of customers sending millions of dollars every day. Venmo is so popular that they’ve almost become the default noun for money transfers—in much the same way that Hoover became the default category noun for vacuum cleaners in the UK. In terms of transaction volume, however, Venmo doesn’t even clear the top 5 worldwide—PayPal (who own Venmo), GooglePay, and AliPay are the top providers here. So why don’t we have a P2P “brand noun” outside the US? Perhaps it’s down to marketing.

Venmo have achieved this US market dominance by providing a simple, easy-to-use product, with clever, consistent, and thought-provoking brand building—with a 32% market share for all mobile payments. The lesson here is that whether you’re a market leader, a fresh start-up or a smaller, more established player, a compelling brand-building campaign could help you win the hearts and minds of the market.

If you’d like to talk to us about how these trends could impact your marketing strategy – or anything else – why not drop us a line at info@thefoldcreative.com.