Fintech on Benzinga: Knowing What's Next Means Leveraging What's Now

The Internet credits Thomas Mann with saying “Everything is politics.”  Makes sense to me, but funny how distorted the word politics has become.  Instead of navigating human affairs, politics now engenders thoughts of division, tension and conflict.  So, let’s update this quote for 2022.  

“Everything is content.”

It’s cliché and borderline annoying but that does not make it untrue.  Web 2.0 created the expectation and user experience that should inspire not diminish our fintech product development.  Everything should be catchy, engaging, valuable and pique a viewer’s interest.  The Internet is dominated by media companies like Disney, Comcast/NBC Universal, Amazon, social media companies like Meta and productivity tools turned engagement engines like Google and Microsoft.  

The web is the access point to the majority of time, attention and money spent by the average consumer, the Internet is content.  If the Internet is content, then everything is content.

Fintech is the content business.  

Increasingly, the line is blurring between consumer apps like Amazon AMZN, Instagram and Facebook FB and big banks (think Chase, Citi, Bank of America) or investment accounts (Robinhood, Schwab).  This is not a threat to incumbents who can afford to be fast followers (think, acquirers) but cannot deny the trends that are reshaping consumer transactions and, therefore, financial services. For instance, we can now buy (and even finance) purchases while remaining on Instagram.  Marine Layer sweaters and Hoplark HopTea is one thing but what’s next is new and innovative products to speak to specific audiences – the Bilt credit card for renters, Greenwood Bank focused on serving black and Latino customers, and Fruitful for a new type of consumer banking.  

The blurring is actually less about Amazon, Instagram and Facebook getting into fintech and more about consumers expecting financial products and services to come to us.  As Fruitful is quick to point out, fintech banks were quick to lose the branch buildings but resistant to overhauling traditional banking.  Fintech companies – including mortgage, consumer lenders, etc. – should not fear FAANG (which I suppose is now MAANG) getting into financial services.  Fintech companies should be thinking about how to treat our core products and services like tech products, media and content.

Here are the elements of content that should infuse Fintech platforms:

Natural.  Also referred to as native.  

The design and features need to look and feel like they were meant for mobile and, more importantly, meant for you.  After all, you are a consumer too.  We should be creating what we want.  

Simon Sinek wrote recently on LinkedIn: 

“100% of employees are people. 100% of customers are people. 100% of investors are people. If you don't understand people, you don't understand business.”

Thinking about it this way helps remove the subtle or even subliminal line that can form within design-thinking sessions or during product research where suddenly your team is imagining a hypothetical consumer rather than building what we would all use.

Within our product development, any meaningful experience we create must be smooth and natural inside the consumer’s life.  One of the things about cryptocurrency that captured consumer attention was accessibility.  Mobile access is critical for a natural, every day experience. Treating fintech like content will keep consumers comfortable and, ultimately, confident in the platform. 

Engaging. 

The best content on the best platforms holds your attention.  More than that, it holds your time. Fintech innovators need not obsess over time on the platform but rather the depth of the engagement.  The goal is not time, the way it might be for a social media company, but it should be connection with the material. Engaging content is memorable and often shared.  In much the same way, fintech platforms need to deliver regular insights and tools.  

Charlie Munger once said, “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”

Few traditional financial services are finding ways to translate products and services into the language of web 2.0 not to mention web3.  Overthinking digital and overanalyzing risks are two ways that traditional companies stumble with engaging new consumers on digital platofrms. Treating fintech like content will keep customers interested, informed and, ultimately, loyal.

Relevant.  

One of the things that makes online content such a big part of the Internet is that it matters to people.  You can agree or disagree whether it should matter as much as it does, but the point is the content feels relevant to most people.  Engaging does not always mean relevant.  Fintechs must focus on relevance independent from interesting.  

Andy Grove wrote a book capturing the idea that “only the paranoid survive” because businesses fail when customers leave but also when the business leaves its customers.  Relevance to current and new customers is not just about purpose in their life today but the ability to capture, translate and deliver value & trends into the future.  Treating fintech like content will keep people informed and, ultimately, more valuable customers. 

Note on crypto: Crypto is a new way to not just store value but understand value. Much of what has succeeded about crypto is the content and the community.  Fintech is not ready for web3 but can quickly capitalize on the themes and trends to help consumers access more flexibility, more yield and fewer costs. 

Timely.  

Content is on-demand.  Whether as a feed or post, content is happening and updating in real time.   Financial services has delivered an app-experience that provides real time account balances, account transfers and a few other reactive features.  It’s good but not great and no longer “timely” the way content and web3 is constantly moving.

This is the part of any innovation argument where I start to lose the process people.  You know who you are.  You are thinking:

“Wait, wait, wait, just a minute, financial services is more important and meaningful than some Instagram post.  Just because Instagram, Amazon and TikTok are constantly streaming does not mean it’s automatically the right thing to do.”

That’s right.  The idea is not to copy social media. Quite the contrary, the idea is to determine what the core elements are of what’s effective and incorporate those as a way to improve our innovation. 

Timely for fintech means two things -  contextual and proactive. 

The curation of information and activity will be key going forward.  Activity in accounts, particularly the account where direct deposit is linked unlocks insight that can help create healthier products and services.  

The insights gained from the activity combined with outreach ensuring customers know how to use the information is a powerful next step for fintech. Treating fintech like content will ensure we deliver a persoanlized experience based on each customer's actual needs and opportunities and, ultimately, deliver innovative value.

Instead of assuming social media, or Internet companies overall, are either irrelevant or a threat, fintech can take the fundamental elements that keep us coming back to the web and deliver a whole new consumer experience.  Not only that, it’s the ideal bridge to web3 that is preparing to transform expectations again.  Fintech that is human and meaningful can also be fast, digital, and compelling.  Building for digital and anticipating web3, fintech that is engaging, relevant and timely will win the next phase of consumer relationships.