We are delighted to have another guest blog on Fintech Ireland.  This guest blog is courtesy of Shannon Eastman (linkedin / twitter ) of Teach A Brand To Fish (​[email protected]) ​

No wonder #FinTechMarketing has nearly 80% of business owners shaking their head in dismay, and less than 20% pouring a Red Breast to celebrate a successful campaign.

All of us are on board with be better and do better, but, when it comes to the mystery of marketing, where does one (with zero time, people and cashflow) even begin?

As we get stuck into the 3 ways #FinTechs are missing out with marketing, there is a random one that I’ve seen only a couple times in the last 5 years, but is by far one of the most dangerous and costly.

It is this; to bring in a marketing resource, and then Wash. Your. Hands. Of. It.
Business Owners of the world, who shudder at the thought of touching marketing, let alone, getting up close and personal with it; this is not cool, or responsible, or smart. 

Right, 3 ways FinTechs are missing the mark, with marketing.

1. Commercially grown-up marketing, or bust!
If you are not anchoring your #FinTech marketing efforts, firmly inside commercial targets 12-mths out, you’re hamstringing yourself before you rock up to the starting line. FACT.

A grown-up Marketer will insist on knowing your incremental revenue targets 12-months out. Here’s why.; Your 12-month, incremental revenue target tells me almost 60% of your marketing strategy.

Let’s use an example to illustrate the point. FinTech_A has a revenue target of €600k over the next 12months. In this example, that means April 18 through to March 19.

Marketing insight one: your marketing budget. 

Your marketing budget for the year is €60k spread across the year.

Consider that, 10% of your total revenue, amortised over 12-months is your required marketing budget. That means, if you want >€5m in incremental revenue over 12-months, and you would struggle to find 25k to invest in marketing in that year, then chances are, you’re living more in a fantasy, and less in reality. Although, nothing that a wee bit of clarity can’t resolve.

Marketing insight two: size of your marketing effort this year.
The average transactional value of a client over 1 year is needed. In this example, let’s say that value is €100k.

There is a Buy:Ratio – 1:20. It states that for every 20, perfect-for-you-clients that you get in front of - 1 will buy you. (Where did that come from? Us, doing this for 100 years. Turns out when you focus on fixing one problem over 100 years, you get to see a few patterns yourself.)

So in our example, a €600k target, means a €60k marketing budget to locate 6 clients who each buy a €100k widget.
 
The size of our marketing plan is then 1:20 or 6: 120. That means, we want to put you in front of 120 perfect for you clients in order to get 6 to buy you. Of course, this is calculated for a 12-months period.

If we break it down further, (keeping numbers whole), we find that we want marketing to be a freaking wizard at doing the following:

• 40 prospects per quarter
• 14 prospects per month
• 4 prospects per week
• 1 prospect per day

How do I know this? I’ve been doing this for 100 years. I’m specialised in working with business owners, who have a marketing dept. of one – and doing this for so long, means you get to spot the odd pattern or two.

If you’re curious to know how we would invest your marketing budget over 12-months, we have a free-90-minute, bespoke-to-you, marketing workshop for that. Details here. 

Continue reading Shannon's wonderful insights at ​https://www.teachabrandtofish.com/single-post/2018/04/24/3-ways-FinTechs-are-missing-the-mark-with-marketing

• Central Bank announces new Innovation Hub to engage directly with firms interested in FinTech and its implications for regulation
• Industry Engagement Programme will see regular FinTech Roundtables being hosted by the Central Bank for interested parties, starting later in 2018 
• New resources will give firms a way to engage with the Central Bank outside of more formal regulatory interactions

In a speech at UCC’s Financial Services Innovation Centre this morning, Derville Rowland, Director General, Financial Conduct, announced that the Central Bank will launch an Innovation Hub and an industry engagement programme to keep step with the evolving FinTech and regulatory landscapes.

In her speech, she said: “Engagement with the people developing new technologies gives us first-hand knowledge of the innovations they are developing. In turn, this enhances our understanding of any potential risks and, importantly, potential mitigants.  Of course, we also need to listen to existing firms that are becoming increasingly innovative and technology-based.”

She added that the unit will focus on engagement, sharing and listening, and will be a two-way street, underpinned by an Industry Engagement Programme: “Our industry engagement programme is founded on the idea that good outcomes are driven by active engagement.”
Both new and existing firms will be able to engage directly with the Central Bank through new specific contact points. Derville Rowland said: “This will start a conversation. It will give firms a way to engage with us outside of more formal regulatory interactions.  In so doing, the Central Bank will be able to learn from the firms about their ideas, the technologies they are developing, and have a view to where financial services are heading.” 

Firms will be able to contact the Central Bank at [email protected] with questions.
 
“The centrepiece of our new industry engagement programme will be FinTech Roundtables hosted by the Central Bank starting later in 2018.  The Roundtables will bring together relevant stakeholders to discuss issues relevant to FinTech and innovation. They will be a forum for conversation where we can all learn from each other and share issues and ideas. Given the pace of change in the FinTech space, we understand the importance of holding these Roundtables regularly.”
​
Concluding, she said: “Industry engagement does not end with inviting stakeholders into our offices at North Wall Quay.  We will be pro-active in seeking out engagement, and not simply waiting for it to come to us.  We will be out at events and meeting with innovators.  Importantly, we want to be, and will be, accessible.”

Here you will find our most recent graphic based on the Fintech Ireland Map.  For a PDF version of the above, click here. Thanks to Dave Anderson for all his efforts here.  It makes my work much easier doing further deep dives and promoting Irish Fintech locally and overseas.

Survey/Census: An important part of our continuing work to map the fintech ecosystem in Ireland is our recently launched Survey/Census.  To complete the Survey/Census, click here.  If you are on the Map, please help us understand more about your business model.  If you are Irish Fintech, but not yet on the Map, completing the Survey/Census is the easiest way for us to advance additions to the Map.

To hear more news about the work of Fintech Ireland and upcoming events, join our mailing list.

[NB: there is a 5 second pause at the start of the video which we cannot fix.]

This is the full interview of new CEO, Benny Higgins of Kyckr - Irish born, Australian listed - regtech firm.  

Prior to joining as Chairman of Kyckr, Benny Higgins was the CEO of Tesco Bank.

It is great to see a former Bank CEO take up the Chairmanship of a regtech company.  

In a wide ranging interview Benny discusses Kyckr's regtech business model and value proposition, how it sources data from primary sources and its process of refreshing the data, executing a supermarket values business model into a financial services banking business, the move of tech companies into financial services, recent international data privacy issues, regulators paying increasing attention to prudential and conduct of business regulations and more. 

I quite like his comment at around 8m 10secs when Benny, discussing that you need to earn trust and that it is not bestowed on you, says "You can't talk your way out of issues or problems, you can only behave your way out". Other comments in the interview which are interesting are -

• "If an organisation wants to treat customers better than they are being treated, there is an opportunity to do so". 
• "I sometimes hear bankers talk about 'well our customer satisfaction is good or our customer complaints are low' - these are no refuge if your conduct isn't right".   

Those quotes will go into the training repertoire for boards of directors!

​Note: Peter Oakes, founder of Fintech Ireland, is on the advisory committee of Kyckr. He has purchased shares in Kyckr at arms length at market price on the ASX. [disclosure and all that!]

Thanks to Scott Heyes, banker and fintech enthusiast in Australia, for letting us know of the video.