Metia Group has launched a data-driven report identifying the unique challenges, attitudes and behaviours that define the buying mindset of senior bank decision-makers. The new report analyses the B2B financial technology buy-cycle, identifying five critical B2B marketing strategies for fintech firms.

The data, sourced by GWI Work 2021/22, includes almost 60,000 interviews with business professionals aged 18–64 who defined themselves as working in business-related occupations.

New market entrants arrive daily, each promising to disrupt the established methods of banking. In turn, making it difficult for fintech brands to stand out. The first generation of now well-established fintech leaders still have large VC-sourced marketing budgets, as do the big banks. This makes it hard to compete and impossible to outspend established players, especially at the beginning of a growth journey.

Key takeaways from the report, comparing how the attitudes of senior bank decision-makers differ from their peers in other industries, include that they are:

• Constrained by legacy technologies – bank decision-makers are 1.7x more likely to be looking for new technology partners because their current technology is already failing.
• Burdened by regulatory compliance – they are 1.6x more likely to feel that their responsibilities for data protection and compliance are increasingly burdensome.
• Buying on reputation – they are 1.6x more likely to choose vendors with strong DEI performance.  
• Listening to experts – they are 1.5x more likely to listen to experts’ opinions on the technologies they should invest in.

“Today, B2B marketing in financial services is all about creating meaningful connections through a more data-driven approach as decision-making processes continue to evolve,” said Steve Ellis, Founder at Metia. “This research goes in-depth to discover the pain points faced by senior bank decision-makers and understand what motivates their decision-making. Data-driven insights are crucial to success, helping to highlight new ways for fintech brands to elevate themselves and capture the attention of senior bank buyers.”

The State of the B2B Financial Technology Buy-cycle 2023: ‘Shine Brighter, Sell More’ can be downloaded here.

The recommendations in the report come from third-party data analysis, industry sources and Metia’s 30+ years’ of experience supporting banks, financial technology vendors and fintechs in their journey from bootstrapping startups, through to IPO and into global corporations.