FinTech marketing seems straightforward: Show people how great your product is, or how much money they’ll save, and they’ll rush to sign up with you. But it’s much more complicated than that.

Too many companies assume that FinTech customers make purely rational financial decisions, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, most of the widely held beliefs in FinTech marketing are simply myths. 

That’s according to Ethan Bloch, founder of Hiro and the entrepreneur behind Digit, which helped millions of Americans save over $9 billion before selling for $240 million in 2021. Ethan stopped by our Best Story Wins podcast to chat about the challenges of marketing financial products, and you might be shocked to hear his perspective. 

“In finance, a human being does not want the scientifically correct answer,” Ethan says. Most FinTech companies are building their entire marketing strategy around mathematical perfection while completely ignoring the emotional, personal, and qualitative factors that actually drive purchasing decisions.

Tldr: If you want to create FinTech marketing that actually converts, stop marketing to spreadsheets and start marketing to humans. To do that successfully, though, you need to let go of the myths that may be holding you back. 

The 3 Biggest Fintech Marketing Myths 

Not every piece of conventional wisdom is wrong. But when it comes to FinTech marketing, it’s important to look at your own numbers and determine whether or not your strategy is working, especially if you’re clinging to any of these beliefs. 

Myth 1: Customers want perfect mathematical solutions. 

You see it everywhere. Marketing campaigns filled with charts. Landing pages that highlight savings numbers. Sales pitches focused on algorithmic precision. It seems the entire industry has bought into the idea that if you can prove your product is mathematically better, customers will naturally choose you.

But you’re not selling to machines. You’re selling to humans. And even in a high-tech industry, they still need an emotional reason to choose your company. 

Ethan learned this the hard way during his decade building Digit (an app to help people analyze spending and save money). Although it seemed like it would be enticing to tell people they could save 23.7% for retirement or cut spending by $347/month, Digit had to consider the way their audience viewed the emotional value of a purchase (not just economic).

For example, buying a daily coffee might seem like a waste from a purely financial perspective, but it might represent a moment of joy, a ritual, or a small luxury that makes someone’s day better. So, although the math made sense, highlighting the things they could cut out (like coffee) didn’t make people more eager to use the app. 

Ultimately, if you lean into logic only and ignore the qualitative factors around financial decisions, your marketing will feel cold, unrealistic, and disconnected from your audience. To combat this, you need to show people that you understand where they’re coming from and how their financial decisions reflect their values. 

Luckily, doing this well (and consistently) helps with what Ethan calls the “trust battery,” something that gets charged over time through consistent positive experiences with your brand. In FinTech, you can’t afford to lose trust, so it’s important to build that trust from your first interaction. 

Myth 2: People care about features. 

Beyond the logical/mathematical solution trap, most FinTech brands are also focusing on features and functional benefits when, again, their customers are really buying emotional relief and peace of mind. 

Instead of focusing on functional benefits like “save money,” “invest better,” or “track spending,” Ethan notes that the real marketing opportunity is addressing emotional outcomes like making finance “less stressful,” “less complicated,” and “more positive.”

And don’t forget that people have zero attention span nowadays. “If you’re trying to communicate some value prop to a customer, you have three words,” Ethan says. The most successful FinTech brands understand this reality and have distilled their value into simple, emotionally resonant messaging. Think of Robin Hood’s “free trading” or Chime’s “get paid two days early.”

Pro tip: To find out what type of benefits will resonate most with your audience, have IRL conversations about their priorities, concerns, and aspirations. (For more ways to do this, see our tips to get to know your audience.) 

Myth 3: One-size-fits-all messaging works.

This is a common myth in B2B marketing, but it is a serious problem in FinTech. “Every person’s financial life really is a unique snowflake,” Ethan says. Yet most FinTech marketing treats everyone like they fit into the same three personas.

We see this everywhere in the industry in generic messaging about “millennials wanting mobile-first banking” or “high earners needing sophisticated tools.” These broad generalizations completely miss the nuanced reality of individual financial situations.

The truth is, someone’s financial context—their goals, family dynamics, risk tolerance, values, and life stage—creates a completely unique situation that can’t be addressed with templated marketing messages.

You need to move beyond basic demographic messaging and use behavioral data and customer insights to create tailored marketing that speaks to specific situations and personal motivations, not just age groups or income brackets. 

Fortunately, Ethan points out that LLMs now make it possible to deliver more personalized, empathetic communication than ever. (Find out more about how AI tools can help you create a personalized buyer journey.) 

How to Fix Your FinTech Marketing

Breaking free from the “rational customer” myth doesn’t happen overnight, but the principles are straightforward. Start by really understanding your customers’ emotional drivers and personal motivations. Create marketing that acknowledges the complexity of real financial lives rather than forcing people into rigid demographic categories.

Most importantly, remember that behind every financial decision is a human being with hopes, fears, and priorities that can’t be captured in a spreadsheet. 

As Ethan learned through his journey from Digit to Hiro, the companies that succeed aren’t necessarily the ones with the best algorithms; they’re the ones that make customers feel understood, supported, and confident about their financial future. Keep your focus on that, and that’s how you win your market. 

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about building stronger FinTech brands, the power of trust, and more, check out our full conversation with Ethan Bloch on the Best Story Wins podcast.