FinTech Marketing: What Not To Say ??

Today, I wanted to warn you about some common mistakes that I see in marketing communications and public statements.??

1) Making market predictions or offering personal investment advice

Many startups and especially startup founders are tempted to make market predictions and offer personalized investment advice to their audiences. Please be aware that giving financial advice is a licensable activity and giving such advice without the license is a crime (and can also be problematic from the standpoint of market manipulation laws).

The law specifically says that “placing special emphasis on the advantages of one product over others in a way that would tend to influence the decision… could amount to a personal recommendation rather than the mere provision of information”. That is why I suggest you should refrain as much as possible from comments on how the market may behave or what it could mean for your audience.

? What is safe to say:

• Quote listings of prices, refer to alerts that certain instruments reached a certain price;
• Company news or announcements;
• Explanation of the terms and conditions of a service or product feature;
• Comparison of the benefits and risks of one option as compared to another, performance metrics of a few instruments or options.

2) Creating self-composed rankings or top-lists

All marketing materials and customer-facing communications must be honest, unbiased, and verifiable. It is possible that for public statements such as “we are the leading company in our niche”, “the fastest...”, “the cheapest...” or any other “the #1 in ...” you can be required to produce factual evidence and if the statements are unsubstantiated, it could be interpreted as unfair competition. It is always safer to say “one of the…” or “among the best leading…”

3) Limit prices or markets or consumer choices?

???? Never speak publicly or privately on any of the following topics:

• Possible divisions of customers, markets, territories, or countries (e.g. bad idea to say “we won’t enter this market because we don’t want to compete with Company X”)
• Say or imply that someone should boycott a product, competitor, vendor, etc.;
• Say that you align your process with the ones of competitors – remember that you always set?prices independently (when Booking.com says they "price-match" it's not the same – they don't sell the offers, they place quotes of others on their website)
• Make/participate in non-hiring agreements with anyone.

You can see now how it can work for you!???