If You’re in Fintech, You’re in Media Too
In fintech today, the real competition is no longer just about grabbing market share or acquiring new users. The real battle is attention.
Not just the quick clicks or traffic spikes. But the kind of sustained, meaningful attention that builds trust, earns loyalty, and drives long-term brand love.
In conversations I’ve had with fintech founders and marketing leads, the focus is often on expert-led content to drive growth. More downloads, more users, more conversions. All valid goals.
But very few talk about owning the conversation in their niche. About building influence, shaping how people think, or leaving a legacy through content.
You know… the way the best media companies do.
Brands like Wealthsimple, Paystack, PiggyVest, Robinhood, and others have borrowed a few pages from the media playbook.
They’ve built content channels that mirror traditional media platforms, and used them to connect with potential customers more deeply.
And the results? Massive.
Take Robinhood, for instance.
In 2019, they acquired MarketSnacks, a daily newsletter started by two Wharton MBA students. Their mission was to make business news fun and digestible for everyday people, so they rebranded it as Robinhood Snacks.
Today, the newsletter reaches tens of millions of people. Far more than most paid campaigns could dream of.
It’s a perfect example of what happens when a fintech thinks like a media company.
In this article, I’ll unpack my observations, research, and expert insights on why fintech brands need to adopt this mindset, and success stories from the fintechs already doing so.
What does it mean to “do media”?
Creating content people want to engage with starts with taking a media-first approach.
A true media company exists to inform, entertain, and connect with diverse audiences—whether that’s through movies, music, TV, books, or stories that stay with you long after you’ve read them.
Think about your favourite media brand. What do they do better than anyone else?
Business Insider, for instance, is loved because of the way they tell stories packed with life lessons. Their content features relatable characters, sparks honest conversations, and makes you care enough to keep reading.
So, what happens when a fintech brand borrows from that playbook?
It stops being just a platform for trading, sending money, or investing. It starts building an audience by:
Publishing finance-related news, or relatable stories that are engaging, easy to understand, and relevant to its target audience.
Breaking down market trends in plain language.
Creating visually striking content worth sharing.
Running newsletters or YouTube channels that people look forward to—ones that solve problems and help users manage their personal or business lives.
Hosting podcasts or Twitter/X Spaces that start meaningful conversations.
In other words, they start playing the same game as Business Insider, Bloomberg, Morning Brew, or The Financial Times.
Paystack, the African fintech giant, does this perfectly with Decode Fintech, a newsletter and podcast that curates news and provides commentary on the fintech ecosystem in Africa.
David Adeleke wrote in one of his essays about Paystack’s media strategy,
“The first time I listened to the Decode Fintech podcast, I immediately understood what Paystack was trying to achieve. I saw the brand-building potential and opportunity for the podcast to become a great customer acquisition channel.”
He added, “Paystack could provide you with great value in the form of practical business insights while drawing you into its sales funnel.”
The case for relatable
Finance is already a confusing industry, and the content isn’t helping.
As Devin Friedman put it, “Financial content is usually pretty boring. It's almost always made by people who work in finance and don't know what it's like to be a normal person.”
And the numbers back this up. According to This is Money UK, 55% of savers admit they aren’t confident with financial terminology.
Many people abandon investing altogether. Not because they don’t care about money, but because the content feels too complex, too risky, or just plain overwhelming. So if the users you’re trying to target don’t love your content, there won’t be any conversions.
This is where fintech brands have a real opportunity. Today, attention isn’t won with jargon or product specs. It’s won by making finance feel human, relatable, and easy to digest.
And that’s what great content does.
Story-driven, emotion-led content builds trust, connection, and community. It’s what media companies have mastered, and it’s a play fintechs can no longer afford to ignore.
David shared, “Attention is a zero-sum game, and you have to capture it to sell your products and services.”
To clarify, the goal isn’t for fintechs to act exactly like media companies.
Media companies are built to churn out content at scale. Fintechs, however, should think like media, but create with intention.
That means truly understanding your audience, telling relatable stories, and building a content strategy that solves real, everyday money problems in clear and compelling ways.
Every day users like Zoe crave relatable content like this. She told me:
“Every fintech brand is teaching us how to save and invest. They want to explain the principles and science behind financial independence, and that’s fine. But where’s the storytelling?
Not the polished testimonials that feel like ads. I want to see the real stuff: the messy day-to-day money habits, the failures, the lessons learned, the wins, and even the ongoing struggles.”
If you want to earn attention and keep it, you need to think like a media company, and the benefits of doing so are huge.
The payoff
Suppose fintech brands borrowed a few pages from the media playbook. The shift wouldn’t just make their content more engaging; it would create a lasting impact on reach, retention, revenue, trust, and overall brand differentiation.
Here’s how:
Reach: Getting in front of more people
Media-first brands naturally attract bigger audiences because they publish content people genuinely want to read, watch, and share.
Wealthsimple is a fintech app that helps people invest, save, and manage their money. But what sets them apart is how they communicate.
Instead of churning out dry financial explainers, they lean into storytelling with Money Diaries, a popular series under the Wealthsimple Magazine, led by its current editor-in-chief, and former GQ and Business Insider editor, Devin Friedman.
The series captures the real, unfiltered money habits of everyday people—from celebrities to freelancers.
The content feels warm, human, and impossible to ignore. The result? A community that loves the brand not just for its investing tools, but for how it makes finance relatable.
Retention: Keeping people around longer
Attention might win you clicks, but connection keeps people coming back, and eventually using your product more.
As Zoe Williams, a fintech marketer at Zole, explained:
“Finance becomes less of a mystery when you tell real stories. The target audience begins to have healthier relationships with money outside of your product, which, to me, is the ultimate goal of a fintech brand.”
By leaning into storytelling, you’re not just selling a product; you’re shaping how people think about and interact with money in their daily lives. That kind of bond makes them stay.
Differentiation: Standing out in a sea of features
Most fintech brands market themselves in the same way: by highlighting features, fees, and functionality.
The problem is that everyone’s saying the same thing.
Media-led brands do something different: they focus on meaning. They make people feel something about their money and the role your product plays in it.
Ini Oluwa, a content marketer, put it perfectly when I asked what shifts happen when fintechs invest in high-quality, media-style content.
She said, “People become invested in brands they connect deeply with. A trusted source of information gains more credibility, which means more users.”
Revenue: Turning content into a growth channel
When your fintech brand becomes a go-to source of information, opportunities open up beyond your core product.
You can monetise content through ads, sponsorships, partnerships, and more, just like a traditional media company would.
Venkat S., co-founder of Find & Plugin-AI, shared: “Publishing sensational news drives traffic. Advertisement revenue becomes a major contributor.”
Trust: Owning the narrative that shapes the market
In fintech, it’s not just your product that influences customer behaviour; it’s how people feel about your brand, your message, and the market itself. Trust is a currency on its own.
Joseph Orji explains why media power matters in building trust and owning narratives:
“Every big company wants influence in media, because sentiment shifts the market needle. Whoever controls the narrative controls the market.”
This is exactly why the smartest fintech companies are building content arms. Not just to explain features, but to set the tone, lead conversations, and ultimately shape how people think about money.
And B2B?
Media-style content marketing isn’t just for B2C fintechs.
Even traditionally “serious” players in the B2B and venture capital space are leaning into media thinking.
Goldman Sachs runs a podcast. Paystack’s Decode Fintech breaks down the African fintech ecosystem for industry insiders.
And Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has gone as far as launching Future—a full-fledged media platform that sparks meaningful conversations around technology, finance, and society.
This shift tells us one thing: content isn’t just part of the game anymore. It’s how you win.
The fintechs that are leading the pack aren’t just building great products. They’re commanding influence with the kind of content they create.
In conclusion
If you’re not already thinking about content as a long-term growth lever, now’s the time to start. The brands that win hearts, minds, and market share tomorrow are the ones investing in content today.
Thankfully, the internet makes it even easier to create and distribute great content at scale, something that was previously accessible only to a select few.
