The Holy Grail for Fintech Success

George Lucas (Acorns CEO)

You are competing for customers

who are well serviced

2

Customer Acquisition

In the developed world… In the developing world…

2.5 Billion people have never had a

financial service (60% are in Asia)

3

Customer Acquisition

Customer acquisition strategy is about…

• Value proposition

• User Experience (UX) Design

• Customer Service

• Marketing Strategy

You can have the best Fintech product, but

without customers it doesn’t matter

4

Customer Acquisition: Value Proposition

Without a strong & unique value proposition

you are competing on…

• Being faster to provide your

service than an incumbent

financial institution

• Being less expensive than an

incumbent financial institution

You are trying to entice customers from their

trusted institution, to a new service. This requires

a strong and clear value add.

5

Customer Acquisition: User Experience (UX)

User experience is key

• Better not to get traditional

financial services people involved

in UX design

• Keep it simple - frictionless. In

UX design, less is more

6

Customer Acquisition: Customer Service

A financial services business is a customer service business

Make it..

• Easy for clients to contact you

• Fast, solve cases same day

when possible

• Easy to close accounts

This is the best way to stand out

from existing financial institutions.

If you can convince your

customers that you are ready and

willing to look after them, they are

more likely to stick around and

recommend you.

7

Customer Acquisition: Marketing/PR Strategy

B2B

How do we keep our customer

acquisition cost (CAC) low?

• Marketing can be automated

• Social media can be more

attractive than Google marketing

• Financial Services are very

fragmented

• PR is important

Do we align with an incumbent

financial services company?

B2C

8

Case study: Wealth Know How

Wealth Know How offers videos created by

financial service experts, providing access to high

quality information and knowledge.

We found

• CAC was too high for B2C

• Value proposition wasn’t as

appealing as we hoped

The Acorns Value Proposition – simplifies the problem

Make It a

small Decision

Mobile-First

Investment Platform

Simple Fees

Micro-Investing

Modern Portfolio Theory

Intuitive Tools

5 Risk-Adjusted

Portfolios

Intuitive UX

Conservative Aggressive

Marketing Strategies

Digital Advertising

Algorithm optimised ad

delivery, trackable in real time.

Emails

Targeted email campaigns

based on user data, with

goal-based tracking.

Seminars

Network of financial

advisers and

superannuation funds.

Acorns CAC

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

18%

16%

49%

22%

7%3%

48%

23%

10%

3%

Low CAC for a paying customer

40X lower than closest FS