In this new series, we sit down with industry participants to glimpse into their backgrounds, views, lessons learned, and some titbits from their professional lives. For the very first article, we bring you Kate Ryan, Group Head of Marketing at Finalto.
KR: I am truly blessed to have secured a much-coveted window seat in our 11th floor office in Broadgate Tower. And if I crane my head as far as it will go I can get a peak of Spitalfields market.
FM: What was your first job and how did you break into finance?
KR: I worked in ad agencies, initially for big retail brands. I then worked in a media agency servicing clients like Artemis fund managers, Investec, and NS&I, before taking my first client-side role as Head of Marketing for ETX Capital (now ovalfx).
FM: What keeps you most busy these days?
KR: Planning and implementing our presence at fmls22 has been keeping me out of trouble for the past month 😊 However on the whole I would say, ideas. Coming up with ideas for engaging ways we can interact with our clients and the industry.
A lot of what we do is being driven through content and finding useful information we can distribute in creative ways to ensure we are front of mind whilst adding value to our customers is becoming more key.
FM: You have served long stints in financial firms facing B2B and B2C audiences. What are the most significant differences for marketers?
KR: Well, audiences drive the messaging. Understanding what is important to each type of customer helps augment the marketing initiative. Also understanding what we are trying to achieve with each piece of marketing.
B2C marketing is much easier to draw a line from activity to result and ROI, however not all B2C marketing is for that purpose, there is a longer tail part of the plan which is to build a brand and become familiar to your target audience.
B2B marketing has become more about content, driving interaction and engagement through interesting viewpoints, data, and insight, and turning that into marketable assets. Of course it is also important to have an acquisition plan too, however, the length of time to convert a big piece of institutional business can be considerable, which makes optimisation tricky.
FM: You’ve been for a while in the industry; How has marketing in online trading changed in recent years?
KR: There have been some massive changes over the 20 years I have been working in this sector. The most obvious being the emergence of digital channels becoming dominant over traditional media.
Back in the day we may have popped a token 5% of the budget on a website like Yahoo, but the bread and butter of our media plan would have been print, posters (paper and paste of course), and TV. Cookie policies, GDPR opt-ins, and private browsing are also new concepts to navigate. Catering for mobile first adopters has also been key ASO, and App store channel management has become as important as Google SEO.
Social and content are now arguably the biggest head count for us. We have had to learn how to provide engaging content in different formats for new generations who like their news and updates snappy to the point, usually in under 60 seconds (thanks, TikTok).
FM: What do you make of sports sponsorships for B2B business? Do you find value in that?
KR: I think there is certainly a place for sports sponsorships in this space, if it aligns with the business’s long-term goals.
It can be a great way to introduce and naturalize a brand to a new geographical territory, if the right sport is selected, it can lend gravitas and maturity to the brand and often make the company seem bigger than it is. It is important to leverage the activation and of course, align the brand to the characteristics of the sport.
FM: speaking of sports, which team do you support and why?
If I didn’t say Leicester City, I would be in trouble with Mr. Ryan!
FM: we wouldn’t want to cause that! What about recommended books that you read lately?
KR: Where the crawdads sing was a great read, and Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a classic I try to reread every few years.
FM: fantastic. Back to your day-to-day, how does it feel to be in financial services in London and the UK nowadays? is the turmoil evident in the day-to-day?
KR: It feels busy. Our chief market analyst has never been more in demand, he’s worn out his keyboard 😊 we have national news channels reporting from our offices most weeks. The great thing about working in the financial markets from a marketing perspective is that there is always news, some market somewhere is always moving.
FM: What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?
If you're joining my team, I generally ask for a ‘can-do’ attitude, a sense of humour and the ability to not be overwhelmed by the entirety of the task.
I think in this industry as a whole, it is sage advice to behave yourself. It’s a small village with a revolving door of employment. You will cross paths with old colleagues again in your career so be memorable for all the right reasons!
