Building Credibility at Marqeta: Education as Strategy
When Mark joined Marqeta in 2019, they were already well on their way to becoming one of the biggest card processors in the US.
Flexible, agile, and an early adopter of APIs, they proved to be an attractive partner for a lot of up and coming fintechs in the US market.
The challenge? Could they replicate that success in the EU market, utilising the payment processing platform to partner with other fintechs and grow.
“It was about building the credibility that Marqeta was a global story, not just a US or Canadian story”
So how could they quickly build a pipeline for a product with a long sales-cycle and complex stakeholder approvals?
Initially the plan was simple: spin up the wheels of the marketing machinery and get things moving.
Campaigns, email, events, developing the online presence, both paid and organic.
But after 8 months of running, traction wasn’t where it needed to be. Drastic measures were required.
“I just sat there and said, this isn't working, and literally just switched everything off.”
Mark realised he needed to go deeper, to make the brand stand for more, and to build empathy with the audience.
At the time, there were lots of fintechs looking to launch a card programme, but they had no idea what that entailed.
The answer was to pivot to content, diving head first into educational pieces and thought leadership.
“I actually ended up building a whole educational ecosystem for those organisations to go to, because although it was there on the internet or the web, it was very fragmented.”
By collecting knowledge and assets all in one useful content hub, Mark had made education the bedrock of Marqeta’s marketing strategy.
But is content still king today?
Startups: Playing to Your Strengths
A lot’s changed since 2019, certainly in the fintech funding environment, but in marketing more generally too.
Whilst a content strategy is still a fundamental part of any serious fintechs arsenal, it can still be resource intensive, and isn’t always an option for startups looking to make their mark.
As always, it’s about playing to your strengths.
“If you're a small FinTech then you've got that agility because you've probably got direct access to the CEO, you're in a position where you can take more risk”
Taking risks and having the ability to quickly deploy different bits of messaging – these aren’t always possible at a bigger company, where compliance or legal sign offs mean decisions can take months.
Marketing in this environment is not a conveyor belt that you can easily flip things on and off. It’s an oil tanker, which can take a lot of effort to turn.
“When I'm working with smaller fintechs, I just say, look, you might not have the budgets available, but just embrace the fact that you've got the speed, you've got access to the C-suite. Put all those factors into your favour and play your best hand.”
Ultimately, it’s about bravery.
It’s the same when considering creative ideas too. It’s safer to blend in with the crowd, to follow the same straplines, logo, and brand feel.
But often those who take creative risks are rewarded for them.
The Untapped Power of LinkedIn
Educational content has been through many different guises since the mass adoption of inbound marketing.
The latest iteration is one that I’m sure has caused many eyerolls in meeting rooms: personal LinkedIn presence.
Mark is bullish on this channel, and sees it as an opportunity that is still being underutilised by many fintechs and their C-suites.
Just 1 percent of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users are actively engaged in posting on the platform (Kinsta).
That leaves a lot of room for more CEO’s telling you how their latest jog informed their new perspective on payments orchestration!
“People that are heavily present on LinkedIn from a sales or marketing perspective, they're building a healthy pipeline just through being on LinkedIn.”
Adam Robinson of retention.com is one such founder using video to his advantage.
By detailing every maneuver of his company – what's gone wrong, what's gone right, and the next steps – he’s putting LinkedIn strategy at the forefront of their marketing, and building an organic audience with a lot of trust already baked in.
There’s a cultural element to this kind of transparent LinkedIn communication too.
How else do people arrive at the conclusion that you’re a great organisation to work with?
“If they're amplifying the company presence and talking about their experience of working at the company, then out there in the universe, those vibes reverberate.”
As LinkedIn continues its trajectory towards the ‘personal’ and away from the ‘business’, playing to the algorithm’s preference is the key to success in the channel..
Video Done Right: Strategy Over Scattergun
But video isn’t just a tool for LinkedIn founder content.
For Mark, it’s an essential part of any fintechs marketing strategy.
“You look at how we all digest information these days. You look at the channels that people are using, whether it's TikTok, whether it's YouTube, whether it's even LinkedIn. I think we're all typically time poor. If you can grab a snippet and it's 30 seconds, you watch it.”
But as with any marketing tool, the devil is in the detail.
Too often, video is just treated as an afterthought, a nice to have, a kneejerk reaction to not having posted any content in a while.
Unlike a scattergun approach, a clear strategy ensures the right video appears in the right place at the right time – lifting the entire buyer journey.
“I see it on websites a lot and it frustrates me where I kind of look at things and I'm like, you know what, just a little explainer video would have been so much better there”
Instead, what you get is a clumsy graphic that doesn’t quite hold together.
At Marqeta, Mark steered a far more strategic use of video, seizing on the pandemic’s move to online channels to create a remotely recorded interview series.
By sending out a new one every few weeks, they were able to create a continuous stream of high value content, presented in easy to digest bitesize chunks.
When it’s more than just a one-off, video can deliver real impact – it needs a strategy, cross-channel presence, and smart repurposing into formats your audience actually consumes.
The Marketer of the Future: Human Insight Meets AI
Looking beyond video, what does Mark expect the role of a fintech marketer to look like in the next few years?
With the proliferation of AI, it’s no surprise that competency with these tools is a must.
But what does that actually mean?
For Mark, it’s the ability to judge when these tools are a help, or a hindrance.
“If you're not careful you can end up with seven or eight tech stack tools, trying to link them all together to give you a complete picture.”
Along the way, you can waste significant time building processes that barely move the needle.
Instead, you need to be discerning - both a visionary who can navigate the journey ahead, but also an operator who can deliver the day to day results.
As for content, Mark still sees a future for humans here (yay!)
“Even if you use an AI, you need the human touchpoints signing this stuff off, iterating it, crafting it.”
Because ultimately, everyone is well versed enough in AI content to be able to spot it.
It starts with asking the right questions: where are your weaknesses today, and how can AI be applied directly to them?
“It's so easy to arrive at an answer with AI without going on the journey.”
But that journey is the crucial bit. That’s where you really get to know your customers.
This has been the guiding light for Mark throughout his years in fintech: spend as much time with your customers as possible.
Because when you listen closely, you can tell their story in their own words, use the language that actually resonates, and shape insights that feel relevant to them.
That’s the foundation everything else rests on – the strategy, the creative, the execution. Without it, the rest is just noise.
Wrap Up
Mark’s journey shows that while tools, channels and tactics will always evolve, the fundamentals of marketing remain constant.
Whether you’re launching in a new market, building content from scratch, or experimenting with video, the real differentiator is strategy – knowing your audience, speaking their language, and showing up consistently where it matters.
For fintechs especially, it’s easy to get caught up in trends or overloaded with tech. But the lesson here is simple: focus on the customer, build trust, and use every channel – video, LinkedIn, content – as a way to deepen that relationship.
Because in the end, campaigns come and go. What lasts is the connection you create with your audience. That’s the foundation everything else is built on.
