Fintech and Financial Marketing & Design Agency
Named for the very people we support—you and your customers—CSTMR is a digital marketing and design agency that partners with financial and fintech brands to help them scale.
CSTMR is a digital marketing and design agency bringing precision and expertise to position fintech and financial services companies for sustained growth. From implementation to execution and beyond—our team of strategic, forward-thinking partners craft purpose-driven marketing strategies that enable fintech companies to grow, sustain, and scale.
Our holistic approach developing and implementing successful marketing strategies leverages our years of experience in nearly every sector of financial services and fintech from banking, credit, cryptocurrency, and investments, to lending, payments, SaaS, and technology.
We provide a full-suite a digital marketing and design services all designed to generate sustained growth. See detail at https://cstmr.com/marketing-services/marketing-strategy/
headquarters
other locations
Focus
Portfolio
CreditKarma, LendingTree, Goji, Connect2Capital.com, SELFi.com, Nav.com, CreditKarma.com, DepositAccounts.com, Bank of Marin, Clarkston State Bank, NYBDC.com, LendingTree.com, GetQuilt.com, Cardpool.com, Blueleaf.com, Southwest Bank, Insuritas, PrePaid Technologies, Altway.com, First Rate
How Credit Karma boosted conversions
Credit Karma’s editorial team needed to develop a conversion rate optimization strategy to drive sign-ups. After vetting several marketing firms, they partnered with CSTMR.
As a well-established brand with extensive marketing, Credit Karma reached out to CSTMR for help developing and implementing a holistic, systematized conversion rate optimization program to optimize conversions for their over 10 million organic content visits.
A new website and digital strategy
Helping banks launch and manage SBA loan programs, this SBA lender service provider needed our help to redesign and rebuild their existing website and breathe new life into their brand.
New SEO and acquisition strategy
A new acquisition & SEO-based marketing strategy was created to reach Blueleaf’s target audience. We audited existing processes, build the new strategy, and provided full implementation and support.
Re-envisioning LendingTree's product strategy
Re-envisioning product strategy and ux design is helping the LendingTree business loans team optimize their acquisition experience.
Transforming a community bank
Transforming Clarkston State Bank from a small, local bank to a legit regional and national player required a makeover to their positioning, messaging, design, email and SEO.
Developing the brand for DIY mortgage loans
Intent on giving consumers a better, cheaper mortgage option, we planned, designed and built the first SELFi website and identity for company launch.
Auto Insurance Aggregator Builds Insurance Quote Engine
Goji is the largest independent auto insurance agency in the U.S. They make it easy for consumers to find and compare auto insurance coverage from top companies.
The ProblemGoji had an outbound call center-based business model, and were looking to move to a re-branded inbound model focused on mobile and web. The goal was to design a fully-integrated auto insurance quote engine for Goji, which they could also use to partner with other major brands.
The SolutionWe helped the Goji team define and expand the brand identity, launch a new website and mobile experience, and design their new consumer insurance quote engine product. We also lead the launch of the paid search and display channels and helped to establish a strategic partner channels with some major brands.
The ResultsCSTMR designed, launched, and optimized the new website and consumer insurance quote engine to establish a foundation for growth.
- Defined and expanded brand identity
- Launched v1 and v2 of their website and mobile optimized experience
- Launched paid media channels—paid search, display and social media
– Blair Baldwin, CMO at Goji
Bank Account Comparison Site Optimizes Conversions, UX and Launches New Consumer Tools
DepositAccounts is the largest consumer destination in the United States (almost 3 million visits and 7.5 million page views annually) that maintains a dedicated focus and rich database on depository banking products.
The ProblemDA had a site that was full of potential — good technical bones, plenty of traffic and loads of data — but didn’t provide an ideal user experience and hadn’t been fully optimized for monetization. They knew they were in a good position to increasing revenue and improving engagement, but didn’t have the in-house expertise to make it happen.
The SolutionRedesign and test ad placements as well as high-traffic areas of the site to optimize user experience, maximize engagement, build community and improve monetization. Create high value tools and content that support the experience of researching and finding great banking options. In parallel, create compelling advertising packages and establish direct, long-term relationships through systematic outreach to major banks and credit unions to grow ad revenues.
The Results- Redesigned key elements, pages and tools on the site to optimize engagement and performance.
- Increased engagement and on-page conversions with significant revenue and SEO growth.
- Facilitated usability experiments, click tracking and a/b testing to improve user experience and maximize advertising clicks.
- Established and managed direct relationships with major banks and credit unions.
– Frank Dixon, CEO
Business Credit Platform Scales User Acquisition
Nav (formerly Creditera) provides small business owners with a better way to check and manage their credit. Their platform gives small business owners access to personal and business credit reports from multiple reporting bureaus, along with actionable advice and monitoring all in one spot. It also provides tools to build business credit and a marketplace that matches users to lending options via a needs-based filter.
The ProblemWith limited internal resources in-house, Nav needed an agency partner who could help them quickly and efficiently plan, execute, and optimize their user acquisition programs. In addition to acquiring new users, Nav needed a partner who could measure and improve user acquisition costs, user engagement, and customer lifetime value.
The SolutionThe solution was a full funnel plan, design, and implementation. We opened paid media channels including SEM, Adwords, Bing, retargeting and Facebook, designed new landing pages, created email campaigns, and optimized performance throughout the program.
The ResultsUser signups and conversions increased while acquisition costs decreased.
- Helped generate first 100k business customers
- Increased landing page conversions by 37.27%
- Reduced user acquisition costs
- Established scalable conversion rate optimization process
– Gregg Ott, CMO at Nav
Bay Area Bank Reinvigorates Brand
Bank of Marin is a San Francisco area bank with 20+ branches. They primarily serve the unique needs of business owners. Everyone from sole-proprietors who are starting their first business to CEOs who are leading multinational corporations. Products include business and personal checking, lending, wealth management, and more.
The ProblemLooking to standout in the hyper-competitive commercial banking industry, Bank of Marin came to CSTMR for a brand refresh, website redesign, and the activation of digital media channels. The goal was to differentiate the bank with a fresh identity and to discover if select digital media channels could efficiently acquire customers for business banking products.
The SolutionA complete website redesign branded Bank of Marin as the go-to business bank in the area, and a thoughtfully designed UI/UX positioned the bank as a trustworthy financial partner. Paid media campaigns through Google Adwords campaigns and the Google display network drove thousands of geo-targeted visitors who were looking for the specific services the bank offers.
The ResultsBank of Marin upgraded its brand identity and began acquiring new customers through untapped paid media channels.
- Repositioned Bank of Marin as a business bank
- Refreshed the brand’s visual identity with a new website and style
- Built product-specific landing pages for paid media campaigns
- Set baseline metrics with Google Analytics and call tracking
Reviews
the project
Website & CRM for Public Risk Pool
"They’re accessible, easy to work with, and committed to our organization."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I’m a communications specialist at Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority, a public entity risk pool.
For what projects/services did your company hire CSTMR Digital Marketing?
We needed to develop a new website, member portal, and CRM. We also required additional communication and digital engagement functionalities.
What were your goals for this project?
We needed to replicate our existing member engagement tools while also enhancing in-house capabilities and member experience.
How did you select this vendor?
They were suggested by a consultant that helped us identify our needs and potential vendors. We considered three proposals and selected CSTMR based on the agility of their proposed solution and our chemistry. We felt that they would be a true partner and not just a service provider.
Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.
After an initial discovery phase to fine-tune the project’s scope and parameters, we’re now in the development phase. Final deliverables will include a website, member portal, and CRM/database.
What was the team composition?
Approximately 10 people have worked on our project thus far.
Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?
Though we’re still in the development phase, we’re looking forward to having a much easier, more beneficial platform for both our team and users.
How was project management arranged and how effective was it?
They’ve executed very well. We have regular communication and weekly Zoom meetings to coordinate, answer questions, and get updates. Basecamp allows us to share documents and monitor daily tasks.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
They’re accessible, easy to work with, and committed to our organization. Rory (CEO, CSTMR Digital Marketing) and Jack (Co-Founder, CSTMR Digital Marketing) have been true partners every step of the way. They and their remote team invested time to understand our needs and the tools we wanted. They’re an extension of our team.
Are there any areas for improvement?
Thus far, I have no suggestions for improvement.
the project
Rebranding, Website Design, & SEO for Bank
“I’ve been a delighted customer since we started working with them.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP and director of marketing at a financial institution. We provide loans primarily to individuals who can’t obtain financing from traditional sources.
What challenge were you trying to address with CSTMR?
We’re in the process of addressing a challenge around our brand. We needed help with branding and website development to bring all the parts into one.
What was the scope of their involvement?
We have three separate affiliates that head different product lines. We’re working with CSTMR to streamline how we take those products to market. The most evident output of that work will be a new, search engine optimized website that represents our three brands.
We started with brand exploration. They helped us refine our market positioning. We then started on website architecture. That phase of work is complete. We did wireframes and information architecture for our new site. As a parallel process, they’re helping us on our verbal and visual brand.
What is the team composition?
We have a primary contact who pulls people in as needed. We’ve worked with three other people who are marketing and SEO strategists.
How did you come to work with CSTMR?
They emailed me. Usually, I would’ve deleted it, but they contacted me exactly at the right time. I had this project on my mind as the email arrived in my inbox. I went to their website and learned about their work and saw that they were a credible firm via their case studies. I had a couple of intro conversations with them. We looked at multiple firms, but I chose them because of the relationship we built during the vetting process. They were very eager and interested in collaborating with me in solving problems. I told their CEO about a current issue we were having with our website, and he offered to have his team think about it and get back to me. I wasn’t even a client at that point. That showed me that once I was a client, his team would go above and beyond to make sure that my team had what we needed to do our jobs. That’s been the case in working with them since day one.
How much have you invested with them?
We’re spending $80,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in October 2017 and the work is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I’ve been a delighted customer since we started working with them. Their work on information architecture delivered what we wanted as a client but also helped us see things in a new way and see opportunities we may have missed. As marketers, we should be able to do information architecture by ourselves, but bringing in external perspective is helpful to get out of our comfort zone. The work has been really collaborative. They’re plugging into our team and adding resources. I’ve been really pleased with that as well.
How did CSTMR perform from a project management standpoint?
We usually communicate on a daily basis. They’ve been excellent. Everything has been on time. I had to get used to working with more free-flowing deadlines, which I’m okay with because deadlines move all the time. Things aren’t late, but it’s a different work style than I’m used to.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They’re very patient. They take the time to understand your problem and find proactive solutions for solving it.
Are there any areas they could improve?
For clients that need or expect more diligence around deadlines, that would be one area of improvement needed.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Take the time to get to know your counterpart’s work style. In the early phases, any tension or miscommunications may be due to the fact that you’re blending work styles. My main contact is a very indirect person, and I’m a very direct person. We both were feeling tension from that, but once we learned each other’s work styles, it’s been smooth.
the project
Marketing Strategy & Website Design for Bank
“We’ve been really happy with their work because it helps distinguish us from our competitors.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the EVP for a small community bank. I’m in charge of retail banking and marketing.
What challenge were you trying to address with CSTMR?
Although we’re a small bank, we wanted to show our customers that we were just as capable of providing all their services as a bigger bank. As a result, we needed a marketing team with innovative, out-of-the-box ideas to help distinguish us from our competitors. We didn’t want to be like every other bank in the area; we wanted to be different. We wanted resources to develop a new website, create marketing assets, and make a marketing strategy.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Initially, they designed our new website around our company’s strategy and overall mission, which involved changing our domain name and site management. After migrating content from our previous site into the new version, they revamped the pages with new ideas to ensure a user-friendly experience. They recommended showing real people on our site to let people know who we were and promote our services. Not only did they include our staff information, the conducted client interviews to get testimonials. Additionally, they optimized our verbiage, modifying our content to maximize our search rankings.
Beyond web development, they expanded our digital marketing efforts. Their strategy featured a marketing calendar to coordinate our outreach, a monthly email communications bulletin, and social media management. They used Constant Contact and Buffer, respectively, to handle our emails and social media accounts.
Over the course of the engagement, they’ve also designed press releases, ads, brochures, and business cards. They currently create all of our marketing collateral and communication pieces on an as-needed basis in addition to refining our site page by page. They plan to implement AdWords in the future.
What is the team composition?
We work primarily with their co-founder, who serves as our main contact, in addition to an SEO specialist and a person who manages our email bulletins. I know that, behind the scenes, they have other people who do their design work.
How did you come to work with CSTMR?
Their CEO reached out ours. At the time, we had interviewed several marketing firms but didn’t feel that any of them had any new, innovative strategies. We researched the company before setting up a conference call with their team and liked their originality. Soon, they sent us a proposal, which we fine-tuned until eventually engaging them.
How much have you invested with them?
We spend $10,000 per month for their services.
What is the status of this engagement?
Their work began in March 2017 and is ongoing. We're on a yearly contract with them.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’ve been really happy with their work because it helps distinguish us from our competitors. It’s just different from what every other bank in the area is doing. We’ve gained a few customers who wanted to meet us from our staff bios, and our monthly bulletins have a 33%–35% open rate with few lost subscriptions. In terms of SEO, we’ve made significant strides in increasing our rankings. They track all the data for us and provide a detailed quarterly report about our number of clicks and content engagement. I pass the report on to our board of directors so that they can see where we are.
How did CSTMR perform from a project management standpoint?
They’re very organized. About 3–4 times a week, we communicate through Basecamp, which allows us to exchange information on our projects, make changes, and approve them. Anytime I need marketing materials, I post the specs on Basecamp, and they design it, keeping the look and feel consistent with our brand. I send their suggestions to our respective business development team to sign off on, and then they implement the changes to the website.
They also conduct a weekly video chat to provide status updates, and after the call, they compile a detailed review of the meeting, including pending projects and any next steps. The calls range from 30 minutes to an hour.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I appreciate their design skills because I don’t have to give them a lot of instruction. I mostly give them the ad specs and general details, and they’re creative enough to produce an appropriate ad that hits the mark on the first try.
They’re also very knowledgeable about digital marketing and have helped us navigate the technical side. Their site changes, email marketing suggestions, and responsive analytics tracking are considerably strong.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, nothing comes to mind.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Be prepared to allocate the proper time and energy to the project to make it successful. CSTMR can only do so much, and if the customer isn’t responsive or doesn’t provide feedback on their suggestions, then it can be difficult to move forward. One of the things that keep us on track is the weekly meetings, which provide a clear list of tasks for their team and ours. While CSTMR’s team understands and can accommodate the customer’s needs, the customer must be prepared to put in the work.
Internal stakeholders expect the final system to deliver both internal and customer-centric benefits. CSTMR Digital Marketing prioritizes regular communication and has established smooth collaboration via project management tools. Their clear commitment to client success is notable.