Nearly a third of the world’s trade is paid in advance. This creates problems for retail companies and e-commerce businesses that tie up significant capital in inventory, money that could be invested in product development and marketing, thereby helping the retailer grow faster. Treyd aims to address this problem by offering smart financing solutions to companies purchasing large inventories.
“The response has been very positive,” says Elin Moritz, Marketing Director at Treyd. “Over the past four years, we have grown from a handful of customers to over 650 in six markets. Then, of course, we notice that times have become tougher. We evolve in line with the world economy, and macroeconomic factors affect everyone working in finance.”
Elin Moritz’s career began in a startup at a time when the term “startup” wasn’t that popular yet, working as a salesperson at newly incepted Bluestep, a challenger in the market for mortgages. She then studied marketing at Stockholm University and worked at fintech companies NETS and Trustly. Trustly was in a growth phase and built a big marketing team.
“What strikes me now is that I have worked for companies that prioritize marketing very differently” Moritz says. “At Nets, we had a very streamlined team with broad roles, and at Trustly, it was the opposite – a huge in-house team with extensive budgets since growth was the prioritization.”
Elin Moritz has been leading the marketing efforts at Treyd for just over a year. This means she is back in a small team, but this time, she is responsible for the strategy.
“I longed to return to a company and the phases where you do much more on your own instead of making slides and attending meetings. Then, I have worked ten years with payments, so it was also appealing to get to know another part of the finance industry and learn more about the needs behind the actual transactions.”
Elin Moritz strives to keep the in-house team at Treyd as streamlined as possible and carefully considers each recruitment.
“When you’re a small team, each addition to it becomes very important. You can’t hire junior talent because everyone need to be able to manage being a wide range of tasks. There is, of course, a lot that is not in place in terms of structure, which increases freedom – but also requires that you like to solve unknown problems in very varying situations.”
Why do you use Klingit instead of hiring?
“In our phase, it has been a no-brainer not to build an in-house production team. We are so satisfied with the flexibility we get from Klingit. It would have been expensive for us to maintain all the specialist competencies we need on our own. Then I think it becomes easier to work with graphic design with the clarity that comes from Klingit being an external provider. The roles become much clearer when you are a customer rather than a colleague, especially when it comes to creative work.”
In tougher economic times it is important that you can demonstrate the strategic value that marketing adds to the company, according to Moritz.
“It is crucial to have tracking in place and to have alignment on how to measure the impact of marketing investments. If I could do one thing differently, I would have devoted more effort into aligning with our CFO. The better data you have, the stronger the case will be when the company really needs to prioritize. Another tip for tougher times is to work with the existing customer base and focus on developing incentive programs for referrals.”
Doesn’t excessive focus on metrics risk down prioritizing long-term brand building?
“I think it’s important to quantify the business connection to the strength of the brand. Building awareness and trust are incredibly important; no one chooses a supplier they are not familiar with, nor trust, especially when it comes to financial services. We focus on things that both build the brand and have relevance further down the funnel. For example, we invest in a podcast as well as in creating smaller, exclusive customer events.”
What are your main channels?
“Of the social media channels, LinkedIn and Meta are the most important; now we are also experimenting with TikTok, which I think will be important in the future. Outreach via email has also been very successful for us. With the podcast we intend to share relevant, educational content for the target audience without being directly sales-oriented.”
Currently, Treyd is focused on growing in existing markets and has just launched in Ireland.
“We will continue to focus on our existing markets in the near future. During next year we will likely continue our geographical expansion. With Ireland, we are already in six markets.”