Most companies bring marketing into the process only after the product is built. That approach might have worked ten years ago, but today it costs businesses real opportunities. The most successful innovations happen when marketing is involved from the start, helping shape strategy alongside product and sales teams. Dave S. Faupel, Chief Marketing Officer at Priority Technology Holdings, has spent more than two decades in FinTech and B2B marketing proving exactly that.
Making Marketing the Voice of the Customer
Here is something most companies overlook. Marketing teams have visibility into everything happening across the organization. They monitor social media, track digital analytics, review customer service feedback, and sit in on sales calls. All that information is sitting there, waiting to be used. “Marketing should be the heartbeat of customer understanding. We are uniquely positioned within an organization to gather insights from across channels,” Faupel says. The issue is not a lack of data. It is that most companies collect it and then fail to act on it. That is where opportunities are lost. B2B sales cycles can stretch for months, with multiple stakeholders, long meetings, and complex negotiations. In that environment, truly understanding what customers need is not just useful. It is essential. “By creating feedback loops from customer interactions into product and strategy discussions, marketing becomes the driver of smarter innovation,” he explains.
Collaborate Early with Product Teams
This is where Faupel becomes direct about how most companies still operate. They build a product, test it, polish it, and only then call marketing to write the copy. “That is an old-school mentality and, even more so, a missed opportunity,” he says. Bringing marketing in from the very beginning changes everything. When marketers help shape the message while the product is still being developed, they can identify positioning opportunities early and ensure the final product tells a story that resonates. “When product and marketing co-create, we are not just launching features. We are launching stories, and these stories stay with our audiences,” Faupel explains. Think about the last product launch that truly caught your attention. Marketing was not added at the end. It was part of the process from the start.
Use Data to Drive Agile Innovation
Strong ideas do not mean much without execution. Faupel puts it simply: “Innovation is not just about big concepts. It is about fast, measurable execution.” Marketing brings real numbers to every conversation. Campaign performance, audience engagement, and customer behavior all provide insight. These are not just dashboard metrics. The data helps teams identify what works and what does not. When something fails, you pivot quickly. When something succeeds, you double down. In FinTech, where competitors move at lightning speed and AI continues to reshape the landscape, there is no room for hesitation. “In a FinTech world where AI rules and speed matters, data-informed agility is the difference between staying ahead and falling behind,” Faupel says.
Align Brand with Business Outcomes
None of this matters if marketing cannot show real business impact. Brand awareness is nice, but executives care about pipeline growth, revenue, and customer retention. “Your brand is not just how you look. It is how your solution performs in the market,” Faupel says. Every innovation must connect back to meaningful outcomes. When marketing can draw a straight line from its work to the bottom line, the entire conversation changes. “Marketing must constantly translate strategy into business value, demonstrating how innovation impacts the bottom line. That is what earns marketing a seat at the leadership table,” he explains. Without that connection, marketing remains the team that makes things look good. With it, they become strategic partners driving real growth.
FinTech moves too quickly for outdated approaches. Companies that keep marketing on the sidelines will watch their competitors pull ahead. Faupel has seen it happen many times. His approach is straightforward: make marketing the center of customer understanding, bring it into product development early, use data to make quick decisions, and always connect the work to business results. “By owning the customer voice, partnering with product early, leveraging AI, and staying outcome-focused, marketing can lead the way in building smarter, faster, and more customer-centric innovation,” he says. It is not about piling more work onto marketing teams. It is about shifting the kind of work they do—the kind that drives innovation instead of just supporting it.
Follow Dave S Faupel on LinkedIn for more insights on how marketing can drive business innovation and customer-led growth.
