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There’s a moment every finance-focused marketer is chasing — when a CFO identifies a business need, scopes a budget, and starts building a shortlist.

The RFP goes out. Stakeholders are looped in. The demo calendar fills up.

But by then, it’s already too late.

Because the real decision didn’t start with a request for information.

It started weeks — maybe months — earlier.

In a report shared by a peer.

In a quote from a respected media source.

In a subtle but powerful sense of recognition: “I’ve heard of them before.”

In 2025, B2B marketing in finance isn’t won inside the funnel. It’s won before the funnel ever forms.

Traditional B2B marketing has long been built on the assumption that buyers move linearly — from awareness to interest to consideration to purchase. But that model breaks down fast in today’s finance environment.

Today’s CFO is navigating a completely different playbook.

According to Deloitte’s CFO Signals survey, the role has expanded by nearly 20% since 2018 — pulling in responsibilities ranging from GenAI adoption and ESG reporting to enterprise transformation and risk modeling.

They’re not just gatekeepers of capital anymore.

They’re architects of the enterprise.

As the stakes rise, so does the sophistication of their decision-making process. They’re no longer waiting for a sales rep to walk them through a solution. They’re building mental models from trusted editorial sources, peer insights, and category-shaping content.

In fact, McKinsey’s recent research found that 76% of B2B buyers say trusted expert insights play a more significant role than product features in vendor selection. The implications are clear:

By the time a finance buyer fills out your form, the real decisions have already been made.

“Are we generating enough leads?” is no longer the right question.

“Are we being remembered in the right conversations?” is.

In finance and accounting where trust, risk aversion, and professional integrity shape every purchase — brand isn’t just reputation. It’s relevance.

So, how do you stay top-of-mind before the brief is written?

Not with retargeting.

Not with another gated asset.

And certainly not with a banner buried on a generalist site your audience doesn’t trust.

You need to be where CFOs and controllers already turn for ideas, context, and credible voices — long before they enter a buying cycle.

Let’s talk about the channels that shape memory — not just clicks.

Platforms like Accountancy Age and The CFO don’t just distribute content.

They host the conversations that senior finance professionals actually care about:

This is where CFOs go not to be sold to, but to stay informed.

So when your brand shows up in that context through a sponsored series, a thought leadership feature, or even a well-placed native display ad — it’s not an interruption.

It’s integration.

That’s the difference between being seen and being remembered.

We’re seeing a clear trend: B2B brands who market to finance leaders are shifting from funnel-first thinking to influence-first strategy.

Here’s how they’re doing it:

✅ Contextual Advertising: Embedding campaigns in environments like The CFO daily newsletter or Accountancy Age features — where high-trust content earns higher click quality and brand lift.

✅ Editorial Partnerships: Collaborating with finance journalists to produce co-branded reports or columns that align your narrative with category-defining insight.

✅ Pre-Funnel Storytelling: Publishing insight-rich campaigns that focus not on the product, but on the problem and how the market is evolving around it.

✅ Audience Alignment: Moving away from “reach” as the only KPI, and instead focusing on seniority, geography, and content engagement signals from platforms that actually speak to finance professionals.

When you combine brand authority + contextual relevance, performance follows.

Not in a burst but in sustained recall and repeat engagement.

Accountancy Age and The CFO aren’t mass-market media. They’re finance-native platforms, built to inform, provoke, and support decision-makers in accounting and finance.

Together, they reach over 85,000+ decision-makers monthly through newsletters, reports, interviews, and sponsored content that consistently outperform industry benchmarks.

These are the publications that finance buyers read before they write a brief.

And your brand can be there too.

Most B2B campaigns show up too late after the strategy is set, the shortlist formed, the need defined.

But the brands that win in 2025 are already in the room.

They’re familiar. Trusted. Recognized.

Because they made the decision easy by being present when it was still being shaped.

📥 Download the 2025 Media Kit for Accountancy Age or The CFO — Audience breakdowns, campaign formats, and editorial themes

📅 Schedule a 15-minute call — Let’s build a media strategy that gets you remembered, not just noticed.

Your next buyer is already reading this. Let’s make sure your brand is right there with them.