Qolo

Brandi Adkins Meredith is the Vice President of Marketing at Qolo, a leading fintech and payments company. With over 25 years of experience in the financial sector, she began her career as a banker before transitioning into marketing leadership within banking and fintech.

Meredith has held strategic marketing roles at FNBO, Finastra and Marqeta, where she specialized in bridging complex financial technology solutions with client needs. At Qolo, she focuses on demystifying payments infrastructure, building credibility, and driving growth through targeted marketing strategies that balance technology, human insight, and industry expertise.

Human-Centered Marketing in B2B

Before I understood marketing, I understood what it felt like to sit across from a client who was confused, overwhelmed, or about to make a costly mistake because no one had given them a clear picture. That experience - a decade as a banker, helping people navigate financial decisions that had real consequences - is the lens I carried into marketing. In B2B, we talk a lot about buying committees and decision cycles. What we talk about less is the person inside the committee who actually has to champion a solution, defend the budget and absorb the risk. That person is a human being. And humans need to understand before they can trust, trust before they can commit. That’s a reality that every marketing strategy has to account for.

A CFO wants to increase revenue, a compliance officer wants to protect assets, and a technology leader wants a seamless, frictionless experience. Understanding these perspectives is critical for tailoring campaigns and communications that resonate across a 20- or 25-person enterprise buying committee.

In the payments and fintech space, this human-centered approach is even more crucial. Payments are one of the most misunderstood industries from the outside, yet people interact with them daily. Even clients looking to implement a card program often underestimate the complexity of the infrastructure and the number of participants involved. Educating buyers before persuading them is essential because their decisions have significant consequences - not just for their business, but for their customers. Marketing is not just about generating interest; it is about building credibility, establishing trust, and providing clarity. Without that foundation, even the most compelling differentiation can fall flat because buyers lack the framework to understand how it solves their problem.

The Challenge of Marketing Payments Infrastructure

When I joined Qolo, the company had been described by a client as “the best-kept secret in the industry.” While flattering, that phrase also revealed a challenge. As a Series A startup, we had no humming marketing engine—no automated workflows, no content machine, and no engaged audience. My initial focus was to ensure that Qolo was no longer a secret.

The goal was to ensure that every interaction we facilitated added value and reinforced credibility. In this industry, experience matters. Our founding and leadership team has over 70 combined years inside of the payments industry and knew firsthand where the industry had failed. This isn’t a team of people that just speaks in modernization theory - these are experienced operators, builders and fixers. The conversation was always the easy part. My job was to put Qolo at the right tables. What happened at those tables was a function of who we already were.

The 290% growth in share of voice and 650% growth in topof-funnel opportunity that we achieved in the past year did not come from spending more. We built our presence deliberately, prioritizing the right channels and audiences rather than chasing reach for reach’s sake. Targeted partnerships with industry publications, selective speaking engagements, podcasts, and virtual events became our primary tools. That meant saying no to a lot of activity that can look productive on a dashboard but does nothing to move a buyer to close. These numbers are not just metrics; they signify that the industry understands who we are, what we do, and how we can help them navigate complex financial decisions.

“Marketing is not just about generating interest; it is about building credibility, establishing trust, and providing clarity. Without that foundation, even the most compelling differentiation can fall flat because buyers lack the framework to understand why it matters.”

In an environment where decisions often involve millions of dollars and the reputations of entire organizations, credibility is as much the product as your platform and tech are.

Technology as a Tool, Not a Crutch

Technology has transformed marketing, and the tools available today—automation platforms, analytics dashboards, and AI— can accelerate campaigns and provide insights. However, I have learned that technology alone does not produce results. A robust tech stack without strategy or judgment is merely noise. Early in my career, I witnessed the pitfalls of siloed operations: a campaign could deliver thousands of leads, yet if the next team is unprepared to engage, the effort fails. Technology amplifies execution, but it cannot replace critical thinking, industry knowledge, or human judgment.

AI, in particular, is an area where judgment remains paramount. While AI can quickly generate content or identify patterns in data, it can also produce confident but flawed output. Marketing leaders must have the industry fluency to catch mistakes, make nuanced decisions, and ensure that every piece of communication aligns with strategic goals. In complex B2B contexts, personalization cannot be automated blindly. Understanding when to tailor a message—and when a targeted approach might dilute effectiveness—is what separates successful campaigns from mediocre ones.

Lessons Learned and Principles for Leadership

One of the most challenging aspects of marketing payments infrastructure is the diversity of stakeholders involved. A single initiative might involve finance teams, compliance officers, IT specialists, and executive leadership, all with different objectives. My approach has been to map each audience to their core priorities: profitability, efficiency, risk management, or convenience. Crafting messaging that addresses these perspectives without diluting clarity requires deliberate strategy and careful sequencing. Technology can support this effort, but deep understanding of the industry and the clients’ daily challenges is what ensures resonance. The ability to speak the language of each stakeholder and connect the dots across conversations is non-negotiable in this space.

Looking back, some of the most impactful lessons in my career have been grounded in practical experience of working in orgs that fell victim to siloes. It’s proven to me that a marketing function has to operate in a fully integrated model. The ad buying team shouldn’t celebrate click through rates if nothing converts in the funnel. The event team can’t only be focused on throwing the best party - they need to have the follow up planned in advance so the opportunities don’t go cold. What I’ve experienced is that partial plans yield partial results. Every strategy must be thought through end-to-end, from conception to client impact. Today, every initiative I oversee is guided by this principle: the only metric worth celebrating is one that directly addresses client challenges.

The Future of Marketing Leadership

As the marketing landscape evolves, particularly with the rapid adoption of AI and other technologies, the leaders who thrive will be those who refuse to let tools outpace judgment. Technology accelerates execution, but it does not replace insight, strategy, or human connection.

The advice I would give someone building a marketing career in fintech is not about tools or channels. It’s about earning the right to be in the room. Our buyers are sophisticated, the stakes are real, and the questions they will ask will surface gaps in knowledge quickly. The marketers who build lasting credibility here are the ones that have done the work to understand what a treasury client needs on Friday at 5pm when programs aren’t funded. That understanding is what separates marketing that builds a pipeline from marketing that builds a brand that is respected. Those are not the same thing, but the second one makes the first a lot more sustainable.