049 Daniel Evans
Head of Marketing, Salad
Daniel Evans is Head of Marketing at Salad. He joined the business six and a half years ago, and in that time he’s grown Salad from zero customers to over 160,000, increased monthly website users to 300,000+, and supported a £90m loan book.
“With how fast the landscape changes, testing is the only real truth.”
The interview
What’s your coffee ritual?
I’m one of those odd people who doesn’t drink coffee. Swap it for tea and it’s a 7:30am brew, one sugar, and a chocolate Hobnob.
What was your first marketing job?
Marketing Executive at ON YOUR BIKE HOLDINGS LIMITED, London Bridge, right when Brompton Bicycle bikes were exploding. Turns out folding bikes were very in demand.
What finance apps do you have on your home screen?
Quite a few. HSBC for day-to-day, Hargreaves Lansdown for my ISA and my daughter’s JISA, Monzo for our joint account, and Coinbase for a small crypto dabble (my least favourite UX by far). Also American Express, Revolut and Tesco Bank.
Which newsletter, podcast, or book do you recommend most?
The High Performance podcast by Jake Humphrey. Incredible guests and lots that genuinely makes you rethink how you approach life and work.
What’s an underrated growth channel in fintech?
Referral schemes are still incredibly powerful, people will happily recommend you if you’ve nailed the product. We’ve also seen great results from TikTok recently; the scale you can reach is wild.
What keeps you up at night?
Making sure we’re growing fast and sustainably and that we’re learning faster than the market is changing.
What are the most useful measurement tools you use in your work?
We’ve just implemented Triple Whale to improve attribution. It’s never perfect, but seeing the full journey and touch points has been a big step forward.
What’s one fintech brand (other than your own) that’s getting marketing right?
ClearScore. The Moose and Charlie campaign is brilliant. Who doesn’t love a talking dog? The growth suggests it’s working.
Why is marketing so hard?
Everyone has an opinion. The reality is good marketing should be driven by data and experimentation, not gut feel. With how fast the landscape changes, testing is the only real truth.
Whose answers to the above questions would you most like to read?
PensionBee UK’s journey from zero to scale would be fascinating. Moneybox too - they seem to be doing a lot right, and I’d love to hear how their team thinks about growth.