Clarity and simplicity win, every time

The other day I was talking with a colleague about trimming a Client communication and trotted out one of my favorite quotes* “I’m sorry I could not have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.” I love that because it gets at the heart of the fact that communicating in a concise manner while still providing all the needed information and clarity, is challenging.

That challenge is one that all of us involved in marketing financial services products need to rise to meet.

Clarity is what customers and prospective customers need to understand the value of financial services products and to keep them from getting lost in the morass of marketing details that just generates confusion and apathy. And too often, that clarity is sadly missing.

Reduce marketing overload

The financial services industry loves a great comparison chart, and for good reason: when done well product comparisons help people make a good choice for them. On the flipside, it’s easy to make a poor comparison chart by jamming it with all the information about the products, and not thinking through how to provide a clear, stepped flow of information to help a prospective customer with the right information, at the right time.

Several years ago we developed a credit card finder tool for one of our Clients that enables people to get from a pool of 30+ cards to a curated view of ones that specifically meet their needs in a matter of seconds, no marketing copy needed. That’s the type of helpfulness and clarity people need, and what sets our brands apart in the category. The results show that: after more than eight years in the market the tool continues to outperform challenger approaches, because it was built from the ground up, put into user testing with functioning prototypes, and the concept updated based on what we learned. The end result yielded a tool that helps people in a tangible, fast, and simple way.

Provide direct guidance, not vague suggestions

Our Chief Creative Officer, Shannon Stevens, often talks about the critical importance of language in driving behavior. One of his favorite terms to call out is “learn more” as a CTA. As he would say, “’Learn more’” says to the user, if I click that, I’ll have to do work and educate myself, instead of getting an answer the second I click. And no one wants homework when choosing a financial services product.”

When thinking of CTA language use clear, tight language that explains what will happen after the person clicks. That “learn more” CTA could become something like:

• See if you qualify
• Use our quick comparison tool
• Apply in three minutes

Clear CTAs that accurately describe what happens next eliminate friction and ensure that your prospect doesn’t hesitate to keep moving forward.

Cut unnecessary channels

Another approach that ensures we’re providing clarity and help is to ensure we’re showing up where our audience needs us and not showing up where they don’t. Here’s a case in point from outside of financial services: just this morning my garbage disposal decided to quit on me. We called to set up an appointment with the plumber and I received a text message confirming the appointment. That is helpful. I also received an email about the appointment which was not only unnecessary, it was unhelpful as it cluttered my inbox and didn’t provide any necessary new information. (It also annoyed me because the subject line was “Exciting Appointment Details Inside!” Have you ever met anyone excited that they had to call a plumber to do an emergency service?)

So channel matters. In financial services there is a need for a varying level of complexity at different points in someone’s journey, so think long and hard where it’s best to meet them. Will a well thought out, detailed direct mail kit deliver the content in the most helpful way? Or could it be a very tailored, specific digital tool? Sometimes, the answer may be “yes” to putting the same content in multiple channels. And sometimes, the answer is “yes” to one and “no” to others. Listen to those noes…because just because you can deliver information in multiple touchpoints, that doesn’t mean doing so will provide clarity and help to your customer.

What to do now

Here are some quick thoughts on how to make sure your efforts are simple, clear, and helpful:

• Ask your target audience. A little time spent exposing your key audience to your marketing efforts and seeing and hearing how they react to them go a long way in understanding where your message is clear and simple, and where it is falling into that marketing morass.
• Double check your CTAs and where you take people. Is the language clear about what happens next? Does the CTA take you to a place that feels connected from where you came and pay off on the promise of what they’d see? Is that CTA itself located in a helpful place in the experience? Small tweaks to language and placement can have a significant impact on being more helpful and therefore drive better performance.
• Take a keen look at your analytics. Is that tool on your website encouraging people to proceed down the funnel? Or is it taking them off course and causing abandonment? We created a tool that helped people create their ideal student loan with transparency on all the levers that impact repayment cost. People who used it were 6x more likely to apply, so we drove more traffic there and saw better financial impact for the business. Conversely, we’ve encountered applications that cause people to abandon because the questions feel unnecessary or out of place. Dig into all of those data points…they’ll help you understand where better clarity is needed.

Be ruthless in putting clarity and simplicity at the center of your communication strategy, and you will be on your way towards building trust and engagement with your audience.

*I learned in writing this article that I have incorrectly attributed this quote to Abraham Lincoln. It was actually written by Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French mathematician, physicist, inventor, and religious philosopher.