Whether you’re are targeting advisors, investors, businesses, or personal banking clients, financial tools provide engagement and interactivity for users which allows them to better understand what you have to offer. Don’t just tell customers to save for retirement with an RRSP – show them what monthly contributions could get them by the time they reach retirement age. Instead of simply providing mortgage product information, create a tool that calculates and compares options with your customers to help them find the best fit. When your customers get a glimpse into the real-life benefits they could experience, they are much more likely to follow through with seeking additional product information and converting to a new client.
So, what makes a great tool?
Personalization
Personalization is a proven technique for creating a strong connection with your user, especially if your tool is very data driven. Look for opportunities to include things like a user’s name, customizable savings goals, and targeted recommendations. Presenting custom results with graphs and live data is also a great form of personalization. They tell a story – your user’s story - and allow them to see that their goals are in fact within reach.
Rich Media has worked extensively with financial institutions for over 20 years, so we know exactly what kinds of products you offer and how to market them effectively. Whether it’s a mortgage calculator, credit card selector, or investment portfolio builder, we know how to take data-driven content and turn it into something fun, informative, and tangible for helping your customers with their unique financial goals.
Branding and Usability
Visual engagement and ease-of-use play a key role in a successful financial tool. Using your branding as a base for your tool’s design and visual appeal is a great way to ensure that users will associate their experience with your institution. But beyond that, your brand message and values should be communicated through the tools you choose to build. If your institution specializes in insurance products, incorporate language, images and icons that align with your brand into a tool that finds the right policy for your customers.
As one of the leading digital marketing agencies for North America’s major financial institutions, Rich Media likely already knows your brand inside and out.
Something else to keep in mind is that your tool’s design should enhance its intuitiveness and usability. Get creative with your tool’s inputs by adding sliders, drop downs, and checkboxes in place of regular text fields. This also provides opportunity to incorporate micro-interactions, which make your tool more dynamic and elevate your user’s experience.
Accessibility and Adaptability
Adaptability and accessibility may not be the first thing the user notices but they in fact have a large impact on who your tool reaches. Staying on top of technology’s advances – like devices and browsers, and accessibility requirements ensures that your tool retains its functionality over a number of years and reaches the widest possible customer base.
Site Integration
Rich Media’s tools seamlessly integrate into any content management system. More and more clients are using AEM – Adobe Experience Manager. While not an entirely new program, its recent updates and capabilities in content management have led to a surge in popularity. Rich Media can adapt and integrate your tools with AEM for easier testing, monitoring, and maintenance.
Are you incorporating SEO strategies to better reach customers searching for help? This is important when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of your tool. Are you exercising caution when it comes to the security of your customers and your institution? And is your tool performing and accomplishing what you hoped?
These behind-the-scenes details, although maybe not as exciting as the front-end function of your tool, are major players in a tool’s overall success. Working with a company that not only understands the importance of these elements, but also has the experience to use and apply them, is an asset when it comes to meeting your digital goals.
Next Steps
Remember, your tool is just the first step for your customers in establishing their financial needs and goals. Once your tool is up and running, you need to guide your customers as to what they should do next. Include a call to action, along with information on how to contact an advisor, to encourage follow-through with what they have learned. Provide a PDF report of your tool that your clients can save for later and bring to an advisor for more insight and guidance. Rich Media has the in-house code capabilities to create accessible PDFs to ensure your print reports meet the same standards as the rest of your tool.
A client-facing tool can be easily adapted into an advisor version. Having both a client-facing and advisor-facing versions of a tool is an easy way of ensuring advisors also have cool, interactive tools to assist in the conversations they are having with clients. The advisor versions have the same great interactivity as the client-facing ones, but the messaging can be different – keeping the value add with the advisor, allowing them to offer further explanation and insights.
Check out our article on how to create awesome advisor tools!
No matter the type of tool you wish to build, always strive to provide an engaging experience for your audience that makes financial planning more comprehensive and exciting. At Rich Media we specialize in building memorable and engaging interactive tools and calculators for virtually every kind of financial product. We know your audience; let us help you tell your story. We’ll make it easy!
