Marketers, don’t let legal write your website copy

by: Joe Swatek

A visit to a financial institution’s website reminded me how too often website copy is composed by people who know nothing about good marketing practices.

Your website is a high-profile marketing medium, available to anyone, whenever they want to see it. Prospects are likely visiting your financial institution’s website to find information. They’re curious about you.

Yet you may be driving away new account holders every day.

This isn’t an isolated problem. I’ve seen it repeated over the years by banks and credit unions, big and small. Instead of making the accounts and services sound attractive, the text is written like it’s a prison sentence.

I’ll give you one example from an actual savings account webpage and then show you how to correct the overall problems. (This can apply to all types of media.)

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