How does this make you feel?

by: Jonathan Lay

We recently delivered our findings and recommendations to a financial institution along with their Digital Marketing Blueprint. In our discovery phase, we performed a website assessment, which included usability tests.

After these tests were completed, we found that 80% of the users “did not trust this website” as it “felt busy, cluttered, confusing and outdated.” Furthermore, just 48% stated they would refer the website to their friends or family members. Yes, that’s nearly half of all respondents.

While it is clear the financial institution does in fact need a new website, we also uncovered a deeper issue related to the emotional side of storytelling. Every single ad on the website promoted the financial institution’s “great rates and service.”

These kinds of undifferentiated broadcast offers are directed to the left side of a consumer’s brain, which is responsible for analytic processing and reason.

However, it was clear from the consumers’ feedback that the story being told by the financial institution was being emotionally driven from the right side of their brain. And this story did not make them feel good.

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