When arriving on a financial services landing page, first impressions count. When dealing with money, consumers are putting their trust and faith in you. The financial sector has a vital role in society; from banks, to insurance companies and credit card providers – the majority of us use and rely on at least one almost daily.
That’s why it’s important for a financial services landing page to look professional whilst presenting a trustworthy experience. It must include certain things to ensure that it’s ticking all the right boxes for a consumer.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the key elements that make a great financial services landing page. We’ve done our research and identified what works well on existing pages and deconstructed it for you, with the importance of user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) in mind.
If you’re unsure, when we refer to UX we’re referring to the overall experience of the product in question, such as a website or mobile app. The key focus here is how easy and enjoyable it is to use said product. When we think about UX, we consider the strategy, user journey, accessibility, universal design, user research and more.
UI on the other hand is the design process of creating an interface for computerised devices. It refers to visual design, wireframing, typography, icons, grids, app design and more. It’s the designers’ job to create something that’s visually pleasing whilst easy to use.
In this section, we’re going to take a look at the use of imagery, typography and colour palettes. Using these elements, we can set the right tone for the page and make sure that it suits our target audience. So, what sort of imagery is most effective on existing financial services pages?
Sources:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/cheap-personal-loans/
https://www.tescobank.com/loans/
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/loans/products/personal/
https://www.postoffice.co.uk/personal-loans
https://www.hitachipersonalfinance.co.uk/
The answer? Lifestyle imagery. They’re bright and vibrant with positive undertones, predominantly showing people and couples around 20-45 years old. It’s important for brands within the financial services sector to remain human and connect with audiences on an emotional level, and lifestyle imagery does the job. The financial services can be daunting and confusing for consumers, so making them feel at ease with relatable imagery is a great way to instil their trust in you.
Typography is also a key feature within UI. The typography on Tesco Bank’s personal loans landing page works particularly well, with type split up into different sections with blocks and imagery to help separate the copy making it bitesize and digestible. The Call to Actions (CTAs) are clear with a strong contrast between the headers and body copy, so that the user can easily pick them out and identify them. The key here is to keep things simple. Simple design and simple techniques make a potentially complicated subject for some people feel manageable and approachable.
So, what role does colour play in all of this? There’s a lot of psychology within colour choices and the feelings and emotions that they almost subconsciously evoke within the user. Industry giants HSBC, Santander and Post Office use red and white for their branding – but why is that?
Below is a colour psychology chart explaining that red raises feelings of strength, power and passion, whilst white lends itself to clarity, purity, freshness and simplicity.
Taking into account this colour theory research, it’s easy to see which colours are best suited to the financial services. As mentioned, red and white are popular choices, but blue also works well, as demonstrated by banks such as Chase, Citibank, Barclays and Bank of America. Blue represents trust, loyalty and security – all very important characteristics to convey to customers.
Let’s take a deeper dive into UX and see how it ties into the financial services. We’re going to take a look at some key elements such as CTAs, trust, reviews widgets, testimonials and the user journey.
A call to action (CTA) is the next step in which the user is led to click on. The CTA will direct the user to another page or action. It’s designed to prompt an immediate response or sale and can increase conversion on a website. The CTA needs to be clear and visible within the fold. The fold is always visible to users throughout their journey. On larger pages with more information, there is usually more than one CTA, helping to increase conversion. If we use the Post Office as an example, there’s a CTA within the first fold, then the same CTA is visible when the user scrolls down. ASDA uses the same idea, with the CTA ‘Get a quote’ or ‘Check your eligibility’ appearing on the page more than once.
As we’ve mentioned, trust is an incredibly important factor – especially for a new customer that is paying for a service from a brand that they’re interacting with for the first time. There are a few surefire ways to showcase trust to your audience. One of them is by displaying any trusted partner logos on your landing page. To win an audience’s trust, you need to appear credible. Being affiliated with big, recognisable names shows that you’re in good company.
You should also consider displaying a review widget such as Trustpilot, Google Reviews or Feefo. Based on our recent financial services research, we recommend Trustpilot as it’s the most popular of all the platforms. Most sites shout about their overall review score towards the top of the page, immediately establishing that credibility in a bid to win trust. It’s also a good idea to display at least one positive review. If the user is considering using your services, a good review of a real-life customer experience helps them to put themselves in the shoes of a happy customer, which can only be a good thing.
A smooth user journey means a positive user experience. Using the website and the features on the landing page need to be made as simple as possible; clear and concise CTAs, a friendly tone of voice using straightforward language, coupled with an easy-to-digest layout design. Any forms on site that the user fills out should only have minimal fields required, such as the customers’ name and number. By keeping the process quick and easy, it helps to increase the website’s conversion rate.
To make this process even easier, make use of Google Places Autocomplete (API). The API auto completes the form for the user based on their previous data input, meaning minimal time and effort spent submitting important detail. IOS uses a similar process. See example below, referenced from the Google UX Playbook.
The page layout helps the user journey flow. It shows the hierarchy of elements and lets the user know what’s important straight away. It can also help break up the copy by separating the content into different sections. A good user journey will help when a user fills in a form. With a good user journey, you can direct the user to a call to action which can increase conversion. According to the Google UX Playbook, testimonials should be displayed high up on the homepage because as we mentioned previously, they showcase trust and credibility to new potential customers.
In conclusion, trust, credibility and making life as simple as possible for the user is key when designing the perfect financial services landing page. Invest in your website as in most cases, your website will be your first impression and point of contact with prospective customers.
The UI of a page is fundamental within the overall user experience and how they digest the information on the page, so keep typography simple and break copy into sections so that it’s easier to take in, with clear differences in font-weight and size when making use of headers. The UI is the difference between leaving the user with a great first impression or encouraging them to click off and instead onto one of the many competitor websites.
Similarly, the UX can either leave the user satisfied or frustrated with the site. There’s no room for errors within this industry. Remember, it takes 20 years to build a good brand reputation and only five minutes to ruin it. Keep things smooth and simple for your users with a functioning and responsive website and you’re almost guaranteed a positive experience.
Hopefully, you should now have a clear idea of exactly what goes into creating the perfect financial services landing page. Looking for more info? Check out our visual guide on the perfect financial services landing page. If you have any other questions on Digital marketing for financial services, Get in touch with us today