Be good, not catchy
Posted by Doug Williams on January 16th, 2008
Ron Shevlin said something to Matt and I at dinner a few months ago that resonated with me. Credit union websites should be operational. Sites should be a resource for staff to solve problems, not just a marketing tool.
Coast Capital Savings Credit Union does a great job of communicating its voice. It’s aggressively casual. It communicates the personality of the credit union and is an extension, perhaps even the center piece, of the marketing campaign. Creatively, it’s good work.
I hope more credit unions don’t do this. I hope they realize Coast Capital is a rare breed, willing to cop an attitude in a very conservative, very attitude-less industry. There’s only room for one smart-ass in the class.
Instead, when creating content for a site, credit unions should focus less on what the Coast Capitals of the world are doing and more on what their MSR’s are doing. Don’t worrying about fluffy, fun, catchy content – go the other way. Become operational. Become informational. Creative writing is expensive and difficult to maintain (insert picture of frazzled brand manager wringing her or his hands and asking “is it ON BRAND???!!!” with every update).
This idea of sites being operational is something that as a web development firm, I’m going to discuss with our clients. It’s something any of you in credit unions out there reworking websites and creating copy might consider. Leverage what you do well when developing content.
Don’t be flashy. Inform. Solve problems. That’s what CU’s are good at. And consider the first audience to be your front-line staff. Put information on the site that they can use to solve member problems when they call or come into a branch. Consider what information CAN go on the site. I’m sure most operational CU documents might find a home on the website for your staff and membership to use. PDF’s of forms; outlines of procedures; how to find your routing number.
At that point, it really DOES become a resource. It informs. And information drives traffic.
A flashy site is only as good as the content behind the shiny, glittery bits. No matter how good a site looks, I won’t keep going there if there isn’t content to keep me coming engaged and learning.
That said, a nice site can really help get your message across and make that learning a bit more friendly and entertaining. I guess its a bit of a trade off…
We put the information for our front-line staff on our Intranet, not on our public web site.
Our Intranet’s audience is our staff.
Our Internet site’s audience is our members.
Similar to the set-up Duane has. We have a very comprehensive Intranet with lots of good info for employees, mostly front-line staff.
The internet site is focused on the membership. There must be a good balance between flashy and depth. If a potential member is shopping, most young members will shop online first, so a flashy and in-depth website is most likely to drive that person into the branch for further investigation. If the site is informative but dull, they likely will never make it into the branch.
This situation is slightly different becuase we have an intranet, but many times the CU website is the first contact with young potential members.
Doug,
I think it’s a mistake to assume that creative, easily digestible writing and operationally-success writing are mutually exclusive. Effective creative solves operational problems.
Coast Capital’s copy isn’t just successful because it’s sassy, it is also highly highly functional -
They use casual language throughout their site, yes, but because they talk like a human instead of a financial institution, I understand their products and services better. They describe their rates like this:
Their product copy is broken up into two sections -
1) Key features – this breaks down the most important pieces of the product for those who don’t have a lot of time or attention. Here’s a shot from one of their Checking (Chequing) products pages:
2) The rest – for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Sweet, sweet Julie Andrews said “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.” If entertaining writing helps your users get to the point by making your key features easy to digest, I think you’ve accomplished operational success.
Good creative is very important to the success of credit unions. The challenge is not getting caught up in novelty.
Andy: There is no trade-off! You alluded to it in your first line:
“A flashy site is only as good as the content behind the shiny, glittery bits.”
You need good content behind your well polished site. Who cares what a site looks like if you aren’t providing useful information.
On the other hand, if you have useful information, then make it as jazzy as you want.
No trade-off.
It’s simple. Just make sure your content is engaging.
@James
Bad wording on my part. I think it matters a lot how your site looks, Maine State CU has lots of information on the site, but it is ugly and difficult to navigate to the info you’re looking for. If it isn’t aesthetically pleasing or at least navigable people aren’t going to be as drawn to the information as you’d like. They’ll quit and go someplace else. Content is definitely the foundation that you should build the jazz on top of though.
Duane and Kent: Thanks for the info on the Intranet. My point (that I didn’t make so clearly) is that I think it would be interesting to try and move some of the information from the InTRAnet to the InTERnet. That that isn’t sensitive in any way or procedural or political (as in policy not elections).
Having been in operations in a CU, I can see several ways to move this out front. Both of my CU’s DATCU in Denton, TX and OCCU in Eugene, OR put routing and wiring information on their sites, for example.
Brent and Andy: I’m not discounting quality writing. However, it might be much for small credit unions to bear the expense and time required to create catchy copy (because of time restraint, staffing…who knows).
As a small CU employee, you wear several hats. Allowing yourself to be functional FIRST and creative SECOND is freeing…because most of the writing is completed for you.
James: I agree. Useful information first. CU’s should focus on that as the minimum. Maybe push that minimum and let the MSR’s and tellers assist in developing the content. They get asked all the questions.
Thanks for commenting!
Doug,
I hear what you’re saying. I made some HUGE mistakes in my marketing career with CUs, trying to be too cute on the web and turning people off.
When we really analyzed the traffic on our site, we saw a muddy path to online banking and tumbleweeds on our clever marketing/information pages.
Get in, get out, nobody gets hurt.
Think the simplicity of Google. But they are not without their fun…..I dig it when they doll up their logo for special occasions.
Subtle. Sexy. Smart.
This is a good conversation and I agree, style without substance is a loser and substance without style is a dead end.
The most frustrating part of the web development process are the CEOs who think that the web is an “Online Brochure” or business card instead of a living and breathing representative of the credit union. If you look at a website like a printed document, you will lose all the potential benefits of the internet. People are incredibly computer savvy now. Take advantage of that a little bit.
The only thing worse are the CEOs who want to design the site themselves. :)
“And consider the first audience to be your front-line staff.”
My first thought when I read this quote was, “Your staff should know your website better than your members do.” When a member calls with questions your MSR’s should know where to direct them on your site to find out more information about whatever they are asking about. Of course they also need to be able to provide the information for non-Internet users.
As a member of Gen Y I can tell you that if I can do it online by myself then I want to. If I’m standing in a teller line (which hasn’t happened in about 10 months) but what I’m trying to accomplish can be done online then I want to know about it. If your MSR can point me to the spot on your web site that will solve my problem you’ve just made me a happy member. If that spot on your website speaks to me in plain easy to understand language and not FI-speak then I might be your happiest member.
When I read the same line, “consider the first audience to be your front line staff” I flinched. Your Internet site should be first directed toward your members. It’s difficult to imagine any other online services merchant telling their website developers that they want their external website directed firstly toward their internal staff. (As others have said, intranets would be a better fit.) As a member I shouldn’t need and may not want an MSR to tell me how to navigate a website-one of the main points is to be self-service, simple, intuitive, and 24 hours. That said, yes, websites should be able to solve problems, and be informative. But, let’s not throw out creativity. I admire the thinking at Coast Capital Savings CU. I think there’s plenty of room for many very different attitudes, in fact, most especially among CUs. CUs can carve out niche identities that big box banks cannot hazard. If we stop being forward thinking, we risk being left behind.