Roopa followed her friend’s advice and subscribed to a financial brand’s newsletter. Her intention was to stay updated on the latest happenings in listed companies that could impact her investments. Since Roopa has a 9 to 5 job, she prefers concise and straightforward financial content that can explain an event in less than 3 minutes.
Now, let’s explore how we can create such financial content that caters to Roopa’s needs. We will do this by way of examining a few common content mistakes made by brands. One such mistake is assuming that your audience wants to read something unique and different.
Excessive use of catchy phrases may enhance user engagement
In Roopa’s case, the newsletter she subscribed to used Bollywood and OTT references to deliver the news. However, Roopa was not comfortable with this pop-culture language. Despite being a Gen-Z, she found it challenging to comprehend.
In most cases, content strategies are built on assumptions about what users want, rather than conducting actual user testing. In Roopa’s situation, she prefers news presented in a straightforward manner, without unnecessary embellishments. Therefore, the catchy phrases intended to improve understanding did not resonate with her.
Result: Roopa couldn’t connect with the subscribed news content.
Differentiating between interesting and relevant content
Roopa came across another recommendation from her senior at the office, where news articles were accompanied by charts and diagrams filled with numerical data. However, she found the visual complexity of the charts overwhelming, and the numbers were difficult for her to remember. Additionally, she couldn’t retain any information, only the last sentence.
In this case we can say the fault lied in the content strategy. Inclusion of charts and diagrams and other such information were deemed interesting without actually considering if it would be interesting to the target audience, like Roopa.
Result: Roopa didn’t find the content intriguing.
Adding irrelevant information
Roopa received an email from a financial services brand offering a news content subscription. This time, the content was easy for her to understand. It was concise and to the point, but Roopa still marked it as spam. Why?
Because it contained technical information and past news events unrelated to the focused event she was interested in. The content strategists assumed that Roopa wanted to read something different, something not covered by other news articles.
Result: Roopa felt like she was spending too much time to find the desired information and marked it as spam.
The power of creativity
After marking the third newsletter as spam, Roopa decided to try another subscription. This time, the news blog discussed the pros and cons of investing in Green Energy by a certain company, presented in the form of a chessboard. Roopa was keen on understanding the pros and cons, but the content she referred to was as confusing as this cup.
Result: Roopa’s thirst for reading business news remained unquenched, and the newsletter ended up in her spam folder.
So, what do readers like Roopa really want to read?
To grasp the content needs of readers like Roopa, brands need to develop their content strategy by actively listening to Roopa’s preferences. By doing so you can make her feel acknowledged and elicit a positive response.
Therefore, if you want your financial brand’s newsletters to avoid ending up in your audience’s spam folder, it is essential to conduct thorough user research. Conducting closed user group tests with the target user persona will help your brand secure a place in their inboxes. Are you looking for a newsletter strategy tailored to your user persona? Contact us now for a free consultation call.
