⏱ 10 minute read
Fintech is a booming sector of the digital economy. According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs, fintech companies around the world have claimed over $4.7 trillion in revenue from traditional financial services firms, and that number continues to rise every year.
There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the most important is fintech’s ability to offer a superior user experience (UX).
Financial products are inherently complex, and can often be challenging for consumers to fully understand. Additionally, many traditional financial organizations continue to be mired in red tape and lack of transparency, making the customer journey even more frustrating.
Many successful fintech startups have differentiated themselves by focusing on UX and customer satisfaction, allowing them to win significant market share from incumbents. This is exactly why AMP for email is such an exciting technology for the sector – it allows fintech companies to further improve the financial customer journey, thus building on their natural strengths and offering an even more consumer-friendly service.
In this article, we’ll explore five types of AMP emails that are particularly relevant to fintech services.
Account Opening & Onboarding
Since financial products can often be intimidating to consumers, it’s critical for the onboarding process to be made as easy as possible.
This is true for both fintechs and traditional financial institutions. According to the Bank Administration Institute, banks that offer a digital account opening process have experienced 16% year over year revenue growth, while those that still depend on account openings at a physical branch have seen a 9% decrease. And this is even true of business banking – 6 of the top 30 US business banks offer digital account openings, and already hold 30% of all US small business deposits.
But offering a digital application is just the first step. If the onboarding process is too long or complex, customers will walk away and try another provider. In fact, digital identity services provider Signicat found that customers abandoned 40% of digital applications in 2016, but by 2020, the abandonment rate had increased to 63%. So fintechs that offer a streamlined onboarding flow have a major advantage.
The AMP Difference
To see how AMP can help, check out this onboarding email from GoBank:
This is a pretty good onboarding email, setting out three clear steps for new customers to start using their account. It explains each step briefly without overloading the customer with detail, and includes a phone number and email link for customer support below.
The main shortcoming of this email is that it’s a static message, and the customer has to click on separate links to perform each step in the process. AMP can make things much simpler.
For step one, the current email requires the user to click through to the bank app, then select the deposit method, which would then transfer them to the depositing institution’s website to complete the transfer of funds. In an AMP email, the selection of depositing institution can be made in the email itself, and the customer can be sent straight to their current bank, Paypal or other digital account to complete the transfer.
For step two, instead of having to print out a direct deposit form and submit it to their payroll office, the customer can be provided with a web form in the email itself, which can be emailed automatically to their employer.
Also, instead of offering a link to customer service, the email itself can include a live chat that allows the customer to speak to a support rep without leaving their inbox.
The common theme here is to minimize the number of clicks and pages the customer has to go through to complete the entire onboarding process. Not only will this significantly decrease abandonment rates, it will also make a great first impression on new customers.
Education Emails
Another unique aspect of fintech is the importance of customer education.
Financial products are often complex, and involve a higher degree of financial and emotional commitment than most consumer products. On top of that, fintechs often offer a range of complementary financial products, which require the customer to understand multiple offerings and how they’re related to each other. As a result, in order to establish and nurture profitable customer relationships, it’s essential for fintech companies to develop a clear and structured approach to customer education.
The AMP Difference
The best type of education email combines useful information with a clear call to action, as in this email from Simple:
This email was sent to existing customers in the low-income bracket who could benefit from a high-yield savings account. Since these customers were unlikely to be familiar with the product, the campaign included an educational component explaining the account’s benefits.
Rather than start with the product itself, Simple opted to focus on saving for emergencies, a message that was likely to resonate with this customer segment. The high-yield account is then introduced as simply a tool to reach this goal. The message is consistent throughout, with even the call to action focusing on creating a savings goal, not opening a new account.
AMP can improve this email by further emphasizing the educational component.
For example, instead of clicking through to Simple’s app to create their savings goal, the customer would be able to do so in the email itself, which reduces user friction. The email could even include personalized suggestions for which portions of their monthly budget customers might want to tap for their savings plan.
Then, instead of explaining that Simple’s high-yield account can pay 30 times what another bank would, the email could simply include a calculator which shows how much faster customers can get to their savings goal with Simple’s account. Instead of an abstract multiple, customers can see a specific number of days to reach their personalized goal, which is a much more concrete way of understanding Simple’s benefits.
By following the age-old teaching principle of “show, don’t tell”, fintechs can make it much easier for customers to appreciate their offerings, hence maximizing lifetime customer value.
Notification Emails
Financial products are highly regulated, and companies are often required to notify customers about important legal updates, product changes and upcoming application or filing deadlines. These emails can also often include a security component, such as in emails sent for two-factor authentication (2FA) purposes, or informing customers about recent log-ins to their account.
Apart from regulatory requirements, many fintech products are focused on tracking timely financial information such as credit scores and stock portfolios. The value of such products is directly tied to how regularly users monitor their data.
In both these cases, notification emails play a critical role in the customer experience.
The AMP Difference
Here’s an example of a security-related notification email from Revolut:
This email notifies the user that a previously requested secure document is now available, and requires a 2FA passcode from the user’s cell phone before download. The current flow requires the user to click through to the website, enter their phone number, then input the passcode on Revolut’s site.
AMP can enable the user to complete the entire process in the email itself. Note that this will require the user to have provided their phone number previously on Revolut’s site, as email forms may not be sufficiently secure to provide 2FA or other sensitive personal details. But assuming that that’s the case, the user can simply click a button in the email to get a passcode on their phone, then input it and get a link to download the documents. Since the passcode itself is temporary, it does not pose the same security risk as providing the user’s permanent phone number.
Credit Karma provides an excellent example of a tracking-related notification email:
This email incentivizes the user to click on the link to check their credit score on Credit Karma’s secure site. AMP can improve the experience by allowing the email to update in real-time, perhaps changing the position of the arrow on the graphic depending on the difference in credit score since the user’s last log-in.
As with the previous example, companies should still be careful to observe data regulations. For example, AMP could technically be used to show the user’s real-time credit score, along with the latest transactions that affected the score, but since email is not a secure medium, sharing such sensitive data via AMP would probably be unwise.
Still, when used judiciously, AMP can greatly improve the notification experience without compromising on data security or regulatory compliance.
Product Announcement Emails
The financial landscape evolves rapidly, and the most successful fintech firms are able to respond to customer needs by developing and launching new financial products over time.
Announcing new products to your existing customer list is one of the most reliable ways to get fast traction. Since those customers already trust you, they’re much more likely to sign up for a new product, as long as they can understand how it benefits them.
An effective product announcement email needs to answer four questions:
- What is the product?
- How does it work?
- What benefits does it provide?
- What do customers need to qualify for the product?
And similarly to new account applications, the signup process needs to be clear, efficient and hassle-free.
The AMP Difference
Consider this email from Aspiration:
This email answers the first three questions succinctly, starting with a quick introduction to the product, explaining exactly how the product works and its unique benefit – 10 cents of every dollar donated to charity. The email is also clear that the application must be made within 7 days to qualify, but that the invitation can be passed on to the customer’s friends and family.
The only open question is whether the user qualifies for the product, which is especially relevant given the transferability of the invitation. Often, this is hard to address in the email itself, as there can be a number of requirements. But with AMP, the email can include a simple questionnaire that can let the customer check if they are eligible, before having to go through the full application process. The questionnaire should ask for general information – such as broad income ranges instead of specific dollar figures – both for the comfort of new customers as well as to minimize security risks.
The questionnaire could also ask if the applicant is an existing or new customer, and this, combined with the other information provided, can be used to filter applicants into different application streams on Aspiration’s site.
By streamlining and personalizing the application process, these upgrades could significantly improve conversion rates for both existing and new customers.
Referral Emails
Since fintech products are sophisticated and include a significant service component, new customer acquisition requires a high degree of trust. By far the best way to quickly earn that trust is to be referred by an existing customer.
Ironically, those attributes are also precisely why it’s hard for customers to explain fintech products to their friends. If fintech companies want to earn more referrals, they have to find ways to do most of that education themselves.
The AMP Difference
Unfortunately, this can be challenging with static emails. Take this referral email from Revolut:
The email does a good job of explaining how the referral works, and why the customer should make the referral (a 10€ bonus for them and the referee). It also gives customers the option of sending an email via their dashboard, or copying a referral link directly to their friends.
Once the referee clicks on the link they are sent to a customized landing page including the referrer’s name and a concise description of Revolut’s benefits:
While this process checks all the boxes, the sequencing of information is not ideal, since the referee has to click on the link before they can see an explanation of why they should be interested in Revolut in the first place. So if the referrer had sent the link themselves, the referee is unlikely to have much context.
With AMP, the referral email itself can include a form that allows the referrer to send out an automated email from Revolut without having to log in to the website. This allows Revolut to control the messaging in the referral email, and perhaps even customize it by including the referrer’s name in the subject line, thus increasing open rates.
It’s also easier than requiring the referrer to compose a new email blast and copy over the link, or log in to their dashboard just to send the referral, hence making them more likely to do so in the first place.
AMP for Email can therefore improve success rates at every stage of the referral process, from sending to opening to ultimate conversion.
Get an edge on the competition
AMP emails can provide fintech companies with a powerful advantage over financial incumbents and other fintech competitors. The easiest way to get started is with Dyspatch’s user-friendly, no-code AMP email builder. Book a demo with us today.
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