After discussing the importance of colors in building a solid website, in designing your trading platform and in making decisions regarding branding, it is time to discuss another important element in all forms of digital communications and platforms: choice of words!
The manner of speech used in digital communications, from website and platform content to marketing materials such as banners, email blasts and articles in industry publications, is vital for the success of any brokerage. It is your company’s narrative and voice and, at the end of the day, it is what leads your clients down the path you want them to go.
So why focus on your tone of voice? Why not simply give clients clear and concise messages which they can easily understand and follow? The main reason is that every mode of communication serves a different purpose and your language must be adapted accordingly and tailored to the exact place in which it will be displayed. To demonstrate this, let’s do a quick comparison between banners and trading platforms.
In a banner, which is a quintessential online advertising tool, you have very little room for text and your main goal is to pique a potential client’s interest in your brokerage. Therefore, the language used in banners needs to be concise, active (rather than passive) and make use of emotion-arousing words. There is no point in appealing to one’s logic in a banner – save this for later.
Furthermore, it would be necessary for your MarCom efforts to make a few different versions of the same banner to be used in different websites. This is because media campaigns, as we have mentioned in one of our previous emails, “piggyback” on other websites’ clienteles, and we as marketers want to make the appeal to clients as personal as possible. This means that if your banner is supposed to be posted in an online casino, you can make references that appeal to gamblers (but tread lightly, as overt gambling references cause problems with regulation).
Integrating Content & Design
Another thing to remember about deciding on banner texts is that they complement the graphic design – which is used by professionals to deliver messages that cannot be delivered verbally. For instance: in the aforementioned example of banners posted on casino websites, the gambling reference does not, and should not, be explicit and verbal. Make the reference subtle, graphic (rather than written) and use your text to help potential clients make the connection themselves. This will not only help avoid problems with regulatory agencies such as CySEC, but also improve conversion.
The game is different on your website. Once a client has reached your website, you have their attention, at least for a while, and now you need to retain it. While you don’t want your website to be too wordy, you do have more leeway and flexibility. This is also the place in which it is a good idea to change your voice a bit. If you want to appeal to logic and reason – now is the time to do it. Why? Because if before they were looking for adventure and thrill, now they are looking for a place that will take care of them as clients, respect their money, and allow them to withdraw their profits without a hassle. It is still good to use emotion-evoking language, but while up to now you wanted to arouse excitement, now you want to add security.
Lastly, make sure you incorporate a heavy dose of NLP. NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming, and it is a psychological method of subconsciously and subtly instilling ideas in people by using seemingly innocent sentences and words. Also make sure that your narrative stays relevant and fresh. It is best to choose a content writer and graphic designer that know and understand each other’s work, as it allows them to cooperate and create a product that is larger than the sum of its parts.
