As a week-long project, I researched into the company M1 Finance, identified areas for improvement in their marketing and sales, and created a solution for them.
Here is a three-minute video that introuduces you to my project.
About M1 Finance
M1 Finance is a fintech company that offers free to low-cost investing, borrowing, and cash management services.
Being fascinated by the personal finance world, M1's mission closely resonates with me. They strive to help people gain control of their finances and build long-term wealth through investing.
What can be improved
As of now, the only way that M1 can capture emails is to have visitors open an M1 individual brokerage account. This lead capture method could be depriving M1 of potential leads, especially website visitors who are somewhat interested in M1’s services, but aren’t entirely convinced they want to plunge into it yet. These visitors may hesitate to open an M1 account because they don’t fully understand M1’s product, likely due to a lack of financial knowledge.
My solution
In order to capture these potentially profitable leads and convert them into customers, I created a new lead magnet and two marketing emails intended to help them understand the value of M1’s services.
The lead magnet
The lead magnet is a free eBook, which visitors get in exchange for their email.
Things to note about this lead magnet page:
The value proposition of a free eBook
By offering a free but immensely valuable resource for finance beginners, this creates the perception that M1’s main services will exceed their expectations.
The title "Winning the Wealth Marathon"
One of M1's philosophies is that wealth-creation is a long-term commitment, not a 'sprint'. Since the eBook title encapsulates this philosophy, visitors get the impression that the advice shared in the book is realistic and delivers tangible progress.
The features and benefits
Explaining the benefits of each topic helps visitors visualize how reading the book will improve their lives.
The visual design
I placed the email subscribe form at the top and bottom of the page. This makes the call-to-action (CTA) very obvious to the reader, therefore increasing the likelihood that they’ll subscribe.
Marketing email #1
Visitors should receive this email as soon as they subscribe to the mailing list. This email contains the eBook pdf, as well as a heads up about the next email they will receive.
Things to note about this email:
Straightforward email subject line
Given the very few people have time to read through all the marketing emails they receive, they’ll decide whether an email is worth opening solely based on the subject line. Instead of trying to be clever with the subject line copy, I chose to attract attention by letting the lead know exactly what they get inside the email.
Included a table of contents for convenience
By including the table of contents with links to individual chapters, this saves readers the hassle of having to find the chapter they are interested in.
The P.S.
By mentioning that readers will get more useful information regarding wealth-creation, this increases anticipation for the next email from M1.
Marketing email #2
Things to note about this email:
The timing of this email
The second email should be sent about three days after the first email. This gives leads a chance to read the eBook before diving deeper into managing their finances. Sending emails less frequently also avoids the impression that the company is spammy with their email marketing, therefore retaining the subscribers.
Customer-centric copy
I referred to the reader many times throughout the email, especially when explaining the benefits of M1’s services. The use of second person makes it clear that M1 has the reader’s best interests at heart.
The question at the end
This is intended to turn the email into a friendly conversation between the company and the lead.
Concluding points
Although creating an eBook for a lead magnet seems like a demanding task, it shouldn’t take much effort for M1 to implement. This is because M1 already produces heaps of content related to the eBook (published on their blog and newsletter). All there is left to do is to recycle the existing content to form a handy resource for personal finance beginners.
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