A Financial Firm's Bullish Bet On Customer Education

The financial services sector is bustling with unprecedented demand and opportunity. Once a ‘follow-the-leader’ industry, this highly competitive sector is now being infiltrated by tech savvy mavericks who produce returns using laser accuracy rather than hiding behind the status quo.

Blue Oak Group is spearheading this charge in the Southeast, applying their powerful Endowment Model to individual investors. Blue Oak approached us with a unique challenge; build a platform as bold and effective as their methodology. Working with an innovative concept inspired our team to deliver two of our most comprehensive products to date.

This project was much more than a site redesign — Blue Oak was reinventing their brand. We needed to develop a platform that allowed them to engage and communicate this message with their audience.

Blue Oak’s target wasn’t the trust fund type, they wanted self-made individuals willing to invest in the process of understanding why and how the Endowment Model is better. For this, we built a custom platform that allows clients and professionals to create user accounts, see recent/recommended articles, save articles for later, vote content up/down, see their reading progress, view estimated read times and more. Is your financial advisor working this hard to keep you informed?

Blue Oak’s story begins with a team of highly skilled individuals who set out to abolish the cookie-cutter investment mindset.

Much like its founders, Blue Oak’s target customer is the self-made individual. In order to connect with this persona, we had the partners tell their story from their office. Blue Oak is intentionally small with a team made up of highly skilled, involved individuals. It was clear that this blue collar approach was their true differentiator from competitors and communicating this was an integral part of establishing the brand narrative.

In less than 90 seconds the potential client understands that at Blue Oak, investing in relationships isn’t a catchy tagline, it’s their business model.

How are you telling your story?

While Blue Oak’s target is the self-made individual, there’s no way to escape the fact that their clients have earned their way into the upper class. The design elements had to instill a sense of prosperity without a shred of pretension.

To achieve this goal, we paired American archetypes (stars, laurel leaves, etc) with modern font faces and vibrant colors. This unique style communicates Blue Oak’s taste for innovation while ushering the viewer back to a time when integrity was the gold standard.

What if a site knew exactly what you wanted to read? What if you could receive content tailored specifically to your interests? Take a seat at Blue Oak University — where class is always in session.

The final trait of Blue Oak’s target persona is a willingness to understand the rationale behind the endowment approach. Well informed investors are something Blue Oak emphasizes throughout the relationship lifespan. A necessary part of this process is curating and providing sound research on the facts of the ever changing economic landscape.

Blue Oak also provides services in a number of professional partnerships they have forged throughout the years. Accountants, attorneys and other professionals across the US look to Blue Oak for their expertise in strategic investment planning (tax advantaged savings, estate planning, commercial purchases, etc.).

Meeting these needs required more than a nice looking blog, Blue Oak needed an intelligent platform capable of curating and delivering relevant content to their clients and partners.

Blue Oak University allows users to login, see recommended reading, save articles for later, vote content up/down, see their on-page progress, view estimated read times and more.

User engagement has become the gatekeeper for search engine rankings and generating conversions. Creating relevant content that matters to a few is more valuable than boring the masses. We built a system that delivers customized news so every article is meaningful.

Videos are a superior form of storytelling. Compared to copy alone, video increases brand recall, message retention and conversion rate. Videos allow you to communicate directly to your customer, 24/7, using the exact tone, inflection and elevator pitch you want them to hear.

Every successful brand has a captivating story behind why they got into business. Video allows you tell this story in the most compelling way.