Backer
Services
Brand Messaging
Customer Research
Copywriting
Content Design + UX Copy
Email strategy + Copy
The project
A messaging makeover for Backer — a fintech startup focused on helping families save for college, together.
This included a complete overhaul of Backer's brand + product messaging (led by in-depth customer research), which was then rolled out across all their customer touchpoints: website, emails, socials, and their product.
The challenge
Backer had a super cool, innovative product — but it was a little bit complicated, and they weren’t sure how to talk about it.
They came to us because they were having trouble communicating their product in a way that people really “got it.”
Because they were working with complex financial products and ideas, they weren’t sure how to prioritize their messages, and how to explain things in a simple, customer-friendly way.
How we tackled it
A messaging deep dive, followed by new (super-clear) copy across the customer journey.
We kicked off our work with a messaging project, working closely with their best-fit customers to identify key desires, pain points, hesitations, benefits, and things they loved most about Backer.
That gave us a clear understanding of what mattered most to customers. And, maybe more importantly, the language they used to talk about it. From there, we worked with the Growth and Product teams, to make sure that customer language and the brand voice were coming through across all customer touchpoints.
The Strategy
Backer's original homepage was built on the idea that parenting is expensive. It's true. But the customer interviews told a different story.
The parents we spoke to weren't worried about the cost of parenting in general — they were specifically overwhelmed by saving for college. 529s felt complicated. They weren't sure they were doing it right, or doing enough.
And underneath that was a sharper, more emotional desire: most of them were still paying off their own student loans, and they didn't want their kid starting life the same way. They wanted to give them a real shot at a great future, without a lifetime of debt following them around.
A new headline that named the real job: Kickstart your kid's college fund. Specific, active, emotionally clear, and far closer to what customers were actually shopping for.
A messaging hierarchy that cut through the complexity, with the things customers cared about most leading the page. The team finally had a clear answer to "what do we say first, and why?"
New sections that addressed the hesitations the old page had skipped — is this a scam, how does it actually work, what exactly do I get — answered in the order a cautious parent would ask them.
A brand voice that was equal parts clear and inspiring.
So we rebuilt the messaging around the actual desire, not the assumed one:
The result
A clear website with messaging that reflects what actual customers need and want most.
Through our work together, Backer were able to get clear on their message, and figure out how to explain their product in a way that made people immediately “get it” (and want it). Since we were clear on what mattered most to their customers, it was easy to know what messages to prioritize.
We were able to immediately decrease the bounce rate and improve conversion, and increase confidence in marketing and product decisions.
Before & After
Want to see what made such a big impact? Here's exactly what changed after Backer worked with us.
BeforeAfter