2024
Emerald Advance Loan
A financial product by H&R Block
A product for those in need of a financial break
The Emerald Advance Loan is a long-standing staple in H&R Block’s suite of financial offerings. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, clients can apply for a fixed rate, short-term loan up to $1,300.
Emerald Advance has lots of customers that come back every year and rely on it as an important financial event.
-
Female
26-45 years old
Has children <18 years old
Works full-time
Makes less than $40,000
-
Appointment sign-up cConversion
Appointment completion
Online Appointment entry
Quote from an Emerald Advance user:
“It was the only way to ensure my kids have a decent Christmas this year. The cost of everything has skyrocketed.”
A little background on this project's History2023 was a record-setting year for the product.
So, we were all keen to to replicate that “magic” in 2024. But, what exactly led to our success? Were we even representing the product responsibly and honestly? We resolved to take a good hard look at the impact of our design and content strategy.
Landing Page Hero from 2023
Design and Content’s Burdens for 2024
Memorability and conversion
Most of the EAL clients that didn’t return for 2023 simply forgot to apply. Less than 10% said they didn’t apply because they had a negative experience.
Loan repayment
In 2023, we discovered that consumers did not have sufficient messaging to remind them to repay their loan. In 2024, we have made solving this issue a top priority.
Feature comprehension
The loan was re-vamped in 2023 to remove fees and make the product accessible to more clients. In 2024, we are still looking to increase awareness of the new features.
Our solutions and responses to these burdens:
Feature Comprehension
1
When my content partner and I first started strategizing on solving for user understanding, we knew that the marquee was going to need to have transparent and upfront details. With any loan product, it’s necessary to callout that this isn’t free money — it needs to be paid back.
By partnering the copy “$350 to $1,300” with the loan UI’s slider screen, we showed users that they have the ability to take what they need and encourage wise loan consumption.
Showing the product screen upfront is great for another reason: users told us that they loved the slider functionality in 2023.
Memorability and conversion
2
We hold the conviction that comprehension leads to quality conversions. It’s one thing to lead a user to sign-up for an appointment, but it’s another to ensure that they also commit to applying for the loan.
Through identifying 3 simple steps to get going, we’ve made the journey that much easier.
Loan repayment
3
Not to be too glib, but the tug-of-war between business and customer goals is a real thing.
The business goal is to boost conversions.
The consumer goal is to get some cash and re-pay it with little impact on their credit score and with no outstanding balance after the due date.
My content partner and I committed to making an experience that prioritized counseling the user on the risks of the loan before taking on the burden. Wise decisions are a cornerstone of strong financial health.
Although it did take some convincing, we successfully advocated for including a real-world example that informed consumers how much potential interest is involved with the loan.
A little bit of visual flair and exploration:
Users have options. Let’s make them look great.
When a user takes an Emerald Advance loan, they can elect to put it on an Emerald Card or a Spruce debit card. I saw an opportunity here to create isometric artwork with some realistic vector lighting. This keeps the images capped at a lightweight size, scalable to any size, and ended up becoming an asset to other design partners for other company needs. A win-win.
Users love the slider.
We love that behavior.
The slider functionality was introduced for the first time in 2023, which gave users the visual power to adjust their loan. We loved this behavior, because healthy consumption habits are something to be celebrated. Coming in to 2024, we knew that we could bring more users into this delightful experience by featuring it in the marquee.
Putting it to the test
From the start, we were thinking about how we could develop testing plans to determine what the most effective messaging and imagery would be.
In this testing example, the objective was to understand the marquee content’s effect on appointment creation.
The team behind the 2024 Emerald Advance Loan .com page project:
Trevor Stark
Designer
Malerie Grady
Writer
Rachel Nyp
Natalie Morgan
Zane Zwerenz
Matt Roiz
Authors + Devs
Mike Tolin
Kate Michel
Testing Partners
Alex Alewell
Project Manager