Is your ISA brand ready for the stocks and shares gold rush?

In big news for people who get excited about almost-indefinitely delayed gratification, Rachel Reeves might be about to shake up the world of Individual Savings Accounts – better known as ISAs.

She’s keen to get the general public putting less moolah into their cash ISA and instead invest in stocks and shares (S&S) ISAs instead.

That means whether you’re a big-name bank or a fintech disruptor, if you offer S&S ISAs, now’s the time to start thinking about how you might market them.

So, in the absence of Martin Lewis, here are my two cents on how to do exactly that (that you should lock away in a long-term savings account RIGHT NOW).

Getting the brand back together

There’s a temptation to sometimes dismiss ‘branding’ as a fluffy nice-to-have, and that’s especially true if you’re selling something serious, like financial investments.

But when it comes to ISAs, how your brand comes across is essential – because the product you’re offering is fundamentally identical to the one from your competitors.

Since you can’t really differentiate it in any of the ways you could with most other products (quality, cost, scarcity, how fit it looks on Instagram etc.), the number one reason why someone might choose you over a rival is how appealing your brand is.

And while brands come in different shapes and sizes, I reckon you’re probably somewhere on a spectrum between two different poles: safe and established, or more modern and contemporary.

Ideally, all of your brand should be supporting one of those two angles. And that goes for your overall messaging on this ISA shift too.

Can I interest you in some financial volatility?

Let’s drill down into that potential messaging a bit more too.

Based on where you are on the above spectrum, you could look at two different approaches that target the audiences most likely to be attracted to your brand.

You can lean into the safety side of things, reassuring potential cash refugees that investing isn’t as scary as it’s sometimes made out to be.

Or you can go the other route, where you emphasise how much more in charge you are – the captain of your own ship, brilliantly navigating to far-flung riches others can only dream of.

That’s because under the hood, cash ISAs and S&S ISAs are very different.

A cash ISA is all about reliability. You know what’s going in (cash money) and no matter what else happens, you know what’s coming out (more cash money).

An S&S ISA is the complete opposite.

For starters, there’s an almost infinite number of companies you can invest in, from A(pple) to Z(oom). Then there are all the different funds (themed collections of investments), too.  And you also have to decide how to allocate all your weightings i.e. how much of each investment you want to buy.

Investing in this way is the very definition of risk vs reward. What your brand already stands for – or what you might want it to stand for – could determine which half of that equation you decide to focus on.

Show your working

One of the ways you should do that is with your writing.

Whichever approach you take, you’re going to have plenty of explaining to do.

Yes, cash ISAs and S&S ISAs are very different beasts. But your average person might not fully understand that, given that superficially they’re both just tax-proof ways of growing your personal wealth. But then, an ice-cream van and a funeral hearse are also just (different types of) vehicles – but you don’t want to get them mixed up.

So you’ll have to be prepared to break down all the differences and explain new concepts for people who don’t know the difference between an ROI and an ETF. (Which you should be doing anyway, given Consumer Duty.)

Now, the temptation might be to do this in a box-ticky fashion, to copy and paste in worthy but dull legalese. But that’s hardly going to entice anyone – and is a missed opportunity to let your brand shine through your tone of voice.

Invest in a half-decent writer

Let’s look at an example, shall we?

Here’s one of the most common principles in investing, one that you’ll want to drum home to anyone new to your platform: diversification.

Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

“In finance, diversification is the process of allocating capital in a way that reduces the exposure to any one particular asset or risk. A common path towards diversification is to reduce risk or volatility by investing in a variety of assets.”

Just rolls off the tongue, innit?

But we can explain it in a much simpler way – in fact, we can explain it twice, using a different tone for each of our different approaches.

Here’s our first option:

“Diversification can sound complicated. But remember that old saying about eggs and baskets? It’s basically that. If you need a helping hand filling your basket, just let us know.”

And here’s our second one:

“We know it can be tempting to YOLO all your funds into the next Nvidia. But you might be more likely to actually get to the moon (rather than just shoot for it) if you invest in lots of different stocks instead of just one. Want more info? Give us a shout.”

And look – neither of those are probably right for your brand. What is right for your brand? Only you can answer that. (But if you need help answering that, you know where to find us.)

Whichever route you end up going down, just remember: if potential customers come looking for a new ISA, your words will matter just as much as your numbers.

Written by Chris Lawes, Senior Writer at Definition.