Senior copy and UX writer, Vanguard

In-house creative agency writer for client communications, client web experiences, retail marketing, and internal communications.

Rapid response UX

As Russia invaded Ukraine, our rapid response task force delivered reassuring messages to investors in record time.

The challenge: As tensions escalated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we needed to act fast to reassure investors they should stay invested (and not convert to cash) in this time of uncertainty.

Our investors really liked to call us on the phone and talk to an human when they had questions or concerns. It makes sense: Vanguard was often their main source of future and retirement financial security. But we simply didn’t have enough coverage to deal with such widespread issue.

We needed a web-based campaign to give our investors the right messaging from the CEO and other executives, as well as realistic information in real time (or as close as possible) to address investors at scale.
As the dedicated client communications UX writer on the task force, I worked with ACDs, the creative director, and legal council in real time as markets responded to the news cycle, and as strategies and messaging evolved per direction from leadership.
We worked overnights to create a coordinated suite of front-page website updates, web banners, and emails. We did this over the course of a few weeks to mitigate customer concerns as the situation progressed and as economic concerns grew.
This experience helped our organization streamline our rapid response process to be able to scale it for future emergency situations. We held a retrospective and defined roles for efficiency, speed, and accuracy.

Influencing behavior change

UX and client comms writer updating our self-service portal. And actually getting our investors to use it.

The challenge: Many of our investors were very set in their ways, particularly our older and high-net-worth clients. They relied on calling financial advisors for any routine transaction. Too many customers ignored our easy-to-use self-service portal and were accustomed to white-glove service. This would usually overwhelm our phone support teams and slowed response times, which was frustrating for everyone involved.

We needed to improve portal usability and convince our long-standing customers to adopt digital self-service behaviors.
Our team approached the problem from two angles: improving the online experience and guiding behavioral change through clear communication. Vanguard introduced a policy change establishing a small transaction fee for requests that could be completed through the portal, paired with a multi-month communications effort designed to prepare clients, explain the rationale, and support adoption.
At the same time, we audited the portal experience to find ways to make workflows more intuitive and accessible for an aging investor audience.
As lead writer, I owned the behavior-change communications strategy across email, print, FAQs, and client education materials. I helped translate our policy changes into empathetic, easy-to-understand messaging that guided investors through the whys and the how-tos. I also helped with the client portal audit by identifying key improvements in clarity and accessibility.
Our campaign reduced phone calls and the pressure on our agents, and we increased adoption of self-service tools by a surprisingly large margin. (I’ve lost track of the exact number, but it was near 90%.) Even we were shocked at the change.

It’s hard to say if the change was entirely from our communications and UX efforts. It also could have been the threat of a $20 transaction fee for unnecessary phone calls. We won’t know for sure, but I’d like to think it all worked together to be extremely effective.
Behavior change is tough, especially for legacy customers with decades of established habits. However, consistently accommodating outdated habits can be very expensive for an organization, and unsustainable. The longer you let things slide, the more resistant customers and users will be to change. Staying on top of behavior change, and handling it with care, is critical.

Investor education campaign

Lead client communications writer helping investors understand market volatility and navigate uncertainty.

The challenge: Our investors were feeling the effects of the chaos from the COVID pandemic, national and global conflict, and economic uncertainty. With so many unprecedented circumstances, they worried about their future. And our average client didn’t necessarily have deep financial literacy. Vanguard investors tend to be more financially conservative and simply want security for retirement, and trusts and education funds for their families.

We created a market volatility campaign campaign. It was a series of coordinated emails and articles to tell investors a story about the history of market volatility, and what they can do when they’re feeling anxious about their investments. We reassured clients that markets will even out as they always do, even after noteworthy market crashes.
I worked with strategists, writers, designers, and an investor behavioral expert to create a series of articles and coordinating emails, and different versions of emails based on client segmentation research.
The messaging in this campaign supports Vanguard’s overall retail marketing strategy to keep investors feeling secure and confident that their financial plans are built to last.
What I appreciated most about this campaign was that our strategy wasn’t simply to tell investors their best and only course of action is to stay invested with us. We offer helpful history and statistics, and even identify special cases when they may actually need to make some adjustments to their financial plan. Our goal was to show clients we’re really looking out for their investment success.

An empowering rebrand

Lead writer on the rebrand of the Vanguard Black Professional Network (VBPN), and it inspired excitement and change.

The project: A small team in our in-house agency rebranded the Vanguard Black Professional Network (VBPN) to the Black Organization for Leadership and Dialogue (BOLD). The rebrand coincided with the group’s 10-year anniversary.

I’m very grateful to have been the lead writer on this project, and I feel it was the most important work I did at Vanguard. We heard Black employees’ concerns about the work environment, and how they needed the brand to represent them better and more authentically. It inspired important conversations and gave visibility to crew members who may have had complicated feelings about how things were going.

With members of the organization leading the conversation, we addressed the concept of double-consciousness in the workplace. We wanted to update the VBPN brand to reflect this. Our rebrand team worked closely with the leaders of the organization to make sure the themes and conversations were representative and impactful.
To update VBPN to BOLD, the designers and I worked with BOLD members as our client.
We pitched branding and design concepts to the BOLD team, took their feedback, made decisions based on their preferences, and brought our creative expertise to give them a brand presence that communicated their mission.

We ultimately delivered a new logo, new messaging guidelines, and an updated internal Sharepoint site to promote events and encourage new membership.
Leadership was so thrilled with the new design, website, and messaging that all the other crew resource groups requested rebrands from us, too. Vanguard began efforts to elevate branding and messaging for all crew resource groups throughout the organization as a result of our work on BOLD.