EMILY GILLES, EMILY HENNEN, EMMA MESKOVIC, DAVID SAUNDERS, JAKE WHEELER RETENTION TEAM | 18 OCTOBER 2011

Retention: the preservation of the after eects of experience and learning that make recognition

possible (Websters Dictionary). As the retention team, we want to preserve the after eects that students gain from Love Your Money. We want to create a memorable rst experience for students in order to establish a lasting relationship with the website. e information on this website is crucial for students, and we believe that it has the potential to gain a reputation as an essential tool in nancial education. When these students are having a babies or planning for retirement, we want them to remember Love Your Money as a trustworthy source of nancial information. Our goal is to increase the retention rate of Love Your Money by creating an active and bene cial resource that is applicable towards all stages of life. Lets say we are freshmen in college, and our teacher suggests we visit Love Your Money. We type in the web address, and the main screen pops up. e rst thing we see is a light-heated rendition of George Washington on the dollar bill, with funny snippets of audio, like Dont pretend Im not here, budget me! and instantly, the site grabs our attention. Before we login, there are a few pages in which we can view some general money tips, read a brief overview of the site, and jump to the Love Your Money Twitter and Facebook pages. After we login, we can interact with the learning modules, use the nancial calculators, and we also have the option to write messages to other people. As the retention team, we are excited about the fun, whimsical mood that is initially displayed on the home page, because the George Washington personality adds a memorable face to the website. We also think that the nancial tools and resources, such as the nancial calculators and the Track-Your-Spending Record, are bene cial to the user, and these resources serve as inspiration in our forward strategies. We love the information of this website because it is crucial to nancial education, but we are worried that the information is neither accessible to the user, nor easily digestible. Part of the reason why college students do not come back to the website after the initial visit is the inaccessibility of the information. ere is no search bar on the website, so students are forced to hunt for simple terms and de nitions. While the audio is initially charming, we believe that it is unnecessary to the user because they do not receive a bene t from listening to the audio clips. According to the researchers at Apple, Traditional learning strategies are becoming increasingly ineective with a generation of secondary students that have instant access to information, are accustomed to managing their own acquisition of knowledge, and embrace the roles of content producer and publisher. Currently, students visit Love Your Money only if they are required, and the information is stagnant and dicult to access. We want the users to be able to produce their own content, and to feel like

they have a presence on Love Your Money. We want to create an online community in which users can reap the bene ts of nancial education. One way in which users can receive immediate bene ts from Love Your Money, is a supplementary mobile app. According to a recent AT+T survey, nearly 72% of small businesses are currently using mobile apps. e majority of these businesses said that they are using apps to save time; whereas, 59% said that apps increase productivity, 29% said that they are cost-saving, and 11% simply said that apps are cool and hip (Rubin). A mobile app is bene cial to the user because accessibility is no longer an issue--they will always have Love Your Money on their phone, and more importantly, a mobile app will build user loyalty. According to Dennis Newel of the eCommerce blog, Get Elastic, A customer who actively downloads and installs an app has a pretty good chance of using it. e app on the desktop is top-of-mind. Like Daniel says, a mobile app is an easy way to keep the brand fresh on students minds; once they download, it it always with them. After the initial visit to the website, students need a reason to come back, and a mobile app will give students that reason. It will keep them actively engaged with the information and give them access to the resources anytime, anywhere. In a generation that expects instant grati cation, we are certain that a mobile app will increase retention because it encourages students to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems (Apple, Inc.). A mobile app will embrace the students digital lives, and serve as a tool that students can use to reap the bene ts money management. We propose a mobile app that is supplementary to the website, not just a mobile rendition of the website. One that will be a simple tool that can keep the name of Love Your Money fresh on students minds. IRA calculator, and the emergency savings calculator. e app will include the calculator tools: the net worth calculator, the 401(k) savings calculator, the roth/traditional e app will also include a monthly budget builder, is is that will send text alerts for exceeding budgets, and a mobile checking account balance, in which the users can enter their expenses, and have them automatically calculated and compared with their budgets. aspect of the app is similar to the Chase Mobile app, and the Mint app, but in order to serve as an educational tool, the Love Your Money app will not be connected with any online banking accounts. identity theft. management. Not all Love Your Money users have access to mobile apps, so all of the tools on the mobile app will be accessible on the users pro le on the website. Online pro les are becoming an essential part of self-identi cation, especially among college students. According to a CareerBuilder survey, approximately 45% of employers screen candidates online via their Facebook and Twitter pro les (Morrison). A pro le is important to users because a prominent online presence gives users a reason to return to the website. We propose a pro le that the user can customize, and view all of the information on the website, without is app will be a simple tool that everyone can use, with clear charts and graphs to will make the app more trustworthy, and allow users to learn how to build budgets without the worry of document spending patterns, so that Love Your Money users can reap the bene ts of hands-on money

having to re-do the learning modules. One reason that students do not return to the website after the required visit, is the inaccessibility of the information that they learned in the modules, so it will also be included in a searchable section of the pro le. is pro le will include all of the tools in the mobile app, such as the budget builder and calculator, plus a section in which the user can search nancial information and terms, organized by speci c life stages: employment, starting a family, emergencies, and retirement. Not only does this make the information easier to reach, but it lets the users know that Love Your Money is not just for students--it is a website that has crucial nancial information for every life stage. e pro le will also include a money tip section, where the user can view money tips one-by-one in digestible chunks, as opposed to lists. Also, It will include a nancial headline newsfeed, to keep the website up-to-date and fresh. Once the user logs in to the website, they will go straight to the pro le, and from here, they can link to the modules, social media, and access all of the nancial information in a search bar. Social interaction is an important aspect of retention, because it creates an online community that the user can be a part of. e interactive messaging elements of Love Your Money are not internal to the website; instead, they are sent via email. In order to make social interaction more central to the website, we propose a comment section to give the option of providing feedback and interacting with other users. According to Bradley Hess of Blogger Talk, the most valuable part of a blog is the comment section. Usually if one person has a question, so do many others. is is a great place for users to ask, answer e questions, and provide their own tips and tricks that you may have no had time to cover in your blog. comment section will keep the website dynamic and constantly changing, and it will give the users the option of creating the content themselves. One example of a comment service provider is Disqus.com. Most blogs and online newspapers have comment sections, and Disqus.com is responsible for managing the comment sections of important websites like CNN and TIME. Our nal proposition to increase retention is an online newsletter, sent to the users email. e newsletter will be a reminder of the users online account, and an update of the users budget and goals. A Direct Marketing Association survey states that in 2010, email was the most widely used web-based direct marketing tool (Enright). is is an inexpensive way to directly market to the account holders, and to build trust with Love Your Money users. With the establishment of a mobile app, pro les, comment sections, and newsletters, we can increase the retention rate of Love Your Money. With these essential forward strategies, Love Your Money can become a dynamic, bene cial resource with loyal users from every stage of life.

WORKS CITED 1. Apple, Inc. "Challenge Based Learning: Take Action and Make a Dierence." 1-18. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. 2. Enright, Allison. "Marketers Remain Hesitant to Invest in Some Areas of Direct Marketing, a Survey Says." Internet Retailer. Vertical Web Media, 18 Feb. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. 3. Hess, Bradley. Weblog post. Blogger Talk. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. 4. Morrison, Tony. "Why Resumes Will Be Replaced by Online Pro les." Interview by Heather Huhman. Cachinko. 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. 5. Newel, Dennis. "Mobile Application or Mobile Website or Both?" Web log post. Get Elastic. Elastic Path, 8 Mar.2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. 6. Rubin, Courtney. "Could You Survive without Mobile Apps?" Inc. Magazine. Mansueto Ventures LLC, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.