Every fintech business faces the same paradox. You’ve built elegant technology that makes financial services simpler, faster and more accessible. Yet your potential customers are abandoning your sign-up flow at the verification screen. Or dropping off when they hit your pricing page. Or closing the tab when they see your security explanation.
The technology isn’t the problem. The friction is in the words.
Customer journey friction costs fintech businesses millions in lost conversions. Research shows that 68% of consumers abandon online applications for financial services. While product issues play a role, much of that friction comes down to how you communicate. Unclear messaging, intimidating jargon, or copy that raises more questions than it answers creates hesitation. And in fintech, hesitation means lost customers.
Clear copywriting removes that friction. It guides users smoothly from awareness to action, addresses concerns before they become objections, and builds the trust that’s essential when you’re asking people to move their money to your platform.
Let’s look at where friction typically appears in fintech customer journeys, and how strategic copywriting solves it.
Where friction appears in fintech journey
The awareness stage: Potential customers land on your site. They’re curious but cautious. If your homepage doesn’t immediately clarify what you do and why it matters to them specifically, you’ve probably lost them already. Vague claims about being “innovative” or “revolutionary” create friction because they don’t answer their fundamental question: what’s in it for me?
The consideration stage: Here, they’re exploring, to understand your product, compare you to alternatives and decide whether you’re credible. This is where friction multiplies.
• Technical jargon they don’t understand
• Feature lists without context
• Pricing structures that seem deliberately confusing
These are just a few examples but every unclear moment is a reason to look elsewhere.
The decision stage: Your user is ready to sign up or request a demo. Then they come to your onboarding flow. But if it’s not simple and clear, you’re in trouble. We’ve all been put off by unclear instructions and form fields that don’t make sense. Or security explanations that sound more scary than reassuring. And of course, there are those regulatory requirements explained like legal boilerplate rather than simple steps. Every confusing moment increases the chance that they’ll abandon the process altogether.
The activation stage: They’ve signed up, that should be job done, but they haven’t started using your product properly. Why? It could be any of these:
• Unclear onboarding emails
• In-app messaging that assumes knowledge they don’t have
• Help documentation that reads like it was written by engineers for engineers
Friction here means low activation rates and eventual churn. When you use clear copy, you address friction at every stage. It anticipates questions, removes ambiguity and creates confidence. Let’s look at how that works in practice.
How copywriting removes friction from customer journeys
It translates technology into benefits. Your customers don’t need to understand your API architecture or how your machine learning models work. They need to know that your platform will save them time, reduce their costs or give them better control over their finances. Clear copy focuses on outcomes, not features. It explains what your technology does for them in language they actually use.
When we worked with RegTech brand PassFort, the challenge wasn’t explaining the sophisticated technology behind their product. It was helping compliance professionals understand how it would make their own verification processes faster and more reliable. The copy focused on reducing onboarding friction for their clients’ customers, not on the technical sophistication of the fraud detection. That clarity helped build their reputation in the market, ultimately leading to their acquisition by Moody’s Analytics.
It builds trust through transparency. Fintech faces higher trust barriers than most sectors. You’re asking people to trust you with their money, their data, or their financial security. The last thing you need is copy that tries to hide behind corporate speak or glosses over legitimate concerns.
Clear copy addresses concerns directly. It explains security measures without sounding defensive. It acknowledges regulatory requirements while making them feel manageable. It presents pricing in straightforward terms rather than hiding costs in small print. When customers feel you’re being straight with them, friction fades away.
It guides decisions with clarity. Choice paralysis also creates friction. When customers can’t easily understand the differences between your pricing tiers, product options or service levels, they postpone decisions or look to a competitor.
Effective fintech copywriting provides clarity at decision points. It explains differences clearly, recommends specific options for specific needs, and removes the cognitive load from complex choices. What does that mean in the real world? Consider these:
• Comparison tables with plain English explanations, not just tick boxes.
• Pricing pages that spell out exactly what each tier includes and who it’s right for.
• Product pages that guide visitors toward the option that matches their situation.
It reduces onboarding friction. The sign-up process is where many fintech customer journeys break down. KYC (know your customer) requirements, security verifications and regulatory processes are necessary, but they’re also intimidating if not handled well.
Clear copy will make your onboarding feel simple rather than arduous. It explains each step before users encounter it and provides context for why information is needed. Moreover, it turns regulatory requirements from scary legal language into straightforward steps anyone can follow. The words you use during onboarding directly impact completion rates.
It maintains momentum with consistent messaging. Friction also appears when messaging feels inconsistent between your marketing site, product interface and customer communications. If your website promises simplicity but your app uses complex terminology, you’ve created friction. If your marketing emphasises transparency but your emails are vague, you’ll lose trust.
Effective copywriting agencies ensure consistency across every touchpoint. The same clear, confident voice appears in website copy, in-app messaging, help documentation, emails and sales materials. That consistency reduces cognitive friction and builds trust through familiarity.
The business impact of reducing friction
When you remove friction from customer journeys, the benefits can be seen in your metrics. Conversion rates improve because more visitors complete sign-up flows. Time-to-value decreases because onboarding becomes smoother. At the same time, customer acquisition costs fall because clear messaging converts more effectively. While churn reduces because activated customers understand your product value.
For startups building brand awareness, clear copy compounds over time. Each piece of content that demonstrates genuine expertise and communicates clearly builds authority. When we started working with PassFort as a young brand, the focus was on thought leadership that positioned them as experts in anti-fraud verification. That consistent, clear communication helped them get noticed in their market and contributed to their growth trajectory.
For established fintech brands, reducing friction through copywriting helps maintain competitive advantage. When everyone in your sector has similar features, clarity becomes differentiation. The business that explains their product most clearly, addresses concerns most directly and guides customers most effectively wins more often.
Getting copywriting right for fintech
Reducing friction through copy isn’t about dumbing down complex products. It’s about respecting your audience enough to communicate clearly. It requires understanding the technology deeply enough to explain it simply. It means anticipating questions and addressing them before they create hesitation. And it demands consistency across every customer touchpoint.
That’s why fintech businesses increasingly work with specialist copywriting agencies that understand both financial services and how to communicate clearly under regulatory constraints. Generic marketing agencies often lack the sector knowledge to get tone and messaging right. Internal teams typically lack the capacity to create consistent content across all channels while managing their core responsibilities.
At Alex Genn Copywriting, we’ve spent over 20 years working across financial services with businesses from early-stage startups through to global institutions like American Express, Invesco and HSBC. That experience means we understand fintech challenges, regulatory requirements, and how to communicate complex financial technology in ways that build trust and reduce friction. Our team of 25 senior UK-based writers, each with at least 15 years of experience, ensures you get specialist expertise matched to your specific needs.
When your customer journey has friction, you lose customers and revenue. When you remove that friction through clear, strategic copywriting, you make it easier for the right customers to choose you, stay with you, and recommend you to others.
If you’re looking to reduce friction in your customer journeys and build a fintech brand through consistently clear content, let’s talk about how we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do fintech customers abandon sign-up flows?
Friction in sign-up flows usually comes from unclear instructions, unexpected verification steps, confusing form fields or security processes that feel intimidating rather than reassuring. When customers encounter terminology they don’t understand or requirements that aren’t properly explained, they abandon the process. Clear copywriting reduces this friction by explaining each step before users encounter it, providing context for why information is needed and turning regulatory requirements from legal language into straightforward steps.
How does copywriting reduce friction in fintech customer journeys?
Copywriting reduces friction by translating technology into clear benefits, addressing concerns before they create hesitation, guiding decisions with clarity rather than overwhelming customers with choice, making onboarding feel manageable rather than difficult and maintaining consistent messaging across all touchpoints. When customers understand what you’re offering, why it matters to them and how to get started, they move through your customer journey with less hesitation and higher conversion rates.
What makes fintech copywriting different from general B2B copy?
Fintech copywriting needs to balance innovation with credibility, explain complex technology without jargon, address higher trust barriers than most sectors, navigate regulatory requirements while staying engaging and speak to multiple audiences from consumers to enterprise clients to investors. General B2B copywriting often lacks the sector knowledge to get tone right, misses regulatory nuances or fails to address the specific trust concerns that arise when you’re asking people to trust you with their money or financial data.
Where does friction typically appear in fintech customer journeys?
Friction appears at multiple stages: in awareness when value propositions are unclear, during consideration when product explanations use jargon or features lack context, at decision points when pricing or options are confusing, during onboarding when KYC (know your customer) and verification processes aren’t properly explained and in activation when help documentation or in-app messaging assumes knowledge customers don’t have. Each unclear moment increases the chance customers will abandon your journey.
How long does it take to see results from improved fintech copywriting?
Website and onboarding copy improvements typically show results within weeks as conversion rates and completion rates improve. Thought leadership and content marketing deliver compound benefits over months as search rankings improve and brand authority builds. The specific timeline depends on what friction points you’re addressing and how comprehensively you’re improving messaging across customer touchpoints. Most fintech businesses see measurable improvement in key metrics within the first quarter of working with specialist copywriters.
Ready to start making your fintech content work harder? Talk to us today.