The Principal Financial Group principal

1. The Principal Financial Groupwww.principal.com High-level Site Audit

2. Agenda • Introduction • General Observations on User Experience • Site Examples • General Observations on Strategy • Site Examples • Opportunities The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

3. Introduction • A high-level review has been performed on Principal.com. The purpose was to create a list of site recommendations. • Improvement opportunities were summarized and broken down into the following 4 user experience and strategy criteria: • Architecture & Navigation • Usability • Marketing & Sales • Customer Acquisition & Retention The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

4. General Observations – User Experience • Architecture & Navigation • The architecture of Principal.com is comprehensive in displaying all the business lines, however it does not utilize user-centered design • Current site architecture does not encourage an existing user to sign up for additional products or services because the site does not do a good job at showcasing useful related content • Global and local navigation elements change unpredictably making it hard to navigate the site • Groupings of content and navigation links are labeled in a confusing and unintuitive manner thereby reducing usability The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

5. User Experience For Individuals Architecture & Navigation • While navigating through products offered to an individual investor, the user loses the sub-navigation from one page to another. This results in frustration. • The content should be re-architected such that only section-related links are located in the primary left-hand navigation. • Creating breadcrumbs would additionally benefit the user • There is a lot of information presented on internal pages, such as For Individuals. • A stronger visual hierarchy with graphical representations would help users better sort through the information • There are too many links on the page. • Content areas should be regrouped to facilitate page scanning The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

6. General Observations – User Experience (continued) • Usability • Overall content strategy is unclear; content is unfocused and does not do a good job at driving users to intended areas of the site • Site forms are hard to complete; it takes the user several pages to complete what should be done in one or two steps • Example: the enrollment process • Online forms are not pre-populated with user profile data and previously entered information forcing the user to reenter the same information over and over • There are system messages displaying incorrect information • For example, after the user creates an online account, the system displays the message that it has been more then 90 days since the user verified his/her email address. The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

7. User Experience Create an Online Account Form Usability • User’s intentions to create an account are painstakingly tested during the 11 step process • The opportunity here is to streamline the registration process into fewer steps • Online form completion process should be made more efficient • Forms longer than two steps should include a process bar • Whenever possible only offer options which lead to a successful form completion • Otherwise, warn the user when a selection has been made which will not allow the user to proceed with completion of an online form • The PDF files should be repopulated with known user information The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

8. Information Architecture Login Form Usability • Login page creates a lot of frustration for users. Improving this page will have a great effect on the overall user experience. • The list of login types should be moved into a dropdown list and placed below the Username and Password fields • Change Username and Password functions should be performed after the login in a new My Profile section. • Creating an online account access should be made more apparent to a first time user • There should be two columns on this page: First time user and Existing user The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

9. General Observations - Strategy • Marketing & Sales • Key Challenges • The Principal currently fails to engage and promote existing website marketing touch-points (e.g. newsletter, product offers). • Content copy and content organization do not actively encourage user to learn about principal products and subsequently fail to drive cross-sell opportunities. • Opportunities: • Increase number of users (email subscriber list) who are exposed to timely principal services and products. • Increase ROI of marketing campaigns featuring special offers and promotions. • Increase customer buy-in of principal services products through better delivery of relevant marketing materials. The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

10. Strategy - Marketing & SalesNewsletters & Product Offers Marketing • Opportunity • Opportunity to engage user in the value in subscribing to specific content sections. The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

11. General Observations – Strategy (continued) • Customer Acquisition & Retention • Key Challenges • The Principal currently fails to leverage opportunities to remind users of what differentiates Principal products vs. those of its key competitors. • Potential risk of losing existing users who may not be aware of products or the benefits of enrolling in other Principal product lines. • Opportunities: • Increase exposure and awareness of Principal product and positioning (incl. insurance, health products) lines to existing users at all web-touch points. • Increase customer buy-in of principal services products through better delivery of relevant marketing materials. The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

12. Customer Acquisition and RetentionMessage Center • Opportunities • The message center is an important location for users to receive targeted Principal material and information regarding product lines they are not currently enrolled in. • Add product links/product info within email message center navigation to deliver immediate view of product touch-points (including insurance, health product lines, PAGA, enewsletter opportunities). • Encourage site interest and re-entry after completing actions in message center. The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

13. Customer Acquisition and RetentionPlanning Center • Challenges • Limited exposure or positioning statements identifying what makes Principal’s IRAs different from other companies. • Opportunities • Present opportunity to expose user to advantages in Principal IRA opportunities. The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

14. Opportunities • Architecture & Navigation • Site architecture should be redesigned to improve findability of content • Global navigation should be segmented by user type, such that once the user selects his or her type, only relevant content and navigation are displayed for that user • Intuitive navigation should be developed to provide an experience consistent with user and business needs • Navigation labels should be clear, meaningful and follow industry standards to improve user experience • Usability • Give the user a reason to continue interaction with the site and provide convincing “calls to action” to covert the user to the next lifecycle phase • Hierarchically group relevant information to the intended audience • Streamline online forms • Restructure content copy and implement graphical representation of subcategories to facilitate site scanning The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

15. Opportunities (continued) • Marketing and Sales • Create features & functionality for cross- and up-sell. • Provide cross linking to useful information when possible • Customer Acquisition & Retention The Principal Financial Group Site Audit