It turns out that three really is the magic number (thanks, Bob Dorough).
Everywhere you look, it appears. Red, yellow, and green. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Small, medium, and large. Past, present, and future. 999. The Three Wise Men. The Three Little Pigs. Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Rock, paper, scissors. Gold, silver, and bronze. X, Y, Z. Even the ellipsis at the end of this sentence…
The number three dominates so much of our lives without us even realising. This raises the question: why does three encode so much of human life?
More importantly, how can financial planners harness its omnipotent power to improve the content that they write for their clients?
To help, let’s turn to our philosophical, literary, and psychological understanding of human relationships with the number three.
“3” as the first real number in Pythagorean philosophy
The philosophical importance of three was formalised in Ancient Greece by Pythagoras and his school. To him, three became more than a number; it was the foundation for divine perfection, harmony, and balance.
He also considered three the first “real” number because it had a beginning, middle, and end:
- One is a point.
- Two is a line.
- Three is a surface (a triangle) – the very first geometric shape to create space and stable structure in the physical world.
For Pythagoras, while the two-legged structure collapses, the three-legged stool stands firm. This stability isn’t just true for the physical world, but also for how we interpret it through literature.
The three-act structure in literature
While the ideas of numbers informing literature seem counterintuitive, ancient storytelling is fundamentally based on the number three; humans have been following the pattern of the three-act structure, knowingly or unknowingly, since we learned to speak.
Think about it. Every story you know – whether a fairytale, play, or novel – is based around the idea of a three-act structure: the setup, the confrontation, and the resolution.
For example, in Cinderella:
- Act 1 (setup) – Cinderella is introduced as a servant, mistreated by her evil stepmother and stepsisters before being granted the opportunity to go to the ball by her fairy godmother.
- Act 2 (conflict) – Cinderella attends the ball, meets and falls in love with the prince before running away at midnight and leaving behind her single glass slipper. The prince then launches his kingdom-wide search for Cinderella, where women, including her stepsisters, try and fail to fit into the slipper.
- Act 3 (resolution) – Cinderella reveals she is the owner of the slipper, and the two live happily ever after.
The three-act structure satisfies the human mind as it mimics the natural way that we process information and experience the world: identify a problem, struggle with it, and then resolve it.
The number three in pattern recognition and psychology
Answers to why humans are hooked on three can be found in our psychology. Specifically, through our love of patterns.
Human brains are pattern machines, hardwired to find order to help process information efficiently.
And while one is a fluke and two is a coincidence, three is the first number by which a pattern begins to emerge.
In a bid to conserve energy, the human brain is always looking for ways to predict what comes next with the least amount of mental effort possible. Therefore, when you introduce more elements after three, the cognitive load increases.
This places emphasis on memorisation rather than pattern recognition. This can make processing information feel less natural and more like a chore.
3 ways financial planners can harness the “power of three” in their content
While this is all well and good, how can financial planners practically harness the power of three to improve their copywriting?
- Consider simplify your message to three key points
Financial writing rarely benefits from “one question, one answer” scenarios. Often, one problem can have a multitude of solutions specific to the client in question.
Listing them all would be tedious. Instead, you can limit your key takeaways to three points you want to drive home to your clients. This helps you delineate complex financial topics without overloading your clients with information that they will be more likely to skip past.
For example, if you’re writing an article about “tips to help you reduce your estate’s IHT bill”, reducing the number of tips from seven to three might encourage more clients to read the content as the topic seems like less of a burden to their mental capacity.
- Follow a three-act structure
There’s a reason the three-act structure has stood the test of time.
Introducing a complex financial topic through the setup, confrontation, and resolution method can help you bring literary credibility to your writing.
This can help your clients feel a sense of comfortable familiarity when reading your content and allow them to connect emotionally to your writing.
For example, if you wanted to share a recent client testimonial, you could…
Set up the situation: Clients A and B reached out for advice on saving enough money to fund their dream retirement.
Build up to a confrontation: Client A needed to step back from work, and the pair were worried about how it might affect their current financial plan.
Reassure with the resolution: Effective tax planning solutions helped the pair maximise their savings so they could still retire on their terms.
- Use trios
The number three can also inform how you design your sentences, headlines, and bullet points.
In line with the theory of human pattern recognition, using trios in your content can help maintain interest by creating a sense of rhythm.
For example, in your call to action, you might reference your services as threefold: “we help protect your wealth, grow your assets, and secure your legacy”.
Likewise, you might take advantage of the rule of three in your company slogan: “Clear advice. Smarter planning. Better futures.”
Taking advantage of trios balances the need for narrative variety and cognitive simplicity, encouraging your readers to stay engaged and satisfied with your content.
Make Yardstick your third act
If you’re struggling to convert clients from your content, we can help you discover what’s working and what isn’t through an in-depth review of your content marketing strategy.
Then, with a Yardstick Membership, you can gain access to our talented team of writers and client delivery specialists, who will:
- Write your articles
- Build and send your newsletters
- Provide you with regular newsletter reports.
Learn more about how we can help you resolve your content issues by emailing us at hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or calling 0115 8965 300 today.
