Faith Liversedge: Let marketing solve the Consumer Duty riddle

The most hotly anticipated event of the year, the publication of the Consumer Duty’s final guidance, has finally happened, and it’s a big deal.

As we know, at the heart of the new Consumer Duty is the requirement for firms to deliver ‘good outcomes’ for retail clients. A broad and all-encompassing requirement, much of which focuses on communications.

The good news?

Firms that are already on top of their marketing strategy will already be satisfying many of demands the Consumer Duty already is making on communications.

How?

Well, the Duty is looking for:

• Clear, concise and understandable communication
• Consistent and timely communication 
• Segmented communications 
• Monitored and tested communications 
• Use of the appropriate communication channels 

You might find yourself asking, what does any of this have to do with marketing? 

Well, by far the most effective marketing strategy for most firms is to encourage referrals through communication with their existing clients. And when done properly, in reality, that means covering the points outlined above.

Engaged clients refer more than disengaged clients – sometimes up to five times more – how do you engage with them when you’re not in front of them? The most reliable and effective method is through email marketing.

Email marketing

Consistently sending a regular newsletter featuring engaging, relevant and personalised content is what every firm should be doing.

That might sound simple, but you’d be surprised how many firms are still sending generic PDFs through Outlook to all clients, for example.

It’s clearly not ok, and hasn’t been for a while, to send out blanket communications to all and sundry. It should go without saying, but a wealthy expat approaching retirement is not in the same boat as an accumulator, they have diff priorities in life, different interests and concerns.

You might find yourself asking, what does any of this have to do with marketing? 

This kind of content is what encourages unsubscribes, which is not what the Duty or your business wants.

But it’s not just about tailoring your message and segmenting your communications. How do you monitor engagement and performance? The answer is if you’re using Outlook you can’t. 

This is where an email platform can do this heavy lifting for you. It enables you to:

• Segment your data and send targeted emails to different client groups

• Track engagement – see who’s opened, clicked, and who hasn’t

• Monitor your test deliverability to see if it’s going into spam

• Schedule emails so they go out consistently – you can even use AI to send emails to your clients at the exact time each one is most likely to open it.

And your platform will enable you to generate reports detailing all these communications  so you demonstrate what you’re doing to the FCA to your heart’s content.

Helping to identify vulnerable clients

Having a good email platform in place means when you need to send mandatory notifications such as depreciation messages, you already have a system in place for this.

• You can resend to those who received the email but didn’t open it, who opened but didn’t click.

• You can also report on contact-level basis and demonstrate every piece of engagement you’ve had with that contact by looking up their client’s profile.

• You can even set automated reminders to follow up personally with clients who haven’t engaged for a while – this could be particularly useful when it comes to identifying vulnerable clients.

The cherry on the cake

One final piece of the puzzle, is integrating your email platform with your CRM. This means having up-to-date data that syncs automatically between your back office system and your marketing tech.

When a client is added or modified in your CRM, hey presto, the corresponding client record is updated in your email platform. 

I think you’ll agree that all this is a world away from sending a PDF no one reads – but if it sounds complex, it’s not.

As I’ve said, many firms are already doing this: they’re using an email platform that allows for good deliverability and includes engagement tracking.

They will have segmented their clients and applied that segmentation to their email database. They’ll be sending content that’s relevant to those segments, that’s jargon-free and interesting. And they’ll be sending that consistently. 

If this isn’t what you’re doing, you’ll need to make that shift, and do it quickly. But once you’ve taken the step, it’s not just clients who’ll benefit – your business as a whole will be much better off for it too.