Advisers who approach meetings without a clear understanding of how deeply their clients engage with a subject matter, could be setting themselves up for disappointment, according to William Todd.
Many consumers would switch off from a conversation, or a marketing campaign, if they felt their understanding of a topic had been overestimated, the chief marketing officer of adviser consultancy firm Adviser Breakthrough Group, has said.
He added: “This can be one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to marketing in the financial services industry."When any marketing agency begins to plan a promotion, they will undertake a process of environmental scanning. This means that they will look across the target market and determine the level of understanding of the product or service they are tasked with promoting. They will look to find which words, phrases or concepts are not as widely understood as the client thinks.”
What is more, the process is aimed at discovering whether there are commonly held misconceptions within the sector which has an adverse affect on the promotion on certain financial products. The mis-selling of pensions, for example, has had a lasting effect on the consumer’s view of the industry to this day, Mr Todd said.
There are a number of ways to tackle a lack of subject understanding among clients and mitigate the affects of any reputational damage to an industry an adviser operates in.
This includes assessing the tone of articles in the mainstream media on the subject; analysing reaction on social media to news on the area; or speaking to friends outside the industry about their understanding of the subject, Mr Todd said.
He added: “This is one of the most common reasons for underperforming promotions and yet it is one of the least accounted for by individuals and smaller businesses. The lack of understanding of the target market will ultimately mean the ROI becomes almost indefensible.
“For successful promotions, your language, tone and imagery should all be accessible and understandable to the target market. If it isn’t, the customer will not connect, they will not engage, and ultimately not care what you have to say.”
Adviser view
Minesh Patel, director at London-based EA Financial Solutions, said: “We test the waters in the first meeting by asking the client whether they have had considerable exposure to the particular advice area. I would say that using simplistic, easy to understand words at the start of a conversation with a client is a good basis, because you can always nudge up the complexity when you deem fit. Doing the opposite is unlikely to sit well with most clients – nobody likes the idea of things being dumbed down for them.”
“As you go through the advice process with clients, you begin to see that they slowly but surely become more comfortable with some of the industry jargon.
He added: “Equity release is a good example of a product that has been mis-sold in the past. This might frighten clients but it does not mean that it is not the ideal solution for their circumstances.”
