Not everything that glitters is gold and never was there a truer statement for when it comes to the small advisers managing large group pensions.
The lure of the large group scheme is strong. Good fee income, great potential from all the industry acronyms (AVCs, BOBs, & ARFs), and of course the real prize of converting scheme members into clients for life.
What’s your proposition?
The main issue is that the adviser's value proposition for servicing the large group schemes doesn't differ much from that of small ones, but the implications are significant.
The traditional renewal meeting still takes place, which sees the adviser on-site for a couple of days a year to meet members to discuss the progress of their pensions. Due to the volume, individual meetings with all members are unlikely so this is often replaced by a company-wide presentation, followed by one-to-one meetings for those available and/or interested in a follow-up.
In many cases that’s it, member engagement is done for another year.
The lack of their own technology means the adviser relies heavily on the insurer’s technology to keep the members informed on other aspects, but this quasi-engagement strategy does little for member engagement and only serves to further dilute the adviser’s brand.
Keeping clients close
Marketing research continually points to the need for a business to have multiple touchpoints with customers throughout the year to maintain brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.
The adviser’s relationship with scheme members is no different. If the value proposition is just one meeting a year and online access to an insurance company, the probability of mass engagement will be low. The adviser will simply be spread too thin, incurring significant costs and resources trying to service members and satisfy their employer clients.
The small scheme servicing model works for a small number of members, where the adviser can dedicate the time to building personal relationships with each member, but for the large schemes, a more comprehensive engagement strategy is needed.
Hands-free Engagement
Effective mass member engagement can only be achieved through a digital strategy that delivers year-round content, firmly putting the adviser’s brand in front of the members on multiple occasions throughout the year.
To engage members online, meaningful content needs to be coupled with interactive tools to help give members control of their retirement. The biggest source of confusion for members is the trail of pensions that they have accumulated over their careers. Members need the facility to manage all their pensions in one place, to see a helicopter view of all their benefits to help see their future in a single view.
The ping is more important than the message
We all have access to online portals for a host of different services in our lives, from health insurance to share trading. The relationship with the provider of the portal is not limited to a couple of times a year when the user logs in, but importantly it’s every time they get a notification.
The ping of the notification is often more important than the message itself. The ping is often ignored or even deleted but never unsubscribed. In marketing they call it passive engagement, the communication is welcome, but the timing is wrong, ignored but not unnoticed.
This is the power of an adviser-branded portal. The adviser’s brand touches scheme members throughout the year building awareness and subconscious engagement. When the timing is right for the members, they will log into the portal to consume the content and get the relevant updates.
PensionsVault
PensionsVault is an independent pensions platform for advisers to digitally connect with group schemes of all sizes, driving engagement and providing a significantly enhanced value proposition.
Hands-Free engagement
Once members are registered on PensionsVault it becomes marketing gold for the adviser. Multi-scheme marketing, assigning member tasks, and auto campaigns can all be implemented at the toggle of a button, creating year-round touchpoints, building engagement, and marketing opportunities.
Members that leave the scheme maintain lifetime access to their Vault, keeping the adviser in touch with the deferred members and providing them with the consistency of the same platform and adviser wherever their career takes them.
Find out more
Low-cost digital solutions are easily implemented into a group scheme and can serve the small adviser well when it comes to communicating and engaging with large volumes of members.
For a demonstration of the PensionsVault platform contact Karl O Meara on (087) 2151 007 or karl@centric.ie.
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