5 ways to get more out of your pension communications

Convincing members to engage with pensions can be hard. But, for trustees and pension managers, communication is a legal duty – and, in a world that is overloaded with information, finding a way to cut through the noise of life is challenging to say the least.

From social media to online shopping and countless news sites, we live in a society that is becoming increasingly tailored towards the needs of the individual. Finding a space where members can take time to look at their retirement savings in that digital environment can feel impossible, but there are a few tricks you can use to break through that barrier.

1 Make it relevant

When developing pension communications, it’s important to understand who your audience is without getting lost in what you want or need to communicate to them. Members often fall into three groups: those for who retirement seems like a lifetime away, those who are gearing up for life after work and have started to plan ahead, and those who are close to finishing work and looking at how much they’ve got. For each of these groups, it’s important to understand the unique challenge they’re facing and what they actually need to know. If you can give them what they want right now, they are more likely to engage with other resources too.

2 Keep it modern

An emerging trend in pension communications is a digital-first approach. Following the impact of COVID-19, society has been catapulted into the digital world and it’s important that we keep up. The aim of the communicator is to lead the way, which is why it’s important to starting thinking digitally now so that members are transitioned gradually into a new digital mind set. There are a lot of opportunities in this space that allow pension schemes to make their offering more personal and interactive; new opportunities to engage with a new kind of switched-on member. But, to make this work, it’s important to acknowledge that the ‘traditional’ trustee mind set needs to change too.

3 Capture useful data

To understand how engaged an audience is, you need to have something to measure this by – but you can’t monitor engagement without defining what that actually means. You need to figure out how, and if, that information was used by the member; for example, by measuring how long members are spending on a web page and asking them to provide feedback. It’s easy to monitor data that doesn’t actually speak to member engagement – this needs to be avoided. The point is to try to understand the user experience. Data is a tool to support decisions and measure success; the secret lies in making sure that data really means something.

4 Timing is everything

In the world of pension legislation, it’s important that members are updated and informed as and when required. But there are also external factors to consider when it comes to developing an effective communications timeline for general messaging. For instance, if the aim of your communication is to encourage members to increase their contributions and they primarily work in retail, it’s probably not a good idea to send this out during the January sales. The same goes for academic years, banking year ends and other industry-specific, time-sensitive periods. Most people will experience busy periods at work; and, during that time, non-priority information is likely to be ignored. As trustees and pension managers, you understand that saving for retirement early should be a priority; but for many members this kind of information will head straight to the ‘to deal with later’ list – unless you deliver it in an engaging way.

5 Develop a strategy

To get the most out of your communications, it’s important that you develop a robust strategy that is focused on driving member engagement. This can then be used to set clear objectives while thinking about your success criteria and how you are going to measure the results – but be specific when setting these objectives:

• Identify who you are speaking to and what they need to know
• Establish a tone of that is engaging and relevant
• Connect with your members and stay consistent
• Use digital communication channels that are already familiar to your audience
• Ask for feedback and use this develop your proposition in real time

Remember: your communications can only be as effective as the strategy that is driving them. This is about understanding your members and responding strategically to who they are. Once you identify that, you’ll give yourself much more than a real opportunity to improve engagement.