The survey returned mixed views on the topic, with advisers valuing several different media fairly evenly, but there were some surprises.
‘Email marketing’ received 20% of the responses in the poll, hosted on Marketing Innovation Forum’s website, with ‘PR’ receiving 15%, followed closely by ‘Social Media’ work, with 14%. ‘Print adverts’, ‘online adverts’ and ‘search engine work’ were each selected by 12% of the 208 voters, while one in ten replied ‘events’. The remaining 5% replied ‘none of the above’.
Matt Smith, managing director of WPB Creative and Marketing Innovation Forum’s Brand guru, commented: “Advisers are remodelling their businesses and new propositions, product lines, and charging structures need to be communicated to new prospects and existing clients. Email and social media feature strongly because they’re low cost compared to direct mail and events. Nevertheless stand out online is challenging, and longer lasting propositions sometimes require less transient communication. Advisers should test different media and remember that success is very often a result of the sum of the marketing parts.”
Derek McGuire, co-founder of Marketing Innovation Forum, said: "It’s reassuring that the vast bulk of advisers seem to actively engage in a diverse mix of marketing approaches. These days, precious few firms can survive without doing so. Recently, we’ve handled more and more email campaigns for advisers, as well as providers. It’s a reliable, immediate and direct medium where responses are both quick and measurable, so we’re not surprised to see email marketing top the list. More surprising was how even the split was across the other media, and the fact that more advisers were engaged in PR than in Social Media, given how little time social media activities require relative to PR work."
