The product guide has served the industry well, and hefty paper documents from lenders hit most brokers’ desks on a regular basis. For lenders, it remains the key piece of literature, spelling out the facts and figures. But, should we now start preparing our farewells?
The product guide cannot be laid to rest overnight. It still has a place because many want to read more detailed material in a paper format, just as we do with newspapers and books. But the industry must adapt to the changing market and look at ways in which we can reduce – if not totally eliminate – the paper mountain.
Sign of the times
There are signs this is happening. I can remember just a few years ago signing off print runs for some 90,000. Now, the numbers are perhaps half this and we are producing fewer pages. We have to remember that in the increasingly crowded specialist lending market no broker will want to receive upwards of 30 product guides on a quarterly basis or even more frequently. They don’t have time to read them for a start. Instead product information is being found online. The onus is on lenders to ensure details are accurate and regularly updated and guides can now be downloaded and printed off by intermediaries as necessary.
We should not be forcing this on brokers however. Plenty of brokers are used to being sent guides and want these on file in their offices, even if they are being more selective in how many they retain.
Theoretically less paper being sent out should mean savings as well as being better for the environment. But, it is not so simple.
There is greater pressure on lenders to communicate with the brokers more intelligently. Sourcing systems still have shortcomings and we cannot expect brokers to trawl though websites to find out about every product update and change.
This is where e-mail marketing comes to the fore and getting it right takes time and investment.
An exact science
E-mail marketing once meant setting up a global database, hurriedly keying in copy and pressing the send button. Now it is a science. Any company that sends marketing e-mails needs the buy-in of its customers for legal purposes. If the information is not useful, then customers can be alienated and the relationship damaged.
If we e-mail rubbish, then we can expect the ultimate rebuff – a broker pressing the unsubscribe button.
Professionals need to get the look and content of their e-mails spot on, since people have limited patience and often delete e-mails without opening them.
Certainly most of us receive unwanted e-mails. This ranges from financial scam spams to reputable companies sending irrelevant and irritating information.
The e-mail that reaches the target audience looks slick with branding tying in with the website. It should be sent in HTML as opposed to plain text and since most firms are now on broadband, opening these does not cause problems.
The subject message is critical – if brokers do not perceive they are receiving something worth reading then they will delete it. At the same time, beware of creating an unrealistic impression of what’s on offer.
Content needs to be concise – a useful e-mail outlines the specifics, not all the details. It also needs to be personalised – we would send ours from the broker’s local business development manager (BDM) where there has already been contact.
A broker who never or rarely offers buy-to-let mortgages, for example, does not want to be bombarded with information on these.
Things can fall apart if there has not been proper segmentation of the database and this is an area where lenders may well find making the effort pays off. BDMs need to provide data on employees, job titles and areas of specialisation so that database professionals can then set up groups of those who share specific traits.
Looking to improve
Running an effective e-mail marketing strategy means measuring results and constantly looking to improve. It is not an easy option and you need skilled staff to make sure the process is working. But it is not an excuse for pulling back from personal contact because if you don’t listen to feedback – both positive and negative – then you cannot move forward.
It is also commonly said that e-mail marketing is traditionally only around 25 per cent of the cost of traditional direct mail. Yet, although you can bypass postage, good e-mail marketing invariably costs if you want to produce first rate messages. Quality information, targeted at the right audience and with a professional appearance are the golden rules.
It will be interesting to see how many e-mail Christmas cards are sent rather than paper ones this year. I suspect postal staff will still be kept very busy and what is more, lenders are not going to give up on their paper product guides for a few years yet. But, online is the way the market is moving, albeit slower than some other sectors. Who knows when lenders will start communicating with brokers via podcasts, but as technology surges ahead it probably won’t be too long.
Paul Hunt is head of marketing at Platform
