June 2007
This month’s topics
IFAP June 2007 Update e-newsletter
Welcome to the latest Update, keeping you up to date with recent IFAP initiatives and our plans for the months ahead. IFAP’s continuing focus on delivering value to members is key to our ongoing development and you'll see links throughout this e-newsletter to background information about our campaigns, how you can get involved and, most importantly, how you can ensure that the information we're providing to consumers about your firm through our many 'Find an IFA' services, is bang up to date.
The run up to the end of the tax year is always a busy time for IFAP, as more people try to get to grip with their finances, and this provides us and our members with a key opportunity to drive and capitalise on referrals. And the first quarter of 2007 was no exception, with requests for local IFAs not only driven by increased consumer demand for advice on ISAs – which rose by 8% on the same period last year - but also by IFAP receiving more requests for member IFAs advising on protection products and personal pensions in the period January to March. You can view the top ten product advice requests IFAP receives by clicking here.
With such a high level of potential leads coming members’ way it’s even more crucial that your company's details recorded on IFAP are up to date and provide accurate details of the advice areas you cover. Read on to find out more about how you and your firm can capitalise on these leads.
And that’s not all IFAP has been busy working on. Just click through on the links on the right hand side to find out the latest news about our burgeoning list of white label 'Find an IFA' search deals (all promoting your firm’s proposition on partner consumer websites) and details of our new simplified incremental qualification and designation search. We’ve also recently expanded the number of business areas your can list in your IFAP profile from eight to nine.
Please direct anyone else in your organisation who would like to sign-up to receive future copies of our Update e-newsletter direct to their inbox to supply their email to us by visiting www.unbiased.co.uk/email/
IFA Promotion News
Top eight product areas expanded to nine - Long Term Care / Healthcare split
IFAP’s development is driven by consumers' changing needs. As such we’re always looking at ways in which we can improve the consumer’s experience when using our search tool to ensure the IFA details we supply match with their financial advice needs. As you know, IFAP members have historically selected the top eight business areas they list on their entry on www.unbiased.co.uk. However we have now expanded this, by splitting Long Term Care and Healthcare into two separate categories, allowing members to increase their maximum number of top product areas they can list to nine.
If you have historically listed the combined Long Term Care / Healthcare product area in your IFAP entry, you will already have received an email from us informing you that this joint business area was going to be split into two separate business areas and inviting you to indicate which areas you wanted listed on your profiles in future. The rest of you now also have the opportunity to increase the number of product areas you list to nine. The 'Amend your profile' form has been updated to reflect the nine business areas. IFAP’s ‘Find an IFA’ consumer searches have already gone live on the new basis so please do go and check out your details to ensure they correctly position your firm in the best light. You can also update your details by calling the members Hotline on 0870 325 9020.
This month’s topics
FSSC (Financial Services Skills Council) – qualifications simplification review
IFAP has been working with the FSSC to make it easier for consumers to understand IFA qualifications and designations. With this in mind I’m pleased to announce that we have now launched a simplified incremental qualifications and designations service across all IFAP’s ‘Find an IFA’ searches.
Previously, IFAP’s qualification selection system recorded details of around 48 qualifications and designations (incremental to benchmark Cert FP) across eight awarding bodies - that consumers had to wade through which was not a particularly easy or transparent process even if you knew what you were looking for.
As the leading consumer search database for IFAs, IFAP was in a prime position to work with the FSSC to make the qualification search process easier and simpler for consumers to understand. To improve the search experience, the FSSC worked with third party assessor – UK NARIC – to group qualifications and designations into product specific and generalist categories – each split into just two options.
Consumers visiting all IFAP’s ‘Find an IFA’ services can now search using these new simplified options to help them find the right IFA for their needs. It’s perhaps worth noting that 25% of enquirers using IFAP to find a local IFA now specify they want their IFA to hold an incremental qualification or designation. Between them, IFAP’s members now list around 21,000 incremental qualifications and designations on our database. On selecting the qualification or designation options they require, consumers are then supplied with the closest matching IFAs and provided with further information about the exact qualifications and designations that IFA holds. You can visit www.unbiased.co.uk to see how the new service is working for yourself.
Marketing your business cost-effectively online - how IFAP can help you capitalise on new business leads
Over 90% of the 600,000 plus ‘Find an IFA’ enquiries we deal with each year now arrive through our range of online 'Find an IFA' searches, currently running on www.unbiased.co.uk and via white label versions of the ‘Find an IFA’ service running on 55 high profile partner consumer-facing websites. However, the important distinction to make here is that, while people are clearly most comfortable doing their initial research and finding the right adviser online, when it comes to taking financial advice, they still prefer to see an expert face-to-face. So far from representing a threat, the internet is a massive business opportunity for IFAs who want to attract new clients cost-effectively.
Consumers are also now more than twice as likely to view your IFAP entry if you are signed up to our Online Marketing Package (OMP). This is because users of our searches can select to be shown only details of matching local IFAs who have displayed their email and website details on IFAP’s searches. This means that if you haven’t yet signed up to our OMP you will almost certainly be passing up potential new business leads.
The figures stack up too! For an annual outlay of £249 + VAT you can promote your company details on all IFAP-run searches. With the average IFAP case worth £570 (Mercer Oliver Wyman), all you need is one case to more than pay for the whole year’s subscription. Benefits of the package include enhanced display, enabled web and email links, and a call-back facility. Click here for full details.
Already a third (over 3,000) of IFAP’s 9,000 members have recognised this value IFAP can add to their online presence and have taken the next step with regards to enhancing their web visibility via IFAP's Online Marketing Package (OMP).
And those IFAs are helping IFAP fund its promotional campaign – IFAP remains a not for profit organisation, so OMP subscriptions are ploughed straight back into our consumer campaigns which are helping people recognise the value of your independent proposition. If you’re interested, click here to sign-up, or call the member Hotline on 0870 325 9020.
IFAP’s growing online presence
Given that more people than ever before are going online in the first instance when researching their financial advice options (Ipsos MORI: 2006), ensuring that IFAP has a strong online presence is key to our continued brand awareness in the consumer arena.
As you’re already aware, our priority is to dominate relevant financial online space wherever possible - whether it be through paid for search or natural optimisation of www.unbiased.co.uk across all UK search engines, developing more white label versions of IFAP's online ‘Find an IFA' service on partner websites or by placing content (editorial, tools, microsites) in the personal finance channels of partner websites and portals.
As such, our strategy to grow our white labelling programme continues with gusto and since our last update we’ve added a further six partners to our list of websites that carry white label versions of IFAP’s online ‘Find an IFA’ search , bringing the total number to 55. These include Alliance Trust, Aegon Asset Management, Six Steps, Thisismoney and AOL’s money pages. Click here to view a full list of IFAP’s white label partners.
We’re currently discussing partnership opportunities with several other key money and industry websites and will continue to keep you posted on progress – look out for our next white label which will be launching soon on The Times Online.
UKSIF – free training on green and ethical investment
The UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF) has created a free online training course on green and ethical investment for financial advisers. The course is based on UKSIF’s ‘Responsible Investment Toolkit for Financial Advisers’ and teaches the Toolkit’s five-step process for advising on green and ethical investment. It includes business benefits, risk and performance aspects and investment options and is completed by an optional multiple choice test. The course is available at http://www.uksif.org/consumers-advisers/online_course.
The training course is accompanied by ‘The Adviser’s Guide to Going Green’ to help advisers gain credibility with the growing number of clients concerned about green issues. It provides practical tips such as how to save energy, choose greener cars and buy recycled products. The Guide is available at http://www.uksif.org/consumers-advisers/advisers_guide_to_going_green
IFAP Merchandise
As a member IFA, you are entitled to display the IFA "pound sign" blue roundel wherever you want to promote your gold standard of service – Independent Financial Advice. Use it on your website, your stationery – email footers, letterheads, compliment slips, business cards etc, or on display in your window or office. You will find further details, logos and merchandise on www.unbiased.co.uk/ifa/resources/merchandise/. Currently all IFAP merchandise is available to member IFAs free of charge. Please remember, the logo and all promotional materials are registered trademarks of IFA Promotion and therefore can ONLY be used by IFAP members.
This month’s topics
Keeping independent financial advice in the news
IFAP TaxAction 2007 update
Our TaxAction campaign kicked off on the 2nd March as we revealed the shocking amount that the UK wastes in tax each year. The UK’s tax wastage has increased by a staggering £300m since last year and now amounts to over £7.9 billion. Concentrating on the UK’s major tax concerns, we provided a range of practical tips on how to ensure the general public can make tax work best for them.
We followed the launch release with a second news release based on our research which shows that Council Tax has replaced house prices as the most talked about financial topic. We also focused on which regions are the worst tax wasting offenders with the Midlands topping the list for the region that wastes the most. Regional press releases were distributed and accompanied by a series of regional radio interviews.
To date, over 130 pieces of consumer media coverage has appeared across national, regional and online media. Other stories throughout the 2007 TaxAction campaign will examine the nation’s most hated taxes – whether it’s stamp duty or IHT, and don’t forget to watch out for Tax Freedom Day on 1 June - the theoretical point in the year at which we stop working for the government by paying tax and start working for ourselves. Please visit www.unbiased.co.uk/taketaxaction to find out more about our ongoing PR campaign and how you can get involved.
Get Saving!
This year’s Get Saving! campaign got off to a flying start as we focussed on the latest Savings Brake report. The report, where we analyse how much we borrow for every pound we save, and how this fluctuates over time, provided an overview of the nation’s spending for the last year and saw UK consumers save a huge £25 billion more in 2006, bringing overall savings figures for the year to a whopping £136 billion. It seems the ‘save, save, save’ message is getting through with consumers now borrowing only 40 pence for every pound they save, compared to 52 pence during the same period in 2005.
With New Year traditionally a key time for people to get their savings in order it will be interesting to see how the first quarter of 2007’s results stand up and we’ll be sending out an update at the beginning of June.
The Get Saving! campaign continued in April with a news release looking at the different types of spenders across Britain. Are people in the UK more likely to be ‘frivolous spenders’ who make purchases based purely on desirability, or is there now a growing group of ‘bargain spenders’ constantly on the lookout for a cheap purchase? This was received well by the media with coverage in the Daily Express and numerous regional articles.
There’s plenty more Get Saving! news on the horizon - look out for our latest release on Bargain Bragging Britons, where we’ll be focussing on how Britain has become a nation of bargain proud shoppers. Our next Get Saving! story will focus on Britain’s budgeting behaviour – what are the barriers to savings and what are we doing to keep a check on our finances.
Visit www.unbiased.co.uk/getsaving to find out more about the campaign.
And don’t forget, IFAP Media Services (IFAP’s service connecting Media IFAs with journalists looking for informed comment and case studies; according to Ipsos MORI over 80% of consumer and trade finance journalists now use this service) is always looking for IFAs to provide comment to the media not just on our two headline campaigns but on a wide range of financial topics. If you would like to get involved then please contact us on ifap@lansons.com. And if you ever wondered just how powerful this service can be, just read the following comment from one of our 220 Media IFAs who took part in a recent Independent newspaper wealthcheck:
‘I didn't realise that the submissions actually went to the person asking the questions - I thought that they just went to the journalist. The client reviewed called me this morning - he said that it looked like I was the only IFA who had read the questions and he liked what I had suggested. Cut a long story short, I have an appointment to see him in two weeks time to discuss him appointing us as his IFA. A very pleasant if totally unexpected outcome! Would you also please feed this back to the journalist, and pass on my thanks? Best regards.’ (David Brunning, Brunning Newman Houghton Ltd).
You can view further testimonials from IFAP Media Services IFAs by clicking here.
Podcasts
IFAP prides itself on the fact it is the leading database for consumers to safely find local independent financial advice. Yet, to stay ahead of the game, we need to ensure that we are in tune with changing consumer demands in terms of how information is presented and consumed.
Today’s consumer is multimedia savvy. As previously highlighted we know that the vast majority of those seeking financial advice will search online in the first instance – whether this is at work or home. However in recent years, there’s been a change in how such information is presented on the internet. With ever-improving technology, information available online is no longer restricted to the written word with downloads such as podcasts becoming more and more popular.
Simply put, a podcast is a multimedia file that can be downloaded to your MP3 player or computer. And it’s podcasting that IFAP sees as its next phase of development in terms of providing the consumer with the information they need about independent financial advice.
This is a very exciting time for IFAP as we embark on developing a series of podcasts which will not only sit on and be downloaded from unbiased.co.uk but also offered as additional free content to key money websites such as This is Money, AOL, The Sun Online.
The first podcast in the series will focus on ‘How to Find an IFA’ with Justin Modray of Best Invest. Other podcasts in the series will focus on savings, pensions/retirement planning, investments, mortgages and tax planning. We have already approached Media IFAs to present these but if there’s a topic that you would like to talk about and you can come to London for the recording then do contact IFAP media services on ifap@lansons.com.
Financial Age Tool – Financial management ‘truth’ for consumers
Continuing on the theme of providing consumers with information and services that they can really use, our new online Financial Age Tool went live in March. Based on the premise that ‘talking about money, isn’t funny’, IFAP has developed an online consumer quiz which visitors to the website could use in a more entertaining way to identify whether, when it comes to money, is their financial age actually younger or older than their real age? When it comes to money are they a bit of a rebellious teenager or more of a cautious OAP?
By answering a series of questions the tool calculates the respondent’s actual financial age, providing them with advice on the best steps they can take at whatever stage in life they are currently at. As with all our online tools, we are also in discussions with various partner and money websites about placing this, and other tools, on their pages.
Press Clubs report
IFAP’s regional Press Clubs work with local media, forging strong relationships with regional newspapers to help promote independent advice and local IFAs.
IFAP members who have not read about or experienced the benefits of belonging to a Press Club, should read our guide - “The essential guide to raising your IFA business profile with local media” – download a copy now.
This month’s topics
News from around the country
Cambridge: Readers of the Cambridge Evening News will have – hopefully – noticed the recent creation of a new Press Club, whose first monthly page was published in February. The Club has agreed an initial 12 month campaign with the paper.
Guildford: The ongoing campaign with The Surrey Advertiser has reaped rewards with the monthly feature continuing to appear in The Rush - a weekly free newspaper handed out at mainline stations in the area. In addition, The Advertiser – a broadsheet with a large ABC1 readership – has also agreed to place the feature on its website with the added bonus of links to members’ own sites.
Liverpool & North Wales: This well established Press Club recently celebrated its tenth birthday with a regular monthly feature appearing in both English and Welsh editions of The Daily Post since its inauguration. The Club meets every quarter and opportunities for new members currently exist, particularly in the Liverpool area.
Midlands: A promotional email - offering Midlands members the opportunity to take advantage of a superb value-for-money deal with Archant Publishing - will be sent to members shortly. The group which publishes the County lifestyle magazines is looking for small teams of local IFAs to provide editorial on a monthly basis. Places are limited so please respond as soon as you receive the email.
Glasgow: Thislong standing Press Club continues to publish a bi-monthly page in The Herald. Members can take advantage of utilising a freelance journalist to assist them where necessary with their articles and ensure maximum value is obtained from editorial. The Club is currently looking for new members to join its ranks and help promote independent financial advice in the local area.
Scottish Daily Mail: The Scottish Press Club has embarked on a new 12-week campaign with the Scottish edition of the Daily Mail, which will run until mid June and provides excellent value for money. The Club is currently looking for more Scottish members who would be interested in participating in this campaign.
For information on any of the above activities or to join a Press Club in your area please contact IFAP Regional Press Officer James Sharp at james@ifap.org.uk or Tel 01902 850053
May and June Press Club meetings
- May 10th Leicester
- May 15th Bournemouth
- May 22nd Aberdeen
- May 23rd Edinburgh
- May 31st Liverpool and North Wales
- June 5th Suffolk, Ipswich
- June 6th Surrey, Guildford
- June 12th Tayside & Fife, Dundee
- June 21st Cambridge
The bottom line
It’s been a cracking start to 2007... over the first quarter we’ve dealt with more than 150,000 enquiries from consumers and businesses searching for details of local IFAs putting us on track to meet our annual targets. Our editorial presence has also remained strong with IFAP's proactive PR campaigns TaxAction 2007 and Get Saving! getting off to good starts, while informed comment and case studies from Media Services IFAs and regional press articles continue to appear in abundance. The market for independent financial advice remains stronger than ever and continues to grow. But there is no room for complacency, and rest assured we are motoring on with our activity across all marketing areas, to continue to promote independent financial advice cost effectively and deliver value to sponsors and members alike - which means we’ll have plenty of current and future activity to tell you about in our next electronic edition of Update. And if you have any feedback on Update or any other issue then do please let us know.
Best wishes
David Elms
Chief Executive @ IFA Promotion
(david@ifap.org.uk)
