t4 Marketing Innovations Blog

1. VAT will increase from 17.5% to 20% with effect from 4 January 2011.

The consequences of this have already been widely discussed in the media last night and today.

VAT will become more and more of an issue for financial adviser businesses post RDR and for anyone making a transition between taking commissions and charging fees in the interim period as VAT is chargeable on fees but not on commissions.  Advisers should consider how this will affect their remuneration models.

2. Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is to increase for Higher … Continue Reading

The new Chancellor George Osborne, and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, have made it clear this week that the need to get the budget deficit under control ‘overshadows everything’.

Some spending cuts have already been announced (all ministers are taking a 5% pay cut) but the scale of the national debt means much tougher measures are needed to balance the books.

We’ve been told capital gains tax will rise. An emergency Budget is scheduled for 22 June when further tax rises could be announced. Here’s what we know so far.

Capital … Continue Reading

At T4 we are always investing in and developing our company for the benefit of our clients. In 2010 we have already implemented a series of important changes:

Team Leaders

We have introduced a new role of team leader.

We have split the sales team and appointed two team leaders.

This means there will be a point of contact that gives increased focus to client care and dealing with clients’ issues .

They … Continue Reading

“When the 4 and 5 year olds of today grow up they won’t know what filing is”. So argues marketing guru James Myers. “They may not even understand the concept of folders. That is because everything will be tagged, they will think in terms of search even now I have given up saving files in neat folders on the computer. Save it anywhere and find it again with google desktop. They will also think video. A Forrester type organisation estimate that 91% of new content in 2014 will be video. … Continue Reading

We picked this up from a useful web site called econsultancy.com.  They have been monitoring the development of digital media world-wide.  Here they give us 20 mind blowing stats about the way electronic media is developing and how it is changing the way we live and work!

• Facebook claims that 50% of active users log into the site each day. This would mean at least 175m users every 24 hours… A considerable increase from the previous 120m.
• Twitter now has 75m user accounts, but only around … Continue Reading
  

There are whispers from inside some of the biggest product providers around tax relief threshold for pension contributions; the chat is that the threshold could be reduced from £150k to £100k as early as next April.

 Who knows whether this will happen or not but we will highlight any marketing opportunities for financial adviser firms that arise as a result of what is said this week.

 Remember, the government is seeking to halve the national debt in only four years.  To do this it will have to put in place plans to raise … Continue Reading

As the nation continues to be outraged by MPs’ expenses, we’re missing that the real free ride MPs are getting is their pensions.

Remarkably little comment has been made about the generosity of the MPs’ pension scheme, but then duckhouses and moats make for better copy.

We’re told the annual cost to UK taxpayers of an MP’s pension is £13,000, but the real cost is more like £30,000, according to pensions economist, John Ralfe – who is a regular contributor on the economics of company pensions and reform of pension regulation to the … Continue Reading

Any last words dear...?

Investment News – a specialist trade publication for Financial Advisers in the US has been doing some research on advisers use of social networking and blogs as part of their marketing strategy.  This is interesting because the structure of the financial advice industry in the US is similar to ours and what happens in America tends to predict what will happen in the UK 5 years down the line.

More and more advisers we talk to want to integrate social media into their marketing plans. They … Continue Reading

How was your day?

Investment News – a trade journal for financial advisers in the US published a great article on how blogging works to the good for financial advisers – it is full of practical examples.

They account for only a minuscule fraction of the world’s estimated 100 million bloggers, but financial advisers who maintain their own commentary-oriented websites are finding that blogging can pay.

Blogs can be an inexpensive way to attract prospects, market a practice and communicate with clients. They’re also a way to … Continue Reading

Investment News – a trade journal for Financial Advisers in the US – has been looking at how social networking, the web and blogging are increasingly being combined to help advisers market their businesses.  The article below looks at social networking – what is it and how can advisers use it?

Social Networking Map

A legion of intrepid financial advisers are twittering, linking in and in many other ways harnessing the power of the Internet to network socially in a bid to expand their practices.

They … Continue Reading

I often read Marketing Wire – an excellent blog about marketing for financial adviser firms in the USA.  Kirsten Luke, the woman behind Marketing Wire has done a lot of work on simple marketing approaches for American advisers.  She reckons they can put together a great marketing programme for only $3,000 a year! So can you in the UK – for £2,000.  Here is a UK version of that approach for our market.

Marketing Plan

It is more important than ever to market your business. However, your dilemma … Continue Reading

Hungry Piggy Bank

The increases to tax and national insurance announced in the pre budget report last autumn greatly increased the opportunities for using  salary sacrifice as a tax and national insurance planning tool. Just under half of UK employers have now put a salary sacrifice scheme in place*.

Salary sacrifice deflects affects of NI rise – FT

NI set to boost employer interest in salary sacrifice – Employee Benefits magazine

Helping advisers find quality leads is key

How can financial advisers approach this market? Finding … Continue Reading

Bloggers Map

Blogs are worth doing for financial adviser firms.  They are easy to do and you don’t require an IT PHD to run one.  Tools such as WordPress and Google’s Blogger allow anyone to keep one.  If you integrate your blog with your website it is a great way of keeping your website updated with fresh material.  Keeping a blog and updating regularly also helps with your Search Engine Optimisation and is one of the key ways to push you up those search engines searches – … Continue Reading

British Budget

The Budget -
What does it mean for Financial Advisers?

A big increase in ISA limits, a dramatic hike in income tax for the highest earners and and a radical revision of macro-economic forecasts are probably the key points from today’s budget.

The Chancellor is billing it as targeted support for the economy while continuing sustained fiscal consolidation from 2010-11 when the government forecast the economy will be recovering and able to support a reduction in borrowing.

Here are the main points and some first thoughts:

ISA limits increased
An increase in the annual investment … Continue Reading

2009 Budget

What will be in the Budget
for financial advisers?

This is the first of a series of posts about this year’s Budget. What might happen? What does happen? What it means for financial adviser businesses and how you might market your services to support clients afterwards.

The Chancellor’s budget takes place on Wednesday 22 April in what are unprecedented times for the UK economy. It is always hard to second guess what a Chancellor will do but we have been trawling the internet and here are some … Continue Reading

Budget Pig

The world economy is under the spotlight again this week with the G20 meeting in London. Many economists say we need a Bretton Woods agreement for the 21st century although few expect to get one. Clients have never been more cautious, and many financial advisers I come across are a little at a loss as to how to develop business in the current market. Trust in old investment paradigms is shaken and people are spooked.

I read about the rather strangely named Oechsli Institute in the … Continue Reading

Lead Generation

There are basic parts to any lead generation programme, and if you get any one of these wrong it could cause your programme to fail.

To get a lead generation programme working effectively all of these components must work together seamlessly.

The main 5 reasons that get in the way of lead generation campaigns working as well as they could – or fail altogether are these:

The lead generator (sales consultant or sales agent) isn’t right.

The sales agent and how they come over on the phone will make … Continue Reading

Email Marketing

As companies cut budgets to streamline operations in these tough economic times, e-mail marketing is coming into its own to deliver cost effective results. In many instances, direct mail budgets are being slashed, with some of those funds diverted to e-mail.

The people making the budget decisions have high expectations that e-mail will make up for the sales they expected from direct marketing.

Sharpening your company’s e-mail subscriber list is a key factor in improving results of online marketing campaigns. Look at these tips to help make … Continue Reading

21st Century marketing

How to step up your marketing in a recession

There is a 21st century shift in marketing that is affecting small and medium sized businesses – and it is affecting financial adviser businesses as much as  other industries.

What are the traditional methods of marketing your services?

• Networking – referrals, golf club, business club, round table…
• Direct mail
• Telemarketing – phoning up prospects and potential prospects
• Local press advertising – national press and trade press as well for larger IFAs.
• Seminars

These methods are still valid but in the modern world … Continue Reading

Hhhmmm.... recession?

Change creates opportunities

A lot of businesses will tell you they are making big changes to get through this recession …cutting back, changing processes, off-loading stock… . But more than anything, whenever a business is facing big changes in their market – good or bad – it is time for lots of sales activity. Sales opportunities are always created as a result of change and the challenges that creates. Challenge and change are the greatest sales lead generators of all.

Here are 5 things you can do as … Continue Reading