We need to talk about how you communicated last week’s Budget to your clients and prospects.

Since 1995, when I started my financial services career, 11 chancellors* have delivered countless Budgets, Autumn Statements, and (infamously) at least one Fiscal Event.

However, the 2024 Budget was probably the most significant for advisers/planners and their clients.

So, in this week’s blog, we’ll review the past few weeks to identify the marketing and communications lessons we can apply next time.

1. Making time for clients beforehand provided reassurance

We’ve never seen speculation, rumour, and misinformation before a Budget like we did in 2024.

Much of it was misplaced, while some was downright dangerous. As 30 October approached, the volume became so deafening that many clients (and those without an adviser/planner) became increasingly nervous.

That led many advisers/planners to find ways to proactively provide information and reassurance to clients, including:

• Sending emails to their entire client bank offering reassurance and warning against making decisions based on speculation
• Contacting a handpicked list of clients directly who they knew would be particularly nervous
• Clearing their diaries and offering online drop-in sessions so clients could speak to them directly about their concerns.

Advisers/planners who offered these options told us that clients appreciated their proactive approach, while it gave others the confidence to voice concerns they might otherwise have kept to themselves.

2. Swift communication on Budget day is essential

We’ve always believed it’s essential that advisers/planners send a summary of the fundamental changes to clients, prospects, and professional connections on the afternoon of the Budget.

Quite clearly, these people could get the same information elsewhere, but when you send it on the afternoon of the Budget:

• You look proactive
• You position yourself as the expert and the person who will guide your readers through the Budget maze
• You open up a communication channel because recipients can reply to your update directly.

And frankly, you’re their financial guide. It looks very strange if you’re not communicating with them about a topic that might directly affect their finances now and in the future.

I agree entirely that bespoke communications are important, but people want a quick hit on the afternoon of the Budget. The more detailed, client-specific communications can come later after you’ve had a chance to read the small print.

A word of warning, though: the longer you delay your high-level summary, the less effective it is. Sending a standard summary 48 hours after the Budget does nothing to enhance your reputation. Indeed, the opposite might be true.

3. Webinars broke through to the adviser mainstream

In September we suggested that advisers/planners consider hosting webinars to communicate the Budget’s key changes.

We know many of you rose to the challenge, successfully running webinars on the day of the Budget or on Thursday, October 31.

If you were one of them, I have massive respect for you. Successfully running webinars isn’t easy, and even with our support, it means advisers/planners must leave their comfort zone and try something new.

However, it’s worth the effort. These webinars provided valuable information, reassurance, and confidence to the attendees.

For example, here’s some of the feedback HarperLees Financial Planning (a Yardstick client) received after their Budget webinar:

• “Many thanks for yesterday’s excellent webinar presentation”
• “It was really helpful to have such a clear and concise summary of key points in the Budget”
• “Excellent webinar. Well-structured and addressed all relevant points so thank you.”
• “The webinar was super interesting! It was a great idea to set it up in the first place and then it was really clear!”

This Budget saw webinars break through to the mainstream, becoming a key method of communication. If the advisers/planners who ran them in 2024 repeat the exercise in future years, they’ll soon become known for their post-Budget webinars.

That can only be a good thing for them and their clients.

4. The Budget summary myths aren’t true

I’ve heard a few people dismiss the benefit of sending Budget summaries, saying:

• “No one reads them”
• “My inbox is full of Budget updates”
• “There’s no value to sending summaries unless they’re bespoke”.

These opinions are almost always offered without supporting data or evidence.

Let’s deal with them one by one.

“No one reads them”

We have data to prove this opinion wrong. We’ve sent over 300 Budget mailers to nearly 200,000 people, and the average open rate was 57%, indicating that many people valued the updates.

“My inbox is full of Budget updates”

You are not your clients, and their inboxes will look very different to yours.

However, if their inbox is full of Budget updates, you damn well better be sure that one of them is from you and it’s better than the others!

“There’s no value to sending summaries unless they’re bespoke”

The data above disproves this theory.

Speed and simplicity win on the day of the Budget. The later you leave it though, the more your clients will expect a bespoke update.

5. Compliance can hold things up

We produced summaries for 270 firms and sent 90% of these on the day of the Budget.

That’s great.

Unfortunately, the other 10% were held up mainly by compliance departments, which insisted on checking them because they classified the communication as a “financial promotion”.

We don’t believe a generic Budget summary, which simply reports the outcome, should be classified as a financial promotion. Therefore, compliance departments should not really need to review it.

But it doesn’t matter what we think.

If compliance thinks a Budget summary could be a financial promotion, so be it.

All we ask is that they set aside the necessary resources to check the update on this one afternoon a year so it can go out on the afternoon of the speech.

To be fair, most did this, allowing their advisers/planners to communicate swiftly.

Sadly, others didn’t give it the same priority.

6. Find ways to stand out on social media

For weeks before the Budget, social media was awash with advisers/planners giving their thoughts and opinions about the speculation. In the days after Rachel Reeves’ speech, many advisers took to social media to promote their Budget updates.

Most of it looked very similar. Almost none stood out.

As we said, we believe it’s vital you email an update to your clients on the afternoon of the Budget. But social media is different.

You’re likely to be the only financial adviser/planner your clients hear from (at least you would hope you are!) on the day of the Budget, but the social media algorithms might mean they see several Budget updates from different firms.

So, yours needs to stand out.

For example:

• Give a different take on the Budget
• Record a video
• Use graphics.

That’s it for another year

Rachel Reeves has promised there will only be one Budget a year, so that’s it for another 12 months.

In the meantime, start thinking about the lessons you can learn from the 2024 Budget.

If you have any feedback on the support we provided, please let us know. We’ll be having a debrief very soon.

Finally, if you were curious about the names of the 11 chancellors, here’s the full list:

Kenneth Clarke: May 1993 to May 1997

Gordon Brown: May 1997 to June 2007

Alistair Darling: June 2007 to May 2010

George Osborne: May 2010 to July 2016

Philip Hammond: July 2016 to July 2019

Sajid Javid: July 2019 to February 2020

Rishi Sunak: February 2020 to July 2022

Nadhim Zahawi: July 2022 to September 2022

Kwasi Kwarteng: September 2022 to October 2022

Jeremy Hunt: October 2022 to July 2024

Rachel Reeves: July 2024 to date