Effective communications start with what members need, not what you want to tell them.
This insight was updated in March 2026
Some pension schemes are seeing real results from apps, social media campaigns, and digital-first approaches. That’s fine if you have the budget and the audience for it.
But the most reliable route to better member engagement doesn’t cost much at all. It’s a simple shift in mindset: start with what members need.
Ask a different question
Most schemes start by asking: “What do we want to tell members?” The best ones ask something different: “What do members need from us?”
By and large, members don’t want to read pensions material. What they want is to get an answer, or do something. That’s why we like to think of them as ‘users’ of our content rather than ‘readers’.
That shift in perspective makes all the difference. A user-focused communications strategy gets the right information to members at the right time, in a format and channel that works for them.
Find out what members actually need
To find out what members need, ask them. Don’t assume you know or ask a colleague who also works in pensions. Do a bit of research. Find out what members struggle with, what confuses them, what makes them phone the helpline.
A quick bit of qualitative research face-to-face with your members will reveal the answers they’re looking for, and the language they use. Then, you can play the answers and language back to them.
Have a look at your website and see if it answers these member questions up front, or whether users have to dig for them. For schemes with multiple providers or sections, this is especially important. The industry tends to design communications around how the scheme is structured, instead of around what the member needs to understand. That’s the wrong way round.
Give members reassurance
Research consistently shows that members value personal, straightforward communication. They want the closest thing they can get to a one-to-one conversation. Even if they understand what the website says, many call their schemes simply to talk through their options with a person.
And what they want is often not ‘advice’ in the sense of FCA-regulated financial advice. Even if they use that word. They want to speak to a human being who will help them check their thinking, that they haven’t missed anything obvious or got something wrong.
That distinction matters when you’re designing your communications. Rather than saying ‘we can’t give advice’, say what you can do. Offer ‘help’ and ‘someone to talk it through with’. Make yourself sound approachable – which again is partly about using the words that members themselves use. Don’t overwhelm with processes and options; give members a clear next step and a way to ask questions if they need to.
Make the right actions easy to take
How easy are you making it for members to do what they need to do? Every scheme wants members to keep their nomination up to date, but how many make that process easy and obvious on their website?
Find out what your members want to do, and design your content around making those journeys as simple and frictionless as possible.
Pension dashboards will mean a new cohort of action-seeking members, looking what to do with the consolidated information their dashboard has just given them. Their arrival at your website will be a significant engagement opportunity. Start thinking now about how you will help them.
Keep improving
The best schemes treat engagement as a continuous process, continually to be improved.
When members engage with a video, a letter, or a website tool, their responses tell you something useful. Use that feedback to improve the next version. This loop builds trust, reduces queries, and encourages members to take actions that improve their retirement outcomes.
Start with what members need. Everything else follows from there.
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We’d love to talk to you about how to get your members engaged more positively. Book a call with Joe Craig
