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For too long, the pensions industry has treated communication and engagement as though they are interchangeable. They are not.
Sending more emails is not an engagement strategy. A birthday email is not meaningful personalisation. And broadcasting information, however well-designed, does not automatically build relationships.
The uncomfortable truth is that pension members no longer compare their scheme experience with other pension providers or membership organisations. They compare it with every digital interaction they have elsewhere in their lives — online retail, streaming platforms, social media, banking apps or creator-led communities.
In today’s attention economy, engagement is earned, not assumed.
The organisations succeeding in capturing attention are not simply communicating more frequently. They are communicating more intelligently. They are faster, more relevant, more responsive and, crucially, more human.
The pensions industry must raise its expectations of what good engagement actually looks like.
A modern channel strategy
Many schemes and providers are still relying on twentieth-century communication tactics to engage twenty-first-century audiences.
A modern engagement strategy is not about expecting members to come to us. It is about meeting people where they already spend their time and attention.
That means embracing channels and formats that audiences genuinely use and trust, including:
- WhatsApp and messaging platforms
- Short-form video content
- Community-based platforms
- Peer-to-peer engagement
- Creator-led content
- Live and interactive digital experiences
- Emerging forms of agentic AI and conversational technology
There is also a broader lesson to learn from the world’s best communicators — whether they are digital creators, global brands, campaigners or online communities.
They understand principles that the pensions sector too often overlooks:
- relevance beats volume
- authenticity beats polish
- conversation beats broadcast
- consistency beats occasional campaigns
The challenge for pension providers is not simply to modernise channels, but to rethink the mindset behind engagement itself.
Data should drive relevance, not reporting
The industry also needs to move beyond treating all members in the same way.
Consumer businesses have spent years building sophisticated models around behavioural insight, propensity analysis and predictive engagement. Streaming platforms anticipate what audiences want next. Retailers tailor experiences based on previous behaviours. Digital brands optimise every interaction in real time.
Pensions should aspire to the same level of sophistication.
Every member interaction generates valuable signals:
- what individuals read
- what they ignore
- what they share
- what prompts action
- what builds advocacy and trust
Data should not simply tell us what happened. It should help determine what happens next.
True personalisation is not inserting a first name into an email subject line. The future lies in contextual engagement: delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right moment, through the right channel, with the right call to action.
That requires better use of data, but also a stronger understanding of behavioural science, digital habits and audience needs.
Building journeys, not campaigns
The most effective engagement strategies are not built around isolated campaigns. They are built around journeys.
Schemes should think less about mailing lists and more about communities. Less about annual communication plans and more about continuous interaction.
This also demands a greater willingness to experiment. The organisations leading digital engagement today operate on a cycle of constant improvement:
- test
- learn
- iterate
- adapt quickly
They recognise that engagement is never “finished”. It evolves continuously alongside audience behaviour.
The pensions sector can sometimes be cautious by nature, but member expectations are changing too quickly for static communication models to remain effective.
The organisations that thrive over the next decade are unlikely to be those with the largest budgets alone. More likely, they will be those with the deepest understanding of their audiences.
Becoming impossible to ignore
Tom Higham, Head of Engagement at Mercer Master Trust, believes the most important shift is strategic rather than technological, “The industry must stop asking, ‘How do we send more communications?’ and instead ask, ‘How do we become impossible to ignore?’ That means building engagement models that are useful, relevant, responsive, intelligent and emotionally resonant. Members deserve more than transactional communication. They deserve experiences that feel valuable, personal and worth returning to.”
If the industry gets this right, it creates something far more powerful than short-term engagement metrics. It earns long-term trust, loyalty and enduring customer relationships. If it fails, audiences will continue to give their attention to organisations, communities and creators that understand how to engage — rather than simply how to communicate.
To read more articles, visit the Mercer content hub.