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Successful marketing can be challenging in any sector. Delivering – and demonstrating – return on investment in a crowded landscape is a tall order. But in a regulated industry, successful marketing is more complex and more challenging.

What are the secrets of success in regulated marketing? How can you walk the tightrope between creativity and compliance, navigating tools like AI, which can be both help and hindrance to regulated marketers?

Regulated marketing – how is it different?

If you operate in a regulated sector – like financial services, alcohol, professional services or tobacco – the marketing messages you can share will be more strictly defined and the channels open to you may be limited.

In addition, you will need to be accurate in your use of disclaimers and disclosures; prescribed wording that has to be included in your marketing assets.

Regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority have the power to instruct businesses to change or withdraw any non-compliant promotions – so there are high stakes, and potentially significant penalties for those who get it wrong.

Who makes and enforces rules around marketing?

Regulated sectors aren’t the only ones whose activity is scrutinised – any business advertising and marketing in the UK is subject to regulation, whether it’s by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for most advertising content or the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for data protection such as GDPR.

For regulated marketers, the added layer of complexity and scrutiny brought about by industry regulation brings an extra dimension to these rules.

What does this mean for you as a marketer? And how can you tackle the challenges of regulated marketing? We have some advice.

11 ways to be compliant when marketing in a regulated sector

1. Plan ahead. Content you create will need approval from your Compliance and/or Legal teams, adding to your lead times. Factor in the time needed for compliance reviews and approvals when considering your timescales.
2. Engage Compliance and Legal teams early. You can take greater control over these time constraints by communicating and collaborating with your approvers at an early stage in the process. Let them know what is coming, the objectives of the content, and what your ask is. This will enable them to manage their priorities; make for a smoother review process; and increase the chances of your project meeting its deadlines.
3. Be thoughtful about the type of content you create. Thought leadership – sharing your thoughts on a topical issue or gnarly challenge – can be easier to get Compliance and Legal team approval for when compared to overt product promotion.

While over time, you will doubtless need to produce a variety of marketing assets and content, you can make life easier or harder for yourself depending on your approach to content creation. Tilt your content towards broader thought leadership and away from promotional content, and you will make the approvals journey an easier one.

1. Mind your language. Don’t over-promise or make unsubstantiated claims – these will be big no-nos for your Compliance and Legal teams. Ensure your writing is accurate, unambiguous and evidences any promotional statements.
2. Ensure all aspects of your marketing activity are covered – social media, for instance, is in-scope for regulation but can often be overlooked when it comes to compliance, as well as creating a higher risk due to its more reactive, ‘off the cuff’ nature.
3. Ensure your compliance housekeeping is 100% watertight, with disclaimers, disclosures and all wording on point. Keep a tight hold on your version control (our Version Control Checklist can help there) to ensure errors don’t creep in as documents are edited.
4. Police your brand. On a similar note, your brand – which you have spent time and energy lovingly building – can be a victim of poor discipline. Don’t let your team or wider business jeopardise your brand-building work by misusing your brand assets. Not only does this dilute your branding, it can risk non-compliance for regulated firms.
5. Ensure all your stakeholders have access to compliant assets and materials. This is an essential step in preventing the branding and content breaches mentioned above. All too often, colleagues frustrated by their inability to find the assets or content they’re seeking will create their own, going off-piste in the process and threatening your brand and your regulatory compliance.
6. Store your marketing assets in one place, for ease of access. To prevent this laxity around your marketing materials, store all your marketing collateral in one highly-secure platform, giving all users instant access to the on-brand assets they need.

When collateral can be stocked or printed to order, you can keep control over your materials, and avoid reinventing the wheel. This not only reduces your risk of compliance breaches, it helps to avoid wasting time and money recreating assets that already exist.

Locking down elements like your branding, disclaimers and other regulated statements can reduce the risk of non-compliant, off-brand materials slipping through the net.

1. Remember, compliance is not all about content. How does data privacy regulation affect marketing? Quite fundamentally, is the answer. If you send promotional emails, direct mail or collect personal data for any other reasons – retargeting, social media activity etc – you need to comply with data protection laws. This applies whether or not you work in a regulated industry; it’s essential to make sure your data gathering and processing meets requirements.
2. Consider the role of AI. While there are benefits to using AI to help you create marketing collateral, there can also be risk in terms of compliance; ensure you understand these so you can realise the benefits of AI for marketing and avoid the pitfalls.

Navigating the regulated marketing minefield

Hopefully, these tips will help you to walk the thin line that enables you to deliver creative, effective marketing campaigns with an eye to regulation.

Managing your branded assets in a disciplined way is one essential step towards compliant marketing. If you would like to know more about BrandEnable by Perivan – a secure platform to manage brand assets and marketing materials – you can find out more here.

Equally valuable for a number of sectors, the platform enhances brand consistency, regulatory compliance and efficient operations by enabling companies to streamline the creation, approval, and distribution of their branded content.

If you want to optimise your marketing processes and maintain a strong, cohesive brand presence, as well as boosting your regulatory compliance, read more about how BrandEnable can help.