The dynamic between marketing and compliance teams can sometimes feel like a tightrope walk, especially for those in highly regulated industries like consumer finance.
On one side, you have the marketing team, eager to get their creative campaigns out into the world as quickly as possible to keep up with consumer trends and catch demand. They often see the compliance team as the cautious gatekeepers, who might slow down their sprint and hinder creativity with rules and regulations.
On the other side, there’s the compliance team. Their job isn’t to put a damper on creativity, but to make sure that all marketing materials and messaging align with laws and regulations. They’re the ones who ensure the company protects consumers and avoids any potential legal troubles, which is just as vital for business growth.
But when these two teams find a way to work together harmoniously, that’s when the magic happens. Both teams ultimately have the same end goal: protecting consumers and driving growth.
By recognizing that they’re on the same team, marketing and compliance can move beyond seeing each other as hurdles to overcome and instead become collaborators, each bringing their unique strengths to the table in a united effort to drive the business forward.
Compliance programs are often seen as “business interrupters,” and–maybe because of my previous experience–I’ve always been eager to change that idea. We’re flipping the script and viewing marketing and product as partners helping to achieve business objectives in a way that protects everybody involved—companies we work with, the bank itself, and, most importantly, the consumer.
– Nicole Pullman, Central Payments
The good news is that it seems that this dynamic is shifting. In a recent survey, we found that while compliance departments are primarily responsible for marketing compliance, marketing departments also have some stake in the game.
While things are headed in the right direction, compliance and marketing teams still face challenges when it comes to collaboration.
In this blog post, we will explore the main challenges these teams face in working together, the potential risks of ineffective collaboration, the benefits of collaboration between marketing and compliance, and the role of technology in enhancing their joint efficiency.
Marketing compliance challenges and insights from both perspectives
Our State of Marketing Compliance survey uncovered key insights on the perspectives and challenges faced by marketing and compliance professionals at banks and other consumer finance organizations.
Despite robust training, many marketers and compliance professionals have moderate to low confidence in their compliance programs
Marketers overall have lower confidence in their organization’s compliance programs compared to compliance professionals. But, over three-fourths of compliance professionals surveyed have only moderate confidence in their compliance programs.
Interestingly, the majority of both marketers and compliance professionals agreed that their organizations offer comprehensive marketing compliance training.
This suggests that although training is a critical aspect of a successful marketing compliance program, it’s not enough to instill full confidence in marketers or compliance professionals.
Tedious compliance review processes are creating slowdowns
Most marketers and compliance professionals describe the compliance review and approval process for marketing materials as “highly collaborative but time-consuming, typically requiring multiple rounds of review” and agree that this process creates slowdowns for both the marketing and compliance teams.
While this indicates that there is collaboration between the two teams, the compliance review and approval processes are inefficient and likely outdated.
Manual processes and resource constraints are top challenges, but technology can help
Both marketers and compliance professionals said that manual review processes are their most significant marketing compliance challenge, followed closely by resource constraints (think bandwidth, headcount, etc.)
Both groups also agreed that additional staffing would be the most helpful to address their key challenges, followed closely by an automated compliance review and approval software and compliance monitoring software.
Additional headcount may help alleviate the heavy workload for individuals by spreading tasks across more people, but it won’t make the process more efficient or cost-effective.
Automated compliance solutions that offer both review and approval and ongoing monitoring capabilities (like PerformLine) can help organizations increase efficiency while reducing the amount of time and headcount needed to complete tedious tasks. By automating recurring and time-consuming tasks, marketing and compliance teams have more time to focus on more strategic initiatives to move the business forward.
Risks of ineffective collaboration
Not only is ineffective collaboration between marketing and compliance teams frustrating internally, but it can lead to much bigger issues for the organization. A lack of effective collaboration and communication can lead to compliance issues slipping through the cracks, exposing the organization to significant risk.
Non-compliant marketing materials
Failure to communicate and collaborate can lead to non-compliant marketing materials being published and sent out to consumers. And, while most compliance issues are unintentional, they can still lead to significant issues for the organization, which can ultimately lead to regulatory scrutiny and enforcement.
Regulatory scrutiny and enforcement
Regulators are cracking down on deceptive marketing, and any compliance issues can lead to supervision, investigations, and ultimately, enforcement actions by federal or regulators (sometimes both).
This scrutiny can lead to significant consequences. Recent enforcement trends point towards steep monetary penalties and even more structural penalties like policy changes and even mandatory shutdowns.
Reputational damage and consumer harm
Non-compliant marketing materials can harm consumers who make decisions based on the marketing messages they see. Harming consumers—especially when it comes to their finances—can quickly lead to a loss of trust.
And, if the company faces an enforcement action by regulators due to a marketing compliance violation, it can lead to significant reputational damage, as such actions are often public and highlight the company’s failure to comply. The negative publicity from an enforcement action can linger long after any penalties are paid, impacting customer loyalty, attracting negative media attention, and potentially deterring new business.
The benefits of collaboration and communication
Aligning marketing and compliance teams can lead to benefits that extend beyond regulatory compliance and risk management. It can stimulate creativity, improve efficiency, provide valuable insights, and contribute to a more positive company culture, ultimately leading to a more successful and competitive organization in the consumer finance industry.
Creativity Within Regulatory Boundaries
Collaboration between marketing and compliance teams can foster creativity while staying within the bounds of regulatory obligations, leading to more engaging and effective marketing campaigns.
Proactive Problem-Solving
By having a strong collaboration in place, marketing and compliance teams can proactively identify potential compliance issues and address them before they become serious problems.
Market Intelligence
Compliance teams often have a deep understanding of market trends and regulatory changes. When aligned with marketing, they can provide valuable insights into how industry developments and changes in regulations might impact marketing strategies and customer behavior.
Efficient Review and Approvals
When marketing and compliance teams work closely, they can establish streamlined review and approval processes, reducing delays and increasing speed-to-market.
Better Customer Insights
Compliance teams often analyze customer complaints and feedback related to marketing practices. Sharing this information with marketing teams can provide valuable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and expectations, helping marketing efforts become more customer-centric.
Ability to Keep Up with Regulations and Market Conditions
In a rapidly evolving industry, companies need to adapt quickly to changing regulations and market conditions. When marketing and compliance teams are aligned, the organization is better equipped to respond to these changes with agility and confidence.
Enhanced Company Culture
A culture of collaboration between marketing and compliance can spill over into the broader company culture. It encourages teamwork, communication, and a shared commitment to ethical conduct, contributing to a positive and ethical organizational culture.
Bridging the gap with technology
PerformLine helps bridge the gap between marketing and compliance through technology and automation, leading to more efficient and streamlined collaboration between the two.
Automated Compliance Reviews and Approvals
PerformLine’s Document Review revolutionizes how marketing and compliance teams interact and work together through automated marketing review and feedback.
The process is simple—marketing teams can submit materials to your PerformLine account (blogs, direct mailers, sales sheets, etc.) for compliance review via email. The PerformLine platform automatically reviews and scores the document against your compliance rulebooks. That score and feedback is then instantly sent back to the submitter so they can review and make any necessary edits.
This process provides consistent, fast, and accurate compliance verdicts within just minutes, allowing approved documents to move ahead quickly while flagging those that failed for further inspection.
This automation not only speeds up the approval process but also allows marketing teams to remain agile and creative while ensuring that compliance standards are rigorously upheld.
Ongoing Monitoring and Discovery Across Channels
Marketing and compliance collaboration doesn’t end after initial review and approval. A solid compliance program ensures that marketing content remains compliant after publication.
With PerformLine’s ongoing monitoring capabilities allow marketing and compliance teams to continue to monitor content across channels—including the web, social media, and emails—for compliance. If any compliance issues are identified, they can quickly be remediated.
And, PerformLine doesn’t just monitor the known content. Its cutting-edge discovery capabilities will find and flag any instances where your brand and products are being promoted in non-compliant ways, whether from internal teams, partners, or even unknown entities.
How a leading bank reduced marketing compliance review time and bolstered collaboration with PerformLine
A leading bank was in need of a comprehensive compliance solution that is both automated and adaptable. With dozens of assets created each month from both internal and external marketing teams, spending multiple days in review for each one was inefficient and untenable.
So, the bank turned to PerformLine’s Document Review and Web Monitoring solutions.
Now, the same document that used to take multiple days of review and conversation can be reviewed, scored, and sent back to marketing teams as approved or with noted issues almost immediately.
But the benefits extended beyond mere speed. Whether the content originated internally or externally, the organization gained newfound confidence in its ability to identify unknown compliance risks proactively.
Through PerformLine, this bank has bolstered collaboration between its compliance team, its marketing team, and external partners who are marketing on their behalf.
PerformLine 
Michael Gibney 