Asset Management Communications Blog

"How well do I really know my clients?”

I’ve yet to meet a portfolio manager or sales and marketing executive who says they don’t intimately “know” their clients and client types.

I’m not buying it.

Today is Part 5  of our series, Developing a Content Marketing Strategy for Investment Managers. Earlier entries in the series include:

•  Introduction
• Case Study
• Part 1 - Goal Setting
• Part 2 - How to Create Buyer Personas
• Part 3 - Conducting Content Audits
• Part 4 - Choosing Your Content Management System (CMS)

Investment management websites are the undiscovered country of the asset management marketing world.

 The reason, it seems, is because many investment managers are still equating digital marketing in 2017 with “internet marketing,” circa 1995.

There’s nothing sketchy or unethical about it; quite the opposite, in fact.

In this video series, we will be offering bite-sized nuggets of wisdom, thought leadership, tips, and strategies for getting your digital marketing and messaging strategy pointed in the right direction.

About a year and a half ago, I did a post on rethinking your pitchbook.

Ever since then, I’ve though a lot about them. Pitchbooks (or brochures for those working the retail angle) are an industry staple: everyone has one, and everyone sees it as one of the (if not THE) cornerstones of their investment management marketing and sales effort...

...And if that's what everyone thinks, then it's time for your pitchbook to die.

I have undergraduate and Master's degrees in History, and there was a time when I was really into memorizing as many quotes from respected historical figures as I could.

It became a problem.

I may have mentioned in an earlier post that one of the more common objections I get when broaching the subject of content marketing for investment managers is:

As is often the case, it's what people do, rather than what they say, that's most telling. 

Let’s get this out of the way early.

 If an investment manager

1. does good work
2. has responsive client service, and
3. keeps a decent track record

then there is no reason why they should struggle to grow their assets under management.

If they do, then the problem is the marketing. Full. Stop.

For most investment management firms, the top line goal is to grow their assets under management.

Here’s the problem with using AUM growth as the primary measurement of the ROI of a marketing strategy:

It is a one-dimensional, pass/fail metric that doesn’t reflect the values most firms hold dear.

Content. It’s the lifeblood of investment management marketing - only most in the industry don’t fully appreciate it yet.

The reason why content is so important is because it is the best way for managers, particularly emerging managers who are looking to break through, to establish clear differentiation. 

When investment managers go before a prospect, be it an investment committee, private client, or anything in between, the instinct is to focus primarily on their investment process.

It’s not surprising. After all, it’s the subject managers feel most comfortable discussing, and is where most believe their core differentiation lies.

In the old days, marketing white papers for investment managers were a months-long process of deep research, analysis, and composition. The end result was typically a product which would appeal strongly to fellow portfolio managers, investment analysts, and finance professors.

In other words, the perceived marketing value was in demonstrating how learned and professional a particular firm was.

This was quite a quarter.

I love industry surveys that offer insight in easily digestible snippets.

Recently, the Mutual Fund Education Alliance & BackBay Communications released one such survey on the perceptions about content marketing by those in the investment management industry who have adopted the practice.

The results of the survey, while not surprising, do offer some insight into where asset management industry peers are having success, as well as the challenges they face.

Here are some of the key findings and our takes on them:

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in on a webinar hosted by FundFire. The topic was “Consultant Roundtable: How to Get on the Recommended List.”

For a number of my clients and contacts, the entire purpose of their investment management marketing strategy is to get their firms on as many approved lists as possible.

With that in mind, there were a couple of interesting points of emphasis to pass along, as it relates to building a high-quality relationship between investment managers and their consultant buyer personas.

In the never-ending quest for differentiation, one of the best ways investment managers can demonstrate their uniqueness is in the quarterly client letter.

It is a timely issue, as this is one of the four times a year when investment managers are more or less forced to follow up with their clients and explain themselves (better or worse).

For even the most reticent, misanthropic firms, the quarterly client letter can do more to differentiate than any other single business practice.

With that in mind, quarterly investment management client communications can be greatly enhanced by adhering to these four basic strategies.