Sports metaphors are often annoying and inaccurate.
That said, the one I often use is: “Everybody has a hole in their game.” It’s a way of remembering that nobody is perfect, and everybody can find some aspect of their performance on which to work. In sports, it can be some combination of endurance, speed, strength, quickness, or a particular skill or mental issue. But everybody can improve… even the best among us.
I think if you asked 100 marketing directors, “What is it exactly you would like for your marketing effort to do a better job of,” I imagine somewhere north of 95% would answer with some variation of, “Generate more / better / higher quality leads.”
Generating high-quality leads is exactly what inbound marketing in designed to do. And because inbound and the strategies traditionally used by investment management firms share a common baseline principle, incorporating inbound does not require much of a reorientation of a firm’s marketing effort. What’s that common principle?
The importance of relationships.
Most of the marketing that takes place in asset management firms, whether it’s among institutional managers, hedge funds, wealth managers, investment consultants and advisors, or private equity firms, is based on establishing and nurturing personal relationships – there are no impulse buys in the investment management industry.
In other words, who do you know? How deep are your ties in the industry? How easily can you leverage existing relationships to build new ones?
The reason why inbound is a seamless extension of what’s been done for years is because it is a strategy which focuses, not on finding needles in haystacks, but on attracting and nurturing the types of clients with whom investment managers would most like to work.
A useful metaphor is to think of traditional marketing as a megaphone while inbound marketing is a magnet, attracting the right prospects by virtue of the content that forms the core of the strategy.
What’s the nature of that content?
Inbound marketing for investment managers requires the creation and dissemination of content specifically designed to help the target prospects (or our key buyer personas) to solve their most pressing problems and help them to negotiate their most important issues.
When executed in a professional, thoughtful way, inbound helps to attract, then nurture those with an existing interest or need for the kind of investment management services each firm provides, be it hedge funds for high net worth individuals, a long-only equities manager working with large institutions, or a wealth manager who requires a minimum investment of $250,000.
The content is what converts prospects into leads. Thanks to the steady creation and dissemination of content, prospects, leads, and clients alike see that your unique sensibility, professionalism, and deep, abiding desire to help clients to overcome their obstacles and realize their goals is your paramount concern.
And who wouldn’t want to business with a firm like that?
