Asset Management Communications Blog

I hate jargon. 

But unfortunately, I often find myself using it when I'm writing or speaking about digital marketing for investment managers. 

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.

You spend 30 hours or $5,000 on writng a white paper, eBook, or other piece of thought leadership.

It has significant value, but you're just giving it away on your website? That makes no sense.

This week's Monday Morning Marketing Minute is about how investment managers can better position themselves to hang on to their own clients, and poach those of their competitors, when the market turns sour.

For the amount of time, money, and attention investment managers pay to their websites, they generate very little in the way of measurable ROI.

But why?

The main reason is that the model for investment management websites is broken.  Or more accurately, it’s never really worked in any meaningful way.

In this week's Monday Morning Marketing Minute, we preview a blog post coming later this week on using investment management research principles to measure website performance, and using that intelligence to optimize the site for marketing purposes..

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.