Asset Management Communications Blog

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.

Millennials.

For those of us of a certain age, the non-stop media psychoanalysis of this demographic evokes strong emotions, including bewilderment, dismissiveness, ridicule, and if we are being honest, envy.

The root of these reactions lies in the fact that Millennials have expectations and standards which differ from those previously set by Baby Boomers and, to a strong degree, Generation Xers.

So why do Millennials have such different expectations? And what does it mean for investment management marketing to Millennials?

Peanut butter and jelly combine to make terrific sandwiches. But they aren’t the same thing.

Similarly, branding and investment management marketing work together to promote an investment management firm, yet the important distinctions between them are often misunderstood or ignored.

For most investment managers who practice active portfolio management, market volatility offers significant opportunity.

After all, if you think you have a good handle on what a company’s stock is worth, both excessive exuberance or unwarranted pessimism offer a great chance to buy on the cheap or sell on the high.

But it’s not just the portfolio managers who can capitalize on volatility: sales and marketing directors can do so as well.

“67% of the buyer’s journey is completed before sales becomes involved.”

This is a statistic that’s routinely floated by proponents (such of myself) about the importance of content marketing/digital marketing/social media marketing/Inbound Marketing to a company’s overall marketing strategy.

In essence, it implies that a full two-thirds of the sales process doesn’t involve a sales rep.

Though I’ve used it in the past, I always suspected this particular stat to be... problematic. Why?

 An investment management firm’s website is its most easily-accessed, publicly-available piece of marketing.

Unfortunately, in the context of today’s digital marketing environment, too many managers are content to think of their site as a “digital brochure.”

That’s like limiting your smartphone usage to voice only.

If an investment management marketing and sales effort has been disappointing, maybe it’s not the execution – perhaps it’s the strategy itself.

Inbound marketing for investment managers is a fundamentally different approach, but because few in the industry are using it both to reach new prospects, as well as a cornerstone of client service, it offers forward-thinking managers an opportunity to demonstrate true differentiation.

Investment management firms can better understand if their goals for 2016 make sense by using the SMART goal setting methodology.

What’s the old saying? An unwritten goal is just a wish? Well, for folks in investment management marketing, we can revise that old saw thusly:

A goal with no foundational basis is just a hope.
And hope is not a strategy.

One of the most effective contributors to a compelling investment management marketing message is a well-demonstrated client service function.

Perhaps the most important way firms can demonstrate value-added client service is with a great year-end letter.

I look at the websites of investment management firms. A lot of them.

And many, if not the vast majority, cite their “Client Service Philosophy” as a point of differentiation. I think that is a great idea and shows the right impulse, from an investment management marketing perspective.

But what happens when I dig deeper into that part of the site, hoping to find out more?

Last week, I reviewed and offered some thoughts on the marketing section of the HubSpot 2015 State of Inbound report. Today, I focus on the sales portion.

I’ve mentioned this in the past, and Richard Jackson of Jackson Analytics broached it as well in our chat from a few weeks ago, but in investment management, the lines between sales and marketing are often blurred. 

While it is true that sales and marketing are inextricably intertwined disciplines, and understandably so, they are distinct in nature. Each task requires its own independent strategy, but its plan & execution must dovetail with the other.

So, what are the issues preoccupying folks on the sales side this year?

A few weeks ago, the Inbound Marketing software and management firm HubSpot released their annual State of Inbound Marketing report (link fixed).

Given that this is the time of year when many firms are setting budgets for their investment management marketing strategy for 2016, examining exactly what is happening with Inbound, how its impact is being felt, and what we can expect going forward is apropos.

Steven Rubenstein is a Principal & Founder of Arrow Partners, a 3^rd Party Marketing firm and founding member of the 3^rd Party Marketers Association. The 3PM Annual Conference was held earlier this week in Boston, and I spoke on a panel about websites and social media. At the end of my session, Steve and I sat down to chat about how managers can stay relevant during lulls in the sales process.

DQCOMM  sat down with Richard Jackson, Founder & Principal at Jackson Analytics.

We wanted to learn a bit more about how investment management firms of all stripes can use the data they produce in the service of their investment management marketing effort.