3 Fund Marketing Principles Behind the Modern Investor Experience
Once, when guiding investors from awareness of a fund opportunity toward allocation, the linear sales funnel was gospel. But times have drastically changed.
MarTech has boomed, and funds now face an endless G2 doomscroll of the kit at their disposal. But such platforms are part of a fund’s everyday life today, to cater to the individual content preferences of digital audiences, spur allocation interest, and educate them about shifting markets 24/7.
This multi-channel route also enables the paper trail of prospects to spring off in all directions. Like the very best cinematic twists, an investor’s stages from consideration to conversion has no predictable plotline. Their digital experiences and intentions are deeply personal, Not to mention life-changing in cases of large-sum investments.
These are emotional nuances that fund managers must be aware of, and it is not easy for marketers, sales and distribution teams at the other end of the looking-glass to keep their cool, and keep control. Unless, they’re able to strategically capture this data all the way along, signifying where investors’ ‘intent’ lies, and double down on it with consistently branded marketing material.
Crafting brand experiences that lead to raised assets is less formulaic than before. However, with thought applied to well-integrated MarTech stacks and maintaining a fund’s trust that a modern institutional or high-wealth investor needs, that non-linear funnel does not have to be the scary roadblock fund marketers fear after all.
Boosting Results in AI Search
If AI alone is proving to be more than its initial ‘buzzword’ status promised, ‘AI Search’ marks a whole new dimension for audiences wanting to discover more about a brand’s marketing efforts. Truly, investors are using it daily.
Of course, asset managers and hedge funds may be of the impression that their historical investors know everything about equities, bonds, or ETFs. But all investment discovery starts somewhere, and now, the most convenient way to find instantly gratifying information is AI Search.
As the same article identifies, AI platforms are far more interested in compelling, consistent and real user experiences rather than corporate content.
This makes financial marketer’s long-standing content credibility feel less of a be-all-end-all to be ranked highly by AI Search. The technology can be thought about as another step up from SEO. It is not merely keywords doing the heavy lifting, so much as the fact that AI platforms recognise a fund brand’s ultra-specialised expertise.
Luckily, this can work wonders for hedge fund or private equity marketers. In a field so complex and niche, differentiated ideas on markets and investment strategy presented through content (and positioned across all of a fund’s digital estate) will be more highly valued by the search engine AI.
Just like we all want to immediately turn to Google to “learn more” facts instantly (hopefully not for cheating in a pub quiz), AI Search can leverage a fund as a top result according to specific LP searches. This makes investors’ exploration into the wealth of a fund’s fact sheets, resource libraries, investor tools and events seamless – and boosts the brand with more immediate effect.
Making Digital Channels an Integrated Hive Mind
Digital investors today need coherence. It’s unbelievably frustrating to be investigating a product (or, in this case, a fund) only to be redirected to newly opened tabs, an intrusive web ad or a subsidiary site altogether. It can stop you in your tracks from placing more time or money with a company.
Likewise, navigating a hedge fund’s investment strategy, “About Us” company information, compliance certifications, and informative content has to all make sense as a step-by-step researching journey. It must also be accessible, and transparently help an investor on their way without it seeming like an effort on their part.
This is pertinent in the space, considering that 87% of institutional investors will reject a fund manager based on how poorly they translate corporate governance – more often than not available in publicly accessible information on a website that they should be able to find with relative ease.
So, the continuous flow of a user’s experience is key, made all the better with a fund marketer considering the roles each of their digital channels plays (draped in the brand’s recognisable look and feel, and brand voice):
● The website is the place for historical performance factsheets, customer use cases, risk policies, subscription forms and sign-ups, and educational long-form blogs.
● Social channels drive personal one-to-one messaging and short market outlooks and videos.
● Email is there to reach investor subscription lists with fund updates, events, and newsletters, or to reach portfolio managers with detailed information.
With all of these linked together, an investor can enjoy their time engaging with what they need to, and immediately understand how, and where, to take a next step. The more touchpoint data an integrated CRM tracks, the more proactive the fund can be to provide value to each LP’s decision making, no matter their level of investment-readiness.
When connected, digital media, UX strategy and data analytics all play a part to recognise popular investor journeys, and reiterate them to more prospects. This all stops outreach feeling purely transactional, as was one the case for an out-of-the-blue redemption call or quarterly factsheet. Instead, it grants a user a natural way to familiarise themselves with a more authentic brand before investing.
Building Relationships and Brand Champions
A misconception that pervades hedge funds, asset managers or private equity firms is the superior feeling that they know best: the demographics, lifestyles and risk attitudes of their ideal investors, and therefore the broad strokes that should make them want to invest in one particular product.
This is no longer true, and fund marketing now has to be participatory by design. Namely, putting out interactive content across digital channels, engaging with the investors that are taking notice, and learning what investors deem special about their relationship with a fund.
This is not easy, involving a heap of brand psychology; essentially how your underlying fund philosophy resonates with people, often in times of geopolitical or macroeconomic uncertainty.
Is it based on the clarity of fund performance information? How high-profile your spokespeople are at industry events? Your diversity, equity and inclusion policy?
It’s often a mixture of things that are inherently personal to every investor, whether a high-net worth allocator or a newcomer building up an initial portfolio. Understanding these, to then personalise their experiences down the line, means creating a connection and regular dialogue with them through content.
One way to do so is through posting every blog across your website and social channels. The latter is, evidenced by our own research, underused by the hedge fund space despite it being a fundamental engagement tool.
For instance, it can boost the unique voices of executives, analysts, and IRs (feeding into AI Search success, too) and allow for back-and-forth communication with prospects. It can also detail a fund’s behind-the-scenes endeavours, granting a personality that’s irreplaceable at another fund.
As is the case of detailed fund commentaries and market predictions, such content showcases not just knowledge, but relevance to the end investor. They will keep coming back to a business that reflects their values and predicaments, and amplify brands that listen to them and continue to heed their individualistic interests.
Such ambassadors for the fund can do wonders for AuM opportunities within their social groups, opening up new global regions and interested ‘invisible investor’ data originally unknown to a fund’s marketing team.
The New Experience Model
The modern investor journey is sporadic and dynamic, where only well-drilled outreach teams at alternative funds can possibly stay on top of each prospect’s bespoke investment challenges, or channel or content preferences.
Underlying all of this is careful attention paid to a fund’s content strategy, their most performant channels, and acquiring investor data to best serve their needs. When investors are able to control their own fund research across an ease-to-use digital experience, their trust will increase. This creates a more natural connection with a fund brand that shows care and authenticity.
AI Search, web-based user experience tools and data analytics may feel robotic. However, they’re inherently augmenting the human side that helps fund marketers stand out to LPs. This is fact more pertinent than ever, driving a seismic digital investor experience wave in the coming years we are yet to find out about.
