Creating And Distributing Great Fund Marketing Content

COVID 19 has changed the world in many ways.

And in fund marketing it’s had one big and irreversible effect:

It has forced everyone – whether they like it or not – into the digital marketing sphere.

Back in March 2020, things changed forever – and a different dynamic came into play. The days of business lunches, face to face meetings, and deals being sealed in corporate boxes were gone.

And digital communication held sway.

The move to digital had, of course, been going on for years. But the pandemic turbocharged that process and now digital marketing is here to stay.

And Zoom has taken over the world.

Or has it?

Actually, no – at least not where fund marketing is concerned. And this is a point I must address before we go any further.

In fact, according to a recent survey by Greenwich Associates only 25% of people in the asset management and private banking space rate Zoom as their preferred channel for receiving information. Webinars were way above that on 63%, with websites favoured by 67%.

But blowing all of them out of the water was email on 92%. The biggest reasons given for this were email’s capacity to provide detailed content and the fact that it’s non-intrusive.

This is an important point to make as it underpins this white paper, where I’m going to outline five steps you can take to ensure you’re creating and distributing great fund marketing content.

And we’ll start with the basis of everything – having a plan.

Have A Plan – And Stick To It

Having a plan is a cornerstone of marketing success.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. All you need to do is have a simple plan on a spreadsheet.

This should cover when you’re going to create stuff – webinars, emails, social posts etc – when you’re going to distribute it all, and via which channels. Then tick it off when it actually gets done.

And, believe me, you don’t need to look any further than Excel when it comes to creating this. I’ve tried every planning tool and app under the sun, but Excel remains the best. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s too simple – that’s the beauty of it.

You must share your plan internally through Google Docs or OneDrive to ensure everyone knows what they’re doing. This is crucial, as it avoids people replicating tasks – not only is that a waste of time but it makes you look disorganised and unprofessional.

Also, of course, you have to make sure you actually follow your plan. That may be easier said than done – as other stuff can get in the way – but you should try and stick to it and have the discipline to create the content that needs to be sent out.

When it comes to distribution, email is your best weapon, as I’ve said, but you should also distribute via webinars, press releases, and social.

Then you must get all your content onto your website, so people can access it whenever they like. Not only does this create a resource that underlines your position as a leader in the field, but it allows you to analyse activity and reveal valuable information about your audience.

Generate Good Content

For your content plan to be effective you do, of course, need to be sending out good content.

This may seem like simple common sense – it is – but a cursory glance through your inbox will reveal that 90% of firms just trot out the same old bland sales message.

Don’t fall into that trap. Instead, you should put in the effort necessary to make your firm a byword for decent content.

What themes should you concentrate on to make this happen?

The three main areas are marketing commentary, your own investment strategy, and thought leadership around sector news and changes. All these not only inform people, but also mark you out as a firm with knowledge and expertise.

How about performance? That should be way down the list. It has its place, as sometimes people want to know how you’re getting on, but it should never be a mainstay of your content strategy.

Don’t forget – you’re producing content to educate, enlighten and entertain. This should underpin all your marketing. And, whoever the content is written by, it must fit in with a voice that is specific to your organisation.

When it comes to distribution, try and use a variety of channels. But you also have to think about how people want to consume this content. Some will read a long-form copy piece like this paper, but others want shorter more bite-sized pieces.

Equally, many want to watch content – not read it. So get it up on YouTube in both short and long formats.

Basically, the more ways you make your content accessible the more people are going to hear your message.

Concentrate On What Works

One of the biggest, most useless, and most expensive mistakes you can make as a fund marketer is to concentrate on two things that, while an awful lot is said about them, will make little difference – paid ads and SEO.

That’s because best practice in both these areas changes in the blink of an eye, as algorithms and user behaviour are both constantly evolving – meaning what works today may crash and burn tomorrow. So, unless you have the capacity to retain experts in these fields who will constantly monitor the situation and know how to adapt, it’s just not worth it.

Fact is, there are way more useful things you can and should be doing before you go anywhere near ads and SEO. Such as:

Target your existing investors

It’s said that existing customers are seven times more likely to buy from you than those who haven’t heard of you. Makes sense, as your clients already trust you to deliver.  So, make sure you are appealing to those who already invest with you, rather than just going after those who don’t. Not only will that lead to cross-selling opportunities, but it will also lower the redemption rate – as your clients will feel more valued.

Recycle your content

I’ve already mentioned this, but it bears repeating as one piece of content can be used in multiple different ways. Take this white paper. It started life as a presentation by me via webinar. A copywriter then turned it into a white paper. From that, we get multiple articles that we can email to our list. And it will be split up further and turned into social media posts. That all comes from a single one-hour webinar.

If you’re doing webinars and not doing this, then you must be mad – as you’re leaving so much content behind and, ultimately, money on the table.

Use nurture campaigns

A nurture campaign is a series of valuable content pieces, which you can automatically send to prospects and clients via email. You can make this even more useful by combining it with lead scoring – the process of assigning points related to how people engage with your content. You can set a scoring system that gives points for positive actions – such as opening an email, clicking a link, downloading an attachment etc etc. Then a certain number of points automatically pushes your leads into certain grades – the highest of which would be a sales-qualified lead, a genuinely hot prospect who is obviously ready for a conversation with your reps. And all of this information needs to be pumped into your CRM, so that sales can easily look up a snapshot of engagement activity before having a conversation.

And one simple automation that deserves special mention – as it works so well – is based around event marketing. When you run an event, you should automatically resend the initial invite to those who didn’t open it. But you must also follow up on those who opened an invite but did not click on the relevant link, and those who clicked on the link but didn’t register for the event. Both these sets of people may still act when sent an automatically generated reminder. This simple process can boost event attendance by as much as 30%.

Analyse Your Output

This is the final piece in the jigsaw. As it is analysis that will ensure your marketing strategy increases AuM.

The first steps in analysis are to observe which themes and channels are working best, which particular funds are getting most interest, and also how this relates to geography (what works well in Hong Kong, for example, may be different to what works in the UK).

This is what a platform like ProFundCom does for you (other platforms are available – I should add – but none that focus exclusively on the fund sector) and it’s incredibly useful, as it helps you see what’s working and what isn’t in real time – so you can quickly change poorly performing campaigns and double down on those that are working well.

What’s more, your platform will let you drill down into all this data to unearth the individual stats – related to specific prospects and clients – that will actually move the needle in your fight to raise and retain assets. These are:

• Prospects who are highly engaged with your content and look at pretty much everything you send them – but haven’t yet spoken to sales. These people are likely to be ready to invest and should be an immediate target for a call.
• Prospects who previously stopped looking at your content – but have now started again. They may have gone elsewhere, but are now looking at your firm again and could be ready to invest.
• Existing investors who have started engaging with content related to products they don’t currently hold, which points to a cross-selling opportunity.
• Your current investors who have suddenly stopped looking at and engaging with your content. This is a red flag for a potential redemption, so a call from sales is needed.

Basically everything I‘ve spoken about in this paper brings you to this point – the ability to uncover data on individuals that are ready to invest.

Not only is this going to directly boost AuM, but it gives you a way to prove ROI to your C-suite by linking sales to marketing activity.