content management

Three (Industry-Relevant) Marketing Trends for 2017

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Jan 15, 2017, in Thoughts , tagged with advertising, content management, predictions, video

Predictions are an interest of mine and of course this time of year there are predictions everywhere about everything. Over the past few weeks I’ve digested more articles about marketing trends than I care to admit. The writing tends to be aggressive and the ideas are all over the place, ranging from better content to Snapchat to optimizing Web sites for Echo and Home voice-triggered searches.

Of course articles tailored to asset management are hard to come by. So after digesting all of these predictions, I thought to highlight the most common ones with potential (or ongoing) relevance to our industry. I ended up with three, so let’s count them down:

3. Mobile

Mobile remains important for well-known reasons, namely the continued growth of mobile Web traffic and search providers’ prioritization of mobile-friendly sites and results.

So what’s relevant for asset managers? Firms know the value of a responsive Web site. However, client-facing mobile apps have largely been a difficult obstacle. You can certainly count me as a skeptic as far as the opportunity to engage advisors and institutions via apps, especially when those apps typically do little but repackage information already available on the site.

But successful apps (outside the industry) deliver a better user experience and attract stickier usage than good Web sites. In addition, Google now offers app indexing. While I don’t think we’ll see any significant progress with client-facing apps in the near future, I do expect that they’ll remain a periodic topic of conversation with firms hoping to figure out a way to deploy them effectively.

2. Native Advertising

Ad blocking, increased competition on social media platforms and other factors are making it more challenging for traditional ads to get through and attract attention. Already a major factor with diverse execution methods, some project native advertising will make up nearly three-quarters of US ad revenue within five years.

So what’s relevant for asset managers? Developing compelling content and messaging has been an industry focal point for a while now. Marketing teams now find themselves at a point where creativity in promotion and placement is at least as important as creating the content / message itself.

Adoption of native advertising has been gradual within asset management. Given the intensity of the competition today, it seems that now is the time for it to accelerate.

1. Video

Ah, a topic that we’ve been talking about since the day Naissance began. The continued importance of video was a mainstay of almost every predictions piece I read. More content, more ads, more live streaming… all supported by an army of statistics on why video is so effective.

So what’s interesting for asset managers? I am actually a little stumped. On the one hand, video came up in no fewer than 5 client meetings last month. It’s on a lot of firms’ radars.

On the other hand I’ve already gone on record with why I think video isn’t done all that well across the industry. And if you exclude entertainment there’s still solid evidence that people prefer reading to watching.

Video ads certainly are an opportunity. But unless we see firms venture down the live streaming path or get creative in terms of presentation and format, this is one trend where I expect less interesting progress.

Is Originality Important When it Comes to Content?

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Oct 18, 2016, in Thoughts , tagged with active management, content management, social media

Three semi-quick steps to get to my answer…

1. I tweet very infrequently.

2. The reasons I don’t tweet are multiple and common. But one of them is relevant to the question at hand: I don’t want to say something or make an observation that has already been made thousands of times before.

Case in point: my tolerance for spicy food has grown with age. So, as part of a recent Thai food order I upped the spiciness. Before the food arrived I started to wonder how I’d react to it. My thought process quickly went:

spicy-flow-chart

At this point I had a few version of a “spicy / Ark of the Covenant” tweet in my head. Still, as I considered putting it out there one thought popped into my head: has somebody said this before?

3. I assumed the answer to my question was YES, but a quick search showed that instinct to be mostly incorrect. It’s only appeared a handful of times over the years (at least on Twitter). Even so, my hesitation got the best of me and the world was deprived of another tweet.

All of this made me wonder about the importance of content originality within asset management. And in a nutshell I came to conclusion that it’s just not very important at all. The most direct illustration I can point to is the defense of active management. Consider that:

The current environment has led many, many, many, many firms to communicate a case for actively-managed investments.
These cases overlap significantly, making highly-similar points.

Despite the ubiquity and similarity we have been working with a client this month on how to message active management. And I think our client is absolutely right to pursue this effort. Why? First, it boils down to a numbers game:

Asset management is fractured, in that there are large numbers of providers and a huge number of clients.
This leads to kinetic content consumption. The likelihood of any given client encountering and consuming a single piece of content from an asset manager is low. The likelihood that they will consume content on the same subject from multiple managers is even lower. In other words, content sameness has a limited chance of being noticed.

Second, multiple perspectives are sought out by thoughtful clients. So, even if someone encounters the same ideas from multiple firms, minor nuances can stand out and be memorable.

And finally, going down heavily-traveled content roads is necessary because clients expect a firm to have something to say. For example, what active manager can afford NOT to have a strong case for active management in today’s climate? Ditto meaningful topics like Brexit, the Fed’s plans for rates, and more.

In an era where firms compete not only on product and performance but on the scale and quality of their ideas, covering the most important ideas and topics is crucial while pure originality is simply a nice-to-have.

Proprietary Magazines Coming to Asset Management?

Posted by Anu Heda on Jun 01, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with content management, JPMorgan

Content marketing has come to the real estate industry. Douglas Elliman, the 4th-largest real estate firm in the US, launched a lifestyle magazine (via W all Street Journal) that does not sell, market, or promote their current properties. Two years ago, we noted the online retailer, Net-a-Porter, and their magazine, Porter, in a client engagement with a top-10 asset manager. The magazine concept is an interesting technique for an asset manager looking to organize disparate in-house content sources. Leafing through Porter, you see the easy connection between retailer and magazine. Interspersed within the articles are clothes and accessories sold on the Web site. Looking through Elliman, there are no articles about new residential towers in Manhattan or Miami, rather Q&As with Ted Allen and Katie Lee.

In our industry we have a DC-focused magazine: Journey from JPMorgan. Journey follows thePorter model covering topics like Social Security’s future, diversification in a DC plan, and rising health care costs.

Will we see more magazines? If done well (good articles, quality paper stock, stunning photos and imagery), I see the appeal and I can imagine a magazine has a higher chance of finding its way into an FAs briefcase (or app on her tablet) than a PDF. And that’s a significant step towards building appeal with advisors.

Thought Leadership Arms Race Is On

Posted by Anu Heda on May 27, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with AB, content management, JPMorgan, PIMCO, Vanguard, WisdomTree

There’s omnipresent discussion (in the news, from asset managers, by wealth managers) of the 5-year long bull market in US equities. Reading this month’s Mixing It Up from Shefali Anand reminded me about the bull market. There’s another bull market. The asset management industry is experiencing a bull market in thought leadership. It’s easy to understand why: with so many investment options available to financial advisors, thought leadership becomes an important method of building brand recognition and becoming that coveted “trusted partner.”

Today, many asset managers are producing thought leadership in quantities never seen before. Let’s just look at 2015 volume to-date from five, well-known asset managers.

What are the obvious takeaways?

Unless Marketing executives believe thought leadership to be a fad, standing on the sidelines is longer an option. Yet some firms continue to do so, publishing 1 or 2 thought leadership pieces per quarter.
Introducing and populating a blog with multiple posts per week from different investment team members is no longer optional.

Digital Fracture: Implications for the Web Site

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Mar 21, 2013, in Thoughts , tagged with content management, Digital Fracture, Janus, microsites, Pioneer, Putnam, RidgeWorth, Web sites

In a post last week we introduced the concept of Digital Fracture, our term describing the proliferation of technology-driven marketing efforts that are increasingly specialized and disposable. Whereas the proprietary .com was once the overwhelming focus of digital efforts, firms now look at the Web, mobile, and social media as flexible platforms that require multiple, targeted presences.

Putnam provides a simple illustration of this trend. Digitally, Putnam not only has Putnam.com but distinct Web sites for thought leadership and advisor technology, numerous social media initiatives, and several distinct mobile applications.

For Putnam, digital means multiplying presences across multiplying platforms.

This extension of traditional digital platforms into more targeted marketing is a shift that continues to gain acceptance.

What is driving this trend? Let’s start with the Web site. A central problem with firms’ Web sites is a lack of visibility, meaning that:

Not enough prospects and clients visit, and
Valuable content is often lost in the shuffle or hard for find for the people who do visit

So what can firms do? Three options stand out to us as particularly important:

Broaden Content Distribution: many Web sites rely on their ability to attract an audience and promote content. Some accept material for free (M*, Advisor Perspectives), some are pay-to-play, and some require a PR and relationship-building effort to gain access. Purposefully moving beyond the proprietary site is an important opportunity.
Via Google, third-party sites provide higher visibility to Janus’s content than Janus.com
Embrace Tactical Microsites: differentiated product stories typically do not function within the confines of a banner or online fund profile. As a result, we’re starting to see a renewed uptick in the tried-and-true microsite as a way to give timely visibility and depth to firms’ most compelling product/concept marketing. Two good examples: RidgeWorth on midcap equities, Pioneer on its strategic income fund.
Improve Search: the vast majority of our clients remain dissatisfied with their sites’ search capabilities. Meanwhile, outside the industry there is continued innovation with tools like Facebook Graph Search and Google Knowledge Search. As these natural language and logical search tools continue to improve, there will be more reason than ever for firms to their own search offerings to make it easier for people to find what they want.

The common thread across these opportunities is that they go beyond “let’s just improve our content, functionality, and design” and reflect the diversity of leveraging the Web beyond the proprietary .com. This combination of breadth and focus is a reflection of Digital Fracture.

Next up: Digital Fracture for mobile and social.