The status and profile of marketing in asset management organisations has risen significantly
over the past couple of years. While marketing’s role used to be subservient to
sales, it’s now a revenue generator in its own right.
Marketers’ strong digital acumen, their
ability to commercialise data and produce creative, targeted, personalised,
integrated marketing campaigns have resulted in them being able to pinpoint
untapped leads that sales have failed to identify.
Their understanding of clients’
behaviours and needs makes them one of the most valuable assets a thriving,
forward-thinking company can have.
How current marketing
and digital trends are affecting asset management
There are a few key trends emerging in
marketing that impact asset management organisations, and you need to be on top
of these trends to enable your business to thrive.
1. Marketing’s status
and skills are evolving
Marketing’s status has finally risen,
and alongside that, the need for traditional, siloed marketing specialists is
diminishing.
Top marketers now need to be
commercial, unfluffy, and have a deeper knowledge of data, metrics and
analytics.
Additionally, having a sound
understanding of clients enables marketers to create personalised customer
journeys that generate qualified sales leads, and they need better product
awareness than ever before.
2. Digital marketing is woven into the marketing
function
Marketing talent has to have a higher
level of digital acumen than ever before. Gone are the days when digital was a
bolt on of a marketing team - digital is now part and parcel of your marketing
function.
Digital channels are key for asset
managers in building closer and more efficient relationships with clients, and
it’s outstripping sales as the prime channel for client acquisition.
That’s another reason why marketing is
coming to the fore - it’s no longer a sales support function, but a critical
function in its own right.
Asset management firms are investing
deeply into their digital
strategies. There’s a requirement to better understand what return this investment
is delivering, leading to a business case/ROI driven digital approach.
Because of this, we’re seeing increasing
numbers of new digital marketing roles. Head of Digital Propositions, for
example, is a new phenomenon to the FS industry. This role, along with
distribution and technology, can successfully drive your organisation’s digital
distribution and client engagement strategy forward, ensuring your capabilities
are packaged appropriately to deliver products, services, processes and
customer experiences digitally to your clients.
Email and social media expertise
continues to be an asset to any marketing team. CMOs have said that their
biggest challenge is finding talent who are not just strong at servicing
clients, but who are creative and can “create
original and meaningful content”. In this day and age, coming up with strong creative ideas on social
media or email campaigns can distinguish an asset manager from the crowd.
Those with experience in A/B testing,
who understand the importance of marginal gain and can improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of every stage of the client journey are also worth their
weight in gold.
3. Data analysts are key to successful marketing
Hiring marketing data analysts and
putting them into marketing functions within financial services is a key trend
we will see more of in 2023.
Data is crucial for so many reasons,
including finding new product opportunities and markets. Marketing functions
need their own data specialists, and this is driving recruitment for different
types of marketers.
These individuals need to have a sound
understanding of clients and the relevant marketing tools, whilst also having
the skills to interrupt, commercialise and customise data, and enrich the
customer experience by improving the end-to-end customer journey.
Data is the biggest focus for many
asset management organisations this year. According
to a report by McKinsey, sales and marketing can use data to drive 5-30% higher revenues
through behavioural segmentation, data-driven prospecting, personalised
marketing and using predictive algorithms.
But in a report called ‘The Power of Data-Driven Asset
Management’, Accenture finds that between 60-73% of all data goes unused for
analytics. They go on to say that this data could be used for several asset
management marketing contexts:
- Analysing customers’ offline and digital
footprints captured against a variety of sources
- Assessing brand value
- Supporting alpha generation and research
The hot skills in data include a strong
background in data analytics with previous exposure to CDP, Pardot, Marketo and
an understanding of the client types, be that institutional, wholesale or
retail. Individuals who have a sound knowledge of the digital ecosystem and
know how to reach clients, how to engage with them and then track them are in
demand.
4. Content is king (but content fatigue is real)
That phrase might sound old, but in
asset management it rings true in 2023.
Asset managers are continuing to hire
top content marketing specialists, with a focus on finding experts who can
digitalise content. Content fatigue has set in, so marketers need to
reduce content and go for quality over quantity by creating shorter, more
compelling pieces that stand out in an already crowded space.
5. A need for technical product marketers
As you probably know only too well,
competition in asset management is intense, and you need to make your products
stand out.
This requires technical product
marketers who know the competitor landscape and can understand, identify and
explain what a product will do to meet client needs, whilst creating the
messaging and marketing strategy around it.
Asset managers are paying a premium for
talent with sound writing skills who have a strong technical understanding of
investment products and markets. Product champions like this are gold dust as
they have the ability to speak the language of marketing whilst having the
technical ability to work with the product specialist and fund managers
6. Private market experience
One last key trend is attracting
marketers with private market experience. Asset managers are aggressively
building out their private market offerings, so marketing teams want to be
introduced to talented individuals with a background in alternatives.
Private equity groups are a threat to
asset management organisations in this regard, as they typically pay well and
offer strong benefits packages.
Are you looking to add some serious
weight to your marketing team? Contact
me today and let’s have a chat about finding senior marketers who can keep you
one step ahead of the competition.
