Financial services companies often shortchange their marketing efforts because there are too many questions and not enough answers.
For example: How can a firm design meaningful programs that will support its reputation? How do smaller organizations deal with the hefty price tag? Even if a company does have the money and resources, is there any way to know if marketing is really working?
Fortunately, the Internet has emerged as a marketing channel that's affordable, offers realistic measurement and can reinforce a firm's reputation across all business-to-business and consumer audiences.
A mutual funds company may seek to establish stronger relationships within the investment community or a small firm of financial advisers may need to expand and grow its client base. In these situations and others, certain e-marketing formats are an ideal solution because they enable an interpersonal trust that readily converts into relationships and sales.
The e-marketing media that work best for financial firms mimic the dynamics of financial services relationships:
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What do most people want from an investment professional? Good advice and perspective.
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How do they want it delivered? Personally.
Given these parameters, e-media such as banners and pop-ups are inappropriate because they are highly promotional, vs. informational. And they're impersonal.
However, both large and small financial organizations are using e-newsletters to increase client trust, expand relationships with intermediaries and build business. When articles contained in an e-newsletter provide useful insight and perspective, they support the recipient's information needs while reinforcing the sending firm's role as a reputable institution.
Moreover, certain types of e-newsletters now deliver the personalization that's so important to customers and financial advisers. This includes content personalization that gives recipients articles tailored to their particular financial situation. And that personalization is supported by back-end analytics that track how e-newsletter subscribers interact with content, thereby determining which articles are of greatest interest and to whom.
Given this feedback, financial companies can segment lists into subgroups according to specific interests. Subsequent e-newsletters can offer personalized content for each of these subgroups that become increasingly responsive to that group's priorities.
This type of e-marketing is particularly effective when applied to tactical business goals such as client retention and acquisition. Customized content keeps current clients loyal and indifferent to poachers. And qualified acquisition leads are easily generated by embedded “refer-a-friend” functionality. It's a demonstrable example of tangible return on investment.
Those concerns already practicing e-marketing often overlook the cross-selling opportunities they have to offer. For instance, by timing product information and perspective to clients' financial life cycles, advisers can make sure they convey the right product to the right client at exactly the right time. And because audience segmentation is easier through today's e-marketing back-end engines, companies can send out multiple initiatives with life-cycle content that have a highly personalized feel. If the e-marketing platform supplies analytics and content tracking, the feedback can be given directly to sales, providing yet another tangible way to map marketing effectiveness.
Boston investment firm Eaton Vance Distributors, whose primary aim is to court advisers and planners within broker/dealer outfits, recently initiated an e-marketing program designed to leverage existing relationships and build new ones.
E-Chronicles, Eaton Vance's official e-newsletter, contains timely articles that help advisers understand how the firm's products support specific investment strategies. Morgan Mohrman, senior vice president, director of marketing and the creator of e-Chronicles, says the newsletter's informative approach offers valuable insight to its adviser recipients. Equally important, the e-newsletter has built-in personalization. Each issue prominently features a photograph of the client's wholesaler team.
“What we didn't want to do is blast out these big broadcast e-mails from Mother Eaton,” said Mohrman. “If you're a financial adviser you'll give it a glance and dismiss it. But if you get a message from your Eaton Vance representative, then it's personal. You won't dismiss it and, from what our reports tell us, you'll read it.”
Mohrman publishes various versions of e-Chronicles featuring different internal and external teams of wholesalers, each of whom is responsible for a geographic territory. Featured in every issue are tracking analytics that map content interaction behavior back to Eaton Vance Distributors' client database. Two weeks after publication, Mohrman composes a report that tells wholesalers which articles and corresponding products their clients were most interested in reading about, how long certain clients spent with particular articles, and if they clicked over to Eaton Vance's corporate site. All of this helps the wholesaler list and prioritize follow-up sales calls.
Eaton Vance also reaps secondary benefits from e-Chronicles. The firm's wholesalers receive advance copies so that everyone has a shared understanding of which products it's highlighting. But perhaps the biggest applause internally has come from the compliance department. E-Chronicles is flexible, so it's simple to embed performance disclosures according to individual broker/dealer rules and regulations. This was a logistical nightmare with printed materials.
Financial organizations looking to break into e-marketing can begin by choosing whether they want to develop and distribute their own publication or outsource it. An editorial marketing calendar should be created that maps out timely topics (tax season, college tuition season, etc.) as well as vertical customer needs (retirement, wealth management, estate settlement).
A mailing list can be drawn from a current client database and expanded through e-referrals, business cards collected at seminars and previous sales contacts. Add informative content that positions a company as a valuable source of perspective and guidance, and before long that firm will be e-marketing with the best of them.
Peter Mesnik (pmesnik@imninc.com) is co-founder and chief technology officer of e-marketing and analytics firm IMN (iMakeNews) Inc., Newton, MA.
