Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, and Public Relations: An Integrated Marketing Approach for Asset Manager Growth

In today’s financial landscape, asset managers and wealth managers face a world of challenges, including changing markets and demanding competition. Wait, wait…every market is challenging, the competition is ever present, every day, all the time, in any world.

The real question is how do asset managers grow AUM and revenue? Our thesis is that asset managers need an integrated marketing strategy that employs content marketing, digital marketing, and public relations to succeed. Firms that do one or two components may not be able grow as quickly as those that do all three.

Each strategy—content marketing, digital marketing, and public relations— is one leg of a three-legged stool.

When content, digital, and public relations work in harmony, they support and reinforce each other to achieve more ambitious marketing goals than any single approach. This article explains how the power of three—content marketing, digital marketing, and public relations—works together.

Content is the Foundation of a Marketing Strategy

According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Content that addresses your client’s pain points is the first leg of the stool among the equals of digital marketing and public relations. Content provides substance for messaging and branding. If you don’t have great content, your digital marketing efforts will likely fail, your business won’t be found online, and public relations may not have a story to tell.

Content explains what your firm does and what makes it unique. It sets you up as an expert in your field. Authoritative content is central to getting found online.

Foundational content for asset managers includes:

Thought Leadership—Many advisors consider blog posts, white papers, case studies, and educational articles as the most useful content, according to FUSE Research. Timely and insightful content shows your expertise and provides value. All can—and should be—repurposed for social media and email. Thought leadership communications also include webcasts, podcasts, videos, motion graphics, and interactive materials such as quizzes and assessments.
Investment Commentary—Investment commentary typically features portfolio manager analysis on market and economic trends and how their approach may impact client portfolios. Commentary content is also well-received by the advisor community.
Website Content—A user-friendly website must serve as the hub of your marketing strategy for both content and digital purposes. Your website should feature clear messaging about who you are and serve, investment strategies, and thought leadership. Content must deliver an optimal and intuitive visitor experience, and evolve over time to meet changing visitor expectations.

CONTENT MARKETING TAKEAWAYS

Content marketing is the first leg of a comprehensive marketing strategy.
Content provides substance and powers digital and public relations.
Content can be leveraged via social media and email.

Digital Marketing Amplifies Reach and Engagement of Content and PR

SEMRush defines digital marketing as promoting your firm using online strategies. Digital marketing, including social media, is a targeted way to distribute your message to an array of high-value prospects and clients—greater than your wholesaler team could do with in-person visits and calls.

Digital marketing, the second leg of the marketing stool, can maximize the impact of PR. If you don’t have a digital strategy to get your great content found, nobody will know you exist, your website will be useless, and you won’t get any conversations or leads.

Digital can help you reach key people through:

Website Development—Your website is central to all your digital marketing efforts. Aim to deliver the ultimate visitor experience so they convert into leads.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—The right SEO strategies like using proper keywords, headline strucutre, and tagging will help you appear at the top of Google search. To complicate matters, AI has become an increasingly important search engine tool. A strategy to attract qualified prospects actively seeking investment solutions through artificial intelligence is important.
Social Media—Being active on social media keeps you connected. LinkedIn is the primary platform for content distribution and networking for sophisticated asset managers. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook can be valuable for sharing insights. For some managers, paid advertising can help connect with prospective clients and contacts, build brand awareness, and lead to conversations.
Email Marketing—Email marketing is an impactful way to nurture, engage, and stay top-of-mind. When used properly, your in-house email list is one of your most valuable prospecting tools. You can segment and personalize specific messages based on investor type, interests, and engagement history.

DIGITAL MARKETING TAKEAWAYS

Technology provides tools to distribute content to targeted audiences.
SEO helps you get found, otherwise your other promotional efforts may be wasted.
Social media helps you find and engage with your target audience.

Public Relations Builds Credibility and Trust

Public relations is the third leg of this story. As defined by the Public Relations Society of America, “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

Public relations helps build your credibility, trust, and influence. PR can also help with reputation and crisis management, media training, social media influencers, and conference planning.

Impactful public relations must build:

Trust–Building brand credibility with the media takes a strategic approach. Create a compelling story about what makes you unique—and worthy of knowing more about. You’ll want to identify key executives as thought leaders. Target the most relevant media. Pitch timely and educational content that journalists know will be a successful story. Be proactive in contacting the press; don’t wait for them to call you.

Some of our clients have won industry awards for the communications, public relations, and digital work we’ve partnered with them on. This is helpful third-party validation.

Relationships—To earn media coverage, asset managers need to build strong relationships with the national and local media your audience reads, watches, and listens to. A great way to manage a fruitful relationship is to understand media needs, provide market insights and industry trends, and be reliably responsive when they contact you.
Media Expertise—How you tell your story is as important as the story. Media training should be a priority for managers who don’t have experience. To be a media expert, many executives need coaching to manage an interview, control their body language, deliver the right message, and present with confidence, intelligence, and trust. Reporters may ask you an irrelevant or irritating question and you want to keep your cool.
Alternative Venues—Speaking opportunities at industry conferences and events can position you as an expert. Plus, conferences can provide networking opportunities.

PUBLIC RELATIONS TAKEAWAYS

Be proactive in contacting relevant media.
Use great content to pitch stories.
Become a media expert.

Sometimes You Only Need One Strategy

Some asset managers only currently have one or two of the three-legged stool strategies. They may create great content and have a wonderful digital media program. However, these firms have no public relations activity. That’s fine; their next focus should be PR.

Other asset managers lack the resources to employ an integrated three-legged strategy. For these, it makes sense to focus on the greatest need first, and work on other strategies in a phased approach.

For example, one investment firm told us their pain point was they needed to be in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, or CityVibe. They thought they had a media problem—they simply needed a great article to bring in sales.

However, during our discovery discussions, we realized they had broader issues. They had no thought leadership content or social media strategy. Their messaging and key benefits were also unclear. The big picture was that they lacked the resources to implement an integrated campaign. Their best solution was to focus first on public relations and later on content and digital marketing.

Putting it Together: Integrating Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, and PR for Growth

The power of the three-legged stool strategy comes from integrating content marketing, digital marketing, and public relations. While you don’t have to do everything at once, firms that implement all three simultaneously may see significant positive results over time.

We’ll save you a great seat at the table.

Looking to start a conversation? Schedule a complimentary strategy session to gain insight and build your content, digital, and public relations growth plan.

Frank Serebrin is the Content Marketing Director for Sondhelm Partners. He leads strategic and creative content and marketing services for our asset management and wealth management clients.