Boutique asset managers buy databases with 285,000 advisor names. They slice by AUM, clearing firm, and geography. Then they blast emails every Friday or hand the list to their wholesaler who leaves voicemails that never get returned.

Everyone on that list is ice cold. And warming up 285,000 advisors when you have one wholesaler and a limited budget? Good luck.

That’s the problem Duncan MacDonald-Korth set out to solve when he built AdvisorTarget, later acquired by Broadridge in 2024. His background helped shape the approach: a master’s in anthropology from Oxford, where he studied how information creates advantages in finance, followed by running FinSum, a financial news site attracting 55,000 monthly visitors—ninety percent of them advisors. When asset managers began buying email advertising, he realized he could send more effective emails by targeting only advisors who’d been reading about relevant topics.

Large-cap value email? Send it to the 5,000 advisors reading large cap value articles that month. Not all 55,000.

Then a client from New York Life asked: “Can we just get the data on who’s reading about municipal bonds instead of buying the email?”

The underlying behavioral data was more valuable than the emails.

For boutiques competing against firms with wholesaler armies and distribution budgets 100 times their size, knowing which advisors are already looking for what you offer changes the game.

How Different Data Types Work

Most boutiques understand static data – advisor names with biographical information. It’s a starting point, but everyone on the list is cold.

Then there’s tracking behavior on your own properties. Someone opts into your webinar or downloads your whitepaper. You see their interest and can follow up. But you only know about them once they’ve already found you.

AdvisorTarget shows you those same buying signals before advisors ever interact with you. You’re seeing what they’re researching on financial news sites, which fund tickers they’re looking up, even when they visit your website. The difference is timing: you see their interest before advisors raise their hand directly.

AdvisorTarget tracks two types of intent. Reading behavior shows what advisors research on financial news sites. Website visits show when advisors land on your specific pages. Reading behavior tells you who’s in-market generally. Website visits tell you who’s interested in you.

They organize products in a funnel:

• Intent Profiles – Data on 100,000 of the most active advisors per month, showing everything they read. Marketing teams use this for mass emails and drip campaigns.
• Intent Signals – Leads based on specific topics, scored one to five by frequency, recency, and consistency. Fours and fives go to sales teams. Ones through threes go into nurture campaign- Advisors looking up specific fund tickers. They’re comparing products.
• Ticker Intent – Advisors looking up specific fund tickers. They’re comparing products.
• IP Match – Advisors on your actual website. The hottest lead.

IP Match came from an accidental discovery. Two clients asked the same question in one week: “Do you have IP addresses for the advisors?” MacDonald-Korth checked. They had data on 279,000 producing advisors – eighty-five percent of the universe.

The product identifies advisors visiting your website down to their CRD number. You see which advisor visited, which pages, when, and how often. Previously, that visitor was anonymous. Now you can follow up while the interest is warm.

What Boutiques Get Wrong

Small and mid-sized asset managers make predictable mistakes when they start using intent data.

They’re too rigid about who qualifies. “We only want RIAs with over $100 million.” But if a qualified advisor with $90 million has been researching your exact strategy for three weeks, you’re going to ignore them?

They’re too narrow about what qualifies as relevant intent. Advisors are often looking for solutions to client problems, and they don’t always care which asset class solves it. They’d like to hear about your approach, even if it’s not the standard solution.

They don’t have a process. They get 30 advisor names. Then nothing happens. One person hoards the data. Or they make calls for two weeks and quit.

“Smaller firms need to have a process ready when they subscribe,” said Tiffany Anderson, who works with MacDonald-Korth at Broadridge. “And they need data more frequently than monthly. Weekly or bi-weekly makes more sense so the intent doesn’t go stale.”

They overestimate what infrastructure they need. You need the ability to do outbound outreach – someone to call qualified advisors or put them into email sequences.

But here’s the catch: intent data tells you which advisors are looking for what you offer. It doesn’t make them know who you are.

When your wholesaler calls that qualified lead, the advisor has never heard of you. You’re not BlackRock. You don’t show up in their LinkedIn feed. They can’t vet you quickly because you don’t have content, media coverage, or market presence.

Without credibility in place first, the data doesn’t matter.

What You Actually Need

Intent data doesn’t replace strategy. It enhances strategy. It tells you where to aim. But you still need something worth aiming at.

The firms that succeed with intent data have credibility and infrastructure in place first:

• Content that proves expertise. Regular thought leadership – market commentary, investment insights, strategy explanations. Material that shows you understand markets and have a differentiated view.
• Media presence. Getting quoted in publications. Speaking at conferences. Being part of the conversation, so when your name shows up, advisors don’t have to Google you.
• LinkedIn presence. Active profiles for key team members. Regular posts that demonstrate expertise. You’re part of the professional community.
• Systematic email campaigns. Not Friday blasts to your entire database. Segmented campaigns based on advisor interests that deliver relevant content over time.
• Disciplined follow-up process. Strong intent leads get phone calls within 48 hours. Weaker intent leads go into nurture campaigns. Someone owns the process and tracks results.

Most boutiques are money managers, not marketers. They want quick fixes. They think data will solve their distribution problems. It won’t. It makes everything you’re already doing more efficient.

If you’re invisible in the market, intent data just gives you a list of advisors who read relevant articles or visited your website and didn’t know who you were.

If you’re visible, it tells you exactly who’s interested and when to reach out.

That’s the difference between working cold lists and working hot leads. Intent data exists. Most boutiques can access it. But without credibility infrastructure in place first, you’re just getting better lists of people who’ve never heard of you.

Working Harder, Not Smarter?

You can keep buying bigger databases and hope your wholesaler gets lucky. Or you can build the credibility infrastructure that makes intent data worth having.

Let’s talk about your current distribution approach. We’ll look at what you have in place, where the gaps are, and what needs to happen to turn intent data into conversations.

Schedule a 60-Minute Strategy Session

Dan Sondhelm is the CEO of Sondhelm Partners. He works with boutique asset managers to help them grow AUM, stand out in crowded markets, and create more meaningful conversations with investors.