Understanding the local search landscape

Local search optimisation involves enhancing your visibility in search engine results for geographically related queries. This is crucial for wealth management firms as potential clients often seek personalised, face-to-face financial guidance within their locality. The aim is to ensure you appear prominently when someone searches for “wealth management firms near me” or “financial advisors in [city]”.

Speaking to Andrew Frith, Media Strategist at finance marketing specialists The Dubs Agency, he shares, “As a wealth management business, understanding and leveraging local SEO is crucial for enhancing an online presence and connecting with potential clients in the local community.”

“By implementing targeted strategies and focusing on local search optimisation, we can ensure that the business stands out in search results, driving both traffic and trust.” Frith said.

Best practice for local search

At the top of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage, your potential clients are beginning their search for financial advice and wealth management services. Therefore, it’s critical to establish a solid foundation with comprehensive on-page SEO:

• Keyword research and optimisation: Identify and include relevant local keywords in your website content. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner can help pinpoint terms such as “wealth management [city]” or “financial advisors [city].”
• Google My Business (GMB) profile: Claim and optimise your GMB listing. Ensure all information—address, phone number, website, and hours of operation—is accurate and consistent. Regularly update your GMB profile with posts about events, blog articles, or market insights.
• Local citations: Ensure your firm’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistently listed across all local directories and citation sites. Discrepancies can undermine search engine trust in your business location.

As prospects move to the consideration stage, they evaluate different firms based on credibility and the depth of engagement. Content and reviews play a critical role at this point:

• Content marketing: Publish high-quality, locally relevant content on your blog or resource centre. Topics could include regional economic forecasts, investment opportunities, or case studies of successful client strategies within your locality. Local information accounts for 46% of all Google searches.
• Google reviews: Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on your GMB profile. Reviews significantly influence local search rankings and client trust. Respond to all reviews—positive and negative—to demonstrate your firm’s commitment to client satisfaction and engagement. According to SEO platform BrightLocal, its Local Consumer Review found 91% of consumers say local branch reviews affect their views on brands.
• Local backlinks: Build backlinks from reputable local websites. Collaborate with local business groups or contribute articles to local news outlets. High-quality backlinks signal to search engines that your business is an authoritative source in your area.

In the decision stage, potential clients are ready to choose a wealth management firm. Here, the focus shifts to turning leads into clients through optimised conversion paths and trust-building measures:

• Conversion rate optimisation (CRO): Ensure your website is optimised for conversions. Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs). Use localised landing pages to cater to specific geographic segments, improving relevancy and engagement.
• Client testimonials and case studies: Showcase detailed testimonials and case studies from local clients. These serve as powerful social proof, reassuring prospects of your firm’s effectiveness and reliability.
• Localised ad campaigns: Run targeted local ad campaigns using Google Ads and social media platforms. Geotargeting allows you to reach users in specific locations, enhancing the relevancy and impact of your advertising efforts.

The role of analytics and continuous improvement

As optimisation is an ongoing process, use analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your local search performance. Track metrics like organic traffic, click-through rates (CTRs), and conversion rates. Analyse which keywords and content pieces are driving traffic and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Optimising local search presence for wealth management firms is a sophisticated, multi-faceted endeavour that integrates various elements of digital marketing. By focusing on each stage of the marketing funnel—awareness, consideration, and decision—you can enhance your firm’s visibility, credibility, and conversion rates.

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The imperative of personalisation in email marketing

Email marketing personisation goes beyond addressing clients by their first names. For HNWIs, it involves delivering bespoke content reflecting their specific preferences and financial situations. This approach is crucial at each stage of the marketing funnel, from awareness to conversion, ensuring communications are relevant and impactful.

According to B2B revenue attribution platform Dreamdata, its benchmark research shows marketing emails are clicked in more than 40% of won deals and have a meaningful impact on the length of the customer journey.

Dreamdata’s founder and chief marketing officer, Steffen Hedebrandt, said personalisation was a core element in B2B marketing and driving sales.

“Tailoring emails to the target recipient with relevant, relatable content drives deeper engagement and builds trust.” Hedebrandt said.

Advanced segmentation techniques

Effective segmentation is the foundation of personalised email campaigns. For wealth and asset managers, advanced data-driven segmentation can be based on several critical factors:

• Investment preferences: Segment clients based on their investment interests, such as equities, real estate, or alternative assets. Provide content aligned with their investment strategies.
• Risk tolerance: Understanding a client’s risk appetite underpins investment recommendations. Segmenting clients by risk tolerance helps firms send appropriate market insights, risk assessments, and investment opportunities matching risk thresholds.
• Life stage: The financial needs and goals of clients vary significantly across life stages. Whether clients are accumulating wealth, planning for retirement, or preserving wealth, segmenting based on life stage helps deliver relevant advice and solutions.
• Wealth level: Different levels of wealth require different management strategies. Segmenting clients by their net worth allows for more precise targeting of services such as estate planning, tax optimisation, or philanthropic advice.

Integrating personalisation throughout the marketing funnel

Personalisation should be woven into every stage of the marketing funnel:

• Awareness: Use personalised content to capture the attention of potential clients. Tailor introductory emails based on publicly available information or initial consultations to create interest.
• Consideration: Provide in-depth, relevant content addressing specific client needs and challenges. Segment your audience so they receive relevant information, such as market analyses or case studies specific to their financial goals.
• Decision: Offer personalised consultations and solutions. Use insights from segmentation to propose tailored strategies and services, making it easy for clients to decide in your favour.
• Retention: Maintain engagement with ongoing personalised communication. Regularly update clients with relevant information to ensure your services continue to meet their evolving needs.

For wealth and asset managers, personalisation and segmentation are not simply marketing tactics—they are strategic initiatives. By leveraging advanced segmentation techniques and crafting highly personalised email campaigns, you can enhance engagement, build deeper relationships, and drive conversions among high-net-worth clients.

The post Personalised Email Marketing To High Net Wealth Clients appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Understanding the funnel strategy for Women Talk Money

Tactical integration

Fidelity’s Women Talk Money community stands as a testament to the power of strategic funnel tactics in achieving brand objectives. Through a holistic approach that combines content, distribution, and targeted marketing efforts, Fidelity not only educates and empowers women in finance but also cultivates lasting relationships with its audience.

The post Inside Fidelity’s Women Talk Money community appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Understanding the dynamics of native advertising in wealth management

Native advertising has emerged as a powerful tool for brands in the financial sector to connect with their target audience. Unlike traditional advertisements, native advertising seamlessly integrates brand messaging into informative and engaging content, fostering trust and credibility among consumers. 25% of consumers are more likely to engage with native advertising over traditional banners and 53% of native ad engagement is positive. Relevant to both B2C and B2B brands, in the wealth management sector – where expertise and reliability are paramount – native advertising can play a pivotal role in building relationships with potential clients.

Speaking to the benefits native advertising offers, head of social media at The Dubs Agency, Tara Cimino says “Native advertising allows brands to integrate tailored content to placements where audiences are already active.”

“By placing native ads on high-traffic platforms or websites, finance brands can increase their visibility and exposure to prospect audiences.”

Examining successful native advertising campaigns

NatWest Invest: NatWest partnered with The Telegraph to create a native advertising campaign focused on personal finance and investment topics. The campaign included sponsored articles and videos providing valuable insights into investment strategies, retirement planning, and financial management. By aligning with The Telegraph’s editorial content and leveraging its credibility, NatWest effectively reached its target audience and captured the awareness of potential clients.

Betterment: Betterment, a leading robo-advisor platform, sponsored a podcast series called “The Better Off Podcast” hosted by Jill Schlesinger, a well-known financial expert. The podcast covers a variety of personal finance topics, including retirement planning, investing, and wealth management. Through authentic conversations and expert interviews, Betterment subtly integrates its robo-advisor services into the content, positioning itself as a valuable resource for listeners seeking financial advice.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA): CBA collaborated with news.com.au, one of Australia’s largest news websites, to create a native advertising campaign titled “Financial Fitness Challenge.” The campaign featured interactive quizzes, articles, and videos to improve financial literacy and empower consumers to make informed financial decisions. By providing practical advice on budgeting, saving, and investing, CBA subtly promoted its banking and financial services to a wide audience pushing clients through the awareness and consideration stages of the marketing funnel.

DBS Bank: DBS Bank launched a native advertising campaign titled “DBS Asian Insights” in partnership with CNBC. The campaign featured sponsored articles, videos, and webinars discussing market trends, investment opportunities, and economic insights in Asia. By leveraging CNBC’s platform and credibility, DBS Bank positioned itself as a trusted advisor for investors seeking information on Asian markets and financial strategies.

Strategies for subtle brand placement

To effectively integrate brand messaging into financial content, your finance brand must employ strategic tactics that prioritise authenticity and relevance.

• Focus on value: Prioritise providing valuable financial insights and expertise to your audience, positioning your brand as a trusted advisor. By addressing the needs and concerns of consumers, your finance brand can establish credibility and build trust over time.
• Seamless integration: Integrate brand messaging naturally within the content without disrupting the flow or appearing overly promotional. Avoiding overt advertisements and focusing on providing value ensures that your brand’s message resonates authentically with the audience.
• Thought leadership: Position your brand as a thought leader in the industry by sharing unique perspectives and insights. By offering innovative solutions to complex financial challenges, your brand can differentiate itself from competitors and attract the attention of potential clients.
• Audience relevance: Tailor content to address the specific needs and interests of your target audience, enhancing engagement and resonance. By understanding the demographics and preferences of your audience, brands can create content that’s both informative and compelling.

An expert’s advice

Continuing our discussion with Cimino she shares her top insights and tips for finance brands wanting to nail native advertising.

“Specific targeting should be implemented so content presented to audiences resonates with them effectively.

“As with all digital advertising, speak to the audiences’ needs, whether it’s financial advice or insights into investment strategies; provide content that adds genuine value to your audience.

“It is also key that your native ads are optimised for mobile. This includes responsive design, fast loading times, and user-friendly formats that cater to mobile users.”

Cimino speaks to the importance of data and tracking, “Implement tracking tools and metrics to monitor the performance of your native advertising campaign.

“Analyse key performance indicators such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversions against other platforms. Use this data to optimise your campaign and make necessary adjustments to improve results over time.”

Her final piece of advice for finance brands is about the importance of placement and brand association. “Placement and brand association is the key to implementing a native strategy. Therefore being able to layer and control placement is essential.”

She explains, “In terms of financial services brands, Dianomi brings us closer to this by having a finserv only ad placement. Recognising the sensitivities in a B2B advertising world and ensuring content is not just present where our audience is, but that our brand is only associated with other brands on that placement is paramount.”

Where native advertising sits in the marketing funnel

At each stage of the marketing funnel, native advertising plays a distinct role in guiding potential clients towards conversion:

• Top of funnel (awareness): Utilise native advertising to increase brand awareness and capture the attention of potential clients. By providing valuable insights and thought-provoking content, your finance brand can attract interest and establish itself as a credible source of information.
• Middle of funnel (consideration): Provide valuable insights and educational content to nurture leads and establish trust and credibility. By offering in-depth analysis and expert advice, your brand can further engage with potential clients and position itself as a trusted advisor in your field.
• Bottom of funnel (conversion): Incorporate subtle calls-to-action within the content to guide prospects towards conversion. Whether signing up for a consultation or exploring financial products, providing clear pathways for action can help drive leads towards conversion and achieve your marketing objectives.

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Underserving female customers: latest research

Recent studies suggest that women may control as much as half of personal wealth in leading markets, with US women controlling about $14 trillion in assets. Around 53% of UK millionaires will be female by 2025, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Today, women have become what Accenture calls a “financial force with impact”.

Yet research published by global management consultancy Oliver Wyman shows there is still a default toward men’s needs and preferences in the approaches of most financial institutions. As a result, the finance industry is missing out on more than $US700 billion a year in revenue by failing to tailor products for women. And women’s wealth is only going to grow, as they become more educated and confident, outlive their spouses, and inherit money from their parents. 

As a result, the finance industry is missing out on more than $US700 billion a year in revenue by failing to tailor products for women.

How is the finance industry failing women?

• Traditional wealth planning and retirement planning assume income will increase steadily year after year. (This is more likely to be true for men; women take career breaks for caregiving, they live longer etc.)
• Stereotypes exist about women investors, including that they’re more risk averse. (The EY Women and Wealth report says there’s little evidence to support common assumptions about women investors, “such as a lower risk appetite or an attachment to ethical investing”.) 
• Wealth managers don’t invest women’s wealth like they do men’s. (With women tending to hold more of their assets in cash rather than stocks and bonds, wealth and asset managers are missing out on a potential $US25 billion in fees, the Oliver Wyman report says.)
• Wealth managers often talk down to women who do have a more risk-averse mentality.
• Female corporate and institutional clients are not serviced equally and effectively (Banks don’t manage relationships well, and are missing out on the opportunity to capture existing revenue controlled by women clients.)

Gender bias in asset and wealth management?

It’s hardly surprising that female investors feel unwelcomed and even alienated by the investment industry, says EY’s Women and wealth report from 2017. Their findings show that few wealth managers view gender segmentation as important.

Women do view investing differently – they value achieving personal goals over investment performance so they switch more; they prioritise things like security, accuracy and privacy as well as high-quality human interactions. They’re better sharers online; they appreciate transparency, as a basis for trust.

Many women demand a more holistic approach to wealth management and planning – including preparing for life events like marriage, children, divorce, retirement, incapacity and death. 

It’s also important to note that while women may have different needs than men, they also differ from each other; they’re individuals, not a homogenous “niche” group.

What products should asset managers be creating for female investors and why?

EY identified 7 areas that wealth managers should focus on, from “Developing a deep understanding of female investors’ goals and priorities” to “Giving advisers the skills to deliver optimal experiences to female investors” and “Providing female investors with clear, substantive information and advice.”

If they want to meet women’s needs, investment and wealth firms need to re-think their technology, their processes and their talent.  A good starting point is to recruit more women into investment management and to offer equal pay and flexible working.

While the industry has a lot of work to do, there are some notable pioneers in the field. At investment firm Ellevest, CEO Sallie Krawcheck works with wealthy women offering products and services based on research into women’s attitudes to money. For instance, Ellevest focuses on goals-based investing rather than investing to beat the market, and their software and risk management are designed with women’s career trajectories in mind.

UBS’s five-year Change the Face of wealth program aims to “better serve women” to eventually provide financial solutions for every stage in clients’ lives, as well as access to specialists and connection opportunities. The program is based on research conducted by UBS that showed the financial industry was failing to give women confidence in making decisions about their wealth. The changes proposed range from training advisers to reviewing the gender policy of suppliers.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management is in the process of running “Women, Life & Money” events across 10 markets, with speakers discussing the cost of health care, balancing family financial support with retirement goals, investing with impact and leaving a lasting legacy. The company is also doing research on the financial needs of its increasingly diverse client base.

After research revealed that companies with at least three female board members outperformed others in overall return on equity by more than 36%, asset managers State Street Global Advisors launched their Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) SHE in 2016. It invests in companies that employ women in high-level leadership roles, based on the SSGA Gender Diversity Index.

Tips for wealth and asset managers using content to market to women

1. First and foremost content needs to talk to women’s needs, fine-tuned for regional, cultural and lifestyle differences. Content also needs to differentiate between segments: new career women versus married women and divorced women etc. As an example, Merrill Lynch’s content hub for women broaches topics relevant to a broad range of women investors.
2. Women tend to value personal goals over investment performance – content should be created in the context of life events and family; and the way websites offer this content needs to be clear. The Women and Wealth program from global active asset manager Janus Henderson teaches advisers best practice for dealing with female clients going through life transitions, e.g., divorce and widowhood. It also has client-facing programs and a Women and Wealth online resource.
3. Women investors show a greater willingness to share their experiences online. The opportunity for wealth managers is to use customer testimonials and set up forums for conversations around shared experiences.
4. Connection is important for women when choosing their adviser. Euromoney magazine describes a female-focused campaign by UBS in the UK which published adviser bios online with personal information such as hobbies and values, as well as professional expertise. Clients could browse through advisers to find their match.
5. Content should be transparent – be open about your performance, where you’ve underperformed and what people should expect. Content should avoid off-putting jargon. Ellevest’s CEO answers frequently-asked questions in her ‘Ask Sallie Krawcheck’ series using short, jargon-free videos shot in her office.

Rather than viewing women as a niche market, wealth and asset managers need to make content and products that speak to this audience the new default or risk losing out on revenue. We can help your brand better position your offering so it resonates with females investors. Get in touch.

Related articles

• Is finance content ignoring the biggest potential market?
• What B2B customers want from asset management content
• Specialist vs generalist: the challenger bank advantage

The post Why asset managers need to put females first appeared first on Financial Marketer.

The Citibank brand is a behemoth in banking globally. It’s known as a major player in consumer and corporate banking and as a full-service wealth manager to high net worth individuals (HNWIs).

That’s its brand perception globally, but not in Australia where its consumer brand is firmly rooted in credit cards, personal loans and mortgages.

Committed to building the profile of its wealth offering, in September 2018 Citibank Australia sought out The Dubs to discuss how content could help position its wealth division as a high-quality offering and create awareness with HNWIs in Australia.

The Problem

At its most basic the problem was obvious. How do you convince HNWIs that Citibank Australia was the best choice to manage and build their wealth when their only real exposure to the brand was its marketing of consumer credit cards and personal loans. In a nutshell, they simply weren’t seen as a high-end wealth manager.

As Citibank Australia’s head of client value proposition – Cameron Bryant – put it “we have a great wealth offering at Citi but our challenge was making this known to wealthy investors. We needed our content to lift awareness of our brand and help HNWI’s with their investment decisions”.     

The Process

The first step was to understand what Citibank Australia genuinely had to offer HNWIs in the wealth space. HNWI’s want advice from experienced experts, access to market leading products and the financial infrastructure to manage and deliver on their investment needs.

“We needed our content to lift awareness of our brand and help HNWI’s with their investment decisions”

From discussion with Citibank Australia’s wealth team we found they had market leading products in the FX, bonds and structured investments space. Discussions with the relationship management team showed they deliver a highly tailored response to personally manage their clients specific needs. And lastly, looking across the business globally we saw Citibank Australia has access to an amazing depth of in-house financial markets research and expert knowledge across the entire spectrum of investment opportunities locally and globally.

This discovery process uncovered the strategic truths that would appeal to HNWIs and form the basis of the content program.

Complemented by our own in-house research into the wealth management space and how local and global competitors were positioning themselves through content, we then identified gaps where Citibank Australia could stand out and own the conversation.

Lastly, we reviewed Citibank Australia’s infrastructure and internal processes to understand the operating environment including compliance, marketing technology, data integration, divisional workflows, brand voice and social channels. This step is important as it’s one thing to craft a stellar content strategy but it’s useless if it can’t be executed properly due to an organisation’s incompatible internal setup and processes.

Bryant said by reaching out to the other areas of the bank they understood where things would run smoothly and where the hurdles were so working contingencies could be put in place upfront and allow the content program to deliver on the strategy. 

“The focus on FX and bond solutions being backed up with market insights and news from Citibank gave us a valueable standpoint and depth of knowledge we could offer to HNWIs,’ Bryant said.       

Content Ecosystem

The discovery process fleshed out the ingredients we needed to promote to attract HNWIs to Citibank Australia’s banner. In brief these are:

Product

Citibank Australia has market leading investment products across FX, bonds and structured investments.

Service

HNWI clients of Citibank Australia have access to a dedicated relationship manager who tailors client wealth needs to their specific investment profile.

Globality

Access to Citibank’s full gambit of in-house global research and specialist investment teams so HNWIs can keep abreast of the key issues informing their investment decisions.

The next step was to identify how the pillars of product, service and globality would be brought to life with content, where it would live, how it would be structured, and importantly, how it would be amplified in market.

Given Citibank Australia’s wealth team were largely starting from scratch with its content marketing program we started with a minimum viable content ecosystem and built it out as initial results started to educate the business internally where opportunities could be expanded and hurdles addressed.

This also gave us a mechanism to ensure initial budgets were managed appropriately and built the business case for increased attention and budgets to drive greater results.

For this reason our launch content ecosystem consisted of Citibank Australia’s owned channels being their website content hub and existing email lists.

Beyond this we introduced their first always-on paid amplification social channel being LinkedIn given it’s the natural vehicle to reach HNWIs.

We redesigned the email template’s visual structure and content hierarchy to better convey information to recipients.

The existing content hub had a number of deficiencies we had to work around at launch. Its information architecture, visual design and overall user experience was sadly lacking and it was hardcoded offshore which meant any changes were frustratingly slow to implement.

But that said, it was a destination we could work with, delivering immediate impact by improving the content and imagery published on the hub.

Thankfully, the business was already working on a new website design within a content management system so information display could be radically improved and content updated efficiently.

To kickstart the social distribution of content LinkedIn was chosen as the primary network where HNWI’s could be reached at scale. With LinkedIn we ran a three-month optimisation campaign to identify which HNWI segments were most responsive and A/B tested messaging to lock onto which gave the best result for budget spend.

“One year into the initiative and we are now examining a shift to an always-on content programme that targets HNWIs directly in social and pulls them back to our insights hub for more and spurs conversation with relationship managers on portfolio make up and product mix,” Bryant said.

The Results

Social Distribution

The three-month LinkedIn paid amplification campaign for the period April-to-June 2019 was targeted to HNWI audiences and delivered 855,893 impressions with a click-through rate (CTR) of 0.57% which is above LinkedIn’s finance industry benchmark of 0.45%.

The promoted content received 7,903 engagements with an engagement rate of 0.92% or almost double LinkedIn’s industry benchmark of 0.47%.

Promoted content pushed through to articles on the content hub and delivered 4m30s dwell time on site with 8.6% viewing two or more pages showing the audience was actively engaging with the content.

Content Hub

The content strategy has delivered big traffic improvements to Citibank Australia’s Insights content hub as shown by comparing results for the period January – to – June 2019 with the corresponding period in 2018.

Page Views jumped 220% on the comparative period while Visits likewise lifted 222% and to round this off Unique Visits similarly increased by an impressive 216%.   

In 2020 the Insights Hub was awarded Citi’s Sustainable Growth Award for Australia, flagged as a highly-successful and client-centric initiative.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Prior to the content program launch Citibank Australia’s wealth-related information generally ranked on the 9th or 10th pages of Google so it wasn’t working at all from an SEO perspective.

But that is now all starting to change with numerous wealth content articles now ranking on the 1st or 2nd pages of Google for key wealth-related searches.

Conclusion

Bryant readily admits getting a successful content program off the ground from scratch is no easy task but said by running a structured process involving the right internal teams and external experts set Citibank Australia’s wealth content marketing up for success from the start.

“Less than a year in and we’re sourcing high-quality content internally and supplementing this with externally produced content where we have gaps,” Bryant said.

“And we have started our always-on content distribution with the learnings from our LinkedIn campaigns and are now set to expand this to other relevant networks that deliver our content to HNWIs” he said.

Related Case Studies

Aberdeen Standard Investments Global Content Program

First State Investments Digital Marketing

Blue Bay Asset Management Thought Leadership Content

The post Reaching High Net Wealth Individuals appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Whatever form it takes, if the market outlook is doing its job it will provide guidance and reassurance for investors, and affirm the role of the wealth management team as a source of inspiration and market leadership.

For some, the year-ahead outlook is also an opportunity to set themselves apart from the pack. For others, it’s a valuable asset churned out in the same way each year, usually let down by structure and design. To give you some inspiration, we present four leading examples of imaginative approaches to the annual market outlook.

UBS continues to surprise and delight

In their Year Ahead 2019 report, UBS show they understand the taxed mind of a busy reader.

In the digital presentation, information is broken up into digestible paragraphs, with video to simplify the message, animated graphics to reinforce the theme and interactive buttons helping to summarise concepts. All of which is neatly tied together through the theme of navigation and the device of a canoeist paddling his way through ice floes.

The digital report has been gamified too, with readers encouraged to see how effectively they can time the market and buy/sell as a market ticker tracks price movement, and market events pop up. In the end, you’re shown how much money you’ve made relative to a “buy-and-hold” investor.

The canoeing/navigation theme is maintained in the language which is friendly and simple, and speaks of rising tides lifting boats and “testing the waters”.

UBS has already shown they believe in content, in talking clearly to people about the things that matter to them, using language they relate to. Which is why the call-to-action for downloading the UBS CIO Year Ahead 2019 says: “I want my free copy (No fluff. No ads)”. How’s that for clarity and engagement.

Overall, both the interactive and PDF reports have a quiet, consistent visual style in calming blues, without too much in-your-face branding noise. The message is clear – don’t panic, stay calm as you paddle your way through the volatility ahead.

Deutsche Bank peaking

In their Wealth Management CIO Insights and “investment themes for the world ahead”, Deutsche Bank chose the metaphor of navigation to carry readers through summaries of their six themes. Where they differ is instead of ice floes, they presented the “peaks” of recent years: peak liquidity, peak growth in GDP and corporate earnings. The report asks us to “look beyond the peaks” for opportunities in 2019.

An almost five-minute video reinforces the metaphor and shows vision of real mountain peaks with illustrative overlay as CIO Christian Nolting talks viewers through key insights.

Both the website and the PDF reports have a strong illustrative feel, with a hero graphic showing mountain peaks and a cityscape with a couple viewing it through binoculars. Each theme has its own illustration which sets the tone for that section; portraits of the report’s writers are also illustrated. The style is whimsical and colourful, and borrows the editorial feel of a quality news magazine, adding to its gravitas.

The style is whimsical and colourful, and borrows the editorial feel of a quality news magazine, adding to its gravitas.

The End of Easy according to Wells Fargo 2019

Wells Fargo isn’t pulling any punches with the title of their 2019 Outlook presentation: The End of Easy. It’s a bold statement and it stands out among the standard ‘Annual Market Outlook’ title.

In the PDF report, CIO Darrell L Cronk starts his introductory letter with a quote from Marie Curie that sets the stage: “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” While he makes no promise that the road ahead will be easy, he also reminds us that it’s in the nature of progress.

And while the future may present some challenges, Wells Fargo has tried to make at least the market forecasts easy to understand online.

The website component has lots of colour and movement – menu items and headings slide onscreen, clickable buttons expand out and selected year-end 2019 growth forecasts are up front in big type. You can’t miss them.

In the video to go with it, head of global market strategy, Paul Christopher and head of global asset allocation strategy, Tracie McMillion summarise opportunities and risks, giving a human face to the forecasting.

The report then focuses on five strategies for investors and three key themes before pushing to the full pdf report. Where the report falls short is it’s fairly standard in terms of its presentation and is quite dense with wall-to-wall text and little in the way of graphics to break it up. You could say it’s ‘The End of Easy’.

Macquarie – The Way Forward, from above

Macquarie Investment Management’s 2019 Global Investment Outlook uses rich photographic visuals that present a bird’s-eye view, suggesting immediately that here are some expert wealth managers with perspective.

Moving drone vision of a cityscape, a forest and an ocean emphasise their 2019 report subtitle: The Way Forward. Over the top, a prominently positioned video replays the webinar they streamed worldwide in December 2018.

Investment themes are illustrated in an infographic style with bar graphs that animate on screen horizontally over a dark background. Adding to the credibility of the insights, infographic-style data shows the number of experts who contributed to the report and the investment capabilities of Macquarie dotted around the globe.

The full PDF report mirrors the look of the website with the same rich, bird’s-eye photography, playing with shadow and lights.

The distinctive animated visuals and dark, almost-futuristic feel certainly back up Macquarie’s promise: “Our boutique managers are known for independent thinking and, at times, contrarian views.”

An annual market outlook represents a huge opportunity for a wealth manager to impress expertise on clients and stand out in the market, yet so many treat it as a hygiene activity, sticking to the same approach they always have. Considering the time invested from all sides of the business, it’s worth devoting time to a distinctive design that will complement and bring the hugely valuable insights to life.

[Full disclosure: Macquarie Bank is a client of The Dubs] 

Related articles

• Content maturity of global wealth managers revealed
• The best in global asset management content
• 6 content lessons from UBS newsroom

The post Avoid your annual market outlook blending in appeared first on Financial Marketer.

In this report we assess the content maturity of the top 5 global wealth managers:

• Citi Private Bank
• Credit Suisse
• Morgan Stanley
• U.S Trust
• UBS

Focusing on a specific sector in the financial services industry, these research reports assess the key elements of a mature and effective content strategy.

1. Whether the content satisfies audience needs not business objectives
2. The frequency, variety and relevance of content
3. The sophistication of social and paid distribution
4. Visual design and overall user experience

In this report, we assess the maturity of the top 5 global wealth managers content strategies.

Research is what we do

Research is at the core of everything we do at The Dubs – from strategy, through to content creation, distribution, social sharing and our own digital processes.

As well as keeping us at the forefront of our own industry, we conduct research on the industries in which our clients operate – asset management, general insurance, health insurance, super funds, retail banking, life insurance, and more.

If you are interested in a custom report that benchmarks your organisation against your competitors, contact us to find out more.

Other research reports you may be interested in

• Top 10 Australian general insurers on social media
• Top 10 UK retail banks on social media
• 6 months on: Top 10 Australian super funds on social media

Relevant articles

• How finance brands can reach high net worths using LinkedIn
• How to push high net worth investors down the funnel with LinkedIn

The post Content maturity of global wealth managers revealed appeared first on Financial Marketer.

1. Redefine your target audience

When UBS partnered with high-end publishers Vanity Fair, Vice, Monocle and The Future Laboratory to bring Unlimited to life, they had a specific target audience in sight – the next generation of super wealthy. Think startup visionaries and tech geniuses.

If that seems like a small target market, there are around 20 million millionaires across the globe, 35% of whom still deal predominantly with their retail bank.

Beyond the ‘who’, they also defined the ‘what’, recognising that this new generation of high net worth customers have different interests and values than their older, more conservative counterparts. The governing editorial line that evolved is that there’s more to life than money and that even millionaires are bored by pontifications from money market analysts.

Also rejecting the traditional image of the finance sector as pale, male and stale, UBS engaged Vanity Fair photographer Annie Leibovitz to help reach female readers. A year after launch, metrics revealed Unlimited’s readership was 60% women, aged 35 to 38.

There’s more to life than money, and even millionaires are bored by pontifications from money market analysts.

2. Take a newsroom approach to content

UBS’ CMO of Wealth Management, Nicholas Wright, told Marketing Week the kickoff point was, “If you can find it on Google we’re not interested.”

Adopting a newsroom-style, Unlimited’s content is a refined – and interesting – mix of current affairs, technology, altruism and thought leadership from inspirational figures including Stephen Hawking, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and anthropologist Jane Goodall.

Thierry Campet, global head of marketing communications at UBS Wealth Management, describes it as, “A content platform mixing insightful current affairs and thought leadership aimed at taking UBS out of its comfort zone in the financial sector and helping it connect with potential new clients on a different level.”

3. Don’t forget to amplify

UBS learned the hard way that not allocating sufficient budget to pushing out content is almost as bad as not creating any. They cut contracts with partners such as Vanity Fair and Vice by 10% and redirected the money into amplification.

“We’ve found there is actually quite a vacuum between capturing people’s awareness and then pulling them through that conversion funnel to actually speak to someone at UBS and ultimately become a client,” says Wright.

“Everybody believes the content they produce is going to change the world of everyone,” adds Campet. “We believed it as well, but if you don’t push it out they won’t see it. That was a huge learning for us – we really thought the content would sell on its own and it didn’t.”

4. Make sure content links seamlessly to brand

Campet found it was easier to get rich people to engage with UBS via content rather than via the brand. His next problem was the age-old content marketing question, how do you talk to people about your company’s services without talking about your company’s services?

“It is difficult for a bank to stop talking about what it knows, especially when they have been doing it for 150 years,” says Campet. The answer he adds is to, “Speak about what wakes them up in the morning, and it is not you.”

Speaking to their audience’s broader world outside of money matters are stories such as:

• Jane Goodall on The Difference Makers,
• When Does Making a Difference Mean More than Money,
• and The Secret of Happiness is Here.

5. Track the results and regroup

Just over a year after launch, UBS Unlimited delivered the following analytics:

• 72% of content consumed via mobile
• 1 million unique visits
• 5 million social media users
• 115,000 followers on main Facebook page
• More than 5,000 email subscribers

But that’s only the beginning. As Dr Winifried Daun, UBS’ group head of advertising, brand strategy and media, says the brand is trying to reach, “a very professional and sophisticated audience or one that is very elusive and very demanding.”

This means content constantly needs to adapt to its’ sophisticated readership and as such the editorial lens is tweaked every six months, across the four pillars of Business, Family, Society, and Wealth.

The key lesson, according to Wright, is that “The more we speak to our clients and understand their motivations, it’s less about using wealth just to create more wealth.”

The post 6 content lessons from UBS’ Unlimited newsroom appeared first on Financial Marketer.

This is the second article in our series exploring the content that works best for financial brands and follows on from Content on X: tips for financial brands.

Only 52% of those surveyed for the Edelman Trust Barometer said they trust business to do what is right. It’s a finding which LinkedIn cite as part of their ‘Masterclass for Finance Marketers’, which is run three to four times a year in their London office.

That mediocre 52% trust rating is an average of 33,000 people in 28 countries, including the 6,200 respondents who fit Edelman’s “informed public” category: college educated people in the top 25% of household income per age group in each country, who report significant consumption and engagement in business news.

Amongst total Australian respondents, it’s even gloomier, with just 48% putting their trust in business (compared to the UK’s 45% and 58% in the US).

Financial brands’ need for trust

Edelman Intelligence, the research division that compiles the Edelman report describes trust as a predictor of whether stakeholders will find you credible in the future, will embrace new innovations you introduce and will enthusiastically support you. “Trust is a valuable asset for all institutions, and ongoing trust-building activities should be one of the most important strategic priorities for every organisation,” the report says.

In Australia, as in many parts of the world, trust and confidence in traditional financial institutions have been eroded in the last decade due to a series of scandals in the industry.

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The wealth management shake-up

Rebuilding trust is especially crucial given that customers are now accustomed to the superior personalised and digital customer interactions of tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (whom they already trust) – and are now demanding similar experiences from their financial firms.

LinkedIn’s Financial Masterclass quotes the 2016 McKinsey & Company report, A Brave New World for Global Banking, which talks about the need for a “fundamental transformation” from banks to counter “headwinds now gathering”. Those headwinds include strict regulatory environments, the impacts of digitisation including the arrival of nonbanks, in particular, big techs that are threatening to take over the all-important one-to-one relationships with customers.

Trust building 101

At present, traditional banks still win the trust war overall with a rating of 36.6% versus 23.6% for fintechs. But it seems that after customers have had a positive experience with a fintech, that changes, with 56.3% of those people trusting non-traditional versus 52.9% for traditional banks.

How do you compete with fintech and trusted online brands, and communicate to your customers that you are worthy of their trust? LinkedIn points to the size of their network, with a total of 500 million professionals including 7.6 million small business owners, 300 million mass affluent and 8 million affluent millennials. LinkedIn’s promise includes access to the right audiences through many levels of targeting, as well as marketing solutions to ensure engagement at each stage of the customer journey, and data-driven insights.

According to LinkedIn, trust is now built by “taming the content beast”. They argue that their platform – from organic posts and showcase pages, to Pulse, groups and paid strategies – is the place for your audience to find someone they can trust. This argument is further explored in their financial services website.

Content versus traditional advertising and PR?

55% of Edelman Trust Barometer respondents believe individuals are more believable than institutions. 60% of respondents believe “a person like yourself” is now just as credible as a technical or academic expert. Employees are seen as the most trusted spokespeople on issues such as treatment of employees/ customers, financial earnings/operational performance, and business practices/crisis handling.

Media spokespeople were least trusted across the board on these kinds of issues, while trust in mainstream media has fallen to a 17-year low globally. 25% perceive a company’s social media to be more believable than its advertising.

Another report regularly cited by LinkedIn, the Demand Gen Report on B2B buying, finds that ‘peers and colleagues’ ranks as the third most important resource for researching purchases, after ‘web search’ and ‘vendor websites’. The report notes that 40% of those surveyed describe LinkedIn as “very important” in their research process, with another 41% calling it “somewhat important”.

It’s a cogent argument for “taming the content beast” and putting that content in the hands of people who are “like” your audience. LinkedIn’s not a bad place to start.

Related Article: LinkedIn Tells What Content Works Best For Financial Brands

Related Article: Get the Most From Sponsored Content – A LinkedIn Insider Tells How

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