Build a Robust and Responsive Digital Marketing Platform

Published on October 20, 2016 by Arquib Ismail

Digital marketing operations of financial service organizations are increasingly vital in today’s fast-paced, volatility-prone capital markets industry. With real-time events and rapidly evolving customer behavior, asset managers and other firms in the industry are expected to share their updates and news as it happens. An investor would want to know how a firm interprets and adapts to events such as Brexit and the Fed’s rate hikes. As institutional investors, individuals, and advisors are increasingly utilizing online channels for almost all of their information requirements, they compare and judge alternatives based on their impression of these channels.

Prospective clients will be predisposed towards investment banks that clearly and interactively articulate their solutions on their websites, disseminate their reactions to real-time events on Twitter, and maintain an evolving online library of research. Hence, it is imperative that financial service organizations strive to ensure that their online channels are user friendly, coherent, and up-to-date. Unfortunately, not all organizations in the industry utilize online marketing optimally.

In most instances, the problem is not the content of the communication. Most asset managers and investment banks have their pick of experts who constantly generate high-quality content and insights that prospects seek. They are also able to express the company’s philosophies, strategies, and core competencies persuasively. Their marketers also know how best to display their strengths through content on various online media. Companies that manage funds usually have the right systems that disseminate data relevant to their products.

Today, most successful asset management firms have superior digital marketing strategy and planning. Their marketing functions are able to creatively devise content strategies and cross platform digital marketing campaigns. They are able to obtain content and data personalized to target specific segments of prospects. They also know which type of communication to use for the different digital marketing channels, and how combinations of those can be utilized for an effective campaign.

However, the problem lies in implementation – how to bring content, data, and channels together.

The biggest challenge for marketers is the cost involved in working with multiple systems in the digital marketing space. They need to use content management systems to update their websites, tools to send out emails, management platforms to update social media, and analytics software for measurement. They also have to work with compliance and regulatory tracking systems to review material. Hence, marketing teams end up spending considerable amount of time on implementing digital marketing requirements, and managing these systems. All of this time could be spent on their core competencies – generating excellent content and strategizing effective campaigns.

Marketers in capital market firms – similar to their counterparts in industries such as pharmaceuticals – require content and communications to be vetted by internal compliance teams to ensure legal and regulatory compliance. This requires time and effort, which increases the time to market of marketing campaigns. By optimizing the process of compliance approval, they can improve the efficiency of their digital marketing operations.

Furthermore, adapting a diverse set of systems requires the hiring of specialists and intensive training on these technologies. This can be costly as specialists in new systems are hard to find. Within the pool of these specialists, domain knowledge and standard processes of the financial services industry are also rare to source.

The right technology, well-defined processes, and skillful people are the key to effective digital marketing operations. Firms in the capital markets space are increasingly leveraging our Fund Marketing Services (FMS) arm to meet this nexus. The FMS arm comprises digital marketing specialists who are well versed in content management, email marketing, analytics, and other online tools. They are also knowledgeable in the financial services domain and familiar with compliance and regulatory approval processes. The teams work closely with the digital marketing departments of clients to ensure the accurate and timely implementation of communications.

Each of our FMS team serves a designated client, with a special focus on confidentiality and information security. Operations span 24 hours a day, serving client requests from cities in multiple time zones across the world. This enables global marketing teams to implement rapid-response communications instantly, without waiting for a digital marketing specialist to wake up in a time zone on the other end of the globe.

Marketing functions are therefore able to fully concentrate on the strategic and tactical aspects of marketing and not be bogged down by operational tasks. Clients utilizing our FMS services have experienced significant value in terms of cost, efficiency, responsiveness, and operational expertise over companies that implement digital marketing operations internally.

To learn more about digital marketing implementation and our Fund Marketing Services, please click here

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