Thanks to successive ‘Know You Customer’ and Anti-Money Laundering legislation, the process of capturing new and current asset management client needs is one that is reasonably standardized.
The onboarding of a new client necessarily entails the logging of key client information such as their name, contact details, income, net worth range, risk tolerance, and so on. The subsequent relationship relies on new client data (such as emerging needs or concerns) being surfaced through face-to-face engagements and by advisors proactively alerting clients to new investment research and insights.
At all points in the client relationship the end-goal is always the same: through the consultative process of meeting their needs and wants, advisors hope to source the appropriate financial products and services, and execute a strategy that benefits both parties.
Yet, despite such a rigorous process to understand the client, the research suggests that there is still a disjunct: Salesforce’s 2015 Wealth Management report found that 51% of investors admitted to being “dissatisfied” with their advisor’s ability to meet their needs. Deloitte’s 2014 Digital Disruption report was able to surface some of the reasons: for some it’s a lack of trust – a belief that advisors are putting their own interests ahead of their client and whilst others felt that their advisor was not offering the right options tailored to their unique context.
Content is a vehicle for client insight
Content marketing is becoming an increasingly important strategy in the world of asset management to aid potential investors that are seeking information on their options, asking questions, noting reviews from others in similar situations and evaluating alternatives. Crucially, however, content marketing isn’t just integral for clients retention – it can also be used for client insights.
The author Walter Mosley once said, “A man’s bookcase will tell you everything you’ll ever need to know about him”. Apply this to a client-advisor context: if you understood not only what content your clients had been reading on your site and in your emails but which topics in particular were of most interest would this not better place your advisory teams for more informed client conversation?
‘Interest data’ is what we call the data extracted from each client’s unique reading activity. But ignore the buzzword: think of ‘interest data’ as simply a collection of the most relevant topics for discussion on your next advisor call.
Forward-thinking asset management firms should consider the value of making sure that their digital marketing team’s efforts are linked to their advisor’s CRM software so that they can see which topics in the marketing content are of most interest to each client.
These topics can be added to customer profiles in CRM systems (for example: idio for Sales Intelligence) in real-time so that advisors know exactly what investment topics and issues are currently engaging their client and are therefore empowered to have more relevant in-call dialogues and and exposing opportunities to successfully cross-sell or upsell.
Advisors need to learn more about their clients
Clients expect their advisors to understand them on a personal level, offer products tailored to their specific needs, and engage with them through their preferred channels.
Conversely, a good advisor anticipates client expectations and reactions and explicitly acts on them in good time. Capturing these emerging needs from the content clients are reading is a brilliant way for wealth managers to get ahead of the game.
The best way of doing so – is using content to generate client insights.
