In my firm's earlier iteration as a pure communications consulting firm, I often found myself speaking with clients about the importance of revamping their website as a central part of a new messaging strategy.

When the subject turned to optimizing their content for search (or, search engine optimization – SEO), my standard line was to say,

It’s important to do because it demonstrates that you ‘get’ that side of things, but I know you’re not getting a million dollar account through a Google search.

We’d both chuckle and move on to other topics. However, in fact, that crack about Google searches is factually incorrect. Search can be an important part of marketing for investment management firms.

I’ll stipulate that nobody goes to an investment management firm’s website and is so overwhelmed by its message, philosophy, and process that they call and immediately fork over a $100 million… or $50 million… or $5 million…or even $50,000.

As we all know, there are no impulse buys in the investment management industry.  It is a business model whose success is predicated on developing relationships and nurturing them over time.

But search does offer tremendous opportunity, provided a firm sets itself up for success through a thoroughly considered, thoughtful strategy of content marketing for investment managers. Here’s how: 

1. A firm that knows its clients and buyer personas creates useful, actionable content with strong educative value designed, not to simply promote, but to prove its value proposition.
   
   
2. The firm does so consistently, and ensures that the text is properly keyworded and distributed via social media channels and through their own internal email marketing list.
   
   
3. Because this content is properly structured & consistently distributed over a long time frame, the website and blog move up in Google’s search rankings.
   
   
4. A person somewhere in cyberspace conducts a Google search on one of the topics about which a firm has been blogging. The person is then linked to that blog post, and now has an answer to their question, as well as access to the firm's entire library of thought leadership.
   
   
5. If they are impressed (and why wouldn’t they be?) they can subscribe to the blog & receive instant updates about any new posts.
   
   
6. And when they subscribe, they become part of the firm's marketing list. Now, (depending on the software the firm uses) their engagement patterns on the firm's website can be tracked: what are they looking at, what are they interested in, etc. The firm's marketing team can then send along specific content that addresses their interests. In other words, content that nurtures the lead.
   
   
7. At this point, the firm has proven its value to this person. It is now simply a matter of time before they either initiate a conversation, or are at the very least predisposed to receive a call from the firm's business development team.

Content marketing for investment managers is an incredibly important part of client service, as it helps to keep the clients you have while effectively differentiating yourself from the competition.

An investment manager's content marketing strategy should focus on education. By solving problems and resolving the issues faced by prospects and clients helps to build and nurture relationships over the long-term.

Crossposted at the Asset Management Communications Blog