Investment managers have an amazing opportunity through technology in the 21st century; technology has leveled the playing field in a way never seen before. Today, a one person investment management shop can compete for attention with a 500 person global organization through the power of technology. At least in regards to ‘being seen’ and ‘being heard’, managers have the opportunity to tell their story more efficiently and more broadly than ever before.
Why then, do we still see fewer emerging managers in the mix? (We will define emerging managers for this discussion as managers below $1B in AUM at the strategy and/or firm level.) While we understand that having a certain amount of AUM and length of track record, as well as some bare minimum infrastructure is ultimately required, it is also because manager’s simply fail to tell their stories.
There are three core areas in which managers fail most often. Successfully implementing a marketing plan that delivers on all three attributes will go a long way in getting the market’s attention:
- Timeliness—as close to quarter or month end as is possible, particularly for commentary which is quickly outdated
- Content—meaningful, informative and specific content that research professionals can sink their teeth into, ideally differentiated from the competition.
- Consistency—such that research professionals come to expect the materials and look forward to reading them. Sporadic content can work for white papers, but for commentary and updates it’s a miss.
A baseline marketing collateral system is required to compete. This entails both a basic ‘scope’ of collateral built around core and differentiated content, as well as a commitment to timely and consistent distribution of the system.
