Crafting a Marketing Strategy for Investment Advisors

With increased competition coming from all directions, it’s critical now more than ever for investment advisory firms to really define who they are so their target markets will draw the desired conclusions when evaluating potential investment managers. This method of differentiation should really become the cornerstone of any firm’s identity. And with the proliferation of “robo” platforms offering discretionary investment management services for as little as 0 bps, there’s never been any time like the present to solidify your firm’s identity across all forward facing assets.

So when one of our clients approached us for help in designing marketing material designed to accurately reflect the value the firm adds to its advisory relationships, we fully understood the ramifications of the task at hand.

While writing a whitepaper designed to serve as the backbone of the firm’s refreshed identity anchored in investment stewardship, one of the authors wanted to create a graphic that reflected the four components of stewardship as defined by the firm.

Shown below is the original graphic the firm provided that attempted to convey the elements that influence the actual rates of return achieved by most investors.

Research reviewed by our client indicates that rates of return are often given more weight in evaluating potential investment managers than other variables that often influence investor actions, generally to the detriment of investors’ actual realized rates of return.

Within an hour after reading the firm’s text that comprised the bulk of the new marketing material, we had drawn up a couple of variations of the original graphic in Adobe Illustrator that we felt more accurately presented the firm’s desired message.

Ultimately, we created the following graphic that lists the four elements the firm has identified as its primary marketable points of differentiation that positively affect the rates of return achieved by the firm’s clients.

We also created a variation designed to help define these four elements whenever the graphic is used absent sufficient written context or on a standalone basis. We used concepts from the whitepaper to help summarize each element of stewardship within the context of our client’s investment management services.

Finally, our client wanted a different color scheme and asked us to incorporate the new graphic into their whitepaper (that we also designed and produced) which can be found below. In the end, we feel our collective efforts culminated in a compelling branding asset that accurately represents the original intention of the whitepaper’s authors. There was even talk of adding it to the firm’s business card template. We think they like it!

Capital’s Difference Maker Whitepaper – Download PDF→

Possessing graphic design and page layout skillsets in tandem with a thorough comprehension of the investment advisory business enables us to truly partner with our clients and help them create highly relevant marketing assets in a very timely manner.

Contact us today for help with crafting your firm’s marketing strategy!