Asset Managers need to put Personalisation at the foundation of their Design User Experience

This is to ensure they have a consistent relationship to maintain brand recall and the related value in lowering the costs associated with communicating with their customer.

One of the pillars of that strategy is ‘Personalisation’ and depending on the digital maturity of the Asset Manager this can form different strategies and tactical approaches to enable customers to cut out the white noise and focus on their investment needs.

Implementing a personalisation strategy from the ground up is relatively straight forward. However, for most Marketers they are constrained by legacy systems, compliance and regulatory advances and consumer expectation levels that are set by other non-financial brands that have raised the personalisation bar years ago. So, Asset Managers have plenty to do to ensure they are creating a frictionless digital experience and the key to personalisation – relevance.

Personalisation can take many forms within digital and these can be driven by what can be referred to as a ‘Push ‘or ‘Pull’ or a combination of the two will form the Personalised footprint for the customer.

Defining your communication strategy that under pins Personalisation. Typically, we see the following elements forming part of personalisation ecosystem;

Personalisation ‘Push’ – driven by the Asset Manager

1. Investor gateway or modal – the easiest way to create baseline persona personalisation and typically forms part of a regulatory requirement
2. Marketing Automation i.e. Pardot, Marketo etc, – cookie-based tracking of user browsing triggering the following
3. Content personalisation – typically driven by a third party such as IDIO that will drive relevant content via browser behaviour

Personalisation ‘Pull’ – driven by the Customer

1. Preference or subscription centre – typically this is will be connected to Marketing Automation or CRM e.g. Salesforce and this is where the Customer can decide on their own preferences and the types of content themes they want to read and any documents they may want to subscribe to
2. Logged in account – A customer will self-serve client reporting and documentation. E.g. they will be setting notifications to know when new statements and related investment documents are available

In most cases Asset Management firms will have one or a combination of these elements. Typically, they are all at different stages of their implementation cycle and maturity, not always doing the job they were implemented for.

The underlying issue is usually when to hit the ‘reset’ button and re-configure the personalisation strategy so its aligned. In most cases it affects the entire User Experience so the short answer is ASAP!

A part of the personalisation strategy other operations considerations need to be defined. For example without the right content to fulfil the particular needs of individuals at different stages of the customer journey, companies risk missed opportunities to truly engage customers as they progress from touchpoint to touchpoint, even though they have more data than ever at their disposal to help them target the right information at the right time.

It’s clear from our discussions with over 20 of our Asset Management clients that the intent to improve the digital customer experience is absolutely there, and many companies have focus on and allocated budget towards areas that are relevant to achieving this.

The reality is that Personalisation runs deep into the marketing ecosystem. For example; addressing someone by their first name may appear personal but if the accompanying content or message doesn’t address the customer’s content preference or investment needs then it’ll fail to do its job. Asset managers who truly understand their customers personas and much more than the boiler plate structure of a website, deep into the market and industry trends will be the winners. Measuring success and failure – Investing in personalisation should be a measurable goal; Asset managers can set their priorities and measure success and failure just like any other marketing activity;

• How will it Increase conversion rates?
• How does it Increase / speed up the sales cycle?
• What is the measure of customer lifetime value and brand engagement?
• How does it contribute to improving marketing ROI

To really build a strong personalisation strategy and execute it successfully you need 360 degree buy-in from the business which can be challenging. But the rewards of a successful strategy could be high. Personalisation will result in better brand relationships and more informed customers. The brand that succeed will cut through the daily white noise of brands that just shoot in the dark to build engagement.