If you’re reading this, I assume you’re already aware of the fact that hedge funds are amongst the most sought-after and wealthiest client groups when it comes to online marketing.
Why?
Well, the market makers and arbitrageurs that these hedge funds rely on to make their amazing returns also have the power to impact the stock market with their buying and selling activities – driving market movements and causing spikes and rushes in the price of securities.
So, if you’re looking for a way to get in on the action and make some money from the popularisation of the ‘online marketplace’ then you need to be aware of how to market to hedge funds online.
Find Their Needs
When you start out as a marketer, the first thing you’ll be asked to do is to research the buyer’s needs. Why? Because you don’t know what they want until you know what they need.
In the world of online marketing, this is usually done through online surveys or vanguard questionnaires where you ask potential respondents a set of questions about their experience with your product or service. But, when you’re marketing to hedge funds, this task can be slightly more complicated.
You see, when it comes to attracting the most lucrative and influential group of individuals to your platform, you’ll most likely want to consider a number of factors.
Demographics
Depending on the survey, you might find that hedge funds are more likely to respond to surveys amongst certain demographic groups. For example, if you’re conducting your survey amongst millennial investors, you might discover that they are more likely to respond than older generations.
Similarly, if you’re surveying a group of high-net worth individuals, you might find that the wealthiest group are more likely to respond than the general public. These are all critical factors to take into account when planning the strategy for your marketing campaign.
Psychographics
When responding to surveys, individuals will sometimes disclose more about their views on certain topics than they would in a general conversation. Hence why psychographics are so important when marketing to highly targeted groups. If you read a lot about marketing, you’ll most likely come across the terms ‘alt-right’ and ‘grey matter’ – these are both important concepts that you should know and understand.
What are alt-right and gray matter? Well, the alt-right is a political movement that rose to prominence in the United States during the 2016 election. It’s supporters are mostly aged between 16 and 24 and they primarily use Facebook and Twitter to disseminate their views.
The alt-right was formed in reaction to what they perceive to be a “cultural-leftist agenda” that seeks to silence conservative views through legislation and boycotts. Hence why you might encounter a lot of opposition when marketing to these individuals – if you want to keep your customers, you’ll most likely need to take a stand and be vocal about your political views.
Now, on the subject of gray matter, you’ll need to understand the psychology of your target audience if you want to ensure that you’re appealing to the right people. In other words, if you want to take advantage of the fact that these individuals are highly educated, shrewd, and successful – you’ll need to understand the types of cognitive biases and mental models that they’re likely to have.
Product Awareness
When marketing to hedge funds, you’ll inevitably be bombarded with a myriad of investment and asset management products – many of which are quite obscure. The key is to understand what these products are, why someone would want them, and how they work.
For example, if you’re selling a financial planning service and your target audience happens to be affluent investors with a vested interest in the stock market, you might want to explore how a stock index fund or an international investment fund work – explaining the difference and how they could be used to an individual that is not yet familiar with the stock market seems quite complicated.
Also, keep in mind how technology plays a huge part in the way that hedge funds work. This is why you’ll predominantly see a whole lot of buzzwords like ‘robo-advisors’ and ‘digital asset managers’ when you’re marketing to these individuals. Newer technologies such as smart contracts and artificial intelligence will probably be used extensively in the future and these are just some of the factors that make marketing to hedge funds so interesting.
Marketing To The Non-Hedge Fund Population
So, you’ve managed to attract the interest of some of the most influential individuals in the financial industry – how do you market to the rest of the population?
This question was actually answered by a prominent asset manager through the use of digital marketing. He asserted that their approach was to look at their own demographic and try and understand the psychology of the average person – something that they claimed helped them to maintain a good relationship with their customers.
In other words, the digital marketer that worked with this asset manager understood the needs of their customers (hedge funds) but also tried to position their solution in a way that would be appealing to the average person.
The Approach
Now, some digital marketers will argue that you shouldn’t focus on attracting the largest audience but instead should look to find your perfect demographic and try and grow from there. Well, there is certainly a case for this theory – if you believe that the majority of your audience is made up of one homogeneous group (i.e. millennials) then you might want to segment your audience and try and understand what motivates them and excites them about your product or service.
However, if you are fortunate enough to have a more diverse audience (i.e. millennials and Generation X) then you might want to take a more traditional approach and simply try and reach as many people as possible. This is often the better approach when marketing to small businesses since there is usually more of a focus on design and product than there is on marketing.
Where To Next?
So, you’ve managed to pull off a successful marketing campaign and attracted the attention of a lot of influential people. Congrats! But, now what? How can you continue to grow your business and establish yourself as a leading player in your industry?
Well, you could start by taking a look at the competition. In the world of online marketing, this is usually done through performing a search-based marketing analysis. Simply enter a keyword in the Google Search bar, and you’ll see a multitude of results.
Look at the top few results and try and make a list of the most prominent competitors. From here, you can begin to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you to identify the best way forward for your own business. Also, keep in mind that marketing is continually evolving and you should update yourself as often as possible. New competitors emerge constantly, and knowing what is important and relevant in today’s economy is critical to the success of your business.
Now, you might be wondering, how do I find keywords? Where do I even start? Well, here’s a simple guide to finding keywords for SEO.
Step 1: Use The Right Tools
When performing a search-based marketing analysis, you’ll most likely want to use a number of tools – some of which are free and some of which you’ll need to pay for. Here’s a shortlist:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Wordstream
- Seraph
- Simply Google Tools
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Hootsuite
- Buzzsumo
- Majestic SEO
- Woopra
- Followerwonk
- HubSpot
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
Now, you might be thinking that some of these tools seem very specialized and you’ll most likely only need one or two in your arsenal. But, here’s the thing: these tools will all help you to uncover keywords, and, as a result, help you to find content that is more likely to perform well in the search engines. So, by utilizing all of these tools, you’ll most likely find a wide variety of keywords that you can use to optimize your content.