Social Media and Digital Marketing Services

Transcription

1 Social Media and Digital Marketing Services

2 Introducing our NEW Social Media and Digital Marketing Service With the JOBS act coming online mid-september, the opportunity for fund managers to finally engage in marketing practices is now wide open. Understanding which marketing medium is likely to generate the best return and value is now the challenge for fund managers based on it being unchartered waters so to speak. The emergence of social media has created a massively cost effective marketing channel that allows brands to attract and retain an audience with a shared interest in what you are offering. The true value to social media however is the opportunity to create viral transfer amongst peer networks (i.e. an investor may enjoy a piece of content you upload, and share with his own peers, who are also likely to contain high net worth individuals in this way, your audience does your marketing for you). Social media is NOT to be thought of as the silver bullet, although its importance within the marketing mix is ever growing as it becomes even more intuitive and more of the world s population adopt it as their preferred means of keeping in touch with current affairs, friends and opportunities. Peer to peer recommendation is also fast becoming the preferred means of making choices in life and social media is perfectly suited for this.

3 The most effective social media marketing campaigns are supported by a range of other activities that may branch both off and online. These may include; public relations, search engine optimisation, advertising (on and off line), marketing and perhaps more ingenious gorilla marketing techniques, which really capture the imagination of the recipient. These add up to a truly integrated strategy that delivers strong multiples against cost. The strategy we would want to deploy would be dependent upon the following aspects: Age of fund Your experience and success/your marketability as a fund manager Type of fund and subject matter Your objectives and growth targets Your market (geography, specialist interests and level of risk/reward) Your budget. Your target market will typically be high net worth individuals (directly) as well as their advisors (indirectly). Our typical approach is to review the above aspects and decide the most appropriate social channels to set up and populate with content on an ongoing basis. Please remember that social media is a long term strategy and nothing less.

4 The objectives Our social marketing objectives are as follows (in priority order): 1. Attract investment leads 2. Generate ongoing social awareness and buzz around the fund s performance 3. Improve the performance of the fund website on natural search engine listings 4. Build a social community of advocates, market influencers, prospects, advisors and investors. The benefit being the ability to streamline marketing communications in future ready-made market for when you start a new fund/wave of investment Key performance indicators (KPIs) will be benchmarked and tracked throughout the marketing program, with a report indicating activity, exposure and growth delivered quarterly (4 x per annum). Why do you need social marketing? Targeting various types of customers (i.e. investors, intermediaries and distributors) Increasing brand awareness. Promote and protect brand reputation Provide information and support Benefits of social media to you Compete more effectively Meet the changing habits of your audience Streamline communications more effective management of clients and prospects Inexpensive compared to other forms of marketing Attract more intermediaries and direct investors. How are successful funds using social media? Equity crowd funding bringing relevant groups together Peer-to-peer lending lend money as a consortium in return for interest payments Information and education on investing What are funds sharing across social media Product/market information 44% Corporate information - 8% Recruitment 14% Investor education 34%

5 Most popular social networks (July 2013) 1st YouTube (55%) 2nd Linked In (38%) 3rd Twitter (44%) 4th Facebook (25%) Key considerations for your social strategy Meet the needs of your audience Educate them Keep them informed Humour them Promote products to them Provide exclusive data Manage risks Allows for us to monitor and protect your brand (pick up data early) Remain compliant with FCA at all times Measuring success Growth in community numbers Levels of engagement across social channels (i.e. tweets, retweets and shares) Web performance and traffic driven by social channels Sentiment Levels of investment tracked to social media involvement. Social marketing support Whilst our bespoke content and social campaigning for you and your fund will offer much value, we would require an ad-hoc social media advertising fund, which would allow us to enhance the reach of your fund brand as well as prominent posts, both on an ongoing basis. This ensures that we are constantly ensuring a presence and attracting larger communities of prospective investors and advisors.

6 policy document (stage 1) We understand that as a fund wishing to embrace social media into its marketing mix that you need to submit a policy document to the SEC indicating how you intend to use social media, including the following key points: Usage Guidelines. Presenting the appropriate and inappropriate use of social media as well as the appropriate restrictions and prohibitions regarding the use of social media based on your fund s analysis of the risk to the firm and its clients. Content Standards. Detail as to what sort of content will be shared and guidelines as to what content to avoid. Monitoring. Detail as to how your fund will effectively monitor mentions of the brand on social media sites, taking into account that many third-party sites may not provide complete access to a supervisor or compliance personnel. Frequency of Monitoring. Detail as to when we will monitor conversations around your fund across social media sites and the routine for doing so. Approval of Content. A policy spelling out the procedures involved in approving content for social channels before going live. Firm Resources. An analysis of the risk of exposure for your fund and its clients due to the use of a social networking site. Your fund s compliance procedures may consider, without limitation, the reputation of the social network, the social network s privacy policy, the ability to remove third-party posts and controls on anonymous posting. Certification. A review into whether your fund requires a certification by IARs and advisory solicitors confirming that the individuals running the social channels understand and are complying with your fund s social media policies and procedures. Functionality. An analysis of the functionality of each social media site approved for use, including the continuing obligation to address any upgrades or modifications to the functionality that affect the risk exposure for your fund or its clients. Such consideration is particularly significant given the rapidly evolving nature of this new media. For example, if we chose to host social media on a site that includes a functionality or engages in a practice that exposes a client-user s privacy, which practice or policy cannot be disabled or modified, may need to consider whether your fund s participation is appropriate.

7 Information Security. An analysis into whether permitting your fund s IARs to have access to social media sites poses any information security risks. Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction is an important risk faced by all firms. Although hacking and other breaches of information security can be posed in multiple ways, use of social media, especially third party social media sites, may pose elevated risks. It is likely that we would consider adopting compliance policies and procedures to create appropriate firewalls between sensitive customer information, as well as your own proprietary information, and any social media site to the extent that the firm permits access to such sites by its IARs. Profiles. Social media profiles will need to be produced prior to going live and shared within the policies and procedures document. Record Keeping Responsibilities We would first need to determine, among other things, (1) whether each social media communication used is a required record, and, if so, (2) the applicable retention period, and (3) the accessibility of the records. Maintaining social media communications in electronic or paper format (e.g., screen print or pdf of social media page, if practicable). Conducting employee training programs to educate advisory personnel about recordkeeping provisions is key especially if some personnel were to share more specific detail around the market and fund. Arranging and indexing social media communications that are required records and kept in an electronic format to promote easy location, access and retrieval of a particular record. Periodic test checking (using key word searches or otherwise) to ascertain whether employees are complying with the compliance policies and procedures (e.g., whether employees are improperly destroying required records). Using third parties to keep records consistent with the record keeping requirements.

8 Your social media strategy (top line) There are three key elements to our recommended social media marketing strategy as described below, the combination of which will ensure we meet the aforementioned marketing objectives: Awareness building Promoting awareness of the fund and its performance will be managed carefully and with attention to detail. Utilising effective keywords and phrases within your published content that search engines such as Google value will ensure we build a natural search presence, which will reap rewards in the medium to longer term. Based on the lack of attention to search engine marketing for funds, this is a huge opportunity to pick up qualified traffic, looking for an investment opportunity. In addition, the ongoing content we produce for your social media channels will be inspirational and relevant, creating the very best opportunity for your market to share with their peers, thereby raising the awareness of the fund virally. Community attraction Key to our success is attracting the right communities and individuals to your social channels (outlined below in more detail). This will be achieved in the following ways: Through awareness building (activities as above) Incentivising individuals (through offering exclusive content and rewards for referrals your existing community tell a friend about you and this leads to a new community member) Connecting with industry social influencers and encouraging them to share details of the fund s social channels, content and investment opportunity will drive existing, loyal investors and advisors. This is typically achieved through providing exclusive content or through paid advertorial Social media advertising. As the results of this are relatively unknown, costs and initial involvement here will be minimal until proven to convert valued prospects. Community retention So, we ve attracted your prospective investors, advisors and industry influencers to your social media channels, now we have to keep them there. This will be done via the following ways: Consistently good, regular, topical content. Relevancy, intelligence, exclusiveness and personality is absolutely key to keeping the community hooked in. In addition, a mix of content types is also recommended (i.e. video, imagery, text, graphs etc) Quick response to questions posed as well as ongoing community engagement will ensure the social channels are kept current and the individuals kept feeling part of the ongoing buzz

9 Social channels we use Whilst there are a growing number of social networks attracting high net worth individuals and advisors, globally, there are a core selection that are most suited to our proposed marketing activity. The below details these and their uses as we see them: With 225 million members (June 2013), LinkedIn is the world s leading professional s social network. Basic level membership is free with the option to pay for an upgrade that makes connecting with individuals far easier. LinkedIn is simple to use when it comes to searching for professionals and groups making it a networkers dream. In a few clicks you could quite easily connect with an investor thousands of miles away! LinkedIn is relied upon by many high net worth individuals as a lifeline to various industries, companies and individuals. What makes this social network even more valuable however is the secondary and tertiary connections those individuals have that you will gain access to. Connect with one investor and you ll appear on their connections radar! But LinkedIn should not only be used as a tool to identify and connect with individuals that you may have potential opportunity with, oh no. You also have the opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field by joining groups (search for Fund managers or Investors groups to start with) and start a conversation. Raise an issue, respond to other s issues, and just get involved with intelligent responses. A word of warning for fund managers The JOBS Act will definitely have an impact on a fund manager s use of this social network. Be very careful about what information you discuss and disclose, remember that you cannot discuss a fund s potential performance, only its historical performance. Until further guidance has been produced about the use of social media marketing for fund managers we would suggest that you simply start connecting with others, joining debates and groups and avoid direct discussion around your fund. Always post with caution and ensure that you include a disclaimer with every post stating that comments are your personal opinions, rather than those of your employer or company you are operating for.

10 SlideShare is in essence the YouTube of static presentations and a social network which is often overlooked by many businesses. It certainly has a deserved place in fund marketing as it allows you to creatively present historical fund performance (as a series of slides), which can then be shared easily on your website, blog or via your other social network channels. In essence it is yet another way to present performance and your credentials. SlideShare presentations are also very easy to prepare, edit, keyword optimize (for search engines), upload and will allow you to keep tabs on how many views you ve had. Finally, the likes of Google typically rank SlideShare presentations well, meaning another opportunity for you to be found by potential investors. Facebook now has a massive 1 billion users from around the world who spend an average 405 minutes per month on the site. This makes it the world s biggest social network. Its key revenue source is targeted advertising, whereby you (as the advertiser) can determine who sees your ads. Facebook started out in 2004 and quickly captured a consumer audience who used it to find new friends, connect with existing friends and maintain contact. With a phenomenal growth in users, marketers quickly realized its clout in relation to identifying and reaching communities with specific interests, then directing their messaging at them. Facebook has developed out its offering to businesses (the networks lifeblood), allowing them dedicated pages, run promotions and create apps that attract and inspire their prospective and existing customers. Whilst Facebook was recognized by many as a B2C platform initially, it is not uncommon to find a range of B2B Facebook pages today. The biggest concerns for Fund managers in relation to Facebook (as with all social networks) is the posting of content that won t upset regulators as well as the very careful monitoring of what others post on your page, which you, as the page manager, will have total control over. The recommendation here is to tread very carefully, sharing content not necessarily directly related to your Fund, but more market commentary and observations as well as a touch of humor remember that this is a chance to express some personality so use it wisely, you, after all, are the people investors buy into!

11 Twitter now has well over 500m users and remains one of the essentials for a fund manager. In terms of reaching prospective audiences (investors, journalists, and fund managers) it is possibly the network with the lowest barriers to entry, and it s FREE! Twitter is classed as micro blogging, which ultimately means that you can Tweet 140 characters or less. What really makes Twitter a powerful marketing tool however is a) the opportunity it gives you to tweet directly at individuals (which they will receive as a direct message) and b) the opportunity to potentially reach millions of people instantly by using hashtags (#) that Twitter users would typically follow within your tweet. Tweeting is simple, easy and ideal for mobile, and Twitters success can be largely attributed to this. Again, fund managers should proceed with caution in relation to endorsing funds and have a clear plan as to what you want to achieve from Twitter. Twellow.com is a great place to star for finding potential contacts to follow and watch how they are using social media. G+ is Google s own social network and is experiencing exciting levels of growth thanks to the connectivity with YouTube, Hangouts and more recent Google Hummingbird algorithm updates. Integrating Google+ into your suite of social marketing channels is proving key to the enhancement of your website s search positioning as well as homing in on prospects deciding to utilise this network over others. Content is typically more detailed than that posted on Facebook or Twitter.

12 Your blog is essentially a website (or web page within your existing site) where you can share content centrally. You become the Editor In Chief of your own digital magazine, which people will typically find through search engines and follow if they enjoy/find the information they are after. Blogs are social places, you upload content (videos, commentary, slides, images, music etc. and others view it and interact through leaving comments. Blogging allows you complete control over your content output making it a relatively safe environment for a fund manager. In terms of content, market commentary, thoughts, opinions, trends and a chance for your prospects to understand your thinking/insight and personality make this a fantastic tool if managed correctly. Wordpress is one of the World s leading blogging platform and we consider essential for a social marketing strategy. We d recommend using Wordpress over any other based on the sheer amount of already developed plugins available to plug in that will enhance the visitor s experience as well as get you found more easily on search engines (to name but a few).

13 The deal We work on a 12 month contract basis. Fund Edge will charge a cost fee to manage the fund s social media marketing for the initial 12 months as well as a reasonable performance percentage. On completion of the initial 12 month period we will switch to the performance percentage only and absorb ongoing costs, if we feel the relationship to be harmonious between both parties. Please see costs outlined below to commence your social media marketing: Policy document (submission to SEC) - $10,000 Social marketing strategy (12 month) - $10,000 Design work (social media channels Facebook, G+, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) $2,500 Blog design & development (if required) $4,000 Content production, channel management, record management (initial 12 month period) $8,000 - $10,000 per month Tracking software and monitoring - $1,500 per month Training - TBD Reportage Included in the above Advertising ad-hoc budget From $2,500 per month (dependent upon growth required). A 10% management fee will be taken from the advertising budget Performance based fees We would look to sign a minimum 12month exclusive agreement with your company and our fees will be based on performance only. I.e based on the growth of AUM of your fund. Fees A percentage of AUM 1-10m % per annum 10-25m 0.50% per annum plus $5,000 per month 25-50m 0.50% per annum plus $7,500 per month m 0.50% per annum plus $10,000 per month Example 1. Your fund grows from 5m to 20m 2. We have helped grow your fund by 15m % of 15m = $75, Plus $5,000 per month over 12 twelve months = $60, Total owed to us $135, We would look to get compensated quarterly.

14 London Office Fund Edge Consulting Limited 53 Davies Street Mayfair, London W1K 5JH T: (+44) New York Office Fund Edge Consulting Limited 757 Third Avenue 20th Floor, New York NY T: (+1) E: