Hortz: How do marketing support firms like yours have to structure themselves to be able to help their asset management and RIA clients in this rapidly changing, hyper-competitive business environment?
Sondhelm: To competitively grow as a marketing and distribution consulting firm in this industry, it is essential to offer a comprehensive range of solutions and expertise to help clients achieve their goals and balance their sales and marketing efforts. These include strategy development, content marketing, digital marketing, public relations, and third-party marketing, often in collaboration with other third-party marketers and MarTech firms. By providing this range of services and expertise under one roof, like Sondhelm Partners does, you can help asset management and RIA clients implement an integrated marketing plan tailored to their specific needs and goals. This approach saves clients time and resources and allows them to work with a single provider who understands their business and can help them achieve their objectives.
Industry support firms need a high level of consultancy capabilities to work closely and creatively with financial firms to diagnose and identify areas where they are lacking and how to develop a customized and comprehensive plan to address those areas. Our process begins by gaining a deep understanding of the client's needs and goals with a thorough analysis of their current sales and marketing strategies, target audience, industry trends, and competition.
In some cases, a client may need to expand their sales or marketing efforts from very little, having traditionally relied on referrals, and may need to expand its marketing efforts to reach new clients. In such cases, you need to provide content marketing and digital marketing services to help clients create valuable and relevant content for their new audience and help them reach a wider or targeted audience through online channels.
In other cases, a client may already have a strong sales or marketing strategy in place but may need to achieve a better balance between the two. For example, in a firm with a strong sales team but weak marketing efforts, you need to be able to help the client develop a comprehensive marketing plan that complements their sales efforts by creating targeted campaigns that generate more qualified leads.
To support a client's sales efforts, we may partner with third-party and MarTech firms that provide sales-related services, such as meaningful investor introductions. For example, we could collaborate with a third-party marketing firm with strong relationships in a particular area or modern technology and approaches to help them start more conversations.
Hortz: What best advice or recommendations can you share with boutique advisory and asset management firms on crafting their sales and marketing plan for 2024?
Sondhelm: After several difficult years, 2024 will be a pivotal year for boutique asset managers and RIAs who must get back on a growth track. For many, it will take time, resources, a rejection of the status quo, and, above all, a commitment to move toward meaningful change, which may seem daunting.
The most important advice I can offer is to focus on niche expertise. By honing their niche specializations, asset managers can offer a strategy not widely covered on the fund spectrum while differentiating themselves as an authority in a particular area. That has several growth possibilities, from attracting new AUM to becoming an attractive target for a merger or acquisition.
Smaller to mid-sized firms can benefit tremendously by building their thought leadership to establish their authority and build a following. By creating a thought leadership platform consisting of a blog or podcast, you can share insights and analysis with potential clients. You can increase your visibility and credibility by working with the media—reaching out to journalists for interviews, writing bylined articles, and then showcasing that content through video marketing, social media, PR, and other sales and marketing efforts.