Firms who had dedicated educational blogs and videos dominated the top 20 positions in Peregrine’s survey, supported by higher engagement statistics across their website and social media platforms – including both institutional and retail channels.
However, only 14% of the firms studied by Peregrine had educational content prominent on their website, with the majority opting for in-house market research (i.e. polls), lengthy white papers or bland market commentary videos.
The latter approach is costing asset managers dearly when it comes to website analytics; low page views and average visitor time on site are a common denominator across the 86% of firms who did not embrace educational content.
Who outperformed on education and why?
The front-runners in Peregrine’s study, including BNP Paribas Investment Partners, JP Morgan Asset Management and Blackrock, all had blogs dedicated to the education of their audience. Instead of lengthy market commentaries, they opted for infographic-heavy, bite-size pieces on key investment themes; moreover, this content was integrated across a range of targeted channels, including retail, institutional and intermediary.
The success of this approach was reflected both in the companies’ website analytics and quality of social media content, as they were able to re-purpose infographic snippets across LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Time for asset managers to adapt
The move towards varied and educational content is an ongoing process, with many managers struggling to adapt.
“There is this belief that white papers are the only things that matter in content.”
“There is this belief that white papers are the only things that matter in content,”says a Head of Marketing, interviewed by Peregrine. “People are not using video or infographics enough. So the deluge of indigestible information continues.”
If asset managers want to increase their inbound traffic, the school of thought that investors don’t need educational content must change.
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