An article in Forbes pointed out that asset managers are extremely late in joining the digital marketing movement. This isn’t groundbreaking news, as the industry has long been criticized for the slow adoption of modern marketing practices.

The article points out:

• Financial services was one of the first industries to embrace the digital revolution, just not in marketing. The industry has focused on investing in high-speed connectivity for faster trade execution, as opposed to faster and more successful marketing/sales execution. It’s time to step-up the marketing game.
• Lower Fees and higher competition is driving more creative marketing. Executives are forced to rethink the old model of reaching investors one at a time. It’s an expensive endeavor involving lots of flights, hotels, steak dinners, and conference fees. They must create models for doing this at scale.
• Asset Managers who embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning will increase efficiency. The reduction in operating expenses associated with more efficient marketing will result in decreased cost for the consumer and increased margins for the manager.  Asset Managers aren’t adopting digital marketing technologies because they loathe change. Executives who come from an investing background may not see an immediate ROI on this type of investment. Turnkey products do exist, and previously unavailable scale is now built-in.

Even though asset managers are a few steps behind other industries, many are making moves towards digitizing the sales and marketing process. We’ve seen evidence of this over the past couple of years as firms are rethinking their strategies. Firms are being forced to find ways to differentiate themselves and scale their operations in order to survive the fierce competition.

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You probably see the term “account-based marketing” (ABM) pretty frequently of late. The hype has grown over the past 12 months, with hundreds of articles, blogs, webinars, podcasts, videos and events devoted to the topic. At least a few dozen new vendors have sprung up with solutions focused on ABM, adding to the noise.

Even with all that noise, most organizations are unclear about whether and how to implement these strategies. So this post will give you a high-level sense of what ABM is all about, give you concrete criteria on whether you should consider it for your organization, help you decide what type of ABM would be appropriate, and give you a couple of practical steps to get started.

By Candyce Edelen

This post originally appeared on the Propel Growth blog.

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It is universally understood in the marketing community that sales and marketing alignment is crucial to hitting revenue goals. Alignment around shared goals, technologies and processes allows you to monitor and optimize every stage of the buying cycle. Reports like this one from Marketing Advisory Network suggest that sales and marketing misalignment is not just a buzzword: companies are truly struggling with this reality.

But how aligned are sales and marketing teams at investment management firms, specifically?

We were curious. 

We hosted a private Marketing Roundtable discussion with sales and marketing leaders from top investment management firms. We wanted to learn more about the state of sales and marketing alignment at investment management firms. Here are a few notable takeaways we’d like to share:Read More