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Marketing without an understanding of your target audience is akin to shouting into a void. If you don’t know what your audience wants, how can you deliver messaging and activation that catches their attention, resonates with their needs, and compels them to engage with you?

With this in mind, asset and wealth managers who want to connect more strongly with their customers and create tailored, impactful marketing strategies must have a strong foundation of client segmentation.

At its core, client segmentation means dividing a broad audience into smaller, more manageable groups based on shared characteristics. For example, ‘institutional investors’ is a large, catch-all segment. However, you can break it down into sub-segments including DB and DC pension funds, Trustees, research and field consultants; across these sub-segments, you can then dive even deeper into regional variances. By understanding and catering to these distinct groups, marketers can deliver more targeted, relevant, and effective marketing strategies.

Where to start?

Whilst we know a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing simply won’t cut it, we also need to face the reality that marketing budgets are limited and team resources are stretched. Many firms aspire to build and execute comprehensive marketing segmentation, but it may not be possible. Where can you start, though?

Let’s use the UK adviser as an example. To begin, you’ll want a contextual understanding of the general marketing best practices around this broad channel. For example, what content do they typically read, where are they engaging with that content, what are their typical pain points, and what are some possible solutions?

Here's an example of what this might look like.

This is segmentation at its highest level. To get more specific around your exact target audience, you could then answer some of the following questions:

  • What is the size of the adviser firms by AUM and number of employees?
  • What is their client type across mass market, mass affluent, HNW and UHNW?
  • Are they independent or restricted?
  • Are they part of a network?
  • Do they outsource investment decision-making to a DFM?
  • What is the geography and region?

By answering these questions, you begin to build a more holistic understanding of the profiles you’re likely to create, the key segments you want to target and the level of customisation you’re prepared to apply to each segment.

Executing on your client profiles

Let’s consider a firm with a target audience of UK advisers who invest primarily in multi-asset funds on behalf of their clients, with assets under management of approximately £200 million and advising predominantly mass affluent clients, based in Kent.

With a detailed understanding of this client type’s needs and preferences, we can build a comprehensive profile of them.

Then, we can begin to segment and tailor marketing strategies to that profile. What would this look like in action? We might start thinking through the marketing approach in the below buckets:

In doing so, we are establishing the key digital and physical touchpoints that will resonate most with the client segment and can build out an activation plan accordingly.

Segmentation – find your balance

When it comes to client segmentation, our top recommendation is – be sure to have it and be sure to continue refining and expanding your ability to segment whenever you can.

For some firms, that means building a hyper-targeted email communications programme to single digit mailing lists where clients and prospects have been selected and targeted to precision (queue an extensively resourced marketing team).

For others, it’s trickier to pull ‘clean’, accurate data from the CRM and further work is required to develop more granular segmentation or even to establish baseline segmentation.

The key is to ultimately strike the balance needed to achieve your goals within the limits of your team structure and available budget.

Alpha Agency is experienced in helping asset and wealth managers build out and refine their client segmentation – we’re ready to support your needs, whether you’re just beginning or seeking to advance your capabilities. Contact us today.