Digital Marketing Strategies Are Key to Communicating in the Changed World

SwanDog Strategic Marketing today published “The World Has Changed (Part 1),” a 12-page whitepaper available to be downloaded from www.swandog.com. Written by Dave Swanson, SwanDog’s founder and managing principal, the paper includes recommendations on how mutual fund companies, other investment managers and broker-dealers can reposition themselves in the wake of the financial markets crisis.

We have a close alliance (including maintaining office space where SwanDog does) so would have called your attention to the whitepaper regardless but as it happens every one of the recommendations implies a digital capability.

• #1: SwanDog calls on marketers to adopt a newsroom mentality—of course, the “news” will be delivered digitally.
• #2: SwanDog says it’s time for the manufacturers of investment products to start communicating again with investors—again, this is best done electronically.
• #3: SwanDog says traditional imagery and messaging need to be reworked. This is more easily and quickly done online—and more easily rotated as the markets eventually rebound.
• #4: SwanDog expects the traditional distribution approach to change, with financial advisors beginning to emphasize how they conduct their business as opposed to who their brokerage or clearing firm is. As advisors plan to step up their communicating, it will be online and it will be with the help of asset managers providing content electronically.
• #5: In commenting on the advantage enjoyed today by big brands, SwanDog says smaller firms’ survival will depend on their ability to demonstrate a competitive benefit. Again, we’d expect smaller, shallow-pocketed firms to focus most of their brand-building online.