The new class of automated investment managers are also called Robo Advisors and since their arrival on the online financial services scene, they have been able to grow to almost $20B of assets under management (AUM) globally. The biggest Robo Advisors are in the U.S. with Wealthfront and Betterment leading the charge. I feel that these Robo Advisors are very valuable as they provide investment management services to a lot of people who could not avail the service earlier (primarily because it wasn't profitable for offline advisors to service them given their low AUM) or at a very low cost to people who already had access to such services. The space has become very competitive as the big two are fighting for supremacy and traditional asset managers like Charles Schwab and Blackrock are fighting back by releasing their own versions of automated investing platforms (Schwab) or by acquiring other smaller Robo Advisors (Blackrock acquiring FutureAdvisor).
While Robo Advisors are using a wide range of innovative digital and offline marketing techniques to market their services, the one that stands out is content led Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These firms are hiring people to create content on topics/areas that their target segment would be looking for on the internet. A quick look at the blog of Wealthfront (https://blog.wealthfront.com/) shows various blogs on topics like career, stock options & RSUs, taxes, retirement investing etc. This probably explains why Wealthfront has witnessed a lot of growth amongst employees of tech companies in and around silicon valley who have started making the $$$ but don't have much knowledge about how to invest those $$$. I myself went through a number of blogs on the website and found some of them very valuable. I can online imagine how valuable such content can be to an entire breed of young employees of tech startups/bigger companies who probably have no financial knowledge or atleast lesser than I do (given I have completed my CFA and have a background in financial services).
Apart from just getting a lot of traffic to the website, Robo Advisors are also using its content to develop a consumer brand around information, transparency and trust. Traditional asset managers have been quite opaque (wrt investment strategies, fees etc.) to their customers and that is one of the key reasons why Robo Advisors are gaining traction by making investing services not only more accessible but also more transparent. Hence, content is not only one of the ways of digital marketing, but also something that is more core/intrinsic to the DNA of these Robo Advisors and something that makes them a lot more valuable to millenials who have a few $$$ in their bank account but not much knowledge to be able to invest them.
While Robo Advisors are using a wide range of innovative digital and offline marketing techniques to market their services, the one that stands out is content led Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These firms are hiring people to create content on topics/areas that their target segment would be looking for on the internet. A quick look at the blog of Wealthfront (https://blog.wealthfront.com/) shows various blogs on topics like career, stock options & RSUs, taxes, retirement investing etc. This probably explains why Wealthfront has witnessed a lot of growth amongst employees of tech companies in and around silicon valley who have started making the $$$ but don't have much knowledge about how to invest those $$$. I myself went through a number of blogs on the website and found some of them very valuable. I can online imagine how valuable such content can be to an entire breed of young employees of tech startups/bigger companies who probably have no financial knowledge or atleast lesser than I do (given I have completed my CFA and have a background in financial services).
Apart from just getting a lot of traffic to the website, Robo Advisors are also using its content to develop a consumer brand around information, transparency and trust. Traditional asset managers have been quite opaque (wrt investment strategies, fees etc.) to their customers and that is one of the key reasons why Robo Advisors are gaining traction by making investing services not only more accessible but also more transparent. Hence, content is not only one of the ways of digital marketing, but also something that is more core/intrinsic to the DNA of these Robo Advisors and something that makes them a lot more valuable to millenials who have a few $$$ in their bank account but not much knowledge to be able to invest them.
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