Your Unique Position: How Podcasts Help Mid-Sized Asset Managers Cut Through the Noise

Investing is hard, even for professionals. But talking about investing - and communicating your brand’s unique product, investment thesis or strategy - can be even more of a challenge, especially for financial firms that aren’t yet a household name.

For small-to-mid-sized asset managers, podcasts continue to provide high ROI and measurable results to educate and inform current (and, hopefully, new) investors.

Why podcasts?

As global podcast audiences continue to grow, the medium offers investment industry marketers a venue to reach high-value audiences in an organic way. Quality audio content presents your firm’s smartest minds in a memorable, personable and compelling venue that can’t be matched by reading an article or downloading a white paper. 

For established brands, podcasts and other audio content keep their products top-of-mind for existing clients. For newer brands, podcasts lend emerging companies an authentic, authoritative voice. Recent research from Claritas shows podcasts can increase brand awareness between 24% to 79%, or 30 times the lift rate of other channels. 

For example, Sands Capital, an $80 billion asset manager with offices in the Washington, DC, area and Singapore, includes podcasts as a major pillar of its ongoing content expansion. 

Each month, the firm’s analysts and portfolio managers release new episodes of a podcast series designed to offer deep insights into the firm’s strategy and to help listeners zero in on high-conviction names in key industries.

“They wanted to demonstrate their expertise and depth of knowledge, and to engage their investing audience. Podcasts are another powerful way to deepen that relationship,” says Julissa Ortiz, a director at Imprint, the content marketing partner who worked with Sands (and Volubility) on the project.

In addition to highlighting brand expertise, podcasts offer other benefits for marketers: Better metrics. Unlike simply purchasing advertising on podcasts, owned content means greater control over promotion, download numbers, impacts on web traffic and, importantly, conversions.

Tips for creating great asset management podcasts:

Tell your story in an accessible way. Popular financial podcasts are timed to be heard on an average 30-minute commute. Feature content on your website, but be sure to distribute widely so your audience can listen on their own time. 

Find your fund’s story. With thousands of mutual fund and ETF providers jostling for attention, professional production and a compelling topic make the difference between a podcast that gets a listener’s full attention, and one where users fall away after mere minutes.

Get specific. A podcast version of your firm’s annual investment outlook is fine (for your website), but to break through to a larger audience, get specific about strategies and even specific investment decisions. Smaller fund firms have an advantage since they’re often at the forefront of bringing new types of funds to market or debuting products for emerging asset classes. 

Compliance counts. Coordination with your firm’s compliance team is a must for all content, but carving out time to review podcasts and transcripts requires extra attention - especially if you’re planning a podcast series or regular market commentary. Another upside for smaller firms: a lower head count means your Chief Compliance Officer may be more willing to spend time on unique content rather than enforcing often stringent restrictions placed on larger firms. But it’s worth finding a podcasting partner who can provide high-quality transcripts for review in a timely fashion. 

Make it a routine. Even if managing compliance is extra work, regularly scheduled content is far and away the best way to grow a dedicated audience. A podcast describing your fund is good; a series exploring your strategy and how you make investing decisions is better. 

Use what you already have. Repurpose expert commentary, blog posts, or social media content for your podcast - but make sure you’re transforming it into the best possible script for audio, and that your recordings are top quality. (Volubility can help on both counts).

For more insights on how to create and execute a successful podcast, visit Volubility’s podcast production services page to learn more!