Category Archives: Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

How PPC Content Advertising Might Aid In The Online Battle For Roth IRA Conversions

It doesn’t happen often but sometimes the Universe helps with the blog-writing.

All week I’ve vacillated between two disparate topics: the Roth IRA Conversion Centers that are appearing on asset managers’ Web sites and pay-per-click (PPC) content advertising. Thanks to the Universe for showing a way to address both topics in a single (OK, little long) post.

When there’s a change requiring investor education and a deadline to take action—as is the case with the change in the IRA tax law enabling taxpayers to spread the taxes related to a 2010 IRA-to-Roth-IRA conversion over two years—this is an opportunity for asset management marketers to use marketing to raise assets.
RothIRAConversionGoogleSearchInsightsImage


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2010 Predictions For Mutual Fund/ETF Digital Marketing

In addition to tracking marketing predictions (see our 2010 Marketing Predictions, Part 1 post for a round-up and see this article for 100 more), we’ve been keeping an eye on business predictions for 2010. And, the short version is that asset-gathering isn’t going to be any easier.

RockTheBoatMarketing2010DigitalMarketingPredictionsImageIf you’re a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) marketer, you can expect competition to heat up as your marketing counterparts do what they can to encourage investors to return to equity funds, evaluate their Roth IRA conversion prospects and use new, improved tools and expert advice for investment portfolio-building and re-building.


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Blue, Blue, Our World Is (Mostly) Blue: Recent Asset Manager Web Site Redesigns

July brought new looks (and some information re-design) to several asset management Web sites, including:

Besides a fondness for blue (good for you, RidgeWorth, for daring to use a red!), the publicly accessible areas of the new sites have some features in common—multiple searches/sorts, quick links, RSS subscriptions. With their Most Popular capabilities, MainStay and RidgeWorth take navigation a bit further by offering visitors the benefit of what previous visitors valued. You’ll want to check each site out yourself.


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Attn IRA Marketers: Search Trends Indicate Pent-up Demand

I turned to Google Trends today just to satisfy a curiosity, but the trends data makes me wonder about the opportunity ahead for IRA marketers.

U.S. searches for IRAs

Based on the data filtered for the U.S. only, searches for the term “IRAs” are well off their historical pattern. As you can see, interest in IRAs in the previous four years began to climb toward the end of the fourth quarter and peaked the next spring, just before April 15.

But at the end of 2008, interest in IRAs as a term was still muted.


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Keyword Density Checker Does Double Duty as Reality Checker

It was published years ago, but the book How to Read a Person Like a Book and underlying concept of body language has found a home in at least one high school I know of. What’s being taught is that nonverbal cues can be a shortcut in understanding a person’s motivation. At least that’s what I assumed until my niece Meg corrected me. “No, I told you about that when I was taking Speech class. We studied it as a way to communicate to an audience,” said Meg, who always knows better—and in this case her explanation fits better, too.


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The CEO’s Influence on Digital Marketing Strategy

The CEO ranks second only to Marketing as an influencer on digital marketing strategy in financial services. That’s according to the recently released Digital Marketing in Financial Services study produced by MarketBridge, a global professional services firm focused on sales and marketing effectiveness, and Source Media, which provides authoritative information, analysis and insight for the financial services, investment, insurance, accounting and related technology industries.

Internal Influence on Digital Marketing StrategySource: Digital Marketing in Financial Services, 2008

The survey was conducted in the third quarter of 2008. A total of 237 respondents representing a mix of executive management (38%), marketing (35%) and sales (17%) answered questions on digital marketing and budgeting; usage of digital marketing channels; analytics; resources; and attitudes and beliefs about digital marketing.


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