By Nina Eisenman and Jeff Briskin

April 2, 2013

Faced with products that are constantly falling in and out of favor, fund companies find it increasingly challenging to gain advisors’ loyalty. New research from Advisor Perspectives shows that offering outstanding online research and due-diligence capabilities is key for fund companies that wish to win the competitive battle for the time and attention of financial advisors.

Fund company websites are the third most common source of fund-related information used by advisors, the research shows, and the quality of a fund company’s online capabilities plays an important role in advisors’ decisions to use a company’s products. And while tablets and smartphones haven’t yet replaced PCs as the computing platform of choice, more than half of advisors use these devices at least once a month to access fund-site data.

These findings are based on the results of an online survey conducted by Advisor Perspectives in January 2013. A total of 282 investment advisers, registered representatives, financial planners and insurance agents responded.

’Online’ is as important as ’in-person’

Only about a decade ago, advisors relied primarily on fund wholesalers to provide in-depth information on funds, and most of this information was only available in printed form. This is no longer the case.

Survey respondents reported that independent research sites like Morningstar and interactions with fund wholesalers are their most common source of fund-related information, but fund websites are a close third. Advisors are far more likely to use these sites than respond to emails from fund companies or solicit opinions from other advisors.

There is a correlation between the resources advisors use and the level of assets they manage.

Advisors who manage larger pools of assets tend to rely more on wholesalers than fund sites, while the reverse is true for advisors with fewer assets under management. This is understandable, because wholesalers tend to focus their efforts on cultivating and serving the top advisors at larger firms. Those who aren’t considered ‘top-tier advisors generally don’t have the same level of access to wholesalers and rely more on their own efforts to find fund-related information.

Fund sites are critical research tools

Nearly all advisors rely on fund company sites to aid in their research and evaluation efforts.

On the whole, more than half get at least 25% of their due-diligence information from fund sites. Nearly one in four rely on these sites for more than 50% of this data.

The more money an advisor manages, the more he or she uses fund sites for research purposes.

Those who manage $100 million or more in assets utilize these sites for a greater percentage of their due-diligence information than those with smaller pools of assets. This may be because top-tier advisors use a broader range of funds and fund families and are expected to deliver a higher level of performance analytics to their clients.

Focused on fund facts

Advisors tend to use mutual fund websites primarily to access core-level data on performance, holdings and risk metrics on funds they are using or considering recommending for their clients. Most also use these sites to download prospectuses, fact sheets and fund manager commentaries.

The advisor-only areas of many fund sites offer content, interactive presentations and videos related to practice management and client acquisition. However, relatively few advisors avail themselves of these resources.

Fund company sites lag in mobile usage

Many industry prognosticators predict that mobile devices will soon surpass PCs as the primary means for accessing the web. While advisors are a ways behind this curve, more than half use these devices to get information from fund companies.

Although 45% of survey respondents said they never use mobile devices for this purpose, 36% of respondents access fund information from these devices at least once a week.

Tablets preferred

Advisors use mobile devices for the same kinds of research-driven tasks as PCs.

These devices are used most often for getting updated prices and conducting research on funds. For everything except quick-hit tasks like getting price quotes, mobile users prefer tablets over smartphones. Advisors with tablets are also more likely to use tablets to view multimedia content, use investment tools and conduct client presentations. Given their advantages of larger screens and easier navigation. iPads and their brethren are likely to become the predominant mobile platform for advisors who wish to conduct business outside the office.

Are fund sites meeting advisors’ expectations?

Fund companies have spent billions to improve the breadth, accessibility and timeliness of their online information. Indeed, accessing fund companies’ websites is so integral to advisors’ routines that advisors evaluate website quality when deciding whether to add a fund family’s products to their investment lineups.

Well over half of respondents stated that a fund company’s online capabilities contribute to their overall impression of the company. Nearly 10% won’t deal with any company that doesn’t offer a superior online experience.

Yet, in spite of the vast improvements fund companies have made, very few companies stand out as being the best. Of the top 20 largest mutual fund companies*, only nine were singled out by more than 10% of advisors as offering superior website capabilities. Mobile users were even less impressed: Just six companies received more than 10% of advisors’ votes.

This is an important wake-up call for fund companies. In an era where it’s increasingly difficult for funds to outperform the market consistently, advisors are relying on a broader set of criteria to determine which funds and fund families earn spots on their recommendation lists. For many advisors, online capabilities are an important benchmark.

Fund companies can’t control how advisors think about their products, but they can influence advisors’ perceptions of their online presence. Improving these capabilities is an investment that fund companies can’t afford to miss.

*Source: InvestmentNews, The 100 Largest Mutual Fund Families.

Nina Eisenman is president of Eisenman Associates, a graphic and website design firm specializing in branding and marketing communications for investment companies. Jeff Briskin is director of marketing for Advisor Perspectives and president of Briskin Consulting, a strategic marketing and creative services firm catering to investment companies and financial advisors.

Mutual Fund Website Calls to Action.

A potential investor or financial professional has found their way to your  website. Congratulations! Now what? The visitor briefly peruses your site, skimming your content to see if there’s anything of interest, checking out your performance data, manager bios maybe even downloading a fund fact sheet. Maybe they’re ready to invest or perhaps they’re simply collecting information and not ready to take the plunge, at least not yet. Either way, without effective calls to action (CTAs) you may never know.

What are CTAs?

CTA’s are invitations for your website visitors to provide information about themselves or take a specific action. Typical CTAs include “Register Now”, “Sign Up for Our Newsletter” and “Open an Account”. CTAs convert anonymous website visitors into actionable leads. Once the leads are in your sales funnel your sales team has a chance to convert them into prospects and eventually into investors and clients.

Traffic vs Conversions—Turning Numbers into Names

“How many hits is our website getting?” You’ve heard this question before. Tracking the number of unique visitors to your website is a good gauge of your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy’s performance but it doesn’t provide any specific information about who your site visitors are. The more useful question from a lead generation point of view is “who is visiting my website and how can I convert them from a visitor into an investor?” CTAs answer that question. CTAs allow you to collect specific information from your website visitors so that you can keep in touch, follow up and, if the fit is right, eventually convert them from a prospect into an investor or advocate.

“Contact Us” is not a Call to Action

If your “Contact Us” link is the closest thing your site has to a CTA then you’re wasting an opportunity to connect with, and convert, potential investors. Of course your home page should have an easy to find “Contact Us’ link but the ubiquitous “Contact Us” can be too much too soon for prospects who are still just collecting information and don’t want to be contacted by a sales person. Calls to action, (CTAs), on the other hand, cordially invite your website visitors to provide a palatable amount of personal information, such as their email address, in exchange for something that is of interest to them. That something may be your portfolio managers’ quarterly updates, a newsletter, a webinar or the ability to open an account online.

A CTA for Every Buying Stage

Each visitor to your mutual fund website will be at a certain stage of the buying cycle—anywhere from early stage prospects who are simply collecting information about a variety of funds to later stage prospects who have done their homework and are ready to invest. You can easily tailor CTAs to appeal to prospects at each stage.
Site visitors in early stages of the buying cycle are evaluating and collecting information. For these prospects, offering a very simple “keep informed” CTA is the way to go. Seafarer Funds, a small, employee-owned firm nails it with a callout box entitled “Stay Updated. Sign up for news and commentaries” The only personal information they ask for is the visitor’s email address and name along with a checkbox where the visitor can indicate if they are an investment professional. Visitors who sign up are added to Seafarer’s email distribution list and receive information that they want. Seafarer gets to stay in touch with someone who may one day invest in their funds. The familiarity and trust that is built over time by “staying in touch” could make all the difference when the prospect is ready to select a fund.

Keep It Simple

Asking for too much information at too early a stage in the buying cycle is a sure turn off. It’s best to limit early buying stage CTAs to three or four pieces of information; first name, last name, email address and, if required for compliance reasons, zip code or country.

Coffee is for Closers

Prospects in later buying stages are looking for reassurance and efficiency. If it is possible for potential investors to open an account online then an “Open and Account” CTA is a must. Tilson Mutual Funds makes it crystal clear to visitors with a large callout box with the headline “Invest Now” followed by ‘Did you know that you can now open and manage your account online? Click here or on the “My Account” button on the left to get started.” They make signing up easy and efficient for visitors that have already made the decision to invest.

Matthews Asia does a nice job of offering CTAs for visitors at both the early and late stages of the buying cycle. The side navigation on every page of their site includes two links: “Stay Updated…Email Sign Up” for early stage and “Open an Account” for late stage buyers.

Marketing Automation and CRM Integration

As your website CTAs generate more and more leads, linking them to a CRM (customer relationship management) platform like Salesforce will streamline the process of keeping track of them. When your site starts to generate more leads than you can follow up with manually you should consider integrating marketing automation software such as Act-On. As the name implies, marketing automation software automates the process of following up with the leads through systems such as personalized email distribution.

Adding CTAs to Your Mutual Fund Website

So remember, when it comes to adding CTAs to your mutual fund website offer CTAs for various stages of the buying cycle, keep them simple, don’t ask for too much information and once the leads start flowing in streamline follow up with a CRM and marketing automation software. As always, if you have any questions, just “Contact Us”!

How important are colors in the development of your mutual fund website? With the exception of the navigation, it is one of the first things an end-user will notice when visiting your site. It is the use of colors that will invoke a visitor’s emotion, so with that in mind, the most important step in choosing your investment firm’s corporate color palette starts with knowing what message you want your website to convey.

It may seem like a simple process, but colors do not always represent what we might think. The mind’s ability to translate color into emotion is controlled by many things including usage, demographics and geographic settings of each individual you are reaching. Considering websites are obtainable on a global basis, this can accountant for a vast array of translations. So where should the color picking process begin? If you already have established corporate colors, your job is done.

Staying within your investment firm’s corporate palette will assure reinforced branding efforts across your campaign platforms. However, if you do not have established branding, it is best to start with colors that you like, combined with a proven color representation of your funds holdings.

Although there are exceptions to every rule, there are basic psychological guidelines for various colors. In an effort to maximize color theory practices for the diversity of mutual fund websites, here are some proven observations about the emotional connections certain colors translate for us:

Brown – most commonly associated with hearth and home, substance and stability

Blue – represents dependability, serenity and is perceived as a constant in our lives

Green – usually associated with refreshing, healing and freshness

Purple – seen as sensual, elegant and mysterious

Yellow – represents warm, cheerful and luminous

Orange – known for being friendly, vital and tangy

Pink – associated with being happy, sweet and spirited

Red – represents stimulating, exciting and provocative

Black – represents strong, classic and elegant

White – associated with purity, innocence and simplicity. White is also the most commonly used background color for web development because it is the best setting for color matching.

Do the color associations above mean that using purple for a financial site is a bad idea? Not necessarily. It is more about how color is actually being used, combined with its psychological representation, that actually dictates its emotional tie. Successful designs usually incorporate a three-color combination to help trigger a viewer’s responses. This color combination should be represented by a dominant color, a subordinate color and an accent color. While purple may not be the best psychological trigger for a financial website design, it could be an excellent supporting color depending on what type of holdings your funds are being represented by.

Another little-known fact is that memory retention studies tell us that 78 percent of people are more likely to remember a word or phrase represented by color as opposed to black and white. So one way of building a memorable text-based logo presence is to add color to it. Also, by highlighting links and/or strong words that represent your company’s principals in your logo color can trigger a direct association between the two. So it is not just the colors that are important, but it is also the use and placement of those colors which will maximize an end-users connection to your business and their needs.

The most important thing to know about color is that it is a part of the design process and, like any part of a creative initiative, it is going to be subjective. It’s important not to be swayed too much by your own personal color preference. An understanding of how color effects people’s emotions, and how to incorporate that knowledge into a financial website design can mean the difference between a website that reflects your brand position and one that tells a story you didn’t mean to tell. Ultimately, a website that accurately conveys the essence of your firm and your funds to visitors can go a long way towards converting those visitors into investors.

For years, mutual funds have traditionally been sold to registered investment advisers (RIAs), financial advisors and planners through a national sales force comprised of individual wholesalers. These wholesalers were either employed directly by a fund company or worked independently to represent a variety of funds, often in a specific geographical area.

But the prohibitive costs of starting a national wholesaler network, combined with changes in the RIA business has made it more difficult for smaller fund companies to even consider starting and maintaining any type of national sales force.  The challenge and uncertainty of these significant start-up costs has largely excluded hundreds of small mutual fund companies, which have exemplary performance records, interesting investment strategies and talented personnel, from gaining a national human sales presence.  This presents a disservice to RIAs looking for funds with solid track records and fresh strategies, and ultimately a disservice to end investors.

Since the 2008 financial market meltdown, “the ‘good old days’ of traditional mutual fund distribution” have quickly been coming to an end, according to Frank Polefrone, senior vice president of Access Data (http://www.mmexecutive.com/issues/2009_5/189740-1.html). “With assets bleeding and profit margins squeezed, mutual fund sales managers are now faced with budget constraints that make it virtually impossible to sustain the expensive distribution model of the past.”

In his article*, Polefrone noted that while fund distribut

ors are working to cut their distribution costs, “the ground beneath the traditional distribution channels is shifting. The most powerful distributors of mutual funds have either been acquired or absorbed into a handful of large broker/dealers and banks. Even if a wire house broker/dealer has remained intact, many top producers with established accounts are moving to competing wire houses, or leaving to form their own independent advisory business with an independent B/D or custodian supporting RIAs.”

A 2011 study by Tiburon Strategic Advisors found that the independent advisor channel has grown significantly and faster than any other channel, including institutional.  Fee-only financial advisors (RIAs) have grown at 18% per year for the past 12 years.  Independent reps are now growing faster than any other distribution channel and now control about 32% of th

e market and manage about $1 trillion, according to Tiburon CEO Chip Roame.

Limitations of the National Wholesaler Model

Selling mutual funds using a national wholesaler network is not only expensive, but it is increasingly becoming more ineffective.  The reason is that RIAs, planners and brokers often have more detailed access to any fund company’s component fund data before any fund company’s wholesaler even enters their office.  Devoting time to meeting with wholesalers is often considered redundant unless the wholesaler has some powerful investment or market insights which are not evident from the data.

Unfortunately, many RIAs say this is rare.  It may

also explain why many wholesaler meetings often last about 30 minutes or less.  To gain more face-time with RIAs, fund wholesalers have resorted to hosting espresso carts in RIA offices, along with the traditional approach of offering meals, outings to sporting events, wine tastings and presentations.

This is an expensive way to sell mutual funds, but it only tells part of the story. National mutual fund companies’ sales forces are comprised of a formalized system of national and regional managers, supplemented by internal desk-bound wholesalers, all of whom are buttressed by sales support personnel, including key account and project managers.  One fund exec

utive estimated that it cost his company $1 million annually in salary, bonuses and expense reimbursements to keep a large-fund company wholesaler on the road in the Northeast U.S.  This expense is prohibitive to most small fund companies.

It also will become more expensive as the trend continues towards more advisers going independent.  This will mean more dispersed office visits, often with fewer registered reps at a single office.

Enter the Hybrid or Virtual Wholesaler

With the steady industry trend of more advisers going independent, accompanied by rising travel and entertainment expenses, more fund companies have raised questions about the viability of maintaining their traditional fund company’ national wholesaler sales force.  This has not gone unnoticed by some in the fund industry who have advocated for hybrid or virtual wholesalers.

Due to technology and the changing needs of the advisers, there will be fewer external wholesalers on the road, and those that are out there will not be making as much money as they did in the past. This will change the wholesaler ranks, consultants say.

Wholesalers will need more sophisticated skill sets. The job will become more technical.  Wholesalers will have to not only become good relationship managers but well versed in portfolio management.  This may require that fund companies hire wholesalers that have a CFA designation or other credentials to show they know various investment processes.

According to a June 2011 study, “Excellence in Distribution: Hybrid Wholesaling,” by Kasina, an asset management consulting firm, mutual fund companies with wholesaler sales forces that do not use hybrid wholesalers “miss a critical opportunity to pursue additional business opportunities affordably and profitably.”

The Kasina study found that hybrid wholesalers were “knowledgeable about products and competitors, skilled at selling and providing service over the phone—at half the cost of counterparts in the field—the hybrid wholesaler is an untapped resource at 42% of firms.”

Since the use of hybrid wholesalers varies widely at different fund companies, the study found that most hybrid wholesalers worked from the firm’s main or satellite office; communicated primarily via phone and computer; sold to and serviced advisers; travelled up to 70% of the time; and, earned 40% of the average field wholesaler’s compensation. 

These are impressive figures, especially for small fund companies with limited personnel, budgets and time.

The core of any hybrid or virtual wholesaler system is the use of readily available technology offered by a mutual fund company’s own website. Small to mid-sized fund companies that have hybrid wholesales can use the broad distribution reach of their websites to present the benefits and accomplishments of their funds to RIAs nationwide, while their hybrid wholesalers:

• Work from the firm’s main or satellite office;
• Communicate primarily via phone and computer;
• Sell to and service advisors nationwide;
• Earn 40% of the average field wholesaler’s compensation.

From Hybrid Wholesaler to Virtual Wholesaler

Smaller fund companies that can’t afford an in-house hybrid wholesaler may rely entirely on the website to do their selling for them. With a good website they can still:

• Develop and present customized comparisons of their funds against other competing ones;
• Highlight new fund, manager, and performance achievements;
• Maintain total content and editorial control over their message distribution, timing and audiences.

With a content-rich, up-to-date website more RIAs can learn about a fund company directly from the source.  When there is direct communication with the home office, RIAs feel more confident about the company’s funds, performance, personnel, and philosophy and investment strategy.

Changing Distribution Channels; An Opportunity for Small Fund Companies

Changes in the way investment products are sold are disruptive, but those changes also present opportunities for small- to mid-sized fund companies. With significant pressures on the existing in-person national wholesaler system in terms of its costs, knowledge base and time management the time is ripe for the “fund website as virtual wholesaler”.

Smaller fund companies can gain the same online visibility as larger companies by increasing the quality of content, usability and features of their websites. Google and other search engines don’t care about the size of the company that publishes a website, they only care about the quality of a site’s content. Higher quality content means better search engine rankings which translates into more site visitors.

Content-rich websites offer smaller, overlooked fund companies a national RIA audience, and position them alongside other large fund companies, which have spent millions of dollars to develop their own sites.

To be a powerful marketing tool and reach as wide an audience as possible, a fund company’s website should contain a complete array of the company’s fund performance data, downloadable sales materials, and portfolio manager commentaries and videos.

Small to mid-sized fund companies typically have limited resources available to maintain their websites. To realistically keep content fresh and up-to-date the website must be easily maintained by a single, internal website administrator. The website should have a content management system that facilitates:

• Collecting content from a variety of contributors;
• Getting content approved by compliance;
• Posting the content to the website;
• Automatic record keeping of any site changes or additions made to the site for future reference.

Websites that provide independent fund companies with security, easy-to-use content management systems, total editorial and data presentation control, and fully-compliant recordkeeping systems, provide a national sales platform to the growing audience of RIAs looking for new investment solutions for their varied clientele.  A content rich, easy-to-maintain “virtual wholesaler” website may be the most cost-effective way for small to mid-sized fund companies to reach a national RIA audience and share their investment strategy with RIAs nationwide.

*“The New Mutual Fund Distribution Model: Doing More with Less,” Frank Polefrone, Access Data, Money Management Executive, Feb. 2, 2009.

Q. What are the most significant compliance-related changes when an RIA adds content about a mutual fund to its website?

A. This is often the first time that many RIAs have a relationship with a broker-dealer, which they need for fund distribution, says Grant. This leads to scrutiny by FINRA, who requires that mutual fund website content be filed with them. FINRA is more hands-on than the SEC, which only reviews advertising in connection with its examinations of the RIA, fund or broker-dealer.

FINRA requires pre-filing of advertising for the first year a firm falls under FINRA oversight, says Grant. After the year is up, you must file within 10 days after use and fix any problems within 30 days or less, depending on the severity of the problem identified by FINRA. Widolff suggests you may be able to avoid pre-filing during that first year if you partner with a broker-dealer that has established a relationship with FINRA. The broker-dealer will review your materials and file them with FINRA.

In some ways, the compliance burden doesn’t really increase—aside from the filing process—because FINRA’s standards are similar to the SEC’s, says Widolff. “FINRA’s rules seem much lengthier, but actually they are more clarified. With the SEC, there’s a ton of gray areas and not a lot of guidance.” FINRA’s clearer rules, combined with the filing requirement, actually offer the RIA some protection. Grant agrees, saying, “Often I will ask that many of the more specific FINRA requirements be met, even on a stand-alone RIA website.” However, the SEC doesn’t explicitly require meeting these requirements.

Q. What are the most important compliance guidelines to keep in mind when developing content for a mutual fund website?

A. “Just because another firm is doing something doesn’t make it right,” says Widolff. Also, mutual fund website administrators should familiarize themselves with the disclosures triggered by certain types of language or information, especially discussion of fund rankings, ratings, and performance. “The chattier they get with the nitty gritty details about ranking, rating, and performance, the longer their disclosure paragraphs will be.” These are also areas where FINRA requires that the disclosure be in close proximity and of equal prominence,” says Widolff.

Grant says marketers can’t limit their discussion to return periods or investments that make their funds look good (commonly called ‘cherry-picking’). Once performance is mentioned, there are standard periods for which you must disclose returns. Also, marketers must distinguish between opinions and facts. Individual investors are often looking for expert opinions when they read market commentary – but it’s important to make it clear that it is opinion and not a statement of fact.

Q. What other disclosure or compliance requirements should mutual fund companies consider when developing their website content?

A. You can’t simply throw up a link to any article mentioning your fund. “If you provide a link on your website directly to another site, FINRA can determine that you are responsible for the content on the website that you have linked to,” says Widolff. Instead, you should obtain copyright permission for an electronic reprint of the article to put on your website. Widolff’s firm deals with disclosure requirements about outside links by providing links to the authorized electronic reprint and the appropriate disclosures on the same page.  Another way to limit your liability when you want to provide a link, adds Grant, is to have an intermediate page when the link is clicked on, which states that the reader is leaving your site. The language should also indicate that the RIA takes no responsibility for that other site or any of its contents. As an example, the SEC states in these circumstances that “The SEC does not endorse this website, its sponsor, or any of the policies, activities, products, or services offered on the site or by any advertiser on the site.”

Q. Are compliance requirements different for password-protected sections of mutual fund websites that offer content intended for institutional investors or financial professionals only?

A. In general, the same standards apply. However, FINRA categorizes password-protected sites as sales literature, rather than as advertising. So depending on the nature of your content, you may not need to file it with FINRA after it passes an internal review. However, FINRA specifically states that certain kinds of content must be filed prior to first use; this includes any sales literature that includes a performance ranking. Your compliance staff can help you determine what kinds of sales literature should be filed. FINRA members’ communications distributed to institutional customers and all correspondence must comply with Rule 2211, the content standards of Rule 2210(d)(1), and the applicable Interpretive Materials under 2210.

Q. How can mutual fund companies speed up the compliance process for their website content?

A. “Include the compliance person early on,” suggests Grant. If you want to roll out a website on January 1, don’t wait until December 15 to first run it by compliance. Your compliance professionals can highlight issues, perhaps even suggest workarounds and advise you about lead time for FINRA filings.  Even though compliance personnel may ask for changes, Grant notes, they are always easier to resolve in a productive way when there is sufficient time. The same is true for FINRA changes.

Sticking close to language in the prospectus when appropriate can also help. “The compliance people, the lawyers, will tell the website administrator or editor or whoever is writing the copy to stick very close to that. That’s a good thing  for the RIA’s business or marketing people, because prospectus language will rarely incur any comment,” says Grant.

Q. How can fund marketers incorporate time-sensitive social media?

A. For fast turnaround, Grant suggests that firms dedicate one or more compliance professionals to social media. “I certainly would not suggest having anything go out without any compliance review,” says Grant.

Widolff says that tweets and similar forms of social media fall under the same FINRA regulatory category as correspondence, so they don’t need to be preapproved by FINRA. However, if you link to static (non-interactive) content, preapproval is necessary. In any case, social media content does need to be archived—in hard copy or electronically—just like any other content that goes up on a fund website. There are third-party vendors, including some that specifically target financial services firms that offer automated electronic archiving of social media.

Q. How does complying with FINRA regulations benefit fund companies?

A. “A lot of what FINRA requires, to a mutual fund marketer and to a business person, seems very limiting and onerous,” says Grant. “But it’s amazing how much assistance it offers. Of course I’m looking at this as a compliance person and a lawyer, but a lot of it is just simply good business sense to reduce the risks of client miscommunication and regulatory negative reaction.”

Adding valuable and timely content to your mutual fund website can help generate more new investors faster.

Why Add More Website Content? You’ll See More Traffic and More Investors

Adding valuable website content can:

1. Improve your visibility on search engines.  In general, more useful content on your website gives you more opportunities for your website pages to be listed in a search engine’s “organic” (non-paid) search results. The more visible your mutual fund website, the more traffic you’re likely to receive.For example, by creating content focused on “value investors,” that content may appear on a search engine as a result of a search on that term – and drive new investors to your website.
2. Drive more in-coming links to your website. By posting useful content, you increase the chances that blogs, analysts, financial media and other financial websites may find your content so useful they include a link to it on their website.  Incoming links from reputable websites can help improve your website’s visibility in the organic search listings – and also help drive more direct traffic from those links.
3. Attract a wider pool of potential investors. More content gives you more opportunities – and more topics – to attract attention and pique the interest of a wider array of investors.
4. Boost the percentage of website visitors that become new investors. Delivering quality content can help engage your visitors and motivate them to take action. More useful content helps answer investor questions, concerns, and objections. Potential investors feel more confident in their decision to invest. And so when you leave no unanswered questions in your potential investors’ minds, you increase the probability of them taking the next step to becoming investors.
5. Help investors find the right fund for their investment objectives. Content about a fund’s strategy can help investors see how the particular fund can be a good fit for their current portfolio. A “Market Insights” discussion of how the fund’s strategy fits in the current market conditions can really help investors feel comfortable with the fund – and motivate them to take action.
6. Increase sales to existing customers. More useful website content also improves your ability to sell more to your existing customers – and to retain them as investors.

So not only can additional content drive more traffic to your website, it can also help convert more visitors to investors, retain investors, and expand your existing relationships.

What Types of Content Should a Mutual Fund Website Add?

Performance Figures:

On Vanguard’s personal investor site, the snapshots for each mutual fund show SEC yield, YTD, 1 year, 5 year, 10 year, and Since Inception performance — updated continuously. You can even choose month-end or quarter-end figures.

Click the Fund Profile for current day’s NAV, average annual performance chart (or table), growth chart over last 10 years, month-end portfolio composition and 10 largest holdings.

For each fund, you can click “buy” — but you can also select “watch” or “compare,” two great online tools to consider adding to your mutual fund website.

Fund Documents and Account Application:

When you choose any mutual fund on Franklin Templeton’s website, a right column bar appears on every page of the fund’s information — offering a PDF of the Fund Fact Sheet, Prospectus, Annual Report, and Account Application.

The site also offers an “Investor Education” section, with a page of “Tools and Calculators” for retirement, college, and personal finance.

When you’ve engaged a visitor with your great content, be sure they can easily take the next step before leaving your website.

Portfolio Manager Insights:

There’s no better way to give prospects and current investors a deeper understanding of each fund/fund manager’s investment philosophy than to provide regularly updated content directly from the Portfolio Manager.On the Oppenheimer Funds website, each fund features a “Fund Commentaries” tab with archived discussions from the Portfolio Manager by month. The “Planning & Research” tab features a multimedia selection — where you’ll find links to a selection of video segments and television appearances.

The home page features Global Tracker, Oppenheimer’s mobile app, for investment philosophy on the go.

It’s this type of in-depth insight into a Portfolio Manager’s thinking that can really attract new investors to your funds.

Produce Content in Different Formats

Different investors prefer different content formats. Generation X (generally those in their 30s and 40s) is the “video” generation – the largest consumers of online video. Many Baby Boomers (those in their 50s and 60s) and Seniors are readers. The more varied the formats you use, the wider audience you’ll likely attract.

By considering formats other than an article on a web page, you can also make your content more interesting. What if you took that text and turned it into a checklist or a worksheet? How about a comparison chart? Do your investors access your website on a mobile device? You might consider a mobile app.

Once you create an article, why not maximize the time you spent creating it – by re-purposing that same content into a video, or series of videos. Or maybe your investors would enjoy podcasts (great for mobile devices!).  Consider ways to re-use, re-purpose, expand, or take apart your content to extend its use and value.

As you create new website content, be sure to mention and include a link to it in your e-newsletters. In this way, content you originally create for online purposes can become e-newsletter content as well.

Content as Track-able Offers

You may want to consider creating special content that is accessible only by completing a form. If you can capture the prospect’s email or direct mail address via an online form, you can then market to those leads over time.

Your Content Can be Promoted on Social Media

When you develop interesting pieces of content such as a new video, it gives you a great topic to talk about on Twitter or Facebook. The more interesting your content, the more likely it is to be shared – to help you reach even more prospective investors.

The bottom line: Content can generate more traffic, more leads, and more conversions to investors. If you’re a smaller mutual fund company, adding more online content can help you more effectively compete with mutual fund companies of any size.