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Innovative Marketing: What Can Asset Managers Learn from Retail Banks?

by Lindsay

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about the opportunities for using Web 2.0 concepts in the financial services industry, and I recently came across an interesting example. While it is not geared toward the asset management space, specifically, I think there are lessons to be learned from the recently launched Bank of America Small Business Online Community.

In developing this social network, Bank of America identified a subset of its client base, small business owners, whose members each face many of the same issues and challenges in their day-to-day lives, but are widely dispersed and lack a common forum for knowledge exchange. Capitalizing on this opportunity, Bank of America developed a social network that leverages the Web 2.0 concepts of blogs, message boards, and tagging to allow small business owners to communicate around various topics, share tips and success stories, ask each other questions, and comment on relevant articles written by experts. Bank of America's online community has gained popularity since its inception less than two months ago, and most posts on the site have a number of comments, "compliments," and tags.

While Bank of America does not explicitly solicit business anywhere on its site, the firm's logo is featured prominently on every page, suggesting that Bank of America offers services for small business owners, without compromising the site's objectivity. Clicking on the Bank of America logo brings a user directly to the Bank of America Small Business Services homepage, where the services offered are aligned with many of the topics being discussed by small business owners on the Online Community site.

I think this is a brilliant marketing move on Bank of America's part. The firm has created a free service that is truly useful and valuable for members of its target market. In addition, the firm gains insight into the way its clients and prospective clients are thinking about their businesses. Who will be the first asset manager to capitalize on the opportunity to set up a similar service for advisors, a group of geographically dispersed small business owners with similar interests? I'm interested to see...