blog

Replicating the High Touch Model Online

By Lee Kowarski

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hosting a BrightTalk event to share some of the findings from kasina's recent Top 10 Web Sites for Financial Intermediaries report. Together with Devon McConnell of JPMorgan Asset Management and Paul O'Connell of Putnam Investments, we explored some of the themes shared amongst the "Top 10" sites, as well as specific best practices from JPMorgan and Putnam. The event, which is now available to be viewed at www.brighttalk.com/webcast/5347/36069, hit on a number of topics - to me, a few highlights were as follows:

• Personalization & Integration of Systems - Increasingly, online success requires a personalized experience where firms match the right content to the right advisor at the right time. Unfortunately, most asset managers and insurance companies are not able to tie online behavior to offline behavior or to sales results, meaning that the Web site operates as a silo within the organization. Leading firms have spent the past several years working to integrate systems and enable more targeted communications.
• "Lowering the Wall" - For years, advisor Web sites have put up "walls" in front of their content in the form of lengthy registration processes with little insight into what is behind the wall. Putnam is amongst the firms that have simplified this process by allowing advisors to preview the content on the firm's new advisor Web site and allowing a basic form of authentication using simply the advisor's e-mail address. Similarly, JPMorgan shared that their approach is increasingly to offer "glass walls" wherever authentication is required, making it easy for advisors to understand what they will be accessing.
• Freeing Content - While a firm's advisor Web site remains a critical piece of the overall digital strategy, firms such as JPMorgan and Putnam are recognizing the need to allow their content to be accessible across the Web. As with many of the "Top 10", both firms are making it easier for advisors to share content and are also posting their content across the Web (on iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SlideShare, etc...).

To learn more, you can download a sample of the Top 10 Web Sites for Financial Intermediaries report, watch the full BrightTalk event, or shoot us an e-mail at research@kasina.com.