Facts Tell, Stories Sell! How to Create a True Investment Story that Sells

Storytelling is a powerful currency in the digital marketing space as humans are often drawn to narratives. A recent article by Institutional Investor highlights that when searching for managers, investors are more interested in managers’ stories than they are in the track records.

According to the article, while conventional wisdom posits that investors will first look at data and other performance indicators such as ratio and databases, new research shows that investors look at qualitative factors such as the description of a manager’s investment process and objectives before diving into performances.

So, what constitutes a good investment company’s story and how can you go about creating one for your firm? In this article, we take a brief look at some storytelling techniques and how you can utilize them to create a story that sells.

Knowing Your Audience Is Crucial
In a bid to raise capital from anybody, most investment managers forget that the starting point of good marketing is specificity. Defining your audience and having a clear targeting option(s) are crucial storytelling techniques. And they are important in creating a great investment story too.

If you want to succeed with storytelling, you should start by creating a detailed, data-driven customer avatar (client persona). Who is your ideal audience? Who do you want to appeal to? What is their income level? What are they interested in?

Answering these questions will help you create a story that resonates with your target audience. 

Your Message and USP Should Align With Your Audience
Now that you have a clear idea of who your target audience is, the next step will be to define your core message. Your message should be a fusion of your unique selling point and the opportunity you are offering. Remember that investors are interested in two things: 1. how your story aligns with their belief. 2. how you can make them  returns

So, don’t just state numbers and past performances, create a story that would appeal to their interests and emotions.

The second step in creating your message involves highlighting the opportunity you are offering, how your firm is different from the rest, and how you can make them money. Here you can talk figures, expertise, and performances but don’t forget that every investment marketing story out there is focused on those factors.

So, your message should be as concise as possible. But above all, it should be delivered in a manner that reassures investors that you care about their interests as much as you care about the figures.

You may also be interested in this article: How To Successfully Market Your Investment Fund

Choose Storytelling Techniques That Will Best Convey Your Message
The storytelling techniques to adopt depends on the goal you want to achieve. But more importantly, it depends on your target audience.  Are you looking to appeal to millennials or the older generation? Are you looking to sell an investment product/solution? Or maybe you are looking to raise capital. It all depends.

However, here are a few storytelling techniques that work well for investment funds:

Educative: This is important when launching a new investment solution or introducing a new product that your audience are oblivious of. In this case, you can create a story highlighting the features of an existing investment solution and how the new one guarantees better returns or safety of capital.

Emotional: Share your company’s story. Highlight how it has evolved over the years. The struggles, change in leadership, wins, and future projections. Investors like any other group appreciate authenticity and human factor in marketing.

Incite action: This is a wonderful push marketing technique in which you want to tell a story that compels your audience to take actions. Social proofs such as testimonials are great for creating investment fund stories that incite actions from viewers.

In this case, the story could focus on the testifier’s struggles, and how he or she overcame the struggles with the help of your firm’s expertise. It is a strategy that is as old as marketing and it still as effective as it was several years ago.

Conclusion
With the advent of the internet, most investors have learned to look beyond performances when looking for investment managers.

Storytelling is a good way to highlight your company’s expertise in a manner that appeals to the interests of investors other than figures – emotions.

At Be Unique, our team of digital marketing consultants specializing in creating marketing strategies for investment consultants can help you plan and execute an investment story that will resonate with your target audience. Feel free to contact us if you need help with your marketing.