Wealth management firms’ services are aimed at clients with a certain financial wealth, High Net Worth Individuals (Hnwi). Those High Net Worth Individuals rely on wealth management services to benefit from tailored advice, adapted to the present and future needs and requirements of personal and family.
Someone qualified as Hnwis has invested at least 1 million dollars or more in assets, excluding his/her main residence, collectible goods, consumer goods, and durable goods.
The wealth manager deals with the financial life of an individual at 360 °. It is a type of consultancy that combines financial advice with that of
- Investments,
- Accounting services,
- Retirement planning,
- Legal, tax, and real estate planning,
- Deepens the risk management activity on behalf of the client.
China’s wealth management market is the 3rd in the world
According to a report made by Yiren Wealth, the total amount of individual wealth in China has exceeded 146 trillion yuan ($21 trillion) in 2019, maintaining an average annual growth rate of 20 percent in the past decade.
This makes China the third-largest wealth management market in the world.
The report states that the total number of mass affluent in China has exceeded 30 million. These people mainly range from 30 to 55 years old, with more than half having received higher education.
The opportunities for wealth management firms in China are huge, with the condition to follow the right strategy. With money, reputation, legitimacy, and word of mouth are more important than ever.
Thankfully, with the rise of the Internet, wealth management firms now have more tools available to promote themselves at better prices. Digital marketing allows wealth management firms to reach more efficiently to high-net-worth clients via lead generation. Moreover, the usage of automated advisory services and data analytics platforms helps wealth managers cut back and to better target their marketing efforts.
The problem is that the wealth management sector has been reluctant to welcome progress in technology. Usually, investors prefer to interact face-to-face with their advisors and don’t trust automated services.
The solution is, therefore, a strong and reliable presence online combined with the tailored service of traditional wealth management firms.
The wealth management firm’s clients are affluent millennial investors
Clients of wealth management firms are mainly younger affluent of the so-called Generation Z, the generation following the Millennials, generally limited between the mid or late 1990s up to 2010 and Millennials. These kinds of clients don’t like meetings with advisors or complex investment strategies, instead, they prefer simple guidance across multiple online and mobile channels.
Firms recognize that consumers have moved much of their life online, spending a substantive portion of time using smartphone apps and browsing social media, and need to adjust their marketing efforts to enhance their presence in these areas.
Are you a foreign wealth management firm?
1. Your Wealth Management Firm must be visible on the Chinese internet
Chinese consumers usually investigate online when they are looking for information, which is particularly true for high-net individuals, therefore wealth management firms have to be visible in the Chinese market. As you may know, in China Google doesn’t work, Baidu is the way to go.
Baidu accounts for 70% of the research made on the Chinese internet. If someone is making research on Keyword you have been working on, there are chances that he will find you and check out who your company is.
To rank on Baidu, your website needs to:
- be translated into Chinese Mandarin,
- be hosted in China or near China, so that it will work efficiently,
- to contain localized content.
Baidu SEO is an essential step and a must-have. However, Baidu is really different from Google, if you want to know more, you can contact our agency GMA.
Your wealth management firm needs to build a strong e-reputation
There are several ways to increase your e-reputation and generate leads, you can choose one of them, but we recommend a multichannel strategy to create a strong and faster e-reputation.
Baidu SEO & Lead Generation for Wealth Management Firms
Why does your firm need search engine optimization on Baidu when social media are so prevalent in China? Put simply, individuals in China do not give up their trust easily, especially when money is involved.
Baidu is most of the time step number 1 when looking for information on a company in China. A quick Baidu helps netizens to determine if the brand or Wealth management firm in our case is legitimate and can be trusted.
Other than trust Baidu serves as a visibility channel. Let’s say I’m a High Net Worth Individual looking for someone to help me with my wealth, I have several options:
- Discuss with my network for recommendation
- Do research on my own.
In case number 2, I’m going to open Baidu and type assets management-related keywords in the search bar. If your firm rank on top and often enough then, the chances are high that I will start to investigate your company by typing your name in Baidu and checking your legitimacy. The more positive results I find about your firm, the higher the odds I’ll contact you.
And this is where ORM – Online Reputation Management – enters the game. Online Reputation Management is the art of controlling the content related to your company that ranks or not on search engines.
ORM uses SEO, Forums, PR, and Social media as its main tools to succeed in its tasks.
PR & forums to create word of mouth and brand credibility
In China, E-reputation is key to success. PR is a good way to build your credibility.
PR is one of the most cost-effective solutions there is out there. It is a basic of marketing where the right people talk about you.
PR is a marketing tool that excludes Paid ads. It consists of having an authority profile talking about your company. It can be media like newspapers or blogs.
PR has the advantage of lasting in time.
Zhihu is a great place to find advice for wealth management firms in China
The power of community and word of mouth in the middle kingdom is really big, that’s why it is important to be present in Zhihu.
Zhihu is a Chinese Q&A platform launched in 2011, it is similar in the west to Quora and Yahoo answers. Zhihu is only one out of many Q&A platforms but it seems to be one of the most trusted and reliable out there.
Not only being present on Baidu Zhihu will allow you to answer questions about your field and also educate your target audience about your brands/products. It helps to raise awareness about your brand.
On Zhihu Companies can develop:
- Q&A Campaigns (Answering questions, brands can establish a relationship with users and build their reputation this way. It allows them to promote themselves and introduce their products)
- KOL Endorsements enhance a brand’s image and reputation (brands can invite experts or key opinion leaders to answer questions for them. Answering questions on Zhihu allows them to showcase their expertise and connect with both industry experts and general users)
- Zhihu Live (it allows brands to conduct online presentations on specific topics. Brands can have opportunities to provide in-depth knowledge and communicate with users in a more direct way)
- In-Depth Articles (Brands can publish long-form content to gain credibility in their industry which is highly valued by people in that industry)
Use Social media to work on your wealth management Firm branding
Social media in China are the best place to work on your branding and storytelling. Chinese people use social media to chat with friends, buy products, look for information, be up to date, and learn how to use a new product.
Since they spend a lot of time on social media, wealth management firms should open their official accounts to interact with consumers posting news, articles, and so on.
Companies should use social media to:
- Raise brand awareness.
- Create engagement.
- Build communities.
- Teach how to use a product or service.
- Increase brand loyalty.
In China’s Finance Market, Wechat Marketing is a must
Although WeChat is not a great place to build a following, as a wealth management firm you can not do without it.
- A B2B company with no Wechat Official Account does not look Legit
- Wechat is a nurturing tool? Wechat Post with a service account is the best alternative to email marketing in China.
- Set up Menu and CRM on Wechat to answer quickly and conveniently any question a customer may have.
- Design a Wechat H5 Brochure to introduce your wealth management firm and services.
- Mini-program: an applet for your customer to access your services easily directly from Wechat
- Group chat marketing: Probably the best way to engage with your follower and to create a community that has an interest in Wealth Management and finance.
Data and personalization are essential to creating more engagement with high-net-worth millennial investors
Big data has already driven wide-scale change in the way businesses monitor consumer behaviors across multiple industries.
Wealth managers need to employ predictive, algorithmic analytics systems to assess the investment style, lifetime value, and risk tolerance of both existing and potential clients.
This big amount of data and the increasing sophistication of modern computing has made possible the rise of digital wealth managers, or so-called ‘robot-advisors’, online platforms that provide automated financial and portfolio management advice to consumers online.
Are you a wealth management firm that wants to enter the Chinese market? Contact us, we have solutions for you!
Gentlemen Marketing Agency is a digital marketing agency that is an expert in helping foreign companies to establish or strengthen their position in China. We can help your brand establish itself in China, thanks to our services like:
- Advertising
- Baidu SEO&SEM
- Social Media
- PR
- KOL & Influencers
- E-commerce and cross-border e-commerce
- Distribution