Split ‘em up to serve ‘em best. That’s the latest finding from the Cerulli Associates, the Boston-based global analytics firm.
It reports that retirement planning and wealth management firms are approaching client segmentation for more targeted engagement, tactics, and preferred tools to help with client acquisition.
“Segmentation and predictive analytics projects are important to firms, but many are still trying to determine the best strategies for turning their efforts into new business,” Pamela DeBolt, associate director at Cerulli, said is a statement. “Segmentation is an important initiative in which firms continue to add resources. However, firms are making varying degrees of progress in their attempts to get their arms around big data and implement actionable results.”
“During the past decade, there has been a focus on ‘big data,’ with firms taking on huge data-mining projects to reap benefits from the data they have collected,” DeBolt continued. “While almost half of large firms (greater than $100 billion AUM) report that they are finished with their segmentation efforts, these accomplishments are different for medium and small-sized firms. More than half of medium and small-sized asset managers (less than $100 billion in assets under management) report they are still cleaning and trying to understand their big data sets.”
DeBolt explains that predictive analytics are important to firms, but many are still trying to determine the best strategies for turning their efforts into new business. Indeed, in a survey of national sales managers, nearly half reveal that enhancing predictive analytics capabilities to better identify distribution opportunities is a high priority.”
“It is important to profile customers based on a variety of variables-this is where segmentation is critical. While the ultimate success is securing new clients through engagement tactics, it is also vital for firms to have a retention strategy in place,” DeBolt concluded.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
