Growing Your Introducing Broker Business to Provide Value to Investors Imagine, if you would, that the managed futures space is a puzzle. Except that it is constantly adding new pieces into an unknown, multidimensional shape. For an Introducing Broker (IB), a piece in the middle of that puzzle, how one connects an investor to a commodity trading advisor (CTA) may be a simple interlock: the CTA performs one function, communicates with the IB, which then in turn performs another. Their only understanding of the other’s function is based upon the seam that connects them. Yet the managed futures space continues…...

Whether you are a single fund manager or an advisor with 10-100 agents, you’re under pressure to meet ever-changing compliance requirements while running and growing your business. No small task. However, there are plenty of technology solutions available to help you succeed. A CRM enables you to manage prospect and client relationships—and the data associated with these contacts—from one central hub. 40% of salespeople still use informal means such as Microsoft Excel or Outlook to store its lead and customer data. (HubSpot, 2016) Not sure if you’re ready to trade your Excel spreadsheets for a CRM? Here are 5 signs that…...

Financial technology marketers are steadily improving at creating awareness-stage marketing content. Many who were once verbose and blustery are now producing more customer-centric thought leadership. The white papers, blogs and articles they produce today provide substantially more value to the audience and are doing a better job of attracting leads into the funnel. However, fin-tech marketers’ ability to convert those leads into qualified sales opportunities and revenue is still lagging behind other industries. They need to get better at nurturing mid- and late-stage leads. Awareness content may attract leads, but if marketers really want to contribute to revenue, they have to…...

You have worked hard putting your fund or managed futures program together. All of your strategy building, back-testing and hard work looking for an edge in today’s futures markets has culminated in a program that you believe has the potential to deliver value to your investors. In today’s highly competitive environment, however, simply having a good program is not enough. To cross the initial AUM threshold, and then continue on to the $25 million threshold and the $50 million threshold, you have to give investors a reason to put their hard-earned capital to work in your program. Here are five simple…...

By Shane Stiles and Sarah McNabb Whether you’re a fund manager, investment advisor or broker, whether you’re selling retail or institutional trading, or raising assets for a fund—marketing starts with a process. The goal of a well-defined marketing process is to generate leads that can then be converted to clients through the efforts of automated marketing and sales tactics. Marketing Infrastructure Before you begin to define your offers and campaigns, your marketing infrastructure –the engine for your marketing fuel– must be defined. The leads generated by your offers are best managed within a customer relationship management (CRM) software. A good…...

Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective and cost-efficient tools in the marketer’s toolbox. But strategic and compliant email marketing is not easy. Marketing automation and emerging technologies supporting account-based marketing allow you to make emails far more relevant and personalized. Marketing automation allows you to segment and deliver emails to just the right audience at just the right time. However, before you experiment with these advanced strategies, it’s important to start with the basics. Here are some steps to help you establish your basic strategy for effective and compliant email marketing. Email Marketing – Cutting Through the Noise The average business…...

Business Development Panel (3:50-4:40PM) – Do you feel overwhelmed because you’re offering every trading platform in existence? Do you scramble to keep up with every new service or product you read about? You need to attend this panel! Moderated by Financial Marketing and Technology Specialist Shane Stiles of Gate 39 Media, during this 50 minute session three firms will share their secrets for longevity accomplished by developing and sticking to a clear marketing focus. A marketing focus which targets and specializes in a specific segment of the market, products or clients. That specialization makes these three successful firms very unique.…...