Marketing Traditional Industries

Shaan Puri shares insights about the success of Ken Fisher, who built a $12.5B investment management firm by bringing sophisticated marketing to an industry that traditionally lacked it. This demonstrates the opportunity of applying modern marketing techniques in traditional sectors.

Key Points:

• Marketing Innovation in Traditional Sectors:

  • Fisher Investments spends $60M annually on marketing, unprecedented in investment management
  • Most money managers don't advertise extensively or understand direct response marketing
  • Fisher saw opportunity in being "2 notches above average at marketing" in a space where competitors had rudimentary marketing

• Marketing Strategy Elements:

  • Uses psychographic profiling (6 different mental profiles of investors)
  • Employs direct response marketing techniques
  • Features Fisher's face in ads to build personal connection
  • Focuses on specific demographic ($500k+ retirement portfolios)
  • Uses compelling content marketing (books, columns, videos)

• Content and Distribution Approach:

  • Long-form educational content ("Debunkery" videos)
  • Forbes column for 20+ years
  • Heavy presence across multiple channels (Fox News, Forbes, WSJ, MarketWatch)
  • Uses outbrain/taboola ads that mimic editorial content

• Customer Acquisition:

  • $14,000 customer acquisition cost
  • Army of cold callers following up on leads
  • Focus on converting through educational content
  • Persistent follow-up strategy

• Business Impact:

  • Manages $275B in assets
  • 60,000+ individual investors
  • First outside capital raise at $12.5B valuation
  • Built largest RIA firm despite not necessarily having best returns

• Key Insight:

  • Success came from bringing sophisticated marketing to an industry that traditionally relied on referrals
  • Demonstrates opportunity in being a great marketer in non-marketing focused industries