High-Level Interactive Strategy - 2012

High-Level Interactive Business PlanTony Weber, HEAD OF INTERACTIVE

Define our interactive mission and guiding principles which will dictate our future direction.

Identify and prioritize key initiatives that serve business needs and enhance or add to our capabilities.

Assess program needs and dependencies with internal systems and partners.

Establish processes to integrate new features and maintain business-as-usual.

Corporate vision serves as the foundationDefining what and who Dimensional wants to be online should be the first step

Stra

tegie

sPro

jects

Reso

urce

sPro

cess

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2

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Strategic Vision

Long-Term Corporate ObjectivesCorporate Identity

Business Line Priorities

Client Needs

Industry and Market Trends

Internal Constraints

Return on Investment

Project Dependencies

New vs. Adapted Processes

Operation Efficiency Options

Support Needs

Align interactive goals with business objectivesAll activities included in our long-term interactive strategy must align with core firm values, support corporate business goals and provide a net financial benefit

Increase AUM

Attract and persuade new clients

Increase conversion through better sales tools

Drive satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy

Reduce costs

Improve process efficiency

Reduce business risks

Lower long-term resource and infrastructure costs

4

• Growing our pipeline of new advisors

• Persuading potential investors to seek out Dimensional-approved advisors

• Simplifying and shortening the sales process for advisors

• Educating and overcoming client questions and concerns

• Accelerating advisor transition and growth

• Encouraging deeper engagement and cross-sell

• Increasing our knowledge of and ability to respond to client needs

• Providing the means for greater advocacy of our investment philosophy and strategies

• Reinforcing Dimensional’s reputation for innovation and superior service

• Attracting and keeping high-quality talent at Dimensional

How we increase assets via online channelsOur interactive efforts have a direct impact on several levers of sales and growth.

How we support our objectivesProven principles that together position us for long-term results

FAS

Institutional

Increase AUM

Reduce Costs

VISION

Build a world-class user experience

Be present and effective wherever our clients need us

Addressing full client life-cycle

Targeted, personalized messaging

Fact-based, data-driven insights & actions

5

Mobile and tablet tools

Community management and social technologies

One-to-one sales portals

Evolve our client site content and usability

Robust analytics, measurement and testing

1

2

3

4

5

Core ProgramsStrategic initiatives requiring dedicated attention and long-term management

Mobile and tablet tools

Robust analytics, measurement and testing

Redesign our public sites

Evolve our client site content and usability

Conference and advisor community6

Mobile & Tablet ToolsMake advisors more effective and productive selling Dimensional products

• Simplifying and shortening the sales process• Educating and overcoming client questions and concerns• Reinforcing Dimensional’s reputation for innovation and superior service• Increased control of presentation materials

• 2 resources—one for project management & strategy, one for adaptation of content to be more interactive and tablet-friendly.

• Cost of outsourced mobile app development (iOS & Android)

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BENEFITS

RESOURCE NEEDS

• Adapt high-priority existing features of client site & fund center for mobile viewing and interaction

• Define long-term roadmap & metrics

PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3

• Build tablet app to enhance advisor sales process

• Adapt/create content tailored to mobile & tablet devices

• Optimize and enhance cross-platform experience based on feedback and analytics

• Integrate notification & communication

Analytics & MeasurementBe smarter about what drives user behaviors and business results

• Deeper insights into user needs and behaviors• Faster and more impactful responses to changing needs• Ability to identify, track, and prioritize efforts which increase AUM and

NNA

• 1 resource (consultant)—assess and identify needs and manage overall analytics efforts

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BENEFITS

RESOURCE NEEDS

• Make enhancements to existing web analytics

• Asses potential out-of-the-box solutions.


• Integrate online and offline analytics to for end-to-end client view.

• Integrate w/ SalesLogix and AUM reporting systems.

• Institutionalize analytics feedback and response with all business lines.

• Automate content targeting based on tracked user behavior.

Public Site RedesignReorient site to drive leads and shorten the sales cycle for our clients.

• Growing our pipeline of new advisors• Persuading potential investors to seek out Dimensional-approved

advisors• Educating and overcoming client questions and concerns• Attracting and keeping high-quality talent at Dimensional

• 1 resource—user-experience/design director plus search engine optimization

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BENEFITS

RESOURCE NEEDS

• Identify key areas for improvement and make spot enhancements.

• Migrate to new content management system.

(in progress)


• Define site objectives

• Modify information architecture to reflect prioritized objectives.

• Introduce targeted messaging

• Redesign site to reflect evolving creative strategy.

• Fill in content and messaging gaps

Reorganize & Improve Client SiteEducate, engage, and cross-sell to build deeper share of advisor business

• Educating and overcoming advisor and client questions and concerns• Accelerating advisor transition and growth• Encouraging deeper engagement and cross-sell• Reinforcing Dimensional’s reputation for innovation and superior service

• 1 resource—supplement existing staff to allow for focus on content realignment and manage roll-out.

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BENEFITS

RESOURCE NEEDS

• Introduce topic-based content organization

• Redesign “My Account”


• Redesign user-experience

• Promote timely content & strategies

• Increase graphical and multimedia content

• Analytics-driven content targeting

• Enhance personalization capabilities

• Integrate community features

Conferences & CommunityAccelerate growth of firm investment, strengthen loyalty, and reduce costs

• Educating and overcoming advisor and client questions and concerns• Accelerating advisor transition and growth• Providing the means for greater advocacy of our investment philosophy

and strategies

• 1 resource—project manage, establish guidelines and manage/monitor community activities.

• Vendor costs for plug-and-play conference solutions

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BENEFITS

RESOURCE NEEDS

• Assess potential conference vendors

• Digitize materials and distribute online

• Establish social media monitoring & policies


• Integrate social/ community features into client site & mobile

• In-conference tools (note-taking, presentations)

• Align offline & online communities

(e.g. study groups)

Appendix

Business Insights

Professional use of mobile

devices and social tools

continues to grow rapidly.

Mobile LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

9.4%

55.1%

14.2%

49.0%40.0%

61.1%

20.9%

52.9%44.8%

69.9%

32.3%

61.0%

2010 2011 2012

Interactive is an essential channel for advisorsHigh-producing advisors spend more time than most online

71% of advisors

say the quality of a firm’s online capabilities impact the advisor’s usage of that firms products.

Online Research Email0

4

8

12

16 14.413.213.2

10.2

High-Producers Average

High producers (top 10% of AUM) spend

27.6 hours/week online and emailing from

work.

61% of advisorsand 84.6% of RIAs share online content with their clients.

32.30%

53.20%

14.60%

Never Occasionally Regularly

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FAS Interactive Insights

WE KNOW

• Advisors are heavy client site users

• They primarily engage in our published content and fund center

• FAS staff spends 52 hours per week helping advisors locate materials online.

WE HEARD

• They visit our site to learn

• The site is too overwhelming and hard to use

• There is not enough client-ready material

• They need tools to help them run their business

• They want to access Dimensional content on the go

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Institutional Interactive Insights

WE KNOW

• Institutional users are actively engaged with our client site.

• Institutional clients are heavy users of My Account, but not content.

WE HEARD

• They have few reason to linger with our site content

• It is inconvenient and difficult to find forms to perform transactions.

• Current email delivery of their reports is not secure

• We are expanding into new markets and need to be able to introduce our services in those markets.

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Corporate Interactive Insights

WE KNOW

• Our existing technology platforms are not sustainable long-term.

• Visitors to our public sites are struggling to find the information they are looking for.

• A significant amount of monthly overhead is spent dealing with legacy technical issues and “keeping the lights on”

• We are doing nothing to proactively attract prospects to our online tools or messages.

WE HEARD

• Our web properties are dated, not well-maintained, and lack a contemporary feel.

• Our online message is confusing and at times incoherent.

• We are not taking advantage of standard technologies for conference participants.

Dimensional’s current suite of sites do not reflect a contemporary user experience, nor are they structured, focused, and optimized to best address our business needs.

• FAS estimates that 51.8 hours per week are spent helping advisors find content on our website.

• Numerous complaints from clients about out-of-date materials or desired timely content. (e.g. June searches for “IPO”)

• Our public site is not optimized for search and lags our competition in both interest and desire to interact.

Dimensional*

Pimco Blackrock American Funds

Vanguard

Visits 52K 280K 620K 2.4 M 12 M

Unique Visitors 34K 100K 290K 680K 2.6 M

Visit time on site 2:44 6:40 5:50 6:30 9:50

Page views 168K 990K 2.8 M 16 M 130 M

Global Monthly Website Usage

Statistics

* Aggregation of all Dimensional public web properties

Ineffective design & effort is limitingLack of emphasis on attracting, engaging, and supporting our clients

properly is costing Dimensional

Nomenclature is not client-friendly or optimized for searchPrime real

estate is static and garners only 4% of clicks

Key firm messages relegated to secondary text

Lack of navigational elements effectively force users into a tour

No consistency of experience between different user groups

Client log-in buried

Wasted space

Virtually no calls to action

Our public sites do not meet user expectations

Opinion & Thought Leadership

Investment Philosophy

Portfolio Usage Strategies

Audience Engagement RequiredLow High

IndustryEmphasis

Practice Management

Dimensional Emphasis

We limit our opportunities to engage our audience

Prioritized Initiatives

COMPLEXITY

VA

LU

E

Must-Haves

• Client-ready content strategy

• Improved analytics

Find an Advisor – US

• Industry-leading user experience

• Improved online talent acquisition

• Increased data visualization

• Proactive prospecting

(advisor & institutional)

Website/Fund Center stabilization

• Search Engine Optimization

Priorities

Important Differentiators

Low Hanging Fruit Emerging Priorities

• Advisor community

• Mobile presentations & tools

• In-conference enhancements

• Culturally-sensitive public/client sites

Relevant, timely, high-quality video content

• Onboarding and early-engagement tools

• Conference marketing & registration

China/Japan public sites

• Social network engagement

Value of Advice video series

• Corporate Blogs

• Social media monitoring

• Better fund-launch and reporting process

My Account redesign

• Online trade submission for institutions

• Improved employee tools (e.g. Be)

• Customized client portals

• RD sales tools

• Online traffic generation

• Webinars

• Returns 3.0

• Industry-standard content management

systems

• Multi-screen presentations

• Spanish-language site

• Find an Advisor – UK/AU

• Event touchwalls

Search-Engine Optimization

Digital Conference EnhancementsMy Account

SUPPORT/MAINTENANCE

Japan/China Sites*

Mobile for Current Sites

Web Stabilization* Fund Center

Content Management Roll-out*

Value of Advice*

Talent Acquisition

Mobile Strategy

Social Media Monitoring

Client Site – Usability Improvments, Redesign, Personalization*

Client-Ready Content, Short-Form Content/Blogs, Infographics, etc.Global Content Strategy

Web Services

Creative Strategy

Social Engagement

Find an Advisor*

FAS Institutional Corporate/Multiple Critical Dependencies * In progress

Online Trade Submissions

Active Client Prospecting

1x1 Relationship

Portals

Online Advisor Community

CRM Integration

Data Utility

Proposed Interactive Roadmap

20132012TBD

Web Analytics Expansion

Iden

tified R

OI

Use

r-Exp

eri

en

ceM

easu

rem

en

tN

ew

Ch

an

nels

Dep

en

denci

es

Dimensional.com Redesign*

Dependencies

Project Description Impact Owner Status

Website stabilization

Migrate websites from legacy hardware to enterprise architecture with improved permission structure and capacity for growth

• Scalability• Reduced support costs• Improved performance • Stability (fewer outages)

IT Active

Content Management System

Allows decentralized publishing, editing and modifying of web content with centralized maintenance and management.

• Streamlines of site publishing• Increase resource efficiency• Improved experience user-

experience

IT Inactive

Fund Center Rewrite of the existing code from to integrate with client site 3 and future needs (e.g. mobile)

• Modernize capabilities• Allow for scalability• Improved data accuracy• Reusability

IT Inactive

CRM Integration

Integration of the Dimensional websites to the CRM in an effort to proactively inform clients with additional information.

• End to end view of client relationship & activity• Inform clients of their RD

IT Inactive

Creative Strategy

Define core message hierarchy and visual style across media

• Cohesive, consistent client messages• Improved & diversified content

Comm Inactive

Data Utility & Web Services

Centralize management of product-related data points, changes, and distribution to all corporate users

• Improved data accuracy• Compliance and legal• Improved efficiency

Research

Inactive

ONGOING BUSINESS-AS-USUAL – MAINTENANCE & SUPPORT

RETIRING OBSOLETE LEGACY CODE

Current projects upon which we are dependent

FAS

Institutional

Increase AUM

Reduce Costs

Content Strategy Most of our existing content is long-form and not client-ready.

Success in engaging and satisfying our clients online will be limited until we have content that is more digestible and shareable.

Web Stabilization Infrastructure needs upgrades to remain scalable, maintain baseline performance, and prevent outages.

CRM Integration Without connecting our web infrastructure with SalesLogix (or an alternative CRM) we will be unable to track end-to-end client behaviors and interactions, or to create 1x1 sales portals

Data Utility, Web Services & Fund Center Upgrades The web reads data sources from numerous databases, many of which are poorly synchronized and maintained. Until the data infrastructure is rationalized we depend on highly manual processes and risk inaccurate fund information and disclosures.

Consistent Creative and Messaging Dimensional lacks a cohesive, concise narrative that succinctly encapsulates our unique value proposition. Our digital properties reinforce this issue, but without clarity of message we will be unable to adequately counteract that perception.

Dependencies

FAS

Institutional

Increase AUM

Reduce Costs

Legacy systems may not be able to scale to support expanded needs, and performance and security issues may become critical in the near future without mitigation.

Head start of competitors and rapid evolution of technology may result in Dimensional continually playing catch up and frustrating our clients

Timely content needed/wanted by clients may be delayed due to cumbersome approval process

Regulatory restrictions limit our ability to be nimble in some areas (e.g. social media)

Internal collaboration has historically been limited and will require support of senior leadership to overcome.

Lack of coordination between regional headquarters could lead to duplication of effort.

Recruiting qualified interactive talent in the highly competitive Austin market may be challenging.

Risks

FAS

Institutional

Increase AUM

Reduce Costs

Technology can appropriately staff the skills sets necessary to deliver on time and on budget.

Shared responsibilities for deliverables across departments will be properly maintained(e.g. research/IT ownership of online data integrity).

Global editorial calendars and content planning will maintain a dependable publishing schedule.

Resource needs (head-count, financial, etc.) can be addressed and negotiated prudently and in a way that does not lead to severe opportunity costs.

We will be able to maintain a baseline level of research into user needs, attitudes, and behaviors on an ongoing basis.

Coordination between Austin and regional offices is healthily maintained.

Assumptions

FAS

Institutional

Increase AUM

Reduce Costs

Support Materials

Disruptive

Differentiated

Competitive

Foundational

Invest

ment

Philo

sophy

Conte

nt

Inte

ract

ive

The Dimensional story is disruptive, our execution is not.

Key online needs are shared across the business

COMMON

• Flexible infrastructure

• Best-in-class user experience

• Well-designed, accurate account access and fund center

• Mobile access

• Robust conference capabilities

• Content/thought-leadership

• High performance & availability

• Actionable metrics

FAS

• Advisor education & recruitment

• Advisor community & information sharing

• Relationship-building tools and content

INSTITUTIONAL/DC

• Visible public market presence

• Platform for product/regional expansion

• Personalized account info & sales presentations

CORPORATE

• Compelling brand experience

• International expansion

• Operational efficiency

• Employee recruitment

• Media outreach

FAS

Institutional

Increase AUM

Reduce Costs

Supporting the advisor & client life-cycleHave focused digital and offline efforts to enhance each stage of the relationship

• User behaviors have shifted to a multi-channel environment.

• The expectation is that content is available across and tailored to all platforms.

• Tactics for each must be devised within the context of the overall experience, and can work in concert to amplify the overall value of our offering.

Devise solutions that address full digital ecosystem