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New marketing techniques adopted by IFAs for expanding their clientele
To gain popularity among investors and expand their reach, IFAs are joining hands with AMCs to hold investor education programs. This new trend is slowly picking up in the market as it is a win-win technique for both AMCs and IFAs.
“We have been a pioneer in these tie-ups as we feel that IFAs need brand support for expanding their clientele. We usually hold 600 such seminars in a year where eminent speakers share important insights on mutual funds with investors,” said an official from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund.
Reliance Mutual Fund believes in tying up with IFAs who share the same conviction for mutual funds. “We have held 1750 such programs in various parts of the country. We feel that these seminars usually increase the penetration level for IFAs and also help investors to know more about our products,” said Himanshu Vyapak, Executive Vice President, Reliance Mutual Fund.
Investor education is one of the major challenges for the mutual fund industry because only 7 per cent of Indian households invest in mutual funds. So fund houses in India are getting on to a bandwagon to spread awareness among the masses.
“We arrange minimum six seminars in a month in association with IFAs. We feel that our clients benefit from the expert advice provided through these seminars,” said an official from DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund.
Fidelity Mutual Fund also arranges at least six investor education seminars along with IFAs and it even holds various education seminars with IFA associations. “These seminars motivate IFAs and also give them an exposure to different kinds of investors,” said a spokesperson from Fidelity Mutual Fund.
Such seminars are held in such a way that either IFA invite their investors for the event or vice-versa. This new marketing technique helps IFAs to build confidence among their existing clients and also to build new clients. These seminars are usually low cost events.
IDFC Mutual Fund does it a little differently. Any new IFA who ties up with IDFC is handed a movie called - ‘Bachat Nivesh Badhat’. This movie is based on a bollywood theme and showcases how investments lead to fulfillment of dreams. Therefore rather than showing investors power point presentation they show their investors a bollywood masala short movie.
“Such an interesting approach holds the investor’s attention. Our IFAs have been getting phenomenal response to the movie and have been able to expand their client base. On an average we conduct 3000 seminars where we tie-up with IFAs and show this movie to various clients,” said Aloke Vohra, Vice President - Sales and Business Development, IDFC Mutual Fund.
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