At Northern Trust, trust isn’t an afterthought, it’s the foundation of a business – something so important that it’s even in the name. But how does a financial services company turn an abstract concept like trust into something tangible for clients?
Peter Williams, global head of asset servicing marketing at Northern Trust says it comes down to making complex services understandable and by demonstrating value through transparency.
Trust as a product
Williams describes trust as the product clients are ultimately buying. In a market where Northern Trust and its competitors offer broadly similar capabilities, trust becomes the key differentiator.
That is particularly true in asset servicing, where the firm’s role is to safeguard assets. In practical terms, it is often responsible for protecting pensioners’ life savings and the means for a secure retirement. When dealing with institutional pension schemes, trust is everything.
Demonstrating and maintaining that trust, Williams says, starts with transparency. The priority is putting openness ahead of polish or clever marketing. The second element is proof points.
“From a marketing standpoint we spend a lot of time on case studies. Nothing says it better than a client speaking on your behalf,” he explains.
Press releases also play a role in reinforcing trust. According to Williams, Northern Trust deliberately tries to publish more new business wins than its competitors to consistently demonstrate momentum in the market.
“We purposely put out more press releases than our competitors – last year it was more than double our largest peers – so we’re consistently demonstrating to the market that we are successful, we are winning and we are gaining trust,” he says.
In a constrained budget environment, these approaches have proved particularly effective.
“All marketers will say we don’t have a lot of money for big, flashy advertising campaigns, so how do we get that message out to the market? It’s through things like client testimonials. So whilst we are always looking at innovative PR approaches, there is still a lot to be said for press releases as tangible proof points,” he says.
Making the complex simple
A key part of building that trust is being able to clearly explain what Northern Trust actually does. Williams jokes that many people do not even know what asset servicing is, so the guiding philosophy is to make the complex understandable and avoid over-complicating the message.
“There’s a framework we work to. First, what’s the client problem? What’s their challenge? Second is how do we solve for that? Third would be why does that matter? And then fourth would be, can you demonstrate that? Can you prove it?” he says.
For example, a client may work with multiple custodians and data sources, creating a challenge of consolidation. Northern Trust solves this with a single, integrated book of record. The benefit is fewer reconciliation breaks, accurate and timely data, and stronger controls.
The final step is demonstrating the outcome through client proof points, often in the form of press releases and case studies.
Understanding the challenges our clients face relies on close collaboration between the marketing team and client-facing teams such as sales, Williams explains.
“We don’t want separate marketing and sales campaigns, they need to be sales and marketing combined. That’s really important,” he says.
In practice, collaboration is fostered by having marketing on the same floor as sales and client teams, keeping them close to deal rooms and client meetings for seamless integration.
“It’s not us sitting in an ivory tower making decisions. We’re working together with the business and the sales team to work through that. If you do it in isolation, it’s not going to work,” he says.
Reimagining thought leadership
Following the principle of making the complex simple, Williams notes that Northern Trust focuses on keeping client communications visual, using videos to present concepts and themes in a clear, easily digestible way.
This comes as technology has evolved rapidly, causing clients’ expectations to shift, with many now preferring digital communications.
“Clients are expecting us to be more digital because we all have mobile phones and apps, so the expectation is everything is pretty much digital,” he says.
As a result, long white papers are largely a thing of the past, with most readers only skimming the executive summary or conclusion.
“People often don’t have the time for trawling through something of that length. There’s so much competing information as well. The more concise the better typically works well in this industry,” he says.
Thought leadership remains important, but Northern Trust now delivers it in shorter, more digestible formats. For example, when the firm conducted an asset owner survey, it produced a full white paper, which was then segmented into around 20 shorter papers, each tailored to different markets.
The combination of visual content, digital channels and tailored, bite-sized materials reinforces the firm’s broader approach to build trust by making complex information accessible and keeping client needs at the centre of every interaction.