Connecting with your Community: How One Firm Bridged the Generational Gap through TV and Radio

Are you curious about how one Sydney-based firm successfully reached out to their community?

SWU Group, founded in 1986 by Simon Wu, has been serving the Chinese community for over thirty years, offering a range of services including financial planning, investment advice, estate planning, and lending advice.

But what makes SWU Group stand out is their unique approach to educating and connecting with their community.

“We have two weekly radio programmes, one in Cantonese and one in Mandarin. And that gets to about 100,000 ears per week,” says Jonathan Wu of SWU Group.

In a recent interview, Jonathan Wu of SWU Group shared how they evolved their services to meet the needs of younger investors. “We wanted to cost-effectively embed younger investors into our business,” says Wu. “We recognized that young investors were increasingly interested in online investing options, and we wanted to make sure we were meeting the demands of this new generation.”

Through producing regular programs and content, they gained valuable insights into what investors sought and their pain points.

Here’s how SWU Group overcame this challenge and successfully bridged the generational gap through their innovative use of media…

Matching Investment Values to the Right Solution: SWU Group’s Success Story

“Active investment is our philosophy,” says Jonathan, the COO and Senior Financial Adviser of SWU Group, a company that has been investing its clients’ and own family’s money for the past thirty years. With this approach, they aim to achieve high returns for their clients through careful and strategic investments, and they steer away from passive investing. However, when it comes to new, young investors, they faced a challenge – finding a cost-effective digital solution that matched their investment values and wasn’t just a replica of the standard index-style investment options.

Avoiding Reputational Risk for the Chinese Community

SWU Group had an additional consideration. They needed to ensure they didn’t create brand reputational risk within the Chinese community. With their regular radio and TV shows on the world’s largest distributor of Asian content, TVB based out of Hong Kong, they have a vast audience of around 300,000 people who listen to their educational content weekly. Hence, partnering with the right platform for their online investment solution was critical.

The Ideal Solution: SWU Online through OpenInvest

SWU Online, in partnership with OpenInvest, provided the ideal solution that Jonathan and his team were looking for. The platform allowed them to mirror the investment philosophy they provide to their personal advice clients and offer new investors a much lower entry point of $5,000. In addition, it provided a referral solution for investors of the accounting firm who were below their typical investment threshold.

Building Long-term Relationships with Clients

One of SWU Group’s primary goals was to build long-term relationships with their online investing clients and guide them towards creating wealth. With SWU Online, they now have a platform that mirrors their values, enables easy content distribution, and delivers cost-effective and affordable pricing. Jonathan and his team are pleased to have found an innovative solution that meets the challenges of connecting with younger investors and scales their active investment philosophy in a digital space.

A Digital Solution: Lessons Learned from SWU Group

SWU Group has been mastering the art of running its digital solution. Managing tasks such as conducting regular investment committee meetings, making portfolio decisions, and providing market updates to investors have been their key priorities.

However, communicating these updates to clients was posing a challenge, until Jonathan Wu, discovered a game-changing solution.

“I needed to dedicate time to write the portfolio update, and I just wasn’t finding the window. So, I thought, why don’t I do a video? It has paid off because attention spans are short, and people like to watch short videos,” says Jonathan.

Creating Short Videos: The Key to Communication

According to Jonathan, communication is an essential part of the process of educating and adding value to clients who don’t have regular meetings with an advisor. To address this, he started creating short videos, which has not only been successful but also aligns with the Chinese community’s way of receiving information from SWU Group via their TV show or radio.

To keep it concise and engaging, Jonathan’s videos are less than five minutes long, and he focuses on three key macroeconomic points or the investing environment, along with a summary of the portfolio’s performance. As a result, they can now send the videos to their broader personal advice clients as well.

Lessons Learned

SWU Group’s success with their digital solution highlights the importance of adapting to changing times and customer preferences. Their experience shows that investing in technology and finding innovative ways to communicate with clients can have a significant impact on the success of a business.

By staying current and leveraging new technologies, SWU Group have not only streamlined their operations but also provided a more engaging and informative experience for their clients.

Supporting Clients in Long-Term Wealth Growth: Tips from SWU Group

Building a strong brand and providing a consistently excellent client experience are top priorities for SWU Group. They believe that to guide investors towards making better financial decisions and grow their wealth over time, it is important to provide ongoing educational content resources and support.

As they anticipate the rising cost of living and the need for young investors to build wealth incrementally, SWU Group aims to provide firm guidance and support for years to come. Here are some tips from Jonathan and his team on how to implement a direct investing solution that prioritises long-term growth and sustainability:

1. Know Your Audience: It is important to identify your target market and understand their pain points. Don’t chase clients who aren’t a good fit just because you feel they ‘need’ access to quality financial advice.

2. Integrate with Other Services: Your digital solution should serve as an entry point for clients to grow into other solutions as their situation changes. It should also be cost-effective for your firm to deliver.

3. Have a Marketing Plan: Develop a clear distribution and marketing plan that emphasizes the value of your entry-level solution for smaller investors. Provide ongoing education and guidance to add value for clients.

If you are interested in learning more about how SWU Group’s approach to direct investing could benefit your firm and help you serve new markets, contact OpenInvest for a discussion today.