Case Study: OptionsHouse

Transcription

1 Case Study: OptionsHouse

2 What I ll Review Today Quick Introduction Background on OptionsHouse Stumbling Blocks to OptionsHouse Growth The Key Growth Factors at OptionsHouse Brand Building Transformation to Customer Centric Organization Efficient Digital Marketing Outcomes for OptionsHouse staying focused on what Matters

3 A Little Background on Me Graduated DePauw University, Economics NYC internship convinced me to move into Advertising Spent 2 years in Atlanta building portfolio Started out doing contract work in NYC, Atlanta and Bend, OR Spent ~1 year with Buntin Group in Nashville, TN Spent ~5 years with VSA (Microsoft account) and Leo Burnett (MillerCoors, Coca-Cola) in Chicago Graduated DePaul University, MBA Spent ~5 years at OptionsHouse (and parent company PEAK6) Now back in Nashville with Advanced Network Solutions

4 Brief Backstory on OptionsHouse PEAK6 Investments found in Chicago in Capital Management Firm Unique options strategy/early adopter of digital trading Utilizes proprietary trading platform Then one day, one of their tech people says, we could make a lot of money if we released our platform online and so....

5 Background on OptionsHouse...OptionsHouse is born 2006 to crickets. No customers, no one jumping at their offer to trade at a 3 rd of the price of any major competitors.

6 Stumbling Blocks to Growth

7 Here s What OptionsHouse Has (Elevator Pitch ) OptionsHouse has a compelling offer to clients. Open a brokerage account and you can trade for $2.95 a stock trade and options trades were an even better deal. OptionsHouse was well backed financially via PEAK6, so client money was safe. OptionsHouse was staffed with people who had a deep and thorough understanding of accounts, trading, options, financial strategy, stocks, etc...they know financial services inside and out.

8 Here s What OptionsHouse Actual Has OptionsHouse stock price point is so much better than the competition that people literally think it is a scam. And that awesome options price, well, it is great if you have have :30 minutes to understand it but its too complicated OptionsHouse is well backed financially, but no one outside the industry has ever heard of PEAK6 OptionsHouse is well staffed with people who understand financial services via working in some of the best capital management firms globally, but have no idea what s important to more novice, retail customers.

9 And a couple other things... OptionsHouse has marketed itself here and there, but has never made a significant investment in outreach. It s broad competitors TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade, Scottrade are household names. It s closest competitors OptionsXpress, ThinkorSwim, etc. are owned by TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade, Scottrade. Their software is technologically advanced but missing one crucial component 24/7 uptime/stability.

10 Key factors of Growth

11 Essential Early Factors to Growth People: Bring in subject matter experts (outside category input) Build strategy/processes Build teams around strategy/processes Process: Investment in Research/Planning Sharpens Focus (Core KPIs) Measurable Improvement

12 Did You Know: Brand Building: If you stripped Coca-Cola of every employee, factory and bottle...took everything away. The name is worth 79.2B. That s more than the value of all other materials combined.

13 Did You Know: Customer Centric Organizations: Are 60% more profitable compared to companies that do not leverage customer feedback.

14 Did You Know: Digital Marketing: The average costs to reach 2000 people by channel...

15 Did You Know: Marketing: 44% of people begin their shopping journey with an online search engine.

16 Brand Building: Product Benefit statement read as the following: OptionsHouse provides a great value, with fast execution, a cutting-edge platform and great prices.

17 Brand Building: A free thinking tech brand liberating the world from beige conformity An advocate of women s self-esteem battling against the falsehood of mediadefined beauty An authority-defying rebel uniting a community to take back the roads A companion on the hero s journey constantly compelling athletes to just do it

18 Brand Building: OptionsHouse is the ally of active traders seeking a competitive edge in the market.

19 Brand Building:

20 Brand Building:

21 Becoming Customer Centric OptionsHouse circa 2010: Primary research had taken place but had not been utilized or information been disseminated There were no client surveys, no metrics around call drivers, no readout on FAQ clicks, etc. Our product, the platform, gave no user feedback and had never been user tested by a third party Marketing was by and large cut-off from the rest of the org and there was a bit of bad-blood in the water

22 Becoming Customer Centric OptionsHouse circa 2012: Every employee new exactly what we gave customers. Every employee had been thru training. A Customer Satisfaction team was organized with representatives from each department Each tasked with resolving at least 3 customer-related initiatives All product enhancements were put through a brand filter; no more what about this? Product utilized usertesting.com to improve the platform and marketing did the same for website Lines of communication between MKT and key stakeholders were created to develop financial specific content and disseminate it outwardly.

23 Efficient Outreach Efficient Digital Marketing Starts with KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS The biggest obstacles to effective digital marketing is: Not properly utilizing website Lack of customer understanding/clear value proposition to customers Underdeveloped business intelligence Trying to represent in every channel (You can t be everywhere immediately)

24 Efficient Outreach Linkedin Facebook Google Yahoo Youtube Display Affiliates Partners Referrals Organic Typical B2C CR is 2.35% X

25 So How d We Do It The company began with a clear value proposition you can trade for half the cost, but needed help to be heard. We invested heavily in understanding our target audience: Where they were What they were interested in Why they chose XYZ brokerage Etc. We took these learnings to build a brand and the direction of the company itself. We tracked everything and leveraged insights to improve acquisition and marketing spend. Finally, we made mistakes. But we learned from them and got better and better.

26 OptionsHouse in a Nutshell Founded No customers/little trading. Hired CMO to help issues I joined mkt team as Brand Manager charged with building Brand ID. Growing customer base, but company loosing 5-8M annually Grow customer base from ~30k to ~120k, revenue by 70M Company sells to PE firm for 200M **2016 OptionsHouse grows customer base by ~10k, sells to Etrade for 725M.