webqem blog

We’ve been providing E*TRADE with creative online solutions for over five years now. That’s about ninety-seven in web years (yes, that’s right, they’re like dog years, only more so). Anyway – continuing our client profile series we thought it an opportune time to catch up with Bryan Lip, Alliance Marketing Manager…

E*TRADE has been going from strength to strength over the past couple of years. What are the keys reasons for this success & growth?

Underpinning our growth has been providing a market leading product with a range of investment choices for customers. Over the past couple of years we’ve revamped our active trader products – Power E*TRADE and E*TRADE Pro, introduced our conditional orders service which assists in providing more discipline in share trading, online options trading, SMS alerts and our recently launched Contract for Difference (CFDs) service. This coupled with successful and valuable alliances including ANZ, Qantas, Bendigo Bank and Yahoo! has helped grow our customer base and build awareness with the Australian public.

What are your customers like? Why do they find your service so
appealing?

Our customers come from a broad range of backgrounds. You could have a mother of 3 in suburban Brisbane who in her spare time during the day looks at investment opportunities, to someone just out of university in Melbourne who is considering their first investment right through to a retiree in Broome who is thinking about what to do with their superannuation. The reason why our service appeals to such an array of customers is that we break down the barriers to investing. We equip our customers with the tools they need to make their own informed investment decisions. This includes real time market information, the ability to create watchlists, a choice of investment products, 7 independent research providers to give you investment ideas, all supported by free seminars, held nationally – just to name a few things.

Online communication is a big part of your acquisition strategy. Why is it working for you?

As a business which has originated from ground up with the internet as its key focus, we believe online communications is one of the most important avenues to grow our business. It works for us because in everything we do, we are results oriented. Campaigns we do run have a bottom line, return on investment impact. We have systems in place which we use to measure and evaluate which channels and creative executions work most effectively for us. The internet also allows us to quickly and efficiently communicate with customers and leads. The great thing with online communication is that this measurability and responsiveness isn’t always the case in other forms of acquisition based marketing.

E*TRADE is always looking at enhancing its offering. What new, and exciting things can we expect in the next 12 months?

Well, if I told you that I’d have to kill you… but seriously – we plan to continue to develop new products, refine existing products, but most of all, use all these refinements to the end game of continuing to be Australia’s leading online investment solution. In keeping with innovation, in July, we launched Contracts for Difference (CFDs) – the first online stockbroker in Australia to offer such a service. We also plan to continue our commitment to improving the financial literacy of all Australians including our customers.