So, you have a plan and a fund strategy that you’re excited to tell the world about. You’re ready to talk about your program to potential investors. You or your team of portfolio managers are ready to go to work and build up assets under management. But where do you even begin in getting the word out about your skills and unique program? We’ll explore our essential emerging manager marketing checklist.
Essentials to Get Started Marketing Your Fund:
You Don’t Have a Logo or Branding
A logo is the visual impression that embodies your business entity, and it is the often the first item that prospects see – a welcoming combination of design, color, and words that invites prospects to get to know you.
A logo is the foundation of your fund’s brand and is intended to help you stand out from the competition.
It is a core component of fostering brand loyalty to your fund program, and your potential investors will expect you to have one.
If you’ve developed brand messaging and have been successful at tying it to your logos, all communications that represent your fund will associate with your logo anywhere it is placed.
So, you don’t have a logo? Read about our Design & Branding process and check out our portfolio. We specialize in financial services design, including logos for funds.
True Fund Strategy Differentiation
One of the biggest struggles faced by asset managers is the ability to differentiate themselves from their competitors within the investment management market. Surveys and studies across Europe and the U.S. have shown that managers tend to use the same generic terms in their elevator pitches – terms like “global”, “long-term”, “innovative”, and the like.
This not only makes it difficult for potential investors to distinguish a manager’s value, but it can hamper the memorability of an offering, leaving a lackluster impression of un-noteworthiness.
If a manager’s business or fund offering is highly specialized, it is not advised that they generalize descriptions to appeal to a broader audience. Instead of stepping forth and shining a light on the unique specialty of the offering, managers often make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone. A mistake in terms of fund strategy differentiation.
This is where the skills of specialized content writers can help. An Inbound Content Marketing specialist who can take the time to understand your offering and fund story can help highlight the differentiation points of your fund strategy.
And this is where having a fund pitchbook is critical.
You Don’t Have a Professional Fund Pitchbook
The pitchbook presentation is a critical marketing tool and a milestone in fund marketing efforts. Typically structured as PowerPoint presentations that are branded to complement fund websites, pitchbooks are designed to arouse curiosity for prospects without overloading them with information.
Download pitchbook sample designs
It takes judgement gained by experience to set the level of detail appropriate to a pitchbook. Too much detail may bore or confuse your audience, whereas a light dusting of general information is unlikely to stimulate interest.
Pitchbooks, and indeed all marketing materials, must be meticulously designed and executed to convey a firm’s professionalism. Silly mistakes like poor grammar, typos, uninteresting graphics, and other defects are often enough to alienate potential clients. The pitchbook should be concise, clear, and reasonably informative.
Want to learn about Gate 39 Media’s process for developing professional hedge fund pitchbooks? Let’s have a conversation.
You Don’t Have a Web Presence
It doesn’t matter if an individual is searching for a plumber or a financial advisor, the first place most people go to search for services, ensure potential services exist and are legitimate, or to do their due diligence on just why they should trust said service — is the web.
Any business without a website in 2021 is already at a disadvantage to the competition. This includes hedge fund managers seeking to pitch their strategies to potential investors.
Now, more than ever before, CTAs and fund managers must get on the digital marketing train.
Even though fund managers must adhere to special financial regulatory rules surrounding how they describe their offering on a public website, potential investors can begin to build a relationship with the business, even if the website is a simple landing page with branding consistent to the pitchbook and some basic information and the manager’s headshot photo, bio, and contact information.
Potential investors are apt to have more trust in a fund if the fund has legitimized itself by having a basic web presence over a fund that has no presence online at all.
And since a website is a billboard and doorway to your business, it must be professional in all aspects. Learn about what decisions figure into a successful website design:
FREE DOWNLOAD: Financial Website Design Guide
You Don’t Have a Social Media Presence
Next to having a website, prospects will also be looking for you on social media, so it is important to participate in social channels as part of the overall marketing effort to establish business legitimacy and visibility, to take part in conversations, to position yourself as a subject matter expert, and to engage and build relationships with potential investors (especially the next generation of investors who are exceptionally active on social media).
According to a Peregrine study of asset managers:
- 94% are on LinkedIn
- 80% are on Twitter
- 70% are on YouTube
- 56% are on Facebook
- 33% are on all these social networks
Of the social networks, YouTube may carry heavier importance (remember that it is owned by Google) so the benefits of this channel should be considered, especially given the power and saliency of video as a means of conveying your message.
How to Monitor Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day
Need help with a social media marketing plan? Let’s talk.
You Don’t Have a Way to Measure if Items 1-5 Are Working
Managers understand the importance of data in communicating their fund performance.
And data is what fund managers must rely on to determine if their marketing and communication efforts are working.
To help understand if items 1-5 are working, generating traffic, views, clicks, shares, engagement, and interest, a CRM or marketing software like HubSpot is essential to tell the story of how prospects are moving through the buying journey.
From keeping track of leads and prospects, scheduling social posts, and reporting on website traffic – to seeing if an interested investor has read an email and looked at the attached presentation – a powerful marketing and CRM tool like HubSpot provides an all-in-one sales and marketing solution for managers.
Have questions about HubSpot? Want to get a look under the HubSpot hood first? Let’s connect and discuss the possibilities.
A Definitive Guide to Understanding HubSpot for Marketing
As an agency that specializes in inbound marketing for financial services firms, including financial marketing, hedge fund pitchbooks, website design and development, and HubSpot and CRM services, we work closely with fund clients to design and implement tactics for building business.
Connect with us to learn how we can support your AUM goals. Or book a few minutes now:
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