An effective e-mail marketing campaign can help fund marketers identify prospects, introduce funds to investors, improve road trips, and eventually secure allocations. Increasingly, investors have mentioned to BHA analysts that they often prefer fund managers to make initial contact via e-mail. So it seems pertinent to discuss some tips and techniques that help make an e-mail marketing campaign successful.
Brand E-mails
The first tip for preparing an e-mail campaign is to establish the “branding.” This is often overlooked. However, before recipients even open the message, they see the sender. To create familiarity with the receiver, it is highly recommended to make the sender recognizable. That is, choose to use either the name of the company or a person who the reader can easily follow up with. Whichever you choose, it is important to consistently use the same sender throughout the campaign. Creating familiarity with your target audience will lead to e-mails being opened and read.
Inform Concisely
Giving an e-mail an appropriate and consistent subject is another vital practice in creating an e-mail campaign. Many e-mail providers only allow 45 characters for the subject; the program cuts off any additional characters. Therefore, craft a subject that is concise but informative; in a few words, it should clearly convey the purpose of the e-mail. Using lengthy subjects increases the likelihood that your e-mail will be ignored or lost in the recipient’s crowded in box.
Establish Continuity
Send regular updates to your list. If prospecting for an upcoming marketing trip, it is wise to send out requests for meetings at regular intervals. If you are sending out a monthly performance update, schedule the mailing for the same day of every month. By sending e-mails at regular intervals, recipients will begin to expect their arrival. Also it is important to note that the best times to send out information are either at the beginning of the day or right after lunch. Avoid sending e-mails after 4 P.M. (scheduling delivery by time zone) or on the weekends.
Build Investor List
Finally, build your distribution list at every potential opportunity. Consistently adding new targets to your contact list is the best way to build brand recognition and identify new prospects. Here are two simple ways to expand a distribution list: first, after every conference, add the names of the attendees to the list; second, have everyone at the fund add one-off names to the list that they come across during their day-to-day work.
A well-conceived e-mail marketing campaign can be a highly effective tool for funds looking to raise assets in the current marketing environment. With many investors looking for fund managers to make initial contact through e-mail, funds that distribute a regular, consistent message are likely to succeed in identifying and reaching out to potential fund investors via e-mail marketing.
