Investment Marketing

Investment Marketing Hurdles for Hedge Funds

I just read an interesting article on AllAboutAlpha discussing the challenges today in marketing hedge funds to new potential investors. Within the piece AAA discusses how the US has one of the most restrictive regulatory regimes in the world when it comes to the hedge fund industry. The countries of Australia, Canada, Japan and China are all less restrictive.

Here’s a short excerpt from the article:

An article in this month’s Journal of Financial Transformation illustrates why this is. The piece, titled “Hedge fund marketing in an era of regulatory uncertainty” covers many of the issues faced by those trying to raise money in the US. It’s a great update on the ebb and flow of SEC edicts over the past year and was co-authored by hedge fund personality James Hedges. Here’s some of what Hedges suggests:

• Avoid speaking to the media about your funds – even if you’re not actively selling, but just “conditioning the market”.
• Avoid “print, radio and television advertisements or solicitations regarding funding or investment matters”.
• When giving presentations, “address the risks associated with hedge funds in general as well as the specific risks associated with the hedge fund being offered.”
• When your fund has a great year, make sure you “disclose the reasons for extraordinary performance…”
• No “mass mailings” except to “individual investors, or a discrete group of accredited investors”.

Click here to read the full article.

Permanent Link: Investment Marketing
Tags: Marketing for Investments, Investment Marketing, Hedge Fund Marketing tips, Investment Marketing tips, Investment Marketing Regulations, Investment Marketing Group

Link Fest

Hedge Fund Link Fest

In case you have been reading up on bank failures and bail outs all week and missed much of the news on the hedge fund industry here is a link fest out to many of the events which recently occurred in the industry:

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• Hedge Fund Database

Permanent Link: Hedge Fund Link Fest

Tags: Hedge Fund Link Fest, Hedge Fund links

Public Relations Strategies

Public Relations Strategies & Tips

I read a recent article by Bill Blasé within the Emerging Manager Monthly Newsletter. Here are the tips that I gleaned from this article:

• TV viewers and interviewers love contrarians, conflicting views make for interesting television
• Take a pass on issues where you are not an expert and don’t have any value-added insight on the issue
• Media appearances might not bring in a windfall of new business but a well coordinated PR plan combined with grass roots relationship develop and an online presence can be very effective
• Maintain eye contact with the interviewer and not the camera
• Speak slowly and match the interviewers tone and pace
• Short brief 30 second sound bites are ideal for TV appearances
• Michael Barron who is the CEO of Knott Capital Management commented in the article, “Everyone knows the Fidelitys, the Putnams and the rest of the larger firms in our industry. For some of the smaller firms, this is away you can build recognition and credibility
• Ignore the monitor and the audience, imagine speaking to a single viewer

Permanent Link: Public Relations Strategies

Tags: Public Relations Strategies, Public Relations Strategy, PR Strategies, PR Strategy, best pr strategies, effective PR strategies, pr campaign strategies, good pr strategy, pr marketing strategies, pr release strategy, pr release strategies, media strategy pr

Selling Tip

Pain Free Hedge Fund Selling Tip

Here is a short video on pain free selling. If you have read a lot of marketing and sales books many will recommend that you find your customer’s pain. I agree with Jeffrey Gitomer though that in the hedge fund world you should build marketing efforts based on relationships, positive solutions and goals. Here’s a clip on this idea:

If you are viewing this post via my daily hedge fund newsletter please click here to view the video now.

- Richard

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Permanent Lint: Selling Tip

Tags: Selling tip, tip for selling, tip for sales, Selling Tips, Tips for Selling Hedge Funds

Establish a Hedge Fund

Q & A: Establishing a Hedge Fund

Question: What does it take to launch a hedge fund? If I am hard working and determined I believe I can start one. As long as I never give up I will succeed right? How can you help me?

Answer: I get this question fairly often. There are many misconceptions about the hedge fund industry, two which are that all hedge fund managers are filthy rich and that most hedge funds are large entities manging billions of dollars. The truth is that hedge fund managers are paid well but most do not earn tens of millions of dollars each year – and only a small percentage of the total firms manage over a billion dollars of capital. To start a hedge fund you need:

• A deeply experienced team
• A repeatable investment process
• A business plan
• A competitive advantage
• Business risk management measures
• Portfolio risk management tools and techniques
• Capital to run the business on the first 2-3 years
• A compliance consultant or legal advisor, etc.

Launching a hedge fund is not much different than flying in some ways in that will power alone will not lift you off the ground. You must seek the appropriate resources, ensure you have enough capital to run on and you almost always have to operate as a team.

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Tags: Establish Hedge Fund, Establishing a Hedge Fund, Establish a Hedge Fund, How to Establish a Hedge Fund, how to setup a hedge fund, setting up a hedge fund, launching a hedge fund, help launching a hedge fund

Hedge Fund Startup

Hedge Fund Startup Marketing Q & A

Question: I understand all the legalities…but at the inception of a hedge fund what kind of material should I have squared away as far as marketing decks and PowerPoint presentations. Value proposition of course, we have pretty tight and a good selling point, what other deliverables should I work towards at this early stage?

Brief Answer: As far as marketing materials go I would make sure you have a 1-2 page quick summary piece of your hedge fund or fund of fund as a whole, within another 1 pager on your holdings – both should be updated monthly. Also it would help to develop a 20-30 page PowerPoint presentation with top notch quality graphics, layout, etc. I would make sure you stress the depth of your team, how you manage both business and portfolio risk and how your returns will be repeatable and defendable due to your consistent investment process. Those are all points that investors look for and qualities your fund must have to really succeed in the long run. Hope these ideas help.

Permanent Link: Hedge Fund Startup Marketing
Tags: Hedge Fund Startup Marketing, Hedge Fund Marketing Materials, Hedge Fund Marketing Plan, Materials for Hedge Fund Marketing, Power Point presentations, one pagers, performance

Switzerland-Based Marketing

Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland

I recently came across a short whitepaper on hedge fund marketing in Switzerland. Here is a short excerpt from this article and a link to the full copy.

In the last few years, alternative investments and hedge funds in particular have become part of the standard asset allocation process in the Swiss private banking business as well as for many Swiss institutional investors. This is the case even though, given legal and regulatory constraints, hedge funds may only be distributed in Switzerland by way of private placement, without any public offering. In addition, Swiss law and the practice of the supervisory authority, the Federal Banking Commission, allow for the setting up and the public distribution of collective investment schemes which take different forms and which invest into hedge funds (e.g. investment companies, investment foundations, and funds of hedge funds). These structures have also contributed to the success of alternative investments in Switzerland. For the rest, the on-going revision of the Swiss mutual fund legislation is expected to create additional flexibility in regards to the offering of this type of investments to the Swiss market.

The Swiss market
Switzerland is an important player in the alternative investment arena, especially for hedge funds. Although reliable statistics on this topic are difficult to come by, it is generally considered that, after the U.S., Switzerland is the second-largest market for hedge funds in the world. A number of factors have contributed to this situation. Firstly, Swiss private banking and its sophisticated clientele have been among the first to invest in hedge funds, and to do so massively. With the years, a number of Swiss banks and financial advisors have thus developed an expertise in alternative investments. In parallel, Swiss institutional investors (e.g. pension funds) have been quick to include alternative investments in their asset allocation model. Recent changes in the applicable regulatory framework have further expanded the ability of these Swiss investors to invest in hedge funds, or funds of hedge funds.

Read the full whitepaper here.

- Richard

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Permanent Link: Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland

Tags: Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland, Swiss Hedge Fund Marketing, Fund of Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland, Switzerland Hedge Fund Marketing Regulations, Hedge Funds in Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne

Marketing in Switzerland

Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland

I recently came across a short whitepaper on hedge fund marketing in Switzerland. Here is a short excerpt from this article and a link to the full copy.

In the last few years, alternative investments and hedge funds in particular have become part of the standard asset allocation process in the Swiss private banking business as well as for many Swiss institutional investors. This is the case even though, given legal and regulatory constraints, hedge funds may only be distributed in Switzerland by way of private placement, without any public offering. In addition, Swiss law and the practice of the supervisory authority, the Federal Banking Commission, allow for the setting up and the public distribution of collective investment schemes which take different forms and which invest into hedge funds (e.g. investment companies, investment foundations, and funds of hedge funds). These structures have also contributed to the success of alternative investments in Switzerland. For the rest, the on-going revision of the Swiss mutual fund legislation is expected to create additional flexibility in regards to the offering of this type of investments to the Swiss market.

The Swiss market
Switzerland is an important player in the alternative investment arena, especially for hedge funds. Although reliable statistics on this topic are difficult to come by, it is generally considered that, after the U.S., Switzerland is the second-largest market for hedge funds in the world. A number of factors have contributed to this situation. Firstly, Swiss private banking and its sophisticated clientele have been among the first to invest in hedge funds, and to do so massively. With the years, a number of Swiss banks and financial advisors have thus developed an expertise in alternative investments. In parallel, Swiss institutional investors (e.g. pension funds) have been quick to include alternative investments in their asset allocation model. Recent changes in the applicable regulatory framework have further expanded the ability of these Swiss investors to invest in hedge funds, or funds of hedge funds.

Read the full whitepaper here.

Permanent Link: Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland

Tags: Hedge Fund Marketing in Switzerland, Third Party Marketing Tips, Third Party Marketing Article, Hedge Fund Marketing article

This Investment News article explains the new level of due diligence that some investors are incorporating in their hedge fund selection process. It is common knowledge that that assets directed toward hedge funds will likely continue to grow, but individual hedge funds will fail. For investors, this is a key point to understand and creating a good request for proposal is a critical step in selecting a hedge fund. The request for proposal process helps investors understand a hedge fund’s history and strategy so that the investors have a better basis for investigating the hedge fund.

The article refers to a recent report which revealed that of the more than 100 hedge funds surveyed half failed because of operational problems. The report’s warning to investors is: “Expanding due-diligence and monitoring practices to understand `back-office’ capabilities can make a big difference in preventing or avoiding these failures.” This article shows that investors are becoming more thorough in the selection process by going beyond a simple background check. Hedge funds may resist greater disclosure to hedge fund investors but in the end the bottom line is that hedge funds need investors and investors are requiring more rigorous request for proposal processes and they are sending out more frequent RFPs overall.

- Richard

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Tags: Request for Proposal, Requests For Proposal, RFP, Request for Proposal RFP, Request for Proposals, RFPS

Hedge Fund Marketing Tools

Tools for Hedge Fund Marketers & 3PMs

I have created this page to list a collection of online hedge fund marketing tools available to professionals within the hedge fund marketing space.

• Family Office Directory | Directory of Family Offices | A directory of over 500 family offices, these include both single and multi-family offices within the US and abroad.

• Master Contact Database: The industry’s leading master contact database containing details on over 20,700 alternative investment funds, CTAs fund of funds, etc.

• Fund of Hedge Fund Database Fund of Hedge Funds Database which profiles 2,585 funds and is the most comprehensive database of its kind
• Fund of Hedge Fund Directory: Directory of Funds of Hedge Funds
  profiles 1,032 carefully selected funds of hedge funds and funds of CTAs

• Capital Hedge Investor Databases: A complete investor database solution for hedge funds looking to raise capital across several distribution channels.

• Email Newsletter Creation Tool: Aweber is the #1 provider of email newsletter creation and management services. Creating an email newsletter keeps you in front of your prospects and loyal customers. Aweber offers a suite of low cost professional email newsletter templates and their how-to guides, quick online support and email tips make them a favorite of thousands of firms. Click here now to see what Aweber offers.

• Hedge Fund Database: Thorough database which contains comprehensive information on 3,169 single manager hedge funds.
• Hedge Fund Directory: A less expensive and lighter collection of single hedge fund manager contact details.
  

• CTA Database A source for managed futures data for the past 20 years and contains comprehensive data on 864 CTA programs.
  
• CTA Directory A less expensive lighter version of the database above
  

• Hedge Fund Asset Flow Reports Order reports to dig into where asset flows are coming and going within the hedge fund industry. Monthly reports available.

• List of Hedge Funds in Massachusetts
• List of Hedge Funds In Connecticut
  
• List of Hedge Funds in New York
• List of Hedge Funds in California
• List of Hedge Funds in Chicago and State of Illinois
• List of Hedge Funds in Dallas, Houston & State of Texas

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9. Hedge Fund Media Exposure
10. Financial Advisor Marketing

Tags: Hedge Fund Marketing Tools,Hedge Fund Marketing Aides, Hedge Fund Sales Tools, Third Party Marketing Tools, Help with Hedge Fund Marketing, Hedge Fund Marketing Consultant

Hedge Fund Marketing Tools

Tools for Third Party Marketers

I have created this page to list a collection of online third party marketing tools available to professionals within the hedge fund marketing space. If you have a favorite tool or run a firm which offers a tool for third party marketers please email me at Richard@HedgeFundGroup.org to discuss having it posted here.

• Family Office Directory | Directory of Family Offices | A directory of over 500 family offices, these include both single and multi-family offices within the US and abroad.

• Email Newsletter Creation Tool: Aweber is the #1 provider of email newsletter creation and management services. Creating an email newsletter keeps you in front of your prospects and loyal customers. Aweber offers a suite of low cost professional email newsletter templates and their how-to guides, quick online support and email tips make them a favorite of thousands of firms. Click here now to see what Aweber offers.

• Fund of Hedge Fund Database Fund of Hedge Funds Database which profiles 2,585 funds and is the most comprehensive database of its kind
• Fund of Hedge Fund Directory: Directory of Funds of Hedge Funds
  profiles 1,032 carefully selected funds of hedge funds and funds of CTAs
  

• Hedge Fund Database: Thorough database which c ontains comprehensive information on 3,169 single manager hedge funds.
• Hedge Fund Directory: A less expensive and lighter collection of single hedge fund manager contact details.
  

• CTA Database A source for managed futures data for the past 20 years and contains comprehensive data on 864 CTA programs.
  
• CTA Directory A less expensive lighter version of the database above
  

• Hedge Fund Asset Flow Reports Order reports to dig into where asset flows are coming and going within the hedge fund industry. Monthly reports available.

Permanent Link: Hedge Fund Marketing Tools

Tags: Third Party Marketing Tools, Hedge Fund Marketing Tools, Hedge Fund Sales Tools, Hedge Fund Selling Tools, Hedge Fund Sales Help, Hedge Fund Marketing Help, Hedge Fund Asset Raising Help, Hedge Fund Capital Raising Help

Financial Advisor Marketing

Financial Advisor vs. Family Office Marketing

Today I received this question from a New York based hedge fund marketer.

Question:When marketing to financial advisors for your hedge fund, what necessary steps do you need to take dealing with these guys? Is it any different that dealing with family offices?

Answer: Marketing to financial advisors is much different than marketing to single and multi-family offices. Here are the main differences between the two that I have noticed:

• Family ffices have more established due diligence procedures, often involving consultants or internal analysts which do nothing but look at hedge funds or alternative investment products.
• In my experience financial advisors seem much more sensitive and motivated by how they will earn a commission or income from the transaction whereas many family offices charge rich enoughfees that this is less of an issue.
• While some financial advisors may take 16-24 months to really get “on board” with a relevant hedge fund manager, understand your investment process and possibly invest most will come to terms a bit before then. Family offices on the other hand often take 18-24 months just to complete theirdue diligence and committee meetings, it is a very long sales process.
• Both family offices and financial advisors require genuine relationship-building efforts and tenacity
• Financial advisors have lower minimum asset levels for what they will consider investing. 90% of family offices only seriously consider investing in hedge funds with at least $75M-$100M, and many require $250-$300M or even $1B in assets under management.
• Family offices are more tight lipped. It will take more effort to develop a relationship, meet in person and get clear feedback on why or why a hedge fund is a good fit for what they are looking for.
• Family offices are harder to identify in the first place. Financial advisors are easier to find, there are more of them and they advertise more openly. Some family offices advertise but many stay below the radar and some purposefully don’t even have a website.
• While family offices service to high net worth investors almost exclusively many financial advisors work with a broad spectrum of client types – this might require more caution by them and your fund in marketing products to them. It might also mean sorting through more financial advisors to find one with several HNW clients.
• From a legal standpoint there may be other precautions your fund should take but I am not a legal expert so I can’t provide any guidance within that space.

- Richard

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Permanent Link: Financial Advisor Marketing

Tags: Financial Advisor Marketing, Marketing to Financial Advisors, Marketing to Family Offices, Multi-Family Office Marketing, Financial Advisor Marketing Plan

Sales Training Motivation

Sales Training Motivation Video

Here is a great video from Gitomer on the importance of life long learning and how it contributes to sales and your daily levels of motivation.

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Tags: Sales Training Motivation, Sales Team Motivation, Sales Force Motivation, Sales Training Motivation, Motivation in Sales, Hedge Fund Sales, Investment Sales, Free Sales Motivation

Pain Free Selling

Pain Free Hedge Fund Marketing

Here is a short video on pain free selling. If you have read a lot of marketing and sales books many will recommend that you find your customer’s pain. I agree with Jeffrey Gitomer though that in the hedge fund world you should build marketing efforts based on relationships, positive solutions and goals. Here’s a clip on this idea:

Permanent Link: Pain Free Hedge Fund Marketing

Tags: Pain Free Selling, Pain Free Hedge Fund Marketing, Relationship Based Investment Sales