506(b) Archives • Marketing Intent

Why Hire a Marketing Firm for a 506(b)?

Some firms offering 506(b) private placements wonder why they would hire a marketing firm. While a 506(b) can be very limited on how you can market the offering, there are a number of ways you can stay in front of financial advisors with compliant marketing, and market your firm and expertise.

We Collaborate with Compliance and Legal Teams

At Marketing Intent, we collaborate with your compliance and legal teams to understand what they are comfortable with in marketing your 506(b). While there are (many!) rules to guide us, comfort levels range as do the “whys” behind a compliance or legal team’s stance on a marketing approach or messaging. Understanding the compliance/legal perspective and any sticking points helps us set the stage for a marketing campaign or materials that are going to make it through the compliance review process and become a reality.

Start from the Ground Up

While there are many limitations on marketing a 506(b) itself, you still have much to market and talk about with advisors. Many firms offering private placements are smaller and may not have brand recognition within financial advisors. That is priority #1. You must build trust with advisors. Raise brand awareness by attending conferences and sending pre- and post-conference emails and sharing posts on social media. No mention of your offering – just your firm, your asset class and key differentiators.

Asset Class and Offering Type

Next up is your asset class. How can you make sure advisors know what you invest in? You want them to think Firm Name = Asset Class. Describe your asset class in terms that are easy to understand and grasp. What lifestyle trends affect demand for your asset class – bring those to light. Then think about your offering type…what education can you provide advisors on how that structure works and how it benefits clients? While advisors are analytical, they still need education – and they still have the same 8-second attention span as the rest of us…so keep it jargon-free and short.

Marketing Intent is skilled at helping firms offering 506(b) offerings market in collaboration with compliance and legal teams…and helping asset managers gain the brand awareness that starts sales conversations. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your firm.

Let’s talk about ways to help your offering stand out with financial advisors, how to sync your sales and marketing efforts and how your PPM can help develop advisors’ trust.

Simplicity and a Good Story

Standing out among the growing number of alternative investment offerings can be difficult. We see many firms dive deep into the jargon of their asset classes to try to explain investment offerings to advisors. And their eyes glaze over. Simplicity and a good story is the key to helping advisors quickly grasp what you’re doing and why.

For example:

Industrial buildings = Amazon packages
Farmland = the need for food
Residential = solving the housing crisis

Sync Marketing & Sales

Once you have your simple story down, it’s time to make sure that your marketing and sales efforts are synced up. I know this can be a sensitive topic for people, because of the battle that marketing and sales can have.

It is really important for us to re-think marketing and sales and how they can help each other be successful with a feedback loop. Whether it’s sales getting feedback on what’s resonating with advisors, what a common objection is, or how something should be explained, marketing can help answer those questions for advisors and help engage them for the sales team.

This can often result in more warm leads and conversations that lead to capital being raised.

Use Your PPM to Build Trust

Once those conversations start leading to capital raising, the next most important thing to do is develop trust with advisors. We don’t often think of the PPM as being a marketing tool, but it needs to be updated continually. Especially depending on how rigid your law firm is on what you can say with or without it being updated in the PPM. For example, if you’ve acquired properties and you haven’t updated your PPM, you may not be able to discuss them with advisors. That looks like a communication gap from their standpoint, versus you being proactive and letting them know what’s happening with your offering.

Updating your PPM can provide advisors with what they need to give their clients updates –and to continue to present your offering and raise capital for it. Get ahead of the curve and think about how you can regularly update your PPM so you can get updates out to advisors and continue to develop their trust.

To recap…

Simplify your sales story. Think about your asset class and what it means to advisors and how it translates –to sync up your marketing and sales efforts, because it is really important for them to have open communication and have a feedback loop.
Plan for your PPM to be updated regularly. This enables you to get information out to advisors quickly, which helps develop trust.

CONTACT US FOR MARKETING HELP

If you need help maximizing your marketing to raise capital, contact Marketing Intent. We have deep experience in the financial services and the alternative investments space.

Let's start your marketing with intent.

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