N5R has had unmatched success, helping real estate projects to sell all over the world. Today we’re taking another look back at one of our successful projects and sharing the marketing lessons that we learned.
The Challenge
This particular project wasn’t about selling real estate, but about raising capital. N5R was asked to help with the creation of a real estate fund and tasked with the challenge of raising millions in capital to be invested in various real estate projects. The problem was that this real estate fund would essentially be competing with all the major banks and mutual funds and had a relatively small marketing budget to work with. This meant we really had to take some time and sort out how we would differentiate ourselves from the banks in the eyes of our investors.
The Strategy
One of the biggest issues many investors have when dealing with large banks or mutual funds is that they are seen as nothing more than a number. Call up a bank’s customer service and they won’t ask for your name, they’ll ask for your account number. This is where we realized we could set ourselves apart.
By positioning this real estate fund as the fund that truly cares about its investors we would give the fund an edge over traditional banks. The question that now remained was how we would execute this positioning on such a low budget? We did it by taking our marketing online and leveraging the power of 3 key marketing tools.
1. The Power Of Video
We looked closely at the major banks and mutual fund sites and one thing stuck out—they were all pretty bland. They were filled with serious text explaining their products, but had very little character.
We wanted this real estate fund’s site to be different. By giving it a sense of authenticity, investors would be able to relate to it more easily. We did this by incorporating video into the site wherever possible. We had the owner of the fund tell the story of how this fund came together. We created a bio section for the employees, where photos of each employee linked to a video of them telling investors a bit about themselves and why they personally are excited about the fund. We even filmed customer testimonials to let prospective investors hear about the fund from fellow investors. The whole site allowed prospects to navigate easily without having to do too much reading and gave the fund a much homier and authentic feel.
2. The Power Of Hubspot
We recommended the use of Hubspot’s software for this project. This marketing software is a must have for in-bound marketers. It allows you to easily and efficiently build a site with the specifications you need. On top of that, it gives you the analysis capabilities you’ll need to track your leads and build an understanding of your prospects. The Hubspot software also allows you to easily link pages to your social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. All of this made navigation easier for the investors and made tracking potential investors easier on us.
3. The Power of Blogging
We began publishing blogs and linked them to our social media accounts. We used a very caring tone as the voice of these blogs and made sure they were full of content that investors truly cared about. We talked about current trends and market conditions, but most importantly we didn’t just give them the good news. Unlike bank recommendations, which tend to focus on positive events and when investors should buy, our blogs gave the whole story and often recommended selling. Providing these investors with more objective content allowed them to further trust this real estate fund and gave them the sense that we really understood them.
Lessons
With the utilization of Hubspot, online video and blogging, we were able to successfully attract investors to this relatively small fund over the major banks and mutual fund. Moreover we took away some valuable lessons when it comes to raising Capital.
Don’t let a budget tie your hands
Just because your marketing budget is small doesn’t mean you can’t compete with the larger brands. Think a small marketing budget as an opportunity to get more creative. Leverage the power of digital marketing with social media, blogging and pay per click. This small real estate fund managed to compete with the major banks and mutual funds without having to use TV, Radio, or any other expensive traditional media.
Set Yourself Apart
Analyze the competition. Make sure you understand everything they do and use what they’re not doing well to differentiate your business. In this case our competition was banks and mutual funds, but we were able to differential our small real estate fund by making customers believe we cared more about them the larger faceless organizations.
If you want to learn more about how to attract investors to your real estate project, apply to our exclusive one-day Condo Mastery seminar.
Watch the video below to hear about Condo Mastery directly from world-renowned condo and sales and marketing expert, Roman Bodnarchuk, and click APPLY NOW to learn if you qualify.
