In a previous blog post, we explained how a thought leadership platform is a key to scaling your commercial real estate syndication business. We outlined what a thought leadership platform is, what it will achieve, and the three pillars of a thought leadership platform (attract, develop, and scale).
Once you have attracted your ideal avatar to your website using your thought leadership platform, the next step is to capture leads. Then, you want to develop your relationship with them. More specifically, you need to build substantive relationships with prospective passive investors. Keep in mind, I am not a securities attorney. However, if you want to raise money using the 506(b) exemption, you must have a pre-existing and substantive relationship with your investors. The way to scale this process is to use automation.
In this blog post, I will outline an automated process a 506(b) apartment syndicator uses to develop substantive relationships with prospective passive investors.
1. Create a lead magnet
The best way to capture leads automatically is through a lead magnet. This is the main call-to-action on your website and should be “above the fold” (i.e., visible without having to scroll down) or a “pop-up” on your home page.
The type of lead magnet will depend on your ideal target. As a syndicator, your target is passive investors. Therefore, the lead magnet should be a piece of content that is valuable to accredited investors.
Here is where automation comes into play. Whenever someone downloads a lead magnet, they get tagged as “downloaded” in your system. People who are tagged as “downloaded” will not only automatically receive the lead magnet, but all future educational emails as well, like your weekly newsletter.
2. Join the club
After they have downloaded the lead magnet, the next step in the funnel is to get the investor to join your club. To download the lead magnet, they just provided their email address. Now, the action item to join the club is to fill out a detailed questionnaire.
After they download the lead magnet, send an automatic email asking them to complete your questionnaire. Example questions to include are:
- First and last name
- Mobile phone
- Accredited investor status
- How much are you looking to invest?
- Tell us about your investing experience and what you are looking for?
If they remain tagged as “downloaded” after receiving the initial questionnaire email, continue sending automatic follow-up emails every week or so until they either fill out the questionnaire or unsubscribe.
3. Schedule a call
At the end of the questionnaire, include an option to schedule a phone call with you or someone on your team. If they do not schedule a call after completing the questionnaire, send an automatic email asking them to schedule a call until they either do so or unsubscribe from the list.
When they call, tag them in your CRM as “deal ready” to trigger an automated action adding them to your email list of investors who have been vetted to receive emails about actual deals.
How to automatically raise more money?
In the 3-step process above, besides the upfront time investment to set up your automation system, your ongoing time commitment is low.
Once someone is attracted to your website and downloads the lead magnet, they are automatically sent the questionnaire. They continue to automatically receive emails until they complete the questionnaire. Once they complete the questionnaire, they are asked to schedule a phone call. They continue to automatically receive emails until they schedule a phone call. All you need to do is check your calendar and hop on the Zoom call or phone. Once the phone call is completed, you change their tag to “deal ready” and you have a potential investor reviewing your deals.
With this process, the number of investors you have isn’t limited by manually trying to get people on the phone. While a person is moving through your funnel towards the phone call, you can focus your energy on other tasks, like marketing your thought leadership platform in order to attract even more investors into your automated process. Hence, automatically raising more money from more investors.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.
