Since COVID-19 maintaining Limited Partners engagement is a top priority for Private Equity Firms
Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with nine individuals who are the heads of investor relations for major general partners. We asked what was at the top of their list in terms of operational challenges. Across the board, the most commonly mentioned issue was lack of limited partners engagement.
What can investor relations teams do to increase LP engagement? Our recommendations focus on four areas:
- Creating an outreach plan
- Leveraging video
- Using a secure LP portal
- Measuring engagement to inform follow-up activities
We explain these recommendations below.
How to Keep Limited Partners Interested and Involved
1. Develop and follow an outreach plan. It’s vital that you have a strategy for when and what you email to LPs. At a minimum, your plan should indicate what the next few weeks will look like—who you’re contacting, what the focus of the outreach is, etc. Many types of information that create awareness of your firm can be used: New investments, new fund closings, employee spotlights, and thought leadership from partners are just some of the options. If you’re unsure about cadence and content, there’s nothing wrong with asking your audience. Conduct a quick survey using a free tool like Google Survey or Survey Monkey to get their input.
2. Start sharing information using videos. It’s well known that the human attention span is getting shorter all the time. And with many people working from home today—and dealing with countless distractions in many cases—it’s harder than ever for people to absorb and comprehend what they’re reading. Taking the best of your emails and expanding on their content in videos or audio files makes it much easier for people to digest the information you’re providing. You can also drive them to your secure LP portal for more details. (See below.)
3. Provide access to a secure LP portal. LPs want to know that their interactions with you and the content you provide are safe. A portal like ShareSecure has enterprise-grade security that can give them peace of mind as they check out resources you make available. Plus, you can track who has opened and viewed media files or signed documents.
4. Assess engagement to guide further outreach. With a tool like Correspond Market Edition or Correspond Investor Edition, you can gain insight on things like the recipient’s last activity and last open, as well as what content they’ve engaged with. This functionality is helpful for fundraising teams who might, for example, see that someone has opened an email several times but has not reached out—an indicator that they may just need a phone call and a little more information in order to get involved. Noting which email subject lines, days of the week, times of day, etc., are most likely to result in an email being opened is helpful as well.
Using Correspond, you can also pull a report on people who never open emails so that you can connect with them on the phone to ask what their preferred contact method is and note that in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. Altvia’s AIM CRM has a field for that purpose, which helps ensure you’re reaching out to people in a way that they’ll be receptive to. You may learn in your call that the recipient simply needs some assistance with how to manage their email correspondence from you, and a little customer service can do a lot in terms of strengthening relationships.
Staying Top-of-Mind With Investors
Taking the actions above can help you keep LPs engaged and empower your firm to achieve better results. By implementing the right outreach strategy and the right tools to support it, you can get and maintain the attention of anyone whose interest matters to your firm.
Equip your investor relations team with proven technology to increase LP engagement for the long haul. Our guide, How Firms Focus on an Excellent LP Experience, shares content like this and much more. Download the guide below.
