Published: 25 March, 2011

Blog: Dealing with the Bounce

So when we are marketing our funds and no matter what size of email lists we have – we are always faced with the Out-of-Office emails and the undeliverable emails. Out-of-Office emails are simple enough – they will be there later. But what about undeliverable emails – do they require some attention like a friends door that you have knocked on, only to find they have moved away…or even worst.

Whilst initially daunting, dealing with undeliverable emails or bounce-backs are a very simple way to improve your hedge fund marketing. The people who are bouncing back on your list were on your list for a reason, and there was a cost of acquiring that email address either from a meeting, a trip or an event. If you can go into “enquiry mode” and find out who their replacement is can actually restart the sales process again and probably give you the intelligence to also find out where they have moved to.

It’s all about the bounce
Whether it is tennis, cricket or soccer, dealing with the bounce seems to be a euphemism for getting a reliable skill from an unpredictable process. Being able to predict the bounce of the ball, especially in cricket, seems to separate the best from the rest. As an aside, that brings into question the much debated topic of instinct and talent in sport – is it something you are born with or is it developed through hours and hours of practice? If you are interested, have a look at ‘Talent is Overrated’ by Geoff Colvin.

Dealing with the bounce in hedge fund marketing
When we are marketing our funds and no matter what size of email lists we have – we are always faced with the out-of-office emails and the undeliverable emails, the bounces. Out-of-office emails are simple enough – these people will be back. But what about undeliverable emails – do they require some attention – like an old friend’s door that you have knocked on, only to find they have moved away, or even worse?

Whilst initially daunting, dealing with undeliverable emails or bounce-backs is a very simple way to improve your hedge fund marketing. The people who are bouncing are on your list for a reason, and there was a cost of acquiring that email address, either from a meeting, a trip or an event. If you can go into ‘enquiry mode’ and find out who their replacement is, you can restart the sales process and probably also find out where they have moved to.

It’s all about the process
In hedge fund marketing and sales, ProFundCom has developed a system called 1080Engage that breaks down this process. Here it is:

1.   Find out who is bouncing – From your mailings make sure you can separate the hard bounces from soft bounces. A soft bounce is out-of-office and a hard bounce is an undeliverable.  If these are being sent to your mailbox you will have to write some filters to do this. The only hedge fund marketing tool that allows you to do this automatically is ProFundCom and it just requires a simple redirect.
2.   Call the people that are bouncing – From the list of bounces, instigate a phone calling exercise run by the account manager to find the replacement contact. If it is unrealistic that the account manager can make the calls then find a suitable person within your organisation. It is key that the person calling has the intelligence to discuss the fund, understand the sales process and potentially arrange a meeting or presentation. Do not give this job to a data collection company as it could be an opportunity lost.
3.   Use a product and process that works – ProFundCom has the ability to take these lists and produce a calling list for the research team to use when following up these leads, which can be delivered on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to the research team. It may be a blatant plug, but nothing else on the market does this!


What does success look like?
What success do people find with this process? Quite a lot

1.   The process keeps the database clean
2.   The process retains your investment in generating leads
3.   Any bounce works to your advantage as you have an excuse to call to find the replacement and the potential to find out where the old contact has moved to.


Yes there are a whole raft of others services like Campaign Master, DotMailer, Constant Contact and more that can do something along these lines – just do a Google search on ’email marketing’. But none of them provides the detail, granularity and hedge fund focus that ProFundCom offers.

If you want to find out how ProFundCom can help you use digital marketing to raise assets schedule a demo here

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