This posting is a follow-up to The Steadyhand Diaries, which were published in the Globe Investor magazine in May.  These postscripts are focused on things that didn’t get much space in the article.  But let me start with a warning: this is an introspective piece and will only be of interest to people who want to learn more about how we run our business (simply) and how we think (scary).

The lack of words in the Diaries devoted to marketing was deceptive, because Neil, Scott and I have spent a ton of time on it over the last two years.  While our biggest and most important challenge is to deliver above-average returns to our clients, we’ve also got to have clients to deliver those returns to.  We need to build awareness with our target client, the ‘engaged investor’ and separate ourselves from the rest of the pack.

There are lots of disadvantages to being a new investment company – no publishable track record, limited budget, no brand awareness – but we focused on the advantages we have.  A fresh sheet of paper is a wonderful thing.

• In the investment business, size is death, so being a small firm with ‘right-sized’ managers is a good thing.
• Our independence and employee ownership is an asset.
• Our investment approach is unique and can’t be replicated by the large institutions (i.e. concentrated, all-cap portfolios).
• We have partnered ourselves with seasoned managers who aren’t available to most investors.
• We have a great website, which Scott, Neil and Burnkit put together.
• We are decent communicators and like to write and speak, which is not the case with most investment professionals.
• And a biggie, Steadyhand is run by an investment professional, not a marketing executive.  We think like investors and our key decision-making criteria is – Is this the way we want our money invested...our account serviced...our results reported?

So that’s all good, but we had to find a balance between being taken seriously – a firm people will trust with their money – and being edgy and different.  The ‘Don’t Fear the Bear’ campaign was our initial attempt at defining that balance, but we went through all kinds of wacky ideas to get there. 

We live in a city littered with 1-800-GOT-JUNK trucks, so we talked about parking and driving ‘environmentally friendly’ vehicles around town.  We thought of planting Steadyhand golf balls in the bush at high-end courses.  Scott floated the idea of hiring a student to walk around the downtown in a few cities with a bear suit and a Steadyhand briefcase.  And we explored the idea of a YouTube commercial, although we couldn’t get Neil to do a spot on transparency while naked.

So what is our marketing strategy?  I was afraid you’d ask that.

I’m not sure you can call it a strategy, but there are two keys elements to what we do – our core philosophy and the website.

Everything we do should reinforce our investment and business philosophy, whether we’re being serious, funny, edgy, objective, subjective or hopefully thoughtful.  We invest and run our business differently than other firms.  We have a view; we’re not just asset gatherers.  We want all our contact with people, in whatever form it takes, to be guided by that.

The second key: All roads lead to www.steadyhand.com.  It is our hub.  For our clients and interested investors, the website is the door into Steadyhand.  How are we managing your money?  What are you invested in?  How is your account doing?  What you should care about? 

Despite being a new firm, we are investing significant dollars, time and thought in the site.  It is a large part of Scott’s life.    

How do we get more people on those roads to the website?  The research, writing and public appearances help.  We have worked hard to connect to different players on the web (bloggers, planners, journalists, and other websites) and support their efforts.  We think straight talk on industry and investment issues builds awareness.  There are some journalists doing it, but the industry is so dominated by the big institutions that on controversial products and/or industry practices the silence is deafening. 

At the end of the day, a big part of our marketing strategy has to be patience.  We know it takes time to build trust and accumulate an investment record.  In the meantime, we are going to pound the pavement, across Canada and on the web, to build a network of people that know who we are and what we do.  From there, we hope our approach, client returns and sterling personalities will bring the right clients to us.