There’s a right way and a wrong way to use the Yellow Pages, newspaper ads and direct mail pieces. When marketing your private money opportunity, you must take care to use the most powerful marketing media available to small business owners today: the internet.

If you’re anything like me, it doesn’t seem like too long ago that we were first hearing about “the information superhighway” and Amazon.com started popping up everywhere (“what the heck is Amazon.com?” I remember thinking to myself on more than one occasion). Since it’s inception and now widespread use across the world, the internet is the most misused and misunderstood marketing medium. Just a tiny fraction of business owners are tapping into it’s vast power and only a small fraction above that use it the right way.

Getting private money investors to place money in your deals is a 

two step process. First, they must learn about your opportunity (most are unaware that investments like yours are available) and secondly they must decide to invest. Blindly assuming the investor knows the in’s and out’s of private mortgage lending or private equity placements is an erroneous assumption.

Your first move in using the internet the right way for getting private money is to educate. You must provide information (without direct solicitation) about what your company does, how you do it and the areas and geographies you operate in. You can provide information through a web site or landing page. Capture visitors contact information so you can send them materials. Focus on enlightening and compelling. Present a strong unique selling proposition that makes you stand out.

Next, think of the internet as a lead generation tool and not a sales tool. Any websites or landing pages (which should be focused on private money and not ‘we buy houses’ or ‘we buy notes’) should be laser-focused on getting prospective private investors to raise their hands and signal themselves out as being qualified. Qualified means they are: able, ready and willing to invest. Make them jump through a few hoops to prove they are ready to meet with you or to receive your prospectus or PPM. Better to have 100 people hungry to learn more about investing with you than to have 1000 people just poking at it with a stick.

Lastly, don’t use the internet as a begging tool. Avoid posting videos on YouTube about how you’re looking for investors who want 10% secured returns on real estate. You know the kind. A guy with a webcam in his office or driving in his car with a bobbling camera telling the viewer all about how he’s got the best thing since sliced bread (yet never seems to explain how). This serves to diminish your credibility in the eyes of any private investor who comes  across you on the web. An unprofessional, unpolished video where you broadcast to the entire world how you need money for your deals isn’t going to endear yourself to many people with money – so skip it.

Ultimately, the efforts you put into marketing your private money opportunity will determine how much money you raise. It’s a simple matter of input and output.