3 Blogs From Private Equity Firms You Should Be Reading

The articles these private equity firms publish to their Insights, Growth Bits, and Updates pages (or any title they’ve given to their blog page) are bubbling up in search queries, making their rounds on LinkedIn, and being opened from the inboxes of stakeholders & prospects eager to learn from their expert insights.

This post is a follow-up to our Ultimate Guide for Private Equity Content Strategy and exemplifies PE Firms that have embraced a content strategy focused on thought leadership.

Private equity firms looking to brand themselves in a major way are dialing in their content strategies and leveraging thought leadership to drive business opportunities. But to stand out as a reputable thought leader in PE, firms need to be consistent not only in building and nurturing their brands but also in developing content that delivers transparency and insights with the necessary nuance. It must be an ongoing effort.

PE deals will always be facilitated within nurtured business relationships. But as relationships are increasingly developed in digital spaces, firms need a targeted approach that meets their prospects where they are — online.

The firms we’ll show you have found footing with their blogs by developing well-oiled content machines that harness the expertise of their thought leaders to deliver value to their target audiences.

If you’re concerned that the effort it takes to produce polished & relevant blog posts may not be worth the upkeep, here are some benefits that may change your mind.

The rewards of an effective content marketing strategy:

Provides value on varied platforms where your stakeholders and prospects live and establishes name recognition, trust, and your reputation as experts.
Valuable content published to your website is great for SEO, making it so the right people find you in their online searches.
Solves problems and provides answers to questions your prospects didn’t even know they had while positioning your firm as forward-thinkers who give actionable advice.
Helps you make an impression now with meaningful insights that create interest and influence future relationships.
Showcases the breadth of knowledge of your team and partners, and shows that you value your people and partnerships. Ultimately this can attract more talent to your team.

Before you kickstart your content strategy, it’s important to emphasize that you need dedicated team members to maintain ongoing blog content creation and its success.

The following firms prioritize people and processes, which in turn creates some of the best private equity insights on the internet. Take a look and see what they’re doing to make meaningful contributions in their space.

Top 3 Movers

01. LLR Partners

If we were handing out superlatives LLR would be a strong contender for “Best Private Equity Firm Content Strategy”. They’ve truly carved out a space in the lower middle market as thought leaders through their GrowthBits blog. We get to work with these all-stars and have experienced firsthand how hard they pushed to be worthy of such high praise.

Here’s a snapshot of their content strategy journey: LLR launched a new site in 2017 and simultaneously started their blog, GrowthBits. Within its first year, growth in organic traffic validated their efforts and they’ve kept their content machine running ever since.

Their success is evident not only in their website traffic, but also in how it’s enabled them to nurture and develop trust and relationships in their partnerships.

The LLR blog has developed into a well-balanced mix between the industries they serve and topics that provide strategic theme direction. They’re also intentional about showing their culture — something that can easily be overlooked in PE — along with maintaining an active Instagram account. We love that their blog not only features insights from the LLR team but also highlights expert voices within their portfolio companies.

In addition to GrowthBits, LLR develops an annual Growth Guide, an eBook comprised of their top blog articles and insights from their CEOs, CFOs, and Heads of HR and Sales. This downloadable pdf serves as another content piece LLR uses to codify its knowledge and help its companies grow and scale.

LLR Web Page to download their growth guide

LLR Partners Headline Examples:

02. Carlyle Group

As one of the biggest names in private equity, even before the dawn of content marketing, the Carlyle Group has grown a powerful platform for excelling with thought leadership.

While you may be smaller than this PE mammoth, it doesn’t mean there’s not something to be learned from them that is relevant to your own content goals.

Carlyle’s Global Insights blog clearly showcases why they are a value-added partner to companies—and all of this is demonstrated through thought leadership that by itself adds material value and credibility. The blog’s superior consistency, theming and headlines, post-presentation and distribution are all key areas we hit on in The Ultimate Content Strategy Guide as recommendations of content done right.

It only takes a quick glance at Carlyle’s LinkedIn to see their authoritative positioning on Building Better Investment Insights. The content shared across LinkedIn only backs up their expertise with this claim.

When users navigate to the Global Insights blog, they’re struck by a super-clean and easy-to-navigate presentation of industry resources. Carlyle organizes its content effectively with three different categories that filter article results on the page. When you find an article that you want to share with a colleague an accessible sidebar list provides the quick capability to do so through your preferred social channel.

Carlyle Group Headline Examples:

03. Edison Partners

“Our Resources” is Edison Partner’s website home for a healthy stock of articles, reports, and webcasts centered on topics to help businesses function effectively and grow.

Immediately when you browse Edison’s content, you’re welcomed by their overall tone—it’s personable, humorous and human—which makes their insights all together markedly approachable.

They format their blog posts to be skimmable and key in on big picture topics like Building a High Impact Board of Directors, framing them from a personal lens.

For example, at the end of the ‘High Impact Board’ post they include a download to the Four Foundations of the Edison Director Network. Adding this PDF shows that they walk the walk by sharing how their insights play out through real-life scenarios.

The opportunity to “Stay in the Know” is prioritized at the top of their home page, so we know they are serious about delivering on their commitment to sharing valuable tools.

As you publish content on a regular cadence that benefits your audiences, make sure there’s a form linked to your website like this one by Edison to generate leads.

Edison Partners Headline Examples:

In Conclusion

These PE firms spark engagement and conversations through their blogs and are active proof that your firm can do it, too. We hope you’ve learned through them that commitment, quality, and a fine-tuned content strategy are the key components to being successful in this pursuit.

If you want to add value to your stakeholders and prospects and position your firm as experts in your industry, we can help you get started. Reach out and we will be glad to help you take the next steps.

3 Blogs From Private Equity Firms You Should Be Reading