Tip for organizing information in your blog posts and articles
“Group similar points together. They gain power from consolidation and lose power from interruption.”
–Francis Flaherty, author of The Elements of Story, p. 89
Tip for bloggers from novelist Will Self
Bloggers should constantly be on the lookout for topics. Inspiration often hits at awkward times. That’s why I like the following advice from British novelist Will Self.
Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.
I recently wished I’d taken a notebook onto the elliptical machine. A women’s magazine sparked a new blog post idea. I was so worried about forgetting the idea that I didn’t enjoy the rest of my workout.
Self was quoted in “Ten rules for writing fiction (part two),” which appeared in The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper.
Financial writers clinic: Lessons from Floyd Norris of The New York Times
I’m a big fan of New York Times columnist Floyd Norris. His Feb. 27 column illustrates techniques you can use for your financial articles and blog posts.
Lesson 1: Make your title provocative–and consider giving away your conclusion. “Think Banks Are Out of the Woods? Maybe Not,” says Norris’ title.
The title achieves two positive results. First, it challenges a growing number of pundits who believe banks are in much better shape than one year ago. That’s provocative. Folks will want to know the reasons behind his statement.
Second, the title gives away the article’s main point. Making your conclusion clear up front will attract more people than a title that doesn’t express an opinion, such as “Percentage of bad bank loans” or even “Bad bank loans soar.” Busy people want to get a sense upfront of whether an article will justify their spending the time to read it.
Lesson 2: A startling fact will hook your readers in your opening sentence. Norris opens with “More than $1 in every $10 that American banks have outstanding in loans is lent to a troubled borrower, a ratio far higher than previously seen in the quarter-century that such numbers have been compiled.” I had to continue reading after that opening.
Lesson 3: Lead with your message, not your source, as I’ve written on this blog. Norris didn’t mention the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation report that’s the source of his data until his third paragraph. Naming your source boosts the credibility of your article or blog post. But it’s usually not a particularly interesting piece of information.
Lesson 4: Use graphs or some sort of graphic. A non-text element attracts the eyes of people who might otherwise skip an article. However, Norris’ graphs could have been stronger if they were integrated into the layout of the article and carried more descriptive text.
Lesson 5: Your ideas count. Norris always has something interesting to say. I might read his articles even if they weren’t well organized.
Image courtesy of pakora at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Related posts
* Vary your paragraph length like NYT writer Floyd Norris
* Financial writers clinic: Getting rid of “mitigate”
* Financial writers clinic: Rhythm can help you
* Financial writers clinic: Great title, lousy intro
Guest post: "The Lost Art of the Thank You Card"
I’m a big fan of saying “Thank you.” So I’m delighted to feature this guest post by Suzanne Muusers of Prosperity Coaching. Suzanne is a consultant to financial advisors. I met her through Twitter.
The Lost Art of the Thank You Card
By Suzanne Muusers
By Suzanne Muusers
What would happen to your referrals if you wrote five thank you cards per week? Would your client relationships deepen? Would you spread goodwill and kindness?
I’ve been sending out a lot of hand-written thank you cards lately. I find really nicely designed thank you cards at Trader Joe’s and AJ’s and I just get the urge to send them. You wouldn’t believe the response I get when the recipient receives the card. I usually get a phone call from them gushing about “taking the time to send a hand-written card” and “thank you so much for thinking of me.”
We have become such a digital world we forget about the impact such a simple action can have. We now have email, ezines, newsletters, evite.com, and the like. While it’s nice to save paper on such niceties and be “green,” getting a card in the mail is like getting a present. When you send someone a card through the mail, I am betting that it stays on their desk for quite some time.
As I glance over my desk, I see a hand-written card I received from a financial advisor I met last month at the Financial Planning Association meeting. He asked me for advice on where he should get coach training. I gave him a few choice pointers and several days later received a beautiful zen-like card from him thanking me for the tips. You can bet that I’ll keep that card for a long time.
So how can you use thank you cards in your business? What occasions would be suitable for a thank you card?
How about:
- Birthday cards
- Nice to meet you cards
- Thank you for the referral cards (as part of a written referral program)
- Congratulations for your achievement
- Sympathy cards
- Wedding cards
Maybe thank you cards should be part of your Marketing Plan and part of your week!
Suzanne Muusers is a business coach, marketing expert, and a sales and marketing speaker based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her coaching program for financial advisors, The Prosperous Advisor™ , focuses on revenue-building activities.
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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
If you’re struggling to pump out a steady flow of good blog posts, check out my five-week teleclass for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved
Can you over-use "you" in your marketing materials?
You may be surprised by my suggestion that you can overuse “you” in your written communications. I’ve said many times that investment and wealth managers speak too much about “we,” the firm, and too little about “you,” the client or prospect.
Writing reader-focused text is important. However, dropping “you” and “your” multiple times in every sentence is overkill.
Here are some usage suggestions that emerged from my conversation with designer Margaret Patterson, author of the popular pitch book posts on this blog.
- Don’t use “you” when it isn’t clear who “you” is. Make it clear whether “you” refers to the client, financial advisor, consultant, or some other individual or group.
- Don’t use “you” prematurely. Writing “We help you reach your financial goals” isn’t appropriate when you’re addressing a prospect who may never become a client. “We can help you reach your financial goals” would be okay. Better yet, “We help clients reach their financial goals.”
- Simply using “you” won’t convince your clients that you care about them. You must back up your words with actions.
- Don’t write “you” in fancy fonts that are hard to read. If used too much in any font, “you” makes a document tedious.
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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
If you’re struggling to pump out a steady flow of blog posts, check out my five-week teleclass for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved
Financial writers clinic: Getting rid of “mitigate”
Words with Latin roots, such as “mitigate,” drain life out of your writing. Let’s spruce up a sentence by deleting “mitigate.”
Here’s a sentence from Gretchen Morgenson’s “Credit Cards and Reluctant Regulators“:
Alliance is not the only company working to mitigate the effects of new credit card restrictions.
I’d rewrite it as
Alliance is not the only company trying to work around new credit card restrictions.
What do you think? Better or worse? Clearer or more muddled?
"You" can help your job hunting "thank you"
Which “thank you” are you more likely to read? The note that opens with 1) “Thank you for meeting with me” or 2) “Your company’s disciplined approach to…”?
Number 1 makes me yawn. “Another lame thank you note,” I say to myself, although I’m impressed the writer bothered to write when so many people don’t.
Number 2 makes me think, “Hey, this person listened to me! They’re writing about one of my company’s key messages.”
Recruiters and career counselors tell job hunters their communications should focus on the company that they’re pitching instead of on themselves. One way to achieve this is to start your “thank you” note with the words “you” or “your,” and then convey your appreciation later.
A friend tried a variation on this when requesting an informational interview from a senior executive. He opened by citing an article that had quoted the exec. “You said ‘…’ in this article, which interested me because…’ ” He got the interview.
The power of “you” isn’t just for job hunters. It boosts the power of most communications–blogs, brochures, articles, websites, white papers, and more. Try it and see!
Related posts
* Which topic should you discuss in your client email’s first paragraph?
* Your mail has three seconds to grab your reader’s attention
* To “dear” or not to “dear” in your email
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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
If you’re struggling to pump out a steady flow of good blog posts, check out my five-week teleclass for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved
Five-Week Writing Teleclass for Financial Advisors: "How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read"
Blogging has become a “must” for many independent and fee-only financial advisors. It’s a great way to connect with current and potential clients. Blogging also helps drive traffic to your website and cement your reputation as a leader in your field. But many advisors struggle to crank out a steady flow of compelling blog posts. That’s why you need to enroll in “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” my NEW five-week teleclass for financial advisors.
You will learn how to
o Generate and refine ideas for blog posts that will engage your readers
o Organize your thoughts before you write, so you can write more quickly and effectively
o Edit your writing, so it’s reader-friendly and appealing
The inaugural class will be offered exclusively to my newsletter subscribers and to clients. Participants in the initial class will receive a 50% discount in return for participating fully and providing detailed feedback.
When you participate fully in this class, you’ll end up with one polished blog post–and a process you can follow to generate many more.
How you’ll get there
o Small class–limited to 12 advisors–so you can participate, not just listen passively. Research shows that people learn best when they act on new information.
o Classes will meet on five successive Thursdays–Feb. 25, March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25– on a teleconference call from 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
o Convenience because you can dial into the weekly phone calls from anywhere–and classes are recorded, in case you can’t attend “live”
o Guidance through a step-by-step process of writing blog posts, including
o Generating blog post topics
o Organizing your thoughts before you write
o Positioning your blog post to appeal to readers
o Editing your posts to boost their reader-friendliness
o “Hands on” practice through completing your weekly homework assignments
o Resources for the future because you can download
o Class recordings
o Class handouts
o E-booklet
o Feedback from a seasoned financial writer-editor whose clients range from the country’s largest asset managers to solo professionals to trade and retail publications
Register Now!
TESTIMONIALS
What advisors say about other workshops by Susan Weiner, CFA
o “I found this presentation very helpful because it focused on key elements to being an influential but understandable advisor.”
o “Susan’s presentation brought to life the benefits of better writing.”
o “Great tips for jump starting my client communications”
o “Susan’s presentation made me want to go back to my office and juice up my emails and letters.”
DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS?
Contact Susan at learn@investmentwriting.com or 617-969-4509.
Bloggers, one theme per post, please
Blog posts aren’t books. You only have time to make one major point per post.
In support of my thesis, I offer three quotes from The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing by Francis Flaherty, an editor at The New York Times.
- “A writer is like a gardener who knows one tree can serve as a focal point in a garden, but that many trees will just muck up the impact of each. Also, a good writer realizes that readers have the mental room to store just one large thought from a story,” pages 32-33.
- “A subject is not a story; it is many possible stories. To write is to choose, which is to exclude,” p. 33.
- “No detail belongs in a story if it doesn’t serve some role therein. As Chekhov said, don’t put a gun on stage in Act I if it doesn’t get used by the end of the play,” p. 37
What do YOU think of Flaherty’s quotes?
By the way, if you’re struggling to crank out a steady stream of readable blog posts, consider enrolling in my five-week class for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read.”
Related posts
* Five great writing tips: They’re not just for ads
* Financial writers, lead with your message, not your source
* Bloggers’ top two punctuation mistakes
NOTE: On May 25, 2021, I updated the link to my financial blogging class and to my related posts.
Can you make a case for "mitigate"?
Good writing uses strong verbs. Strong verbs are usually short. Thus, I strongly dislike the word “mitigate.” In fact, I can’t think of any time that I’d use mitigate instead of a synonym.
Some of my favorite synonyms for “mitigate” in the context of an investment or wealth management article include
* Cut
* Ease
* Reduce
Can you think of a case where it would be essential to use “mitigate” instead of a synonym? I’d like to know.