Lesson from a headline, "A 30-Year Treasury Bond: Probably One of the Most Dangerous Investments You Could Make"

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“A 30-Year Treasury Bond:  Probably One of the Most Dangerous Investments You Could Make” is a great headline. It’s also a great topic.

Why? Because it challenges the average person’s idea of what’s a safe investment. Turning a common idea on its head will attract readers. In this case, it will also do them a service by explaining the downside of investing in 30-year Treasuries.

Kudos to RegentAtlantic Capital for an excellent headline and story idea for their recent press release.

When it’s okay to break the rules

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You can break the rules of grammar and punctuation that you learned as a kid.

I know this intuitively. But I’ve had a hard time coming up with guidelines for when to break the rules. Until now.

I like what Susan Gunelius said in her Entrepreneur.com article, “Copywriting Grammar Ain’t Perfect.”

In simplest terms, you can break any grammar rule in copywriting as long as doing so makes your copy sound conversational and more appealing to your target audience without negatively affecting your business’s professional image.

So, you need to know your audience before you break rules. But that’s another essential element of good communication.

I learned about Gunelius’ article on Kristen King’s InkThinker blog for freelance writers. Thanks, Kristen!

Related post: “It’s okay to end a sentence with a preposition“

"Pack a house with nervous clients?"

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You can help your clients–and yourself–by addressing their financial fears.

In “Pack a house with nervous clients?”, Matthew Homann of the [non]billable hour blog suggests that you offer clients a free financial seminar to which they can invite a friend. Don’t sell at your seminar, but distribute a helpful handout and encourage them to pass it along.

This sounds like a win-win situation for you and your clients. As Homann says, “Your clients (and their hand-picked referrals) will appreciate the information, and look to you as their advisor in times of need.”

Thank you, legal writer June Bell, for pointing me to this website!

 

Will a coupon spur investment management referrals?

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An investment manager recently sent me an email newsletter with a 25% off coupon.

Here’s what the coupon said:

SAVE 25%                                                                     A reminder that as a thank you to our valued clients, those who refer a new managed account relationship to COMPANY NAME will qualify for a credit of one quarter’s management fee.  Please call us for further details about this program.

If you were a client, would this motivate you to make a referral?

Build your team–and your client base–with book clubs

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You can train your staff using a book club, suggests Kirk Hulett of Securities America Inc. in “Move Over Oprah,” published in Practice Management Solutions (Nov./Dec. 2008).

Hulett got me thinking. How about running a financial book club for your clients or prospects? It could deepen your relationship with them as you learn more about what makes them tick.

Vanguard is using LinkedIn

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John Ameriks of The Vanguard Group has posted a question on LinkedIn that’s running under a Vanguard banner.

Plenty of financial professionals post questions on LinkedIn, but this is the first time I’ve seen one running under an advertisement. Click on the banner, and you go to the Vanguard home page.

Will we see more mutual fund company advertising like this?

Have you seen other examples of fund companies trying to leverage social networking?

How effective are efforts like this?

Another great way to annoy a reporter

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I agree with Ed McCarthy about “Seven Ways to Annoy a Reporter,” a sidebar to his “Sharpening Your Media Skills” in the November 2008 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning (available online only to subscribers).

Let me add another: Publish on your blog that “I’m talking with Reporter X about Topic Y for the next issue of Magazine Z.” 

Reporters–and their editors–don’t like to be scooped by anybody. It’s nice that you’re excited by your interview. But spreading the word about the story before it’s published is likely to get you banned from that magazine.

Save your enthusiasm until after the article is published. You will win points for blogging about it then.

 

NOTE: I updated this post on 12/31/19.

Should you say "No" to "Please"?

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People feel passionately about “please.”

“Common sense might tell you that adding ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ to an email will always make it more polite. Common sense would be wrong.” That’s according to David Shipley and Will Schwalbe in Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.

I decided to ask the participants in my workshop on “How to Write Effective Business Emails and Letters” if they think “please” should be optional. “No way!” was their response.

I agree that it’s good to leave “please” in your vocabulary. I’m puzzled by Shipley and Schwalbe’s assertion that it’s “almost impossible to use please in writing without coming across as obnoxious.”

Do you use “please” in emails? Please leave a comment below.

Can financial advisors write blogs and be in compliance?

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An Investment Writing blog reader recently asked, “I was told that licensed financial advisors are not allowed to write blogs as far as compliance is concerned. Is this true?”

It’s not true. But there are constraints.

For more details on the regulatory constraints, read “Finra, SEC rules constrain advisers in blogosphere” by Davis Janowski in Investment News.

You can find links to blogs by some financial advisors in the related posts listed below. 

Related posts:

 

Print newsletter vs. e-newsletter

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Trying to decide between a print newsletter and a newsletter delivered by e-mail? Here are some of the pros and cons.

Print newsletter–Pro

  • Portable
  • More control over look and feel
  • Better for longer documents
  • Stands out more because most people get fewer letters than e-mails


E-newsletter–Pro 

  • Interactive, including links to your website
  • You can track who reads what
  •  Speedy delivery
  • Low cost to send


 Print newsletter–Con

  • High production costs
  • Production and delivery take longer than for e-newsletters

 
E-newsletter–Con 

  • You may not have e-mail addresses for all of your contacts
  • You need permission to add e-mail addresses to your distribution 
  • May get caught in spam filter 
  • Not so good for long articles
  • Less control over look and feel 


Here are links for more information:

  • “Print vs. e-newsletters” by Don Sadler
  • “Printed newsletters vs electronic alternatives” from Newsletters & More

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