Copyblogger Brian Clark accurately notes in “How to write exquisite subheads” that subheads can turn scanners into readers.
I especially like his advice that a subhead should “express a clear and complete benefit.”
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Financial advisors who want to communicate effectively will follow the example set by Bill Carter in “The Scoreboard Can’t Tell You Everything.” Carter’s lesson boils down to this: Put yourself in the mind of the person with whom you’re communicating.
Here’s what Carter, partner and co-found of Fuse, said in his interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times:
In terms of communication, I think that I do my best to try to step away from my own belief system and my own priorities, which are the priorities of a 41-year-old man who’s married and has a young daughter. Instead, I try to evaluate decisions based on what the 25- to-32-year-olds in our office are trying to get out of their career, what they want in a workplace.
Your articles and conversations will be more persuasive when you phrase them in terms of what your clients, prospects, and referral sources care about.
For example, say “Your interests come first because we don’t accept payments from product providers” instead of “We are a fee-only financial advisor.”
Do you apply this rule to your communications? Please share your examples.
Related posts
* Focus on features, not benefits, in your marketing
* Encourage good communication or lose your multi-generational clients
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Copyright law isn’t on the curriculum of most business schools or for CFP or CFA candidates. So it’s not surprising that I’ve seen well-meaning financial advisors unintentionally violate copyright law in their blogs.
What NOT to do
You cannot copy someone’s entire newspaper article or blog post word-for-word, then make it okay by giving credit to the author. This won’t suffice. Not even if you link back to the original article. You are violating copyright law.
When in doubt, paraphrase
U.S. law allows you to quote part of a written work under the doctrine of fair use, which you can read about on the federal copyright website.
Fair use is a murky concept. “There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work,” as it says in the federal government’s FAQ on on “How much of someone else’s work can I use without getting permission?”
As the Copyright Office says:
If you use a copyrighted work without authorization, the owner may be entitled to bring an infringement action against you. There are circumstances under the fair use doctrine where a quote or a sample may be used without permission. However, in cases of doubt, the Copyright Office recommends that permission be obtained.
Your safest course is to simply paraphrase or summarize the article that interests you, while also citing the source. It’s courteous to provide a link to the article, if it’s available online.
Using quotes very selectively will keep you safe, while protecting other authors’ copyright.
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“…the lead is the doorway into every text. Its job, never a minor one, is to draw the reader over the threshold,” says Francis Flaherty in The Elements of Story, p. 201.
The lead, also spelled lede, is the first sentence or paragraph of your blog post or article. Write a weak lead and you may lose your audience at the very beginning of your piece.
When you write your lead, Flaherty suggests you ask “What lead will prompt in the reader the most irresistible questions, questions powerful enough to propel him through that doorway and into the story?” p. 202.
When you write an investment or wealth management blog post, the most powerful leads often pose a problem faced by your readers and dangle the possibility of a solution. Have you written a powerful lead of this type? Please post a link to your blog post, so we can see how you’ve mastered the lead.
Must an article about how to prevent another Flash Crash be difficult to understand?
Not if you use plain English, as Floyd Norris did in “Time for Regulators to Impose Order in the Markets,” his May 14 column in The New York Times.
Here’s Norris’ first sentence:
“If your machine makes a mistake that the dumbest human would never make, then maybe you don’t have a very good machine.”
Even a child can understand Norris’ lead sentence. Norris created an image in my mind that made it easier for me to follow the rest of his column about the changes he believes are needed for the New York Stock Exchange.
The next time you write an investment or financial article, try to use plain language to introduce your topic. Your readers will thank you.
Related posts
* Financial writers clinic: Lessons from Floyd Norris of The New York Times
* Vary your paragraph length like New York Times columnist Floyd Norris
* Financial writers clinic: Rhythm can help you
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…you may also enjoy my free monthly e-newsletter with practical tips for your client communications. You’ll also find at least one investment or wealth management article.
I often report on presentations to the Boston Security Analysts Society, so you know you’ll see topics of interest to CFA charterholders.
Topics in the May 2010 issue included
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Adults often struggle to improve their writing skills. That’s why I’ve become a fan of the teaching techniques of @LindaAragoni. In this article, Linda shares a technique for cutting the number of grammar errors in your written communications.
Do you have trouble correcting your writing for grammar errors?
I know I do.
I suspect you do, too.
Here is a simple way to make correcting your writing easy.
First, keep a list of the grammar errors you make regularly. Most people make a few errors repeatedly. An error you make once in five years is no big deal, but a grammar error you make once every five sentences is an error you need to eliminate.
Your teachers probably have told you about your habitual errors for years. Errors like sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-together sentences top the list. Subject-verb agreement errors and problems with pronoun-antecedent agreement are not far behind. Chances are you know how to correct those grammar errors if you see them.
To make sure you see grammar errors so you can correct them, read your completed paper looking for just your most frequent error. If your most common error is writing sentence fragments, scrutinize each group of words between terminal punctuation marks to see if it is a true sentence. Do not worry about anything else when you look for fragments. If you see any other kind of error, highlight it to fix later.
After you finish reviewing your paper for your most common mistake, go through it looking for your second most common error.
Keep doing that one-error-at-a time correction until you have examined your paper for each of your habitual errors.
When you correct for a single error at a time, take a break between errors. Do not try to cram the editing into the hour before a paper is due. If you do your editing in 5-10 minute sessions spread over a day or more, you will do a better job and experience much less stress.
Although this single-minded correction strategy sounds as if it would be terribly time-consuming, it can be done quite quickly. And it pays off quickly, too. If you can eliminate from your writing three errors you make habitually, your writing will show a big improvement immediately.
Linda Aragoni’s one-mistake-at-a-time strategy grew out of teaching grammar study skills to first-year college students using their error-riddled papers as practice exercises. Her e-book Grammar Abusers Anonymous teaches mature high school and adult students how to master grammar without paying tuition. Copyright 2010 Linda G. Aragoni.
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Somebody was on the ball in Northwestern Mutual’s marketing department or ad agency.
I like their new ad, which I spotted in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. You can view the complete ad on Northwestern’s website.
I like this ad because it
* Plays off a timely topic as well as people’s emotions
* Is written in a conversational tone, without any 10 dollar words or extensive compliance disclosures
Nice job!
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You’ll learn the names of some useful resources for writers in this post. But first I must tell you why writing this blog post was so hard for me.
Blogs? What blogs?
“10 blogs I can’t live without” is a topic that participants in the WordCount Blogathon are supposed to post about on May 10. When I read the topic I thought “Blogs? What blogs?” I simply don’t consume blogs as blogs. I’m more likely to catch my favorite bloggers on Twitter.
On the other hand, some of my readers probably don’t think of me as a blogger because they visit my blog through my monthly e-newsletter or my LinkedIn status updates. They might respond to the WordCount Blogathon assignment by saying, “I don’t read any blogs.”
People consume their online information in different ways. This assignment reminded me that it’s important to make information available to readers in the format they prefer.
Online resources for writers
Here are some of my favorite online resources for writers. They’re not all blogs. Nor have I limited my list to 10.
B2B example
If I were stranded on a desert island with such slow Internet connection speed that I could only read one e-newsletter or blog, I’d choose Michael Katz’s E-Newsletter on E-Newsletters. It has a charming style that sets a good example for business-to-business writers communicating.
Attracting readers to your blog
Some blogs do a great job of showing how to write copy that captivates readers. When I began blogging I regularly read Brian Clark’s Copyblogger and Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger. More recently, I’ve found some good ideas on Nicholas Cardot’s SiteSketch. They’re worth reading, although I enjoyed them more when their creators wrote more of the content.
Grammar, punctuation, usage
When I’ve got a grammar, punctuation or word usage questions, sometimes I’ll just Google it. But I often don’t trust the answers I find. This is when I mosey on over to Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty’s Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing or the Purdue Online Writing Lab. By the way, remember how I mentioned delivering content the way that readers like to receive it? Fogarty has been podcasting her blog posts for awhile. She’s also on Twitter and Facebook. Plus she has published in old-fashioned print book format.
Onlinestylebooks lets you search 42 style books at once. It’s a relatively new site, so I haven’t used it much.
For occasional tips, I follow APStylebook on Twitter. They’re the folks who officially changed the spelling from “Web site” to “website” earlier this year. As you may have noticed, I was ahead of them in using “website,” but I still respect them as a style setter.
Some other tweeps with useful style tips include EditorMark, Copyediting, and LawWriting. There are many more worth following. You’ll find them if you’re a Twitter devotee.
Inspiration
Jon Winokur’s Twitter feed, AdviceToWriters, is great for inspiration. I like his book, also called Advice to Writers.
Humor
For word geek humor–yes, there is such a thing–follow FakeAPStylebook on Twitter.
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What suggestions have your clients made to you? Have they suggested new services? Different ways to deliver your services? Listen to what they say. You may discover a new way to build your business.
Marcia’s tip has worked for me. An out-of-state client asked if I delivered writing workshops virtually, rather than in person. Her question eventually spawned my first teleclass.
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