"Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips"

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You can’t be an effective financial advisor, if you can’t communicate effectively via e-mail.

Your e-mail subject line is key. If you write a weak subject line, your client or colleague may ignore or even delete your message. Write a strong one, and you’re more likely to get the response you need.

“Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips” by Dennis Jerz does a nice job of critiquing subject lines as he explains how to “write a meaningful subject line.”

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that’s an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Get to the point quickly, or lose your web readers

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“Web content must be brief and get to the point quickly, because users are likely to be on a specific mission.”

I agree with this assertion by Jakob Nielsen, a guru of website usability, in “Writing Style for Print vs. Web.” 

Nielsen gives good pointers for web writing in “How Users Read on the Web.” 

If you don’t please your readers, your website will suffer from a high bounce rate. In other words, readers will quickly desert your website. In “Reduce Bounce Rates: Fight for the Second Click,” Nielsen suggests solutions. They boil down to providing links to relevant information on your website.
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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that’s an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

"Ten Speech Tips for Writing Powerful and Persuasive Presentations"

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“Always work out what you want to achieve before beginning the speech process,” says author Thomas Murrell in “Ten Speech Tips for Writing Powerful and Persuasive Presentations.” 


The same rule applies to your written communications. Figure out your goal ahead of time. Then focus on achieving it. Weed out any content that distracts.


_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that’s an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Vary your paragraph length like NYT columnist Floyd Norris

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It can be painful to read a page full of long sentences and longer paragraphs. That’s why, when I teach “How to Write Investment Commentary that People Will Read,” I suggest that people vary the length of their sentences and paragraphs.

New York Times columnist Floyd Norris illustrates this nicely in the print version of his article“No Profit Without Risk.”

In the print version, a two-line paragraph follows an eight-line paragraph and a 10-line paragraph. The contrast between two vs. eight and ten in the print version is starker than what you’ll see in the online article. By the way, the online article goes by a different title than the print version, so please don’t tell me I got his title wrong.

The short third paragraph comes as a relief. It gives the reader a chance to breathe. Plus, its shortness emphasizes the contrast between the content of the first two paragraphs and third.

In fact, Norris’ opening three paragraphs illustrate a classic article approach that goes like this:

People thought blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

They were wrong.

So, think about mixing up your sentence and paragraph lengths the next time you write. Your readers will reward you by paying attention longer.

"Tired of having too much money at the end of the month?"

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Sometimes you have to say something unexpected to grab your reader’s attention.


Something like, “Tired of having too much money at the end of the month?” That’s a headline that snared me recently. Aren’t you usually concerned about the opposite problem, of having too little money at the end of the month?

In Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath say, “The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns.” 

“Surprise jolts us to attention,” as the Heaths say.

Can you use surprise in your next client communication? PIMCO’s Paul McCulley did it in “A Kind Word for Inflation.”

What should you call your white paper?

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“Should you always label a white paper with the term ‘white paper’?”


Michael Stelzner asks this question on his Writing White Papers blog.

My answer: it depends.

When you say “white paper” to financial advisors, they probably know what you’re talking about. In fact, the term conjures up the image of a helpful tool.

Say “white paper” to an ordinary investor and you’re likely to get a blank look. In this case, it’s far better to call it a “special report” or even just an “article.”

What do you think?

"The Top Seven B2B Communications Mistakes"

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“The Top Seven B2B Communications Mistakes” offers some useful advice for investment and wealth management marketers, whether you’re targeting businesses or individuals.


For example:

  1. Your content should reflect your prospects’ top concerns.
  2. “Don’t sell. Inform.”

When I review investment and wealth management firms’ content, I often find it focused on them, not on their clients. It takes a mighty motivated buyer to plow through content that takes that approach.

As for informing instead of selling, I don’t think you can follow this rule 100% of the time. But many firms could benefit from taking this advice more frequently.

"Never use a fancy word when a simple one will do"

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That’s the bottom line of “Why Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds” by Scott Berkun.

Moreover, he warns, “Pay attention to who uses the most jargon: it’s never the brightest. It’s those who want to be perceived as the best and the brightest, something they know they are not.”

Berkun offers a list of management jargon that he’d like to ban.

Can you think of financial jargon that should join the list of forbidden terms? Let’s start with “mitigate.” 

You’ll find more suggestions in “Words to avoid in your investment communications with regular folks.”

"Thought Leadership: Are You Making It or Faking It?"

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Plenty of investment and wealth management firms try to distinguish themselves as so-called “thought leaders.” Many will fail.

“Thought Leadership: Are You Making It or Faking It?” by Fiona Czerniawska says that clients seek:

1. Something relevant to challenges they face
2. Something new and different
3. Something that is supported by hard evidence – a single case study or recycling second-hand ideas is not enough

When you write white papers, make sure you show how your ideas can impact the things your clients care about. If you fail at this, your reader may not progress beyond your first paragraph.

If you can also say something different about a topic that’s in the news, that’s even better.

Don’t use your white paper to pitch your product or service. As Czerniawska advises her consulting firm clients: 

In this context, a call-to-action – perhaps some benchmarking data for clients to compare themselves to or a tool for evaluating their performance – is more likely to result in consulting work in the long-term because it doesn’t try to sell too unsubtly in the short-term.

"Relevant and useful content earns trust. And trust sells."

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“Relevant and useful content earns trust. And trust sells.”


I love this tag line from Bob Leonard’s Bolen Communications.

It reminded me of why newsletters are so powerful. Why? Because newsletters that convey a sense of who you are–and that provide relevant and useful content–build trust. And trust sells, just as Bob Leonard says in his tag line. 

Another thing about newsletters. The importance of building trust through relevant, useful content argues against putting a lot of promotional copy in your newsletter. Sales writing may interfere with your building your relationship with your audience.