Susan B. Weiner Investment Writing - Susan B. Weiner Blog

Quarterly investment letters are central to many asset managers’ communications with their clients. That’s why I’m asking your help in defining what makes them great.

Please answer my six-question survey. I’ll report on the results in a future blog post.

You inspired me. Thanks!

Investment professionals care intensely about these letters, as I learned when I asked members of  my LinkedIn Groups the following question:

The responses to this “one word” question inspired this survey. I feel fortunate to belong to this community. Thank you!

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Investment and wealth management executives like to talk about themselves. Who doesn’t? But this hurts their firms when it’s reflected in their marketing.

Photo: World Series Boxing

What financial advisors say about you vs. me–or we

A group of financial professionals helped me test my belief that talking about “you,” the audience, is more powerful than discussing “me”–or, by extension, “we,” the company that’s marketing to you.

Here’s the question I asked participants in “The Power of You: The Secret of Great Blogs that Boost Your Readership”:

Which introduction do you prefer? Introduction #1 focused on you, the audience or Introduction #2 focused on me, Susan. Explain your choice.

Prior to asking the question, I’d introduced my webinar in two ways. In Introduction #1, I’d discussed the benefits my audience would receive from watching my webinar. In Introduction #2, I described my blogging success and other credentials related to the webinar’s topic.

You may wonder how my two introductions relate to you, if you’re a financial advisor, investment manager, or wealth manager. In my experience, many financial websites – and other marketing pieces – use Introduction #2. They are about “we, the firm,” not “you,” the prospective client.

The results? A knockout by “you”

Respondents unanimously preferred the introduction focused on “you.” Here are some of their comments about why they preferred a focus on “you” over a focus on the speaker.

• When you spoke about yourself, I stopped listening
• You connects with me, lets me know whether it’s useful
• I don’t care about you, but I do care about what I can do to be successful
• “I” sounds pompous
• It’s not about the speaker, it’s about meeting the need of the target audience.

What this means for you

When writing marketing materials or client communications for your firm,

1. Use “you” more than “we”
2. Communicate in terms of benefits to your readers more than products, services, or characteristics of your firm
3. After you write something, ask yourself, “Why will my reader care about this?” If it’s not obvious, then delete or re-write.

Which do you prefer for your company – marketing materials that use “you” or “we”? Why?

Please comment on your opinions.

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Mind mapping has rescued me many times. “A mind map can be a complexity buster, translator, connector and simplifier,” as mentioned in the online blurb for the article discussed below.

“Mission: Map a Better Client Value Relationship” describes how one advisor uses mind maps to help clients understand why they should pay for work other than money management. Essentially, creating a mind map helps clients to visualize the value of other services provided by their advisors. This article by Gary Klaben of Proninus appeared in the Jan./Feb. issue of the Financial Planning Association’s Practice Management Solutions magazine. I suggest you read the article.

For more on mind mapping, check out the following blog posts or learn to use mind maps as a writing tool in “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Writing Class for Financial Advisors.”

• Guest post: “Why use a mind map with clients?”
• Mind mapping technology for financial advisors
• Mind mapping for brainstorming as a group

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I imagine a group blog run by financial advisors would face several challenges in producing interesting, high quality blog posts on a regular schedule.

Image: HikingArtist.com

These include the following:

• Coming up with mutually agreeable topics for blog posts
• Setting a schedule for publishing blog posts
• Getting posts written, edited, and approved

I have ideas about how to tackle the challenges.

Brainstorm as a group

Need topics that will satisfy your group as a whole? Try brainstorming topics in a meeting with the other blog contributors.

By the way, I’m assuming you need to satisfy the group because you’re blogging with other employees of your firm. If not, agreement may not be necessary, but group discussion is still a spur to creativity.

Create an editorial calendar

It’s easier for your team’s writers to contribute regularly if they have a schedule.

Here’s a sample editorial calendar for a group blog:

Notice how subject areas repeat on a regular schedule, making it easy for writers to know when their posts will run. Once they know that, they should be able to calculate dates by which their first drafts are due.

Create a process

You don’t want contributors to turn in their posts at the last minute. This is why you need a well-defined process with due dates. The process might include the following steps.

1. Submission of first draft for content review and proofreading
2. Rewriting, if necessary
3. Compliance review
4. Rewriting, if necessary
5. Publication on blog
6. Monitoring and responding to comments

Other tips for group blogs?

Please share your best tips for managing group blogs. I also welcome your questions.

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I’m thankful for the knowledgeable and talented professionals who have contributed guest posts to my blog this year.

Here’s a list of guest posts sorted by topic, including client communications, marketing, social media, and writing.

Client communications

• Math and the Gender Gap: Does it affect financial planning? by Laura Laing
• Why use a mind map with clients? by Alex Murguia

Marketing

• Articles You Publish in Financial Trade Publications Will Impress Prospects by Beth Chapman
• Blogging: why you want a better bounce rate by Tom Mangan
• Creating Pitch Books Without Losing Your Mind: Design and Content Management Tips by Margaret Patterson
• Easy SEO: How to Really Get Found on the Internet by Steve Tannuzzo
• Personalized Risk Management Planning–A Great New Business Opportunity by Michael T. Carpenter

Writing

• The ABCs of Creative Capital Rights by Wendy J. Cook
• Doctoring the Books – The Right Way by Laura Matthews
• A Magazine Editor’s Top Tips for Improving Advisors’ Writing by Ryun Patterson
• Subject Lines: Are you reading this? by Kristin Harad
• Using Clause Analysis to Fix Your Complex Sentences by Joe Croscup
• Using Story Telling to Educate Clients and Prospects by Chuck Rylant

Other financial topics

• What about China? by Annie Logue

I also hosted some wonderful guest bloggers last year. See “Guest bloggers: 2010 in review.”

This post was updated on Dec. 28, 2011.

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Don’t flunk one of the most important tests for financial bloggers. Learn to write reader-focused posts by viewing the recording of my November 16 webinar.

Harnessing the power of “you, the reader” will boost your readership. In this webinar, you’ll learn how to analyze your readers and their WIIFM (what’s in it for me) as well as an easy-to-follow formula for outlining blog posts that snare readers. The average reader spends only 96 seconds reading a blog post, according to ProBlogger. If you want your readers to stick around, watch this webinar!

If you already viewed my blogging webinar…

…you’ll notice that I’ve posted on blogging-related topics since then. I’m gradually addressing some of the questions you posed during and after my presentation, starting with “5 tips for picking powerful blog post topics.”

Thank you, viewers!

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Photo: jpctalbot

Writing likable emails can help you and your firm differentiate yourselves, as I discussed in “Reader challenge: How can investment and wealth managers apply this tip?”

However, institutional investment managers’ emails aren’t known for likability. In fact, they’re more apt to be formal and impersonal. They may feel this suits their corporate personalities as portfolio managers for corporations, government bodies, foundations, endowments, unions, and other organizations.

Here’s my poll question: Should institutional asset managers strive for likability in their sales, marketing, and client emails? Your choices include the following:

• Yes, always
• Yes, most of the time
• Yes, but only when they have a personal relationship with the recipient
• No, it doesn’t matter
• [You can also enter your own answer]

Please answer the poll in the right-hand column of my blog and add your comments below. I’ll publish the results in my e-newsletter.

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“You can differentiate yourself by communicating in a likable, authentic manner,” says author Sue Hershkowitz-Coore in Power Sales Writing: Using Communication to Turn Prospects into Clients. Her book emphasizes email communications.

To write in a likable manner, the author suggests you use the following techniques:

1.      Create a message that genuinely revolves around your prospect.

2.      Use more you and your words than I or me words.

3.      Reflect the prospect’s style.

4.      Start with something that matters to your reader.

5.      Be positive.

6.      Be brief, but not blunt.

7.      Be authentic!

How do YOU rise to this challenge?

Differentiation is a challenge for investment and wealth managers. Please tell me how YOU make yourself likable in your professional communications.

I recommend Power Sales Writing as a good read for any business person who needs to write emails that persuade. Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from McGraw-Hill in return for agreeing to write about it.

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Mind mapping is a powerful tool for brainstorming. Without it, I’d find it much more difficult to write articles about complex topics. But mind mapping isn’t only for individuals. Groups can also harness its power.

“I think mind mapping would be great for group brainstorming.” It’s funny, but members of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources (PAICR) made similar comments when I spoke to them about mind mapping on April 28. For example, PAICR members thought it would be a good way to discuss investment commentary ideas with portfolio managers.

I imagine a group would appoint one person to draw a mind map on a flip chart, with input from other members of the group. However, I suggest some other options in the mind map embedded below. Click on it to see a larger image.

YOUR group mind mapping ideas?

How about you? How do YOU suggest mind mapping as a group?

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Plenty of financial advisors write books to enhance their credibility. However, I don’t know many who have written fiction in their pursuit of a broader audience. In his guest post, Chuck Rylant explains why he turned to telling stories to reach clients and prospects. You may want to consider something similar for a blog post or presentation.

Using Story Telling to Educate Clients and Prospects

By Chuck Rylant

Getting and keeping your readers’ attention is incredibly difficult when you’re competing with thousands of messages from multiple media sources. It is even more difficult when you’re writing about a topic often considered dry and boring.

We in the financial planning industry often find mutual funds, interest rates and tax laws intriguing, but our clients and those who need our services often do not. Before I wrote my personal finance book, I thought long and hard how I could share a message that would stick.

I decided to take a lesson from the bestselling book of all times—the Bible—with claims of 6 million sold. It’s hard to argue with those kinds of numbers.

Regardless if you follow a faith or not, most know the story of Adam and Eve. We have all heard about the forbidden fruit and the message of temptation. We remember the lesson because it’s told as a parable.

Do you think we would remember those lessons as well if they were written as a list of rules to follow? There is such a list, but I suspect more people know the forbidden fruit lesson than can cite the list of 10. It’s far easier to become engaged and remember the lesson if it is presented as a story.

One of my more popular blog posts is a true story about my first experience in Mexico where I illustrate a point through a kidnapping. Stories can be presented as truth or fiction and have the same impact.

I used to take pride in the fact that I never read fiction, until I realized I was missing a powerful way to improve my own writing. It is certainly a skill that takes time to learn and improves with practice, but try it and watch how much more engaged your readers become.

Chuck Rylant, MBA, CFP® is the author of How to be Rich: The Couple’s Guide to a Rich Life Without Worrying About Money available at Amazon.com

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