Northern Trust gets it. Financial marketers should focus on their prospects, not themselves, as reflected in this ad in the April 16, 2013, issue of Wall Street Journal.

The ad links to a landing page at http://www.northerntrust.com/plan.

I highlighted Northern Trust’s advertising in an earlier post, “Northern Trust’s plain English ad.” That ad sparked some conversation in my blog’s comments section. What about the company’s latest ad?

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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“…Mediocre marketing with commitment works better than brilliant marketing without commitment,” says Jay Conrad Levinson, as quoted in C.J. Hayden’s Get Clients Now! The idea is that marketing on a regular basis is more likely to succeed than a rare but great form of outreach. After all, steady activity makes it likely that your name will appear in front of prospects when they’re finally ready to act.

How does this apply to blogs? Again, posting regularly is key. It would be great if every blog post boasted originality, helpful insights, personal passion, and excellent writing. Few people can hit each of those targets with every post. Despite my love of writing, I believe that your insights and passion are more likely to distinguish you.

If you post consistently, then when readers have questions in your area of expertise, they may seek you out.

Of course, if your idea of posting consistently is to blog once every three months, I doubt that’ll deliver much marketing punch for you. However, if that’s realistically how often you can write original content, then I suggest you turn your piece into a newsletter that you make available on your website and circulate via social media. You may do better as a content curator—a person who shares other people’s content, ideally while adding their own insights—than as a content creator.

How often is often enough to blog? Consider what your readers want and what you can deliver, as I discussed in “Three tips for how often to publish your newsletter.”

What do you think about the trade-off between consistency and mediocrity? Please share.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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In case you missed them, here are the top five posts from the Investment Writing blog during the first quarter of 2013.

As I mull over what made them popular, I notice that #1 is a quirky, personal piece that seems unlikely to be found via online search. Perhaps the title, which defies expectations, is what drew readers.

My CFA Institute Wealth Management post, #3, benefited from being highlighted in the CFA Institute’s social media coverage and my conference Twitter feed.

The other three top draws offer marketing tips, which always draw well. I’m sure it helps that Steve Wershing is a well respected author on the topic of referrals for financial advisors.

1. Why I’m lucky clients didn’t flock to me
2. Marketing tips from referral expert Steve Wershing
3. CFA Institute Wealth Management Conference 2013 notes
4. Learn what works in winning clients
5. Outlook Social Connector: A cool email helper

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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The Q&A format has its uses. An FAQ section covering frequently asked questions belongs on many websites. However, this format should be used sparingly for articles.

FAQs work, so why not Q&A articles?

Unlike articles, FAQs are meant to be searched or skimmed for one question, not read word-for-word. Their readers seek answers to specific questions or solutions for problems, such as “How can I fix it when I get Error Message XYZ?” An FAQ may include many questions, but the reader is interested in one—or only a few—Q&A pairs.

Q&As make it hard to grasp an overall message

The Q&A format makes it harder for readers to grasp your overall message than with an article. A traditional article can offer an introduction, headings, and a skilled writer’s transition between topics.

Q&A interviewees may hold you hostage

The Q&A format works best when your interviewees know how to hit your readers’ hot buttons, and they’re articulate. You can’t count on finding that in every interviewee.

When you choose a Q&A format, you deny yourself the use of paraphrasing. As a reporter, I learned that only lazy reporters always use direct quotes. Paraphrases, which restate what your source said, can be more economical and effective. Plus, a colorful quote stands out better against a background of plain vanilla text.

Q&A format is okay when…

A Q&A format works well when you

1. Write FAQs
2. Keep it short—My gut tells me three questions is a good length. A Q&A may work well as a blog post. I often discuss reader questions on my blog.
3. Interview a famous person whose fans care about every word he or she utters—Think Justin Bieber and young girls or Jack Bogle and index fund devotees.
4. Edit the interview transcript—Word-for-word transcripts don’t make anyone look good. At a minimum, cut out the ums, uhs, incomplete sentences that don’t work, and irrelevant material. If you’re interviewing a corporate employee for your company’s newsletter, you can take more liberties, as long as you check with the employee to make sure you haven’t misrepresented him or her.

What do YOU think?

I’m curious to learn what you think about the pros and cons of the Q&A format. If you’ve used it effectively, feel free to share a link.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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I’m a bad wife. I confess that I don’t always give my husband 100% of my attention. Maybe not even 75%. I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. But in the meantime, you may learn something about communication from my failure to accurately follow my husband’s parking instructions.

Lesson 1: Don’t over-explain

As a financial advisor, you’ve probably given instructions to people—clients, employees, vendors, and fellow professionals—who are distracted as they listen to you. If you give them too many details, they may zero in on the wrong points and make mistakes.

In my case, my husband gave me very detailed instructions about where he wanted me to park my car and why I should park there. It involved our shed, his tires, the garage, and the patio. Since I wasn’t listening closely, I imagined a mistaken scenario in which his tires were in the shed, so he needed me to park far back in the driveway.

If only my husband had said, “Please park in the driveway like you usually do when I need to park on the patio. You can’t park in the garage because…”

Lesson 2: Listen and ask questions

My husband forgave me for messing up, but you may not be as lucky if you don’t listen to the folks giving you instructions.

If you can’t concentrate on the conversation, maybe you should wait until another time to get instructions. Or ask questions to confirm that you’ve understood the instructions properly.

I plan to try one of these two methods the next time my husband asks me to do something for him.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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Email is an essential part of communications for most businesses. The speed with which you reply to emails sends a message about your company. This is true even about emails sent within your firm.

2-day turnaround suggested by GTD guru

I was surprised to read that the folks at the David Allen Company, the business of the Getting Things Done guru, has a policy of requiring a two-day response to emails. As explained in “Best Email Practices for Teams,”

…responding doesn’t mean completing the action. It may just be a simple acknowledgment of “I’m on it” so the other person can relax about it.

That seems slow to me, which prompts this month’s poll.

How quickly should you respond?

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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The basic lessons of copywriting deserve repeating. Krista Magidson, whom I met through one of my favorite LinkedIn Groups, reminds us of the importance of plain English.

The Copywriter’s #1 Secret…Revealed

By Krista Magidson

You may be a financial planner extraordinaire or a wealth management wizard, but if you’re writing blog posts, emails, or internal newsletters then you are also a copywriter and probably a marketer too.

Copywriters spend most of their time either reading about writing copy or they’re writing copy.

In fact the really good ones are obsessed. But you don’t have to be obsessed with writing copy in order to impress your readers and establish yourself as an authority in your field.

The secret that I’m going to share with you will make your writing easier to read and make the process of writing easier for you…

…it’s called, “learning to write like you talk.”

It sounds crazy I know, and it will probably make your English teacher cringe a little. But writing like you talk will create the one thing that writing in a more formal tone doesn’t, and that’s establishing intimacy with your reader.

People want to work with professionals that they trust. As a copywriter you establish trust with the reader by:

1. Thoroughly understanding your reader’s needs.

2. Making the reader feel that you’re writing only to her and not to a mass of nameless faceless people.

Writing like you talk doesn’t mean that you break every rule of good grammar, although you will break the rules occasionally (like I have by starting a few sentences with the word “but”).

However, you’ll still be able to demonstrate your knowledge and professionalism without being stuffy and rigid. You just have to write like you are having a conversation with an actual person. But don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself.

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Krista Magidson is Chief Content Creator for Boutique Marketing Group.  Krista helps businesses generate equity in their company and brand through writing original and persuasive copy for their websites, newsletters, email campaigns and more.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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Boost the effectiveness of your marketing, social media, and writing with my Investment Writing Top Tips. You’ll receive it free via auto-responder when you sign up for my newsletter.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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Financial advisors can learn something useful from Shortmail.com, a service that lets people refuse to receive emails more than 500 words in length.

The lesson? Keep your emails short because that’s what your recipients prefer.

Here’s an exercise you may find useful: copy-paste all of your outgoing emails for one day into a word processing file. Then, calculate the length of each message. If your emails run much longer than 500 words, you may wish to revisit my tips in “How can I keep my emails short?”

However, I don’t suggest that you subscribe to Shortmail yourself. Insisting your long-winded clients cut their emails won’t make a good impression, even if it would lighten your load

Image courtesy of Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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Ways to grow and retain your clients’ trust were the focus of Richard L. Peterson’s presentation to the CFA Institute’s Wealth Management conference on March 22, 2013. One of the methods he mentioned was “writing or forwarding articles for clients’ benefit,” which his firm’s research found was also associated with higher rates of business growth. This activity is even more important when market volatility strikes.

Peterson said that you should prepare things to say or written content to forward when market gyrations rattle your clients. List three things you’d use, he suggested.

I imagine that some of you don’t have anything at hand. On the other hand, even the best-prepared wealth managers may be wish to learn from what their peers have prepared. These thoughts prompted me to write this challenge for my readers.

What’s on YOUR list for easing client fears about volatility?

Let’s start a conversation about this topic. Please use the “comments” area below to identify content that would be useful to share during volatile times. You can share something that you’d say, an article you like, or even mention one of Carl Richards’ Behavior Gap sketches that you might use.

If you’d like to learn more about the overall wealth management conference, see my conference notes or the CFA Institute’s social media highlights.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner
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