Email

4 reasons your emails don’t get results

Emails are essential to your marketing and client communications, but bad emails sap your effectiveness. I see four main reasons why emails fail. Once you recognize these weaknesses, you can fix them. By the way, you can jump-start your email effectiveness by asking your company or professional association to hire me to present “Writing Effective […]

Plurals: your best friend for gender-neutral financial writing

Do you routinely refer to members of your target audience as “he” when you write? If so, you’re probably offending some of your readers. Your use of plural nouns can help you broaden your appeal. Singular nouns are tough Let’s assume you’re writing a white paper about teachers who are planning for retirement. You open […]

Smart Professional Pointing You Out

How to prepare for your podcast interview

You’ve been invited to be a guest on a podcast. How exciting! This could help you reach more members of your target audience. But, if you’re like me, excitement quickly turns to fear. In this post, I share what I learned when I prepared to be interviewed for a podcast. 1. Ask for the questions […]

man thinking

Is plain English for financial dummies?

“We don’t want our clients to think we’re dummies.” When I encourage my clients to use plain English, they sometimes push back. They’re afraid they’ll seem stupid. I disagree. I think plain, clear writing shows respect for your client’s time. I’m not alone in my belief. Folks like investor Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and […]

email tips

How to highlight text in emails

When you write emails, plain text sometimes isn’t enough. You want to visually emphasize one piece of information, such as the proposed date and time of your phone call with the recipient. While I discuss options below, I’m interested in your ideas. Please answer my poll on this topic. I’ll report on the results in […]