I’m a big fan of mind mapping as a way to organize your ideas before you start writing. But you can use mapping to brainstorm ideas for blog posts.
Problogger Darren Rowse tells you how in “Discover hundreds of post ideas for your blog with mind mapping.”
Rowse suggests that you list topics that you’ve already blogged and then brainstorm spin-offs from them.
You can train your staff using a book club, suggests Kirk Hulett of Securities America Inc. in “Move Over Oprah,” published in Practice Management Solutions (Nov./Dec. 2008).
Hulett got me thinking. How about running a financial book club for your clients or prospects? It could deepen your relationship with them as you learn more about what makes them tick.
People feel passionately about “please.”
“Common sense might tell you that adding ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ to an email will always make it more polite. Common sense would be wrong.” That’s according to David Shipley and Will Schwalbe in Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.
I decided to ask the participants in my workshop on “How to Write Effective Business Emails and Letters” if they think “please” should be optional. “No way!” was their response.
I agree that it’s good to leave “please” in your vocabulary. I’m puzzled by Shipley and Schwalbe’s assertion that it’s “almost impossible to use please in writing without coming across as obnoxious.”
Do you use “please” in emails? Please leave a comment below.
Should you email your male clients and meet with your female clients?
Men may respond better to emails than to in-person communications, according to a study cited by Guy Kawasaki in “Is Face-to-Face Communication Always the Way to Go?” The same study says women respond better in person.
I don’t like generalizing by gender. In either case, I think a personalized email will work better than a mass email.
What do you think?
An Investment Writing blog reader recently asked, “I was told that licensed financial advisors are not allowed to write blogs as far as compliance is concerned. Is this true?”
It’s not true. But there are constraints.
For more details on the regulatory constraints, read “Finra, SEC rules constrain advisers in blogosphere” by Davis Janowski in Investment News.
You can find links to blogs by some financial advisors in the related posts listed below.
Related posts:
“For those executives whose company holdings were largely in stock options, rather than stock, the decline in wealth has been huge…. Over all, the options have lost 76 percent of their value.”
That’s according to New York Times columnist Floyd Norris, who wrote in “Be Glad You’re Not Warren Buffett” about a report by Stephen Hall & Partners, an executive compensation consulting firm. By the way, Buffett’s paper losses amount to more than $15 billion–or nearly one-third of the $52.3 billion in losses through Oct. 27.
I looked on the Stephen Hall & Partners website to see if their report is available to the public. I couldn’t find any mention of it.
Are your clients talking to you about their stock options? If not, maybe it’s time to bring up this topic.
You can use LinkedIn to help build your investment or wealth management business. Adapt the techniques suggested in “LinkedIn’s Little Secret: It’s a Great Lead-Gen Tool” on HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog.
But, first, pay attention to this warning from HubSpot:
“Trying to directly message or reach out to your LinkedIn network or contacts could be considered spam. Please be sure that: 1) people you try to contact want to hear from you and 2) your message is relevant.”
Suggestion #1: “Create a LinkedIn Group” on a theme related to your industry. As I see it, as long as you offer something of value to group members, you can use a LinkedIn Group to position yourself as an expert in a niche and/or to expand your network. A LinkedIn Group can keep you in front of clients, prospects, and people who can send you referrals.
Suggestion #2: “Use LinkedIn’s DirectAds” for targeted advertising. I’m not an ad expert, but it seems to me that you’d probably pursue other advertising options first. This might be a nice add-on.
Suggestion #3: “Answer Questions on LinkedIn.” This displays your expertise, plus you get an emotional boost from helping others. So far, I’ve gotten more benefit from asking questions on LinkedIn, another HubSpot suggestion. My questions have yielded valuable information and quotes for blog posts.
Suggestion #4: “Integrate LinkedIn into Your Marketing.” For example, suggests HubSpot, whenever you speak, invite your audience to join your group. It’s an easy way to build on the connection that you form during your time with your audience.
Have you tried any of these techniques? I’d like to learn about your experiences.
Meanwhile, reading HubSpot’s blog post got me wondering if I should create a LinkedIn Group for readers of my Investment Writing e-newsletter or for participants in the writing workshops I teach. If you’re a newsletter reader or graduate of one of my writing workshops, what would you want from a LinkedIn group?
Related posts:
“How to publicize your white paper using LinkedIn”
“How financial advisors use LinkedIn to boost their visibility”
You are failing your financial family clients–and sabotaging your multi-generational client retention–if you’re not encouraging good communication. That’s one of the big picture lessons I learned from “Five Solutions for Mixing Finance, Families and Fiduciaries,” presented to the Boston Estate Planning Council on Nov. 6 by Bonnie Brown Hartley, president of Transition Dynamics Inc., Richard Narva, partner, The Roseview Group, and Mike Hartley, chairman and CEO, DKE Inc.
A case of poor communication easily resolved
Advisors to financial families often avoid bringing up sensitive issues. This is a big mistake.
Take the case of the family with an unsigned buy-sell agreement for their main asset, a large corporation. Their beloved daughter-in-law was the only holdout. But nobody knew why. Not the family patriarch. Not the family attorney. Not even the husband. They were too scared to ask, as Bonnie Hartley found out through gentle probing.
Imagine the family members’ surprise–and relief–when Bonnie learned the daughter-in-law’s objection could be easily removed. With permission from the patriarch and the husband, Bonnie asked the daughter-in-law why she wouldn’t sign. The answer: “I won’t sign an agreement that doesn’t make me a trustee if my husband dies before my children reach their majority.” As a mother, she didn’t want to leave her children’s future in the hands of strangers. This objection was easily addressed, so the agreement was signed.
The family wasn’t the only beneficiary of this good communication. A stronger relationship resulted between the family and the advisors who brought in Bonnie as a consultant.
More hints for good communication
Try running “fire drills” to test “what if” scenarios” such as the death of a key family member of the sale of the family business.
Deepen your relationship with the younger generations.
For more insights from the Hartleys
If you’re interested in more insights from Bonnie Hartley, you can sign up for a quarterly e-newsletter at the bottom of The Hartley Group’s website.
On a personal note, it was a great pleasure to attend this presentation because Bonnie and Mike have been valued clients.
Starting to blog without thinking about your process can be a big mistake.
Read Problogger Darren Rowse’s “How to Craft a Blog Post – 10 Crucial Points to Pause” for helpful tips.
If you follow his advice, it may take you longer to write your blog posts, but your return on investment will increase exponentially.
Before you write case studies for your wealth management or financial planning business, read “The Ten Biggest Mistakes Case Study Writers Make” by Casey Hibbard (registration required). You can learn from her tips, even though her article is geared to professionals writing for technology companies.
“Ignoring the Audience,” Hibbard’s number one “don’t,” is also the most common mistake that financial advisors–and all business people–make when they write. Gear your case study to the issues that most concern your potential clients.
“#5 Not Digging for Results Data” is another mistake. A case study typically includes a problem, a solution, and results. A case study saying the client “saved $1 million in taxes” will be more powerful than a similar case study that doesn’t quantify the results.
“#9 Not Catering to Readers or Skimmers” afflicts many of the marketing materials I read. People have short attention spans. So you’ve got to cater to skimmers in addition to the folks who’ll plow through every word you write. As Hibbard says, you can make your writing easier to scan using:
A case study is a great way to show that you’ve solved problems for people like your prospective client. However, step carefully around investment management issues. Remember the SEC’s prohibition on testimonials for registered investment advisors.