Can you help your clients to control their fears?

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The Intelligent Investor’s column on “How to Control Your Fears in a Fearsome Market” inspired this blog post.

Author Jason Zweig lists four techniques that individuals can use to manage the stress they feel when the market tanks. You might be able to apply some of them in your conversations with clients.

For example, consider his advice to reappraise.

Forget what you paid for that stock or fund; instead, imagine it was a gift. Now that it is priced, say, 20% more cheaply than in December, should you want to return the gift? Or should you buy more while it is on sale? (If rethinking a fallen price this way doesn’t make you feel better, maybe you should sell.)

I think that you could talk your clients through a reappraisal following Zweig’s advice.


It might not work for every client. But you–and your client–will feel good when you success.


Have you ever tried this? Leave your comments below.

 

If you’re a financial advisor considering LinkedIn and other social networking

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Is social networking right for you? 

You could easily spend hours participating in LinkedIn, Twitter or even funkier sites and services. They’re not all worth your investment of time. You can research your options following the steps in “Three Factors to Consider Before Jumping on the Social Media Bandwagon” (free registration may be required to access this article).


By the way, consultant David Drucker recently weighed in on the value of LinkedIn in “Linking Up” and I wrote in April on “How financial advisors use LinkedIn to boost their visibility.”

 

Another reason for financial advisors to start a blog

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“I’ve been able to prove how much more I can accomplish by answering a question, and posting it on a blog, for example, than I can by answering the same question over and over.” 

This quote by Luis Suarez in his New York Times article, “I Freed Myself from E-mail’s Grip,” got me thinking. Financial advisors may find it helpful to answer their clients’ frequently asked questions on a blog. Just write up the answer once, then share it with everyone after running it by compliance, if necessary. It’s easy to direct clients to the blog post. Some may even find it on their own.

Sure, you could add the question to a FAQ (frequently asked question) section on your website. But that probably means going through a technology person who’ll delay the posting of your content. The beauty of blogs is that anyone who can type can update them.


If this blog post interests you, you may also enjoy “A great way for financial advisors to leverage existing content.”

By the way, I found Suarez’ article through Lifehacker. 

A great way for financial advisors to leverage existing content

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A blog can be a great way for financial advisors to leverage their inventory of compliance-approved articles. That’s according to my interview with Stuart Zimmerman, principal, and Jim Cornfeld, investment advisor, The Buckingham Family of Financial Services. However, it’s too early to tell if the blog will yield financial benefits.

Cornfeld started The Educated Investor blog in February, after the Financial Executives Networking Group (FENG) St. Louis offered to host blogs for its members on its website. “The group is a good demographic for us. It fits one of our niches: corporate executives,” he said.

The firm’s additional goals for the blog include:

  1. Serving as an easy place to refer clients and prospects for useful, educational articles
  2. Potentially attracting new business from web surfers who find it through online searches

Zimmerman said the blog is already handy for achieving goal number one. However, “We haven’t received any calls from prospects saying ‘We saw your blog.’ ” On the other hand, some of their articles, such as their interview with Harvard’s David Laibson and an article on geographic diversification of muni bond investing, have ranked highly in Google’s Blog Search.

Financial advisors who want to blog face two challenges: 1) compliance; 2) content generation. Buckingham may be better positioned than your typical investment advisor. Their business model includes generating a good many compliance-approved articles for use in their newsletter and for use by the 116 RIA firms that use their back office services for passive investing. “We already invested time writing these articles for other purposes,” said Cornfeld.

Another strategy that Buckingham uses to manage compliance issues: It doesn’t allow comments on its blog posts. If Buckingham wanted to reply to reader comments, it would have to run its responses through Compliance.

Talking with Cornfeld and Zimmerman got me thinking about “The Real ROI of Blogging,” an article on MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix blog. Blogger Lewis Green measures the ROI on his blog not just in terms of profits, revenue or new business leads and referrals. He also considers the blog’s impact in terms of getting his firm noticed and improving his customers’ experience and loyalty. Financial advisors should also consider these benefits.

Quants CAN communicate clearly

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Sometimes my eyes glaze over when I attend quantitative presentations. That was not the case with a presentation by Jeff Brown, chief investment officer of Highstreet Asset Management.

When you hear Brown’s “Art vs. Science,” you’ll be struck by how using examples from everyday life can make your investment approach come alive.

“Inspiring presenters are short on bullet points and big on graphics,” according to “Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs” in BusinessWeek. Brown has taken that advice to heart.

By the way, when I heard him speak at the Refining Wealth Management conference put on by the Edmonton CFA Society, Brown mentioned that he has worked with a presentation coach. More investment managers should follow his example.

E-mail tips from Seth Godin

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The email checklist at Seth Godin’s blog starts out with some good tips on slimming your email distribution list.

I also liked his suggestion of asking whether your email is important enough that you’d spend the price of a postage stamp on it.

I’m glad that Erika Dreifus’ Practicing Writing blog sent me to this post.

Your website’s "About Us" page could make the sale

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The company information in your website’s “About Us” page could make the difference between winning or losing a new client.

“Although it might not solely make a purchase, a bad ‘About Us’ page can definitely stop a purchase from happening,” according to “Why You Must Pay More Attention to Your ‘About Us’ Page” on the MarketingSherpa website.

Keep your “About Us” page up-to-date and filled with information that will convince your prospects’ executives of your firm’s reliability, advises MarketingSherpa.

"Lazy Bastards: How We Read Online"

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“Lazy Bastards: How We Read Online,” Michael Agger’s article on Slate.com, gives some good tips for grabbing your online readers’ attention. He reinforces points I often make, including the value of using:

  • White space
  • Bullet points
  • Informative subheadings

Agger also sends you over to “Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy” by website usability guru Jakob Nielsen. Short articles beat long articles most of the time, says Nielsen, especially if you want to maximize your readership numbers.

On the other hand—and this is important for financial advisors—if you want people who really need a solution, focus on comprehensive coverage. This is a good strategy if you sell highly targeted solutions to complicated problems.

Still, in Nielsen’s example, “short” is defined as 700 words and “long” as 1,000 words. One thousand words isn’t long compared to some pieces that I’ve seen.

For a competing opinions on going longer or shorter, read my post, “What’s too long for a blog post?“

Note: I updated this post on Jan. 23, 2017.

 

 

 

 

"Making Money Where Others Fail": Morningstar’s knack for good titles

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Who wouldn’t want to read an article entitled “Making Money Where Others Fail“?

That was the title of a recent message from Morningstar’s Fund Spy e-newsletter. I subscribe to Fund Spy partly to study their writing style. You can check out the Fund Spy archive.

"101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site"

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“Stress benefits. Ensure that your copy always shows users exactly how your site will benefit them.”

That’s fix number 4 of “101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site” and it’s a good one. If the people who visit your website don’t find benefits, rather than just features, they’re likely to flee.

But fixing a website that’s missing benefits is likely to take more than five minutes. It’s often difficult for the website owner to put their business’ benefits into words. Getting feedback from outsiders can often help ensure that you’re on the right track.