Opposing financial services’ social media paralysis at #NICSAGMM

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“Lawyers never get in trouble for saying ‘no’ to marketing.” I learned this from one of my favorite corporate bosses.

So I hastily scribbled a tweet when Rajib Chanda of Ropes & Gray made the following statement on the “Social Media in the Workplace” panel at NICSA’s General Membership Meeting on October 6.

Chanda made the point that there’s plenty of guidance for social media compliance. FINRA has been more forthcoming than the SEC. However, firms that fall under the SEC can look to its regulation of communications via other media.

Like Chanda, panel moderator Paul Butcher, director of global corporate social media for Citi, urged financial services companies to act.

He said, social media is NOT like walking across Niagara Falls on a tightrope carrying a piano. In his opinion, companies should use social media within carefully defined constraints.

Citi’s approach includes the following:

  • Global social media guidelines
  • A registration process for those who will potentially use social media on behalf of the company
  • Training on Citi’s best practices and guidelines
  • Appropriate use of technology and branding

If you’re still worried about risks from social media, panelist Anthony “Sandy” Codding, Jr. of Marsh/FINPRO described the kinds of insurance you can buy for protection in areas including defamation, intellectual property, errors and omissions, privacy liability, disclosure of financial information, and employment.

OppenheimerFunds on the separation of mutual fund marketing and sales

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Differentiation is a big challenge for mutual funds companies. Part of how OppenheimerFunds tackles this is through the separation of marketing and sales, said Marty Willis, chief marketing officer. She spoke on a mutual fund distribution panel at NICSA’s General Membership Meeting in Boston on Oct. 6.

Creativity, not just sales support

When sales and marketing were together, marketing’s focus was too short-term and reactive, said Willis. In other words, it focused on sales support.

Even when the company tackled larger goals, such as raising brand awareness, it didn’t go far enough. Many consumers didn’t know what the brand stood for.

Today Willis is focusing on getting OppenheimerFunds’ brand to “permeate all touch-points,” even including customer service and philanthropy. It all feeds from one vision, like Apple’s “Think Different.”

Globalization and “snackable content”

GlobalizeYourThinking.com is one example of Willis’ vision. This micro-site features what Willis called “snackable content.” “It’s easy to digest and good for you,” she said. In a nod to social media, can be shared by advisors with their clients. It’s also available as a mobile app.

The site has attracted over half a million viewers and has 5000 unique visitors per week, said Willis. Visitors have averaged 7 minutes on the site. That’s twice as long as advisors spend on the firm’s other website, Willis said.

Global Tracker initiative

Willis touched briefly on her firm’s Global Tracker project, which it is developing with The Economist. The project has two facets. One is to allow users to call up all sorts of country, industry, and investment product information online. The other is a kind of game in which advisors compete.

Willis experienced the power of games when she skied in Vail, Colorado, where your ski pass allows you to track your vertical feet. She found herself taking extra runs so she could earn icons or other acknowledgments of hitting milestones.

OppenheimerFunds part of marketing trend

Oppenheimer’s elevation of marketing reflects a broader trend, said Lee Kowarski of kasina, who moderated the panel on which Willis spoke.

Marketing is becoming more peer to sales, instead of focusing on sales support, he said.

White papers: Great training for your ghost blogger

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Busy financial advisors may seek ghost bloggers to write blog posts for them.

Photo: tomasrotger.com

As a ghost blogger for a registered investment advisor, I’ve stumbled on a great way for you to train your ghost blogger: Hire the writer to craft a white paper before she or he starts ghost-blogging.

Advantage: White paper immerses writer in your topic

White papers are usually rich in information. So one white paper provides the foundation for multiple blog posts.

I’m a big believer in recycling information, as I’ve said in “A top technique of financial advisors who blog successfully.” Your white paper readers may not even notice that you’re recycling, if your writer doesn’t simply cut-and-paste into your blog.

Another advantage: When I write a white paper, I learn about the client’s expertise, business, and how the client likes to interact with me. This means I can get up to speed quickly on the blog.

What to look for in your ghost blogger

Here are some factors to consider before you ask your white paper writer to become your ghost blogger.

1. Ability to generate blog post ideas

2. Compatibility with the way you like to work

3. Dependability

4. Mastery of a “voice” – a writing style and formality level that works for you and your audience

5. Understanding of your field

I put these five factors in alphabetical order. Your priorities may differ.

Warning for registered reps

If you’re a registered rep using a ghostwriter, you may need to disclose that. I discussed this in “Registered reps, it’s time to ‘fess up.”

Guest post: “Subject Lines: Are you reading this?”

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Kristin Harad writes irresistible, conversational email subject lines. I feel as if her emails are addressed to me, so I open them even when they’re part of a mass mailing.

I’m delighted that Kristin shares her subject line secrets in her guest post.

Subject Lines: Are you reading this?

by Kristin Harad, CFP®

When you send email communications to your list, is your subject line an afterthought or a strategic decision? When I started my marketing career, I worked for an agency managing direct mail for a large bank. Unbelievable amounts of time, testing and creativity went into figuring out which 5-10 words on the outer envelope would entice the recipient to OPEN the mailing. To call the practice strategic is an understatement. Open rates were the first measure of success for these expensive campaigns.

In the new world of overflowing Inboxes, email subject lines serve the same purpose as those teasers from the old world of mass direct mail. The primary objective of your subject line is to persuade the recipient to open up your email. You may feel jaded just thinking about trying to be strategic for every subject line you send as you communicate with your database. Relax. To be deliberate with this critical ‘lure’ you just have to select the right style for your specific message and keep the words conversational.

Match your email content with one of the FOUR TYPES of subject lines:

  1. Matter of fact: “Here is the information you requested.” This kind is tried and true. You are delivering information that the reader asked for from you. Without a doubt, this type of subject line has a high open rate. As it should. These can also include compelling How To’s such as “5 ways to lower your heating bill”
  2. Time Sensitive: “Last chance! Registration closes at 5:00pm EST” “Urgent last minute teleseminar” Very effective when you actually have a deadline for an event or an offer. Beware of crying wolf! If everything is always on a deadline, you lose your credibility. Used periodically, these are quite powerful.
  3. Personal: “Kristin, have you seen this?” or the less personal “Did you see this?” A cool feature of some email service providers is the ability to pull in first name into the subject line. Tip: Questions work better than statements. People will actually think you are only asking them. Exclusivity entices.
  4. Evocative: “OMG!!!!!!!!!!!” “A harrowing tale…” Esoteric in nature, these subject lines leave the reader asking “WHAT?! I MUST know.” Try using only one word or make up a crazy word. No one can resist solving a good mystery. Curiosity drives action.

As you can see, what makes a subject line effective depends on the situation. Test out different ones to see what works best for you and your brand. Keep your eyes peeled for the subject lines that make you click and the ones that you delete. Remember, your subject line objective is to engage the reader’s interest just enough to open the email. Then it’s all up to your email copy to drive your reader’s next action.

About the Author:  Kristin Harad, CFP® is the President of VitaVie Financial Planning, a fee-only financial planning firm in San Francisco.  She offers a free video series on marketing strategies for financial advisors at http://www.next10clients.com.

“Just do it” – LinkedIn status updates

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I know many investment professionals who feel skittish about dipping their toes into social media. To them, I parrot Nike’s line:

Photo by Ivars Krutainis

“Just do it.”

LinkedIn is a great place to start.

Try this experiment. Post a LinkedIn status update once a week for a month. See if you get any responses.

Start by writing status updates within your comfort zone. You can say something as innocuous as “Have a great weekend!” or “I’m reading today’s Wall Street Journal.” You can steer clear of compliance-sensitive content, but still show some personality by commenting on your hobby or other leisure activities.

If you monitor your LinkedIn account regularly, try posing a question.  People love to talk about themselves. Again, you can keep the topic innocuous. For example, “Beach or mountains – which vacation spot do you prefer?” or “What’s your favorite hobby?”

If you’re willing to venture into financial topics, you might link to an article you enjoy. Check with your compliance professionals to see what they’ll allow.

Half the battle in social media is just showing up. Try it, and see what happens!

Northern Trust’s plain English ad

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I like this plain English ad from Northern Trust, which I found in The Wall Street Journal on August 23, 2011, on p. B1.

What about you? What about this ad appeals to you?

Reader challenge: Risk management rewrite

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It’s time for a reader challenge. How would YOU rewrite the sentence below to make it more compelling and yet stay within compliance guidelines?

Portfolio are managed using the latest risk management techniques.

I’m looking forward to reading your suggestions!

BNY Mellon says “no” to “staying the course”

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“Staying the course” is classic advice from investment and wealth managers, so I was surprised to see BNY Mellon Wealth Management challenge this adage as part of its “truth” advertising campaign.

“Staying the course is like navigating a new world with an old map,” says the headline of the BNY Wealth Management ad, which I spotted on the inside front cover of The New York Times Magazine dated July 24, 2011. I love the combination of plain English with a powerful analogy.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management ad

This ad is part of a series, which I’ve blogged about in “Financial ad in plain English: Another one from BNY Mellon” and “BNY Mellon: I liked your ‘truth ad’ until you used that word.” I hope BNY Mellon keeps up the good work.

Still, I was surprised to see the firm say, “Investors must maintain the discipline to stick with their plans,” on p. 18 of its 2020 Vision. Isn’t this what “stay the course” means? Because “stay the course” isn’t defined in the ad, I don’t know. Despite this quibble, I admire this eye-catching ad.

Guest post: “Why use a mind map with clients?”

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A mind map can be a great tool for communicating with your financial planning or wealth management clients. Some people absorb information better in visual than written form. Even word geeks like me find mind maps useful. So I’m happy to have Alex Murguia, managing principal of McLean Asset Management, explain how you can benefit from using a mind map to create a visual display of the most important information about each client.

Not sure what a client mind map looks like? Alex has provided a generic example. You can click on it to view it in greater detail.

Why use a mind map with clients?

By Alex Murguia

Creating and sharing a client mind map shows client that you have the extensive knowledge about them that’s necessary to steer them through their financial lifecycle. This helps you overcome a common barrier to referrals as well as deepening your relationships with clients. Only 15% of clients feel their advisors are very knowledgeable about their entire situation, according to Breaking Through: Building a World Class Wealth Management Business by John J. Bowen, Jr., Patricia J. Abram, and Jonathan Powell. Over the course of a year, advisors with a perceived high level of client knowledge generated about eight referrals from clients compared to three and two referrals respectively for advisors with medium and low levels of client knowledge.

However, you won’t reap the benefits if you fail to communicate to clients your encyclopedic knowledge of their personal lives. A mind map expresses this knowledge effectively and elegantly to your clients.

At McLean Asset Management, we begin the mind mapping process in our first prospect meeting. We inform our prospect that we will ask a series of questions to determine if we are a good fit to provide value to their current situation and goals. With a pad and pencil in hand, we begin our semi-structured interview that covers various aspects of a financial life. We specifically want to have a discussion concerning a client’s values, objectives, important relationships, assets, other advisors that they work with, processes that they like, and personal interests. Each discussion topic is a node on the map that expands into subsequent branches dependent on the topic and answers.

Click on this mind map sample to view it more clearly

A mind map has important advantages over traditional note taking during the discovery process and subsequent progress meetings because:

1. It helps us drill down to a client’s key issues faster and more accurately.

2. It captures information quickly, yet in a highly organized format.

3. It makes it easy to link and cross-reference very different, yet connected, pieces of our client’s financial picture.

4. It involves clients more deeply in the discovery process.

5. It provides a basis for moving forward, with clear goals and next steps.

6. It provides you with a document that is fast and easy to review.

Unexpectedly, in about one-quarter of our discovery meetings, a client makes a point to convey a positive comment about the map.  During our second prospect meeting, we hand the potential client mind map printout for review. This is also an implicit reminder that we listen to our clients.

Mind maps are also great to show a client’s other advisors (i.e., potential referral sources for us) during brainstorming sessions about possible client solutions. Update meetings always begin with a review of the mind map. This serves as a reminder that we are best positioned to make financial decisions that impact a client’s life because we are a trusted advisor that knows all about what is important to him or her.

Alex Murguia is Managing Principal of McLean Asset Management, a wealth management firm in Northern Virginia, and CEO of Instream Solutions. He tweets as @alexmurguia1.

Poll: How well do your clients know YOU?

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You picked the topic of my new poll about you and your clients. Well, maybe you personally didn’t pick it, but you may have.

Screen shot of Investment Writing Facebook question on poll ideas

One of my Facebook friends proposed my latest poll question in response to my asking on Facebook for poll ideas. I’m not sure which of them proposed it, but this person’s question attracted the most votes.

My friends have spoken, and I am following their lead.

New poll question

The poll question is: “How well do your clients know YOU? How can you tell?” Please answer the poll in the right-hand column of this blog. I’ve proposed a couple of answers to get you started. Please add your own answers to the poll. Here are the answers I’m starting with:

  • They know me very well. I can tell because they refer prospects who are perfect for me.
  • I figure they know something about me, but I don’t have any proof.
  • They don’t know me well because I’m always focused on them.
  • I have no clue.

I look forward to hearing from you!

August 30 update: Wondering why you should care about your clients knowing you? Below you’ll find coach Suzanne Muusers’ take on this question.