Blog comment guidelines for financial advisors: Russell Investments example

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Financial advisors, investment managers, and wealth managers worry about allowing comments on their corporate blogs. The wrong comment could land the blogging firm in trouble with the SEC or FINRA. Russell Investments offers a good example of how to handle this issue.

I imagine that Russell’s solution has three components, although only two are visible on its Helping Advisors blog.

If you allow comments on your financial or investment blog, are you using the three tactics I describe below?

1. Moderate comments.

When you enable comment moderation on your blog, no comments are visible to the general public until someone at your company approves them. This lets you vet problematic comments.

2. Provide “comment guidelines” for readers.

Transparency pays. You set more realistic expectations when you tell people that you won’t publish all comments and you share your guidelines. Russell does this nicely in “Comment Guidelines.” Their main points include the following:

  • Russell may not respond.
  • Stay on topic.
  • Avoid investment advice.
  • Be respectful.
  • We respect your privacy.

I also like that Russell gives readers the phone number to call with client service issues.

3. Establish internal guidelines and procedures.

I’m guessing that Russell Investments has set up internal guidelines for deciding the kind of comment to squash. The firm can’t anticipate every situation, so it needs to have a process for referring questions to the appropriate decisionmaker.

The firm also needs procedures to ensure that comments are moderated in a timely and consistent manner. This may be a drag on resources. I noticed on the blog’s “Don’t let the scarcity mentality hold you back,” that a reader commented on Feb. 23, but the firm did not reply until March 1, six days later. I can’t tell if the reader’s comment was also held for six days.

What else should advisors consider if they allow blog readers to leave comments?

Why financial bloggers should care about William and Kate

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Prince William and his bride-to-be are hot topics. Financial bloggers and other writers can use that to their advantage. Simply follow the example of LawyerMira‘s tweet, “Why William and Kate Should Sign a Prenup,” by inserting William and Kate into a tweet or blog post about your area of expertise.

When you put trendy topics in your headlines, you’ll attract more readers. Even better, otherwise indifferent readers may plow through your entire article or tweet.

For example, an article about “Why William and Kate Need a Financial Planner” may retain the interest of readers who otherwise would never read about financial planning. You could perform a public service by using William and Kate as an example.

However, as I mentioned in “SEO: What’s right for your financial blog” and “Two views: ‘Why Wasatch Writes White Papers,” you should deliver on the promise of your title. Don’t simply seek eyeballs at any cost.

Have you seen any good “William and Kate” titles related to investments, wealth management, or financial planning?

Please note the titles in the comments. Also, feel free to suggest a “William and Kate” title you’d like to read. I can imagine all sorts of riffs on “Why William and Kate…”

Two views: “Why Wasatch Writes White Papers”

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I dreamed of peeking into an asset management company’s marketing strategy when I saw the title “Why Wasatch Writes White Papers” in the latest issue of The Wasatch Advisor. Although the article disappointed, it suggested Wasatch’s real motive: Making the case for the asset classes in which they invest. Plus, it reminded me of two important rules for writers.

Wasatch: Little-known topics

Here’s the only paragraph that comes close to addressing the question raised by the article title:

Over the last couple of years Wasatch has developed five white papers on a variety of topics, including the most recent white paper “Think International, Think Small” which was just released this month. Each white paper focuses on an important topic that we believe is not well covered in general investor education.

So, the stated motivation boils down to Wasatch’s desire to cover important investment topics that don’t receive much popular media attention.

My take: The case for investing in Wasatch’s asset classes

If you look at the five Wasatch white papers, you’ll see that each addresses an asset class included in one or more Wasatch funds. Indeed, the first four white papers mention four to five Wasatch funds, according to the “White Papers” page in their online “Literature and Forms” section. I haven’t actually read the white papers.

White papers are a great way to market funds. However, I believe fund companies shouldn’t act as if it’s an accident that their white paper topics and their investing styles overlap.

I imagine that “Why Wasatch Writes White Papers” didn’t receive the editorial scrutiny it deserved. After all, in “Four lessons  from the Wasatch Funds on reporting underperformance,” I admired the quality of the firm’s communications. I’ve also benefited from the quality of the firm’s white papers. One of their white papers gave me the hook I needed to sell the editor of Financial Planning magazine on an article about mid-cap investing.

Writing lessons from this article

If you’re a writer, editor, or reviewer of your firm’s publications, you can learn some things from this article.

  1. Make sure that your articles deliver on what their titles promise. If the author called this article “Five White Papers to Help You Make Better Investment Decisions,” it would have set my expectations more accurately. Plus, it would never have inspired this blog post.
  2. Remember the WIIFM. Stress “What’s In It For Me” from your reader’s perspective when you write. The current title and introduction don’t do this.

If you remember #2, you’ll pull way ahead of many other financial communicators.

White paper marketing: Walk a fine line

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Investment, wealth management, and financial planning firms agree that white papers are useful marketing tools. However, they don’t always agree on what constitutes a good white paper. Opinions diverge even more when I discuss white papers with members of the broader community of marketers and writers. These disagreements inspired the white paper survey that I report on here.

White papers should be objective, yet opinionated. This is the bottom line from the survey. If it sounds familiar, it’s because you may have seen the shorter version of this post I wrote for the American Society of Business Publication Editors blog.

Three characteristics of white papers stood out in responses to my white paper survey. Respondents said it is “very important” that white papers

  • Are factual – 82%
  • Offer “thought leadership” – 67%
  • Pose a problem and describe how to solve it – 39%

In addition, these were the only three characteristics for which no one checked “does not apply.”

To explain what these three characteristics mean to respondents, I’ll share some responses to my open-ended question, “For you, what is the most important characteristic of a white paper?”

There’s tension between these three traits and the use of white papers for marketing, so you need to walk a fine line in your white papers.

1.  Emphasize factual information

For me, “factual” means based on facts and relatively objective, although the facts in a white paper should be mustered in support of an argument. For example, a white paper about reasons to invest in small-cap stocks should present credible evidence about the broad asset class. It shouldn’t simply tout the sponsoring company’s fund.

Here are some related quotes on white papers’ most important characteristics.

  • Intellectual honesty
  • Actual education instead of attempting… to sell a product
  • Unlike blog posts and small articles, a white paper should be a somewhat seminal, all-encompassing piece on a topic. It should look at the topic from multiple viewpoints and should be an all-in-one resource on the topic.
  • That it be informative and give me concise information on a business issue about which I want to learn more (but not get a PhD!)

2.  Display thought leadership

“Thought leadership” is a tough term to define. I think it should involve uncovering new information or new solutions to problems. At a minimum, I believe, a white paper should present a distinct opinion or point of view. This is what enables white papers to influence their readers. Here’s another definition of thought leadership: “Ideas that educate customers and prospects about important business and technology issues and help them solve those issues—without selling,” said Chris Koch in a tweet to me.

One respondent said a white paper should provide “real insight into an important area of my work.” Another said, “It must contain an original idea or perspective.” Here’s a reply specific to financial services, calling for “Some genuine blue-sky thinking about something related to the market or our industry.”

3.  Pose a problem and suggest a solution

For me, it’s critical that a white paper pose and solve a problem faced by readers. I emphasize this because it gives your audience a reason to care about the white paper.

For example, if you write a white paper aimed at wealthy individuals, you should start by identifying a problem that they face. Sure, it should be a problem related to your business, but if your topic doesn’t hit your readers’ pain points, it won’t command their attention.

Here’s one response from the investment world.

I start with “what do our customers/prospects want/need to know?” Then I connect our expertise to that need. In investment white papers it’s very often economic outlook, emerging trends, or new approaches to old issues. These topics are the ones that people will be drawn to and read.

Here’s a response that also discusses how to organize a white paper. “Take a topic critical to the audience we support and define it. Show why it matters. Issue, at a minimum, a soft call to action for addressing the issue.”

The next quote introduces the issue of marketing along with thought leadership. For this respondent, it’s essential that a white paper “project thought leadership and portray a firm’s associates as industry experts.”

4. Don’t brag about your company or its products/services

The final question in my survey addressed marketing. I offered respondents five choices for completing this sentence: “The company or organization that sponsors a white paper should…” I asked respondents to “check all that apply,” so totals sum to more than 100%.

Here are the questions along with the response rates.

38% 1. Not be mentioned other than one line identifying it as a sponsor.

36% 2. Promote itself only in a “call to action” at the back that invites readers to contact it.

14% 3. Mention its products, services, or programs in the white paper.

10% 4. Pose a problem that it can solve through its products, services, or programs.

2% 5. Discuss itself in detail throughout the white paper.

Respondents disliked heavily promotional white papers, with 74% calling for minimal mention of the company sponsoring the white paper.

Here’s one person’s take on this topic.

I think the most effective white papers sell extremely softly. The harder the sell, the less likely it’s going to do anything for the company. The research itself needs to be as close to straight as possible. It’s incredibly easy to lose credibility in a paper the minute you start talking about the sponsor’s solutions etc. The only exception that works is if you quote an employee as an expert and his advice does not involve say hiring XYZ to build them a new IT system.

I received some great comments on this question, so I’m mulling over incorporating them in a new blog post on white papers.

Note on the survey

This survey was conducted in January-February 2011. Responses were solicited through my LinkedIn Groups, Twitter, and my monthly e-newsletter. As a result, many responses may come from marketers, writers, and financial professionals. I did not collect information about individual respondents.

Do you agree?

Do my survey results fit with YOUR thoughts about white papers?

Feb. 24, 2014 update: I edited this post to delete an outdated link to one of my past presentations about white papers.

 

SEO: What’s right for your financial blog?

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SEO–search engine optimization–can help prospects for your investment or wealth management firm find your blog. That’s good. But taken to an extreme, SEO can sabotage your business development. This is what Claire Cain Miller’s “Web Words That Lure the Readers” in The New York Times (Feb. 11, 2011) made me ponder.

SEO that goes too far

Miller describes SEO gone wild. There are online articles that use “a wide range of behind-the-scenes tactics for getting search engine users to visit a Web site, like choosing story topics based on popular searches,” as Miller states. Additional strategies include “filling articles with keywords that people might search for, writing teaser headlines that people cannot help but click on and including copious links to other stories on the same site,” says Miller.

Taken to extremes, these tactics result in highly ranked articles with little useful content. This is not a good strategy for bloggers like you who want to develop relationships with readers. These articles repel readers. When an audience doesn’t find what it expects on a blog, it’s not likely to explore or revisit the site. This is no way to start a relationship that leads to new clients for your advisory business.

Use SEO in moderation

I’m not suggesting you ignore SEO tactics. In fact, they’re good in moderation. That’s how I use them.

Blogger Russell Dunkin has done a nice job of using celebrity names to attract readers to his firm’s blog. Here’s what differentiates him from the tricksters I discussed above: He provides meaningful content in posts such as “Jim Cramer is a clown” and “What do hot waitresses, dead cats, and Paris Hilton have in common?”

I like the suggestion of a Google engineer quoted by Miller. “…don’t chase after Google’s algorithm, chase after your best interpretation of what users want, because that’s what Google’s chasing after,” says Matt Cutts.

Social media may beat SEO as a tool

Promoting your content via social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook may be more effective than SEO, suggests Miller. SEO alone won’t make your blog post go viral on Twitter. “…the best way to get links on Twitter is to write a story people want to share with friends,” says Miller. Folks who share your posts may also refer you or become your clients.

How important is SEO to YOUR blogging strategy? What has worked for you?

“Smart people”: A good ad by Bessemer Trust

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“You” is one of the most powerful words in the English language. You’re much more likely to read a sentence that addresses “you” than one that starts with “we.” But sometimes alternatives work, as in a recent ad by Bessemer Trust, which uses “smart people” instead of “you.”

Do you think of yourself as one of the “smart people”? Bessemer Trust plays on its audience’s desire to be smart in its recent ad. If you still have The Wall Street Journal from yesterday, you can see it on page A5.

The ad starts with the following text:

THERE’S NO SUCH THING

AS SMART MONEY.

ONLY SMART PEOPLE.

THE MONEY JUST GOES

WHERE THEY GO.

Bessemer’s text hooked me. I’ll bet it also snared your attention.

The text benefits from being short and plain, in addition to working the “smart people” angle. It has a nice conversational tone. It sounds more like a blog post than an ad by a firm that was founded in 1907.

If you saw this ad, I’d like to know what you thought of it.

FEB. 11 UPDATE: View the Bessemer Trust campaign online

You can view the entire Bessemer Trust ad campaign on the website of www.munnrabot.com. Go to “current work” and then Bessemer Trust. Click on the ad that appears there to see more ads. Thank you, Orson Munn, for letting me know this!

Your email subject lines make a world of difference

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A simple subject line can make or break the open rate for your emails.

Would you click on an email with the following subject line?

Subject: =?windows-1252?Q?Conference=20Planning=20Survey?=

I’m probably not alone in my instinct to trash this email. I figured it was probably the work of an unsophisticated spammer.

Looking at the snippet of email address displayed by my email service didn’t inspire confidence either. All I saw was “marketer-ese.” At best, I figured, this was an email from some market research firm.

However, I felt curious, so I expanded the email line. I discovered the email was from an organization I respect, but won’t name. The full email address was something like marketresearch@ORGANIZATION.com

Your bottom line: Pick your subject line carefully

If the organization had a better subject line, I would have opened it without thinking.  Something simple, such as “ORGANIZATION NAME wants your input” would have done the trick.

Have YOU ever deleted or ignored an email because of a poorly written subject line?

Defining investment outperformance: You’ve got strong opinions

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You don’t agree on how to define outperformance by stock funds, the focus of my latest poll. You expressed your disagreement in votes as well as in your comments on my blog post, some of which I’ve quoted verbatim below.

Outperformance poll results

Almost 30% of you said that an advantage of even one basis point (0.01%) was enough for an investment to claim outperformance. Close to 20% put the break point at 10 basis points (bps). Overall, more than two-thirds of you said there was an absolute level at which asset managers could claim outperformance.

For the rest of you, it seemed that outperformance was relative. Twelve percent defined an investment’s outperformance in terms of “a certain percentage of its benchmark.” The rest of you–21%–said outperformance was defined by “None of the above.”

Here are the poll answers and the percentage replies:

* 1 basis point (0.01%): 29% of all votes
* 10 bps: 18%
* 25 bps: 0%
* 50 bps: 6%
* 100 bps: 15%
* A certain percentage of its benchmark’s return: 12%
* None of the above: 21% (Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)

The minimalists’ approach

“Technically, a mere 1 bp excess return should arguably count for ‘outperformance,'”wrote David Spaulding of the Spaulding Group in his comment on my blog. His comment was echoed by Jeff McLean, Ph.D., who said, “I believe that a stock, fund, or variable annuity that outperforms a benchmark by any margin, no matter how small, can claim outperformance.”

Consider the benchmark

John Lowell said he’d like a manager’s performance to exceed the benchmark by at least one standard deviation, but preferably 1.5 standard deviations, before he applied the term outperformance. “To really be outperforming, I’d like to see them outperform by at least 1 standard deviation 3 years out of 5 and cumulatively over the 5-year period.”

Some of you who commented on my blog took issue with the idea of comparing performance net of fees with the performance of a benchmark that’s not reduced by fees. Here’s what Frazer said:

For example, if you have a fund with a 50BPs expense ratio being compared with the SP500 (which investors can access via ETF with an 8BPS expense ratio), you should subtract the fees from both numbers to get an accurate view of relative performance by the manager.

In this case, the fund would need to outperform the SP500 by 42BPS to claim “outperformance” over the benchmark.

I imagine that the SEC doesn’t like this approach. What marketer wouldn’t do this if it were legal?

Then, there’s the issue of what benchmark to use. Steve Smith said, “Leaving aside the degree of outperformance, two baseline criteria are also required: 1) choosing the proper benchmark (i.e. “best fit” index) and 2) having a very high (mid-90%) R squared.”

Remember the client

The financial advisors who responded to my poll said that “outperformance” is meaningless if client goals aren’t considered.

David B. Armstrong, CFA, said

I define outperformance as this – when an investor’s portfolio does better then the return required by the financial plan to meet the investors goals – that’s outperformance.

Moderately outperforming the return required in a financial plan is probably ok – most investors can get away with that safely from time to time. It’s when your outperformance is like going 95 mph in a 65 mph zone that investors have a problem. How many investors experienced a ticket or a wreck in their portfolios in late 2008? Or better yet – how many advisors sat in the back seat of the car and let their clients drive 95 mph…drunk!

Stephen Campisi, CFA, agreed, saying “…outperformance is really not about return; it’s about having more money than you need to meet your tangible financial goals.”

Campisi also suggested that fiduciary responsibility comes into play. “As fiduciaries, we need to start thinking in terms of our loyalty standard, and start thinking about meeting the client’s financial goals – and these are money goals. So, we need to “show them the money” and when we talk about return we need to show them an internal rate of return over a long period. We need to show them the return that incorporates their beginning wealth, the money they were able to pull out of the portfolio for their goals, and their ending wealth. Then (and only then) will we be acting in the best interests of the client.”

My take on this issue

I like the idea of defining outperformance relative to client goals. This is an area where financial advisors and asset management firms focused on separate accounts can improve. However, if you’re a fund company producing investment performance reports for a diverse group of investors, you lack information about client goals. So you’ve got to define outperformance relative to a benchmark.

Thank you, commenters!

I’m grateful to everyone who commented–both on my blog and in a lively discussion on the members-only Financial Writing/Marketing Communications LinkedIn Group. You made me see new dimensions to this issue. I love learning from you.

Thank you–and please continue the conversation!

Best practices for institutional asset manager websites–Can you add anything?

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Best practices for institutional asset manager websites don’t get as much attention as retail sites in the blogosphere. So I’m asking all you seasoned institutional marketing experts to help compile a list of best practices.

In this post, designer Margaret Patterson offers tips on firm-specific information, educational content, and search optimization for institutional investment management websites. Read on for the details of Patterson’s suggestions.

Firm-specific content

In addition to the basics, include the following, suggests Patterson:

  1. A complete “Executive Experience” organization chart, clearly featuring all analysts and their areas of expertise
  2. A client list, but only after getting permission from each of them
  3. Use each search optimization word or phrase at least twice somewhere in your website.

Educational content

Small institutional investors appreciate education, says Patterson. For example, a glossary of terms and analytical definitions, such as free cash flow, operating cash flow, etc.

Here are more of Patterson’s content recommendations:

  1. Downloadable white papers are a big draw. For example, “Actively Managing Bonds vs. Laddering: Pros and Cons.”
  2. Consider offering email market and industry commentaries PDF files.  Google searches favor sites that have been recently altered. Regularly adding new documents improves the odds that Google will lead potential investors to your site.

Special content for special targets

Provide a page or two of content for institutional consultants, suggests Patterson. “For example, a liability-driven approach or exceptional reporting capabilities, when applicable, are music to their ears. I push service, service, service when consultants are among those being pitched.”

If you have questions for Patterson, you can email her at mpco@verizon.net.

Please help add to this list.

Use the “comment” section below or email your suggestions for best practices to
info@investmentwriting.com.

Introducing Susan to marketing managers at investment and wealth management firms

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White papers, articles, and investment commentary are great marketing tools. But it’s not easy for your firm’s experts to find the time—or maybe the skill—to turn their insights into compelling prose. I can help. I can interview your subject matter experts, review research materials, and write a piece your company can publish under its name. If you prefer, I can edit your draft. Or even teach you how to do it yourself.

You may benefit from my writing, editing, or training services if you are a marketer or communicator for

  • Investment managers—especially if you’re marketing to financial advisors
  • Wealth managers
  • Vendors to any of the above

What you want to write–and how I can help

If you are bursting with ideas, I can turn them into

  • White papers
  • Articles
  • Market or investment performance commentary—commentary may be based on interviews or on attribution analysis and other materials provided by you

If you want to write a piece—or improve your draft—you have several options. You can hire me to

  1. Interview your experts and write your piece
  2. Turn source materials you provide into a polished piece
  3. Use a combination of methods 1 and 2

When you contact me, ask for the graphic of my typical writing process. You’ll get a better idea of how we can work together.

 

How you’ll benefit from working with me

  • Your content will attract a bigger audience because the value you provide will be highlighted in reader-friendly text.
  • You receive your finished product quickly and on schedule. Having worked as a staff reporter for a weekly trade publication, I understand the importance of deadlines.
  • You don’t have to explain yourself in endless detail because I understand your industry. I’m a CFA charterholder who can use language as a financial professional and a journalist.

Contact me today to learn more! You can also check my testimonials on LinkedIn.

 

Boost your writers’ skills

Want to help your subject-matter experts and writers deliver better content? Take advantage of my writing workshops. I’ve presented “How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read” to CFA societies across the U.S. and Canada. I’ve also spoken about “Writing Effective Emails and Letters” and developed customized writing workshops for corporate clients.

This post was updated on Dec., 19, 2013