Guest post: "What is a Visual Brand Standards Guide?"

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I’m a big fan of companies using style guides to ensure consistency of punctuation, grammar, and other aspects of writing style. So you probably won’t be surprised that I also believe in visual consistency. This week’s guest post discusses your visual brand standards guide. Annie Smidt, its author, is lead designer and strategist for Seltzer.

Investment and wealth management businesses with strong branding and well-crafted, targeted messaging are connecting with current and potential clients — from Fidelity and Schwab with their high-profile “green line” and “Talk to Chuck” rebrands/campaigns to small firms who have finally taken the plunge with a professional design firm.

Once you and your designers have gone through all the work of developing a visual identity for your company, and they’ve built you some great tools, such as business cards, letterhead and a website, and maybe some ads or brochures, then what?

For the long term, you should come away from your engagement with a design firm with a strategic brand marketing plan in hand. It will outline, either in broad strokes or in great specificity, your actions and goals for your brand. Ideally, you will continue working with your design firm throughout the year and years to expand the reach of your visual brand, according to this road map.

Second of all, and more germane to the topic at hand, you should come away with a Visual Brand Standards Guide. We’ll call it a VBSG for short.

What is this VBSG?
Generally, the VBSG will be a document — printed, electronic or both. Depending on what kind of work the design firm has developed for you, it will contain some or all of the following:

Logo Guidelines. This section will give the dos and don’ts for using your logo. It will include such details of logo use and abuse as:

  • what colors it should or should not be reproduced in    what colors and backgrounds it can and cannot be placed upon —  how far away from other elements it should appear   
  • rules governing use of a tagline with the logo   
  • rules governing other graphic elements that may or may not accompany your logo    

Stationery Guidelines. This section will include information such as:

  • what typeface to use when printing on your letterhead and envelopes 
  • what the margins, line spacing and other document layout details should be used when printing on letterhead and envelope
  • if you have multiple letterhead formats (such as first sheets and second sheets, versions with and without your board listed, or other special-purpose sheets), which version of letterhead should be used in which circumstances   
  • how to format an electronic letter on letterhead versus a printed letter


Brand Palette Guidelines. Once in a while there’s a little something design-y you need to create in house. This section will give you info you need about:

  • what colors should be used in your branded communications (usually, your logo colors plus several others) — the VBSG will tell you how to specify them for different printing processes, the web or presentations   
  • what typeface(s) should be used, and where, and how should they be styled   
  • how other graphic elements that are part of your visual brand should be used
  • how photographs should be treated/used


Web Style Guide. If some of your website is under your control (most likely through a Content Management System), your style guide may include guidelines for the visual aspects of web content. The CMS will most likely also be set up to aid in the correct visual display of content through the use of various preset styles built in to the software. Your style guide might include:

  • which fonts, type styles and colors to use on your site for the various levels of hierarchical information (e.g., heads, subheads, paragraphs, captions).
  • if you should include photos, how they should be sized, oriented and placed   
  • any visual considerations for adding pages to the site

Other Guidelines. Depending on what your designers have created for you, and what the marketing plan entails, your VBSG may also include:

  • samples of and specs for on-screen presentations, including styles for charts and other information graphics
  • samples of different ads or ad campaigns and details of when they should be used and/or how they should be sized   
  • samples of and information about (akin to what’s in the web section above) email marketing campaigns   
  • samples of and information about direct mail campaigns
  • how the brand should be localized for other countries, cities or languages   
  • samples of and usage information about any other pieces that sport your visual brand: uniforms, vehicles, holiday cards, billboards, etc.

The article above is an edited version of “What is a Visual Brand Style Guide, and why do you want one?” It originally appeared in Seltzer’s monthly e-newsletter.

My broken link to "Should you drop subscribers who don’t open your newsletter?"

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Dear newsletter readers,


Here’s the link that wasn’t working in my August newsletter:
      “Should you drop subscribers who don’t open your newsletter?“


I apologize for inconveniencing you. Thank you for bearing with me.

 

Leverage third-party endorsements

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“Leverage third-party endorsements for maximum exposure.” 

This line from “Survive and Thrive in Today’s Volatile Market” by Peter Hammond, EVP, UMB Fund Services, got me thinking about financial advisors who get quoted by reporters, but fail to let their clients, prospects, and referral sources about it. After all, getting quoted is a kind of third-party endorsement.

If you get quoted, share the good news. Put it up on your website, mention it in letters and conversations, and share reprints. 

Some caveats:
* Make sure your communication is compliance-approved.
* Don’t photocopy or scan an article without the publication’s permission. You’re infringing on their copyright. It IS okay to share a short excerpt or to link to the article on the publication’s website.
* If you buy professional reprints, make sure they’re typo-free and well-formatted. You can’t always count on them to catch errors.
* Don’t share if you’re not proud of the way you were presented.

Poll: What newsletter strategies work best for investment and wealth managers?

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Newsletters are an important part of marketing for many investment and wealth management firms.

You’ve got lots of options. 

  • Print newsletter vs. e-newsletter
  • Quarterly, monthly or weekly frequency
  • Market commentary and/or other topics
  • Articles that you write yourself vs. articles written by a writer whom you hire, so they reflect your firm’s views vs. articles that are mass-produced by a firm that sells the same content to others

I’d like to learn your opinion on what works best. Please answer the poll in the right-hand column of this blog. 

Also, feel free to leave a comment below.

Bostonians, where will you be on October 1?

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Several events in Boston are competing for financial professionals’ attention around October 1. The first aims at investment managers, while the last two target mutual funds.

  • Oct. 1-2, The CFA Institute’s Fixed Income 2009 conference, including presentations by James Grant and Dan Fuss
  • Oct. 1, NICSA’s East Coast Regional meeting, featuring keynote addresses by Robert L. Reynolds,   President and Chief Executive Officer, Putnam Investments, and Keith F. Hartstein, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer, John Hancock Funds, LLC
  • Sept. 30-Oct. 1, MFWire’s Thought Leadership Summit, billed as “Thought Leadership with …’40 Act Fund Distribution’s Most Influential People” 
    Where will YOU be on October 1?

FINRA’s limits on registered rep use of ghostwriters

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Registered representatives, if you distribute an article with your name, FINRA wants you to contribute most of the content.

That seems to be the minimum requirement, according to comments I’ve received from other financial marketing writers in LinkedIn’s Financial Writing/Marketing Communications Group. Your compliance department may have stricter requirements, so check before you publish.

“Misleading Communications About Expertise,” a FINRA regulatory noticed dated May 2008, appears to lay out the rules. It says, “Registered representatives may not suggest (or encourage others to suggest) that they authored investment-related books, articles or similar publications if they did not write them. Such a publication created by a third-party vendor must disclose that it was prepared either by the third party or for the representative’s use.”

However, what does it mean to write an article?

It appears that ghostwriters can be involved if they aren’t providing the information for the article. In other words, if the rep provides the article’s substance–either through an outline or an interview conducted by the ghostwriter–and if the rep oversees revisions to the article, then it’s okay. At least that’s what I took away from the comments of writers who interact more closely than me with compliance experts.

Again, be sure to check with your firm’s compliance department before you publish.

If you’ve had experience with this topic, I welcome your comments.

My top tips for LinkedIn newbies who want to attract financial clients, referrals, and jobs

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LinkedIn is gaining power as a source of clients, referrals, and jobs, just as websites have become essential for companies. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, it’s almost if you don’t exist. 

In its most basic form, LinkedIn can be a gentle, low-key way of reminding people that you exist. You can also use it to meet new people. These are my main goals for LinkedIn. It has generated some business for me, but NOT as the result of my aggressively asking for it.

In this post, I share my personal top tips for raising your profile using LinkedIn.

1. Put up a profile, any profile

Just list your name and geographic location and geographic location if you’re not sure what information you want to share. If a former client remembers you from your last job at a different investment management firm, LinkedIn provides an easy way for them to find you. 

2. Flesh out your profile and show your personality

After I filled in the basics, I gave my LinkedIn profile a makeover, following the advice in Guy Kawasaki’s “LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover.” The main idea is to give more of a sense of who you really are in your profile. If you’re a LinkedIn novice, you should also read Kawasaki’s “Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn.” 

3. Link with others to stay in touch

You must build your network on LinkedIn to get maximum benefit. If you’re comfortable with LinkedIn’s security, you can let it access your email address books so it can identify your contacts who are already on LinkedIn. Then you can send them an invitation to connect.

After you connect, your contacts will automatically see your very recent updates on their LinkedIn home page. This is a big advantage in keeping you “top of mind” as a potential service provider, referral recipient, or employee. 

4. Update your status

On your LinkedIn home page, have you noticed the box that says “Share an article, photo, video or idea”? Updating this box regularly is one of the most valuable steps you can take. I know because I’ve actually gotten work from a client who was inspired by my update to contact me.

If you’re a blogger, it’s a great idea to link to a blog post from this box. Are you an advisor? You could mention an interesting article you’re reading or a new white paper on your firm’s website (but check with Compliance first). If you’re a job hunter, be wary of sounding desperate. It’s better to mention some positive activity you’re engaged in rather than to say repeatedly “___ is looking for a job as a research analyst.”


Here’s one of my updates as a sample: 
Susan blogged: Statistics to calm nervous investors: Research on dollar cost averaging http://bit.ly/qKf3p 

5. Participate in LinkedIn Groups 
Participating in LinkedIn Groups and asking and answering questions on LinkedIn will also raise your profile.  Plus, what you learn from others can help you do your job. I’ve found data and people to interview through LinkedIn.

NOTE: This post was updated on 12/15/18 for changes in LinkedIn.

 

Should you drop subscribers who don’t open your e-newsletter?

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If you’re like most e-newsletter senders, you track the statistics on how many subscribers open each issue. Personally, I check them multiple times because I get a rush out of every click on my monthly Investment Writing Update. But there are people who never seem to read my newsletter.  

This made me ask, should you drop people whose names don’t appear on your open list?  

I’ve been mulling this over for awhile. After all, you’ll get charged more each time your readership rises above a certain level by firms such as Constant Contact that provide a way to manage your email lists and format your newsletters. 

I finally decided that I should not drop the non-openers. Not if they are good potential source of business or referrals. Open statistics aren’t all that matter because
1. Newsletter open statistics aren’t 100% accurate.
2. You may benefit from people who don’t open your newsletter, but will think of you when they finally need you, your product, or your services. 

Inaccurate statistics
 “Your open rate could be higher than what is reported,” said Constant Contact, the newsletter service that I use.

There are all sorts of technical reasons why open rates may be under-reported. To my non-technical mind, the reasons boil down to your audience’s choice of email reader and email reader settings–things over which you have no control. “Open rates are becoming less accurate with many people reading email from hand held devices and disabling image downloading, said the Email Marketing Metrics Report (June 2009). The move to hand held devices has accelerated dramatically since that report was published.

I know one e-newsletter writer who deleted all of the subscribers who hadn’t opened at least one recent issue. She got many complaints from readers who were inaccurately categorized as non-openers. Plus, she lost subscribers like me who enjoyed the newsletter, but only read it occasionally.

You may benefit from non-readers
 “I never read your newsletter,” said a colleague. She’s just too busy and my content doesn’t isn’t relevant enough to her narrow circumstances. On the other hand, she said, “I see your name every month in my email, so I’m reminded of you.” This jolt has contributed to her giving me dozens of useful contacts over the years.

It can be useful to gently remind your prospective clients and referral sources of your existence.

Sometimes “they would prefer to ignore your messages until they are ready to buy,” according to Dela Quist, as quoted in “Just Wait For Me” in MarketingProfs’ Get to the Point: Email Marketing  newsletter. This has happened to me. I got a very warm introduction–and a great client–from someone who had ignored me for months.

My conclusion? If individuals have voluntarily signed up for your e-newsletter, there’s no harm in keeping them on your list. Indeed, one of those subscribers could become your next client. 

July 29, 2009 update: Thanks to Morningstar’s Mike Barad for reminding me that Outlook’s preview pane can produce false “open” statistics. You may mistakenly think that an Outlook user opened your email. However, it’s hard to know if this overreporting outweighs the underreporting. Perhaps you just shouldn’t rely too much on open statistics.

Image courtesy of hywards at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Guest post: Attaining and Sustaining High Productivity in Investment Management Marketing

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Investment management firms need optimal internal collaboration to achieve the best possible communications, marketing, and client service as they cope with anxious clients, tight budgets, and lean staffing. Tips for how to achieve this goal are the focus of this guest post by Jacqueline L. Charnley and Christine M. Rostvold, founders of Charnley & Rostvold, a marketing communications firm.

“Productivity is never an accident.  It is always the result of a commitment to
excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort.”
~  Paul J. Meyer


Now more than ever, investment firms need to become well-oiled machines, leveraging every possible resource to produce the highest quality communications and service.  Timely and relevant content, whether for reporting or sales, needs to be developed, produced and distributed…all too frequently with too few resources.  What are best practices to attaining and equally as important, sustaining high productivity in marketing and communications?  How can counterproductive politics be minimized, good decisions be made and stressful deadlines be met in the face of rapidly fluctuating workloads?

Know Your Objectives and Plan to Achieve Them
First, management must document key objectives and agree on a plan to achieve them.  Communicate both the goals and the plan to everyone on the team and to senior management.  Document priorities (by product, by client, by consultant) and adhere to those priorities.  Stay focused by making it okay for anyone to question whether an activity is a fire drill or is on plan.  At the same time, recognize when deviating from the plan is a good idea.

Train People for Success
One firm is known for promoting people to roles where the individual’s past experience is not relevant to the new role.  Then when the individual fails, the firm simply moves to another candidate.  Instead, know the required skill sets for the new role in advance.  Know what can be trained and what cannot be.  Measure the individual against criteria required to do well in the role, and train and support that person to be successful.

Document Your Procedures
In a recent survey, members of  the Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources (PAICR)) shared that only 57% had written procedures for their firms and only 56% for their marketing departments.  You need procedures that are current and easy to follow.  In addition to being written, procedures need to be updated regularly.  Empower employees and trainees to question existing procedures, and to rewrite them to reflect their most current (and useful) form.

Commit the Time to Communicate, to Train, to Debrief
Time is one of the biggest obstacles to regular communications, training and debriefing.  Other priorities will always come first until you recognize and commit to the importance of communicating your plan and procedures, to train people to succeed and to debrief after major projects as to what worked, what didn’t work.  Debriefing leads a team into greater and greater productivity and away from politics and failure to produce.

Evaluate Systems and External Resources
New systems and technologies to enhance productivity are constantly being brought to market.  One of the biggest time and resource drains is updating and proofing data.  There are systems that can connect and update client files, presentation books, database responses and RFPs instantly and provide tracking.  Software and service systems can help with project management and communications.  Commit resource and time to stay on top of what is available.

“You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”
Keep your culture positive and supportive.  Constantly ask what can be done differently to help clarify and streamline a direction or process.  Avoid blame games when something does go wrong.  Instead, find the solution that will make it go right the next time.  Evolve from your own experiences.  Critique in private, praise in public.  Celebrate victories and accomplishments.  Celebrate being a productive team.

What financial advisors can learn from the "60-Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula"

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Having a hard time writing your first sales letter? The “60-Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula” can get you started. But you should tweak his formula to reach your audience and to keep your compliance officer happy.

The formula 
Here’s my interpretation of the formula. You can read more details in Michel Fortin’s explanation of Dean Jackson’s formula in “60-Minute Naked Truth Salesletter Formula.”
1. Start by completing the following sentence: “I’m writing to you because I want you to…”
2. Complete the following sentence with a bulleted list: “The reason I’m writing to you specifically is because I think you want…”
3. List your services’ features and benefits.
4. List your prospects’ top 10 questions or objections–and your answers to them
5. Explain how you guarantee results or remove risks. Obviously this step poses challenges for financial advisors.
6. Write a “call to action,” giving steps the reader can take to connect with you or your company and describing exactly what the reader will get.
7. Give your reader a sense of urgency, so they’ll act soon.
8. Supply testimonials. This is another step that financial advisors–especially investment managers–should skip because of the SEC prohibition against testimonials. 

Pros and cons of applying this formula 
The pluses of this formula include
* Making it easy for your readers to understand what you want and how it’ll benefit them–Too many financial advisors get hung up on features instead of benefits. Or they fail to anticipate objections.
* Organizing your information logically  
* Developing a good understanding of topics that you need to discuss with prospects
* Ensuring that you include an action step, the “call to action,” in your letter 

The drawbacks of this formula include
* Landing you in trouble with your compliance officer through discussion of guarantees or testimonials (although it’s easy enough to skip Steps 5 and 8)
* Sounding too formulaic and too much like a late night TV ad for something that grinds, chops, and does everything else
* Creating a letter that’s so long no one will read it

I learned about Michel Fortin’s blog post in an email from marketer Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communication. Thanks, Sonia!

Related posts:
*  Focus on benefits, not features, in your marketing
*  Your mail has three seconds to grab your reader’s attention
*  “Institutional investing” isn’t as great as you think