Is there a place for influencer marketing in asset management?

April 19, 2018/1 Comment/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

After Joe Polidoro of Polidoro Marketing and I traded emails about influencer marketing for investment managers, I asked him to contribute this guest post.

Is there a place for influencer marketing in asset management?

By Joe Polidoro

“Influencer marketing” is such a buzzword that it’s lately been declared dead.

But word-of-mouth and peer recommendations have been with us for as long as people have had something to sell. Influencer marketing—leveraging word-of-mouth promotion from online influencers—is just the latest evolution of this time-honored marketing technique.

Influencer marketing:

Lives where we live, at least regarding news and information: on social media. According to the Pew Research Center, six out of 10 people get their news on social media platforms.
Relies on the greater trust most people have in word-of-mouth. Nielsen has found (in an article that’s no longer available online) that an overwhelming 92% of people globally trust user-generated content and word-of-mouth over traditional advertising.
Ideally consists of user-created content, which is seen as more authentic and more trustworthy than advertising content. (Less ideally, but still effective, the influencer shares company-created content.)
Often focuses on personal experience, not on the product or service. Seeks to educate, humanize, or even entertain—not to sell.
Is more affordable, more targeted, and more measurable than traditional advertising.
Can accomplish a number of precise goals, from raising awareness to increasing online engagement to encouraging specific actions.
Successfully reaches not just millennials but also older audiences.

Banks are doing it

Influencer marketing comes in two flavors—paid and earned. Firms will pay celebrities and even lesser-known people who have sizeable, passionate social followings to interact with their brand.

For example, American Express’s #MyAmex campaign gave control of its Instagram account to six owners of small but high-profile business owners to produce running stories of how the Amex Card facilitates their businesses, earning 10 million impressions and 40,000 engagements. Scotia Bank, Chase Sapphire, and US Bank have run equally successful paid influencer marketing campaigns.

Earned influencer marketing tends to rely instead on larger numbers of smaller-scale influencers or everyday people.

TD Ameritrade’s multi-platform #humanfinanceproject “movement” relied on real people—advisors—“to showcase the great work that financial advisors are doing, particularly independent registered investment advisors.”

Capital One’s #EveryDayMoneyBoston Instagram campaign sought to humanize its brand within its community, featuring photos of Bostonians supporting local causes, and attracting a much viewed post from New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman.

And TD Bank’s #ShouldaBeenAVideo featured an Instagram-based photo contest held in partnership with Polaroid, receiving over 3,000 posts, many by Instagrammers with very large followings.

Even relatively small-scale earned influencer marketing campaigns can make a big business impact.

To promote its Cardless Cash mobile app feature, Massachusetts-based Avidia Bank relied on financial social media influencers as part of an integrated online campaign, resulting in a 13% increase in app enrollments, positive sentiment of 83% around the campaign, and an over 100% boost in Twitter engagement.

Can asset managers do it?

Great. Influencer marketing works well with consumers. What about with intermediaries—particularly the often highly sophisticated audiences most asset managers market to?

The first hurdles for asset managers are the FINRA and SEC proscriptions on testimonials, entanglement, and adoption. Recent FINRA notes seem to clear a path for influencer marketing. With compliant disclosure, it would seem that even influencer marketing for products might be feasible.

But for Rule 2210 to apply, online content has to relate to products or services. Educational or otherwise non-product-specific content wouldn’t apply. The faster way to the hearts and minds of advisors is not to push product but to educate and inform. This creates a fairly large space for some interesting influencer marketing approaches.

For example, a manager of advisor-sold municipal bond funds—a more retail product—might engage end investors and advisors by sponsoring a photo contest of fund-financed public projects on targeted social media (Instagram, Facebook) with the hashtag #WeBuiltThat.

For asset managers who want to influence a much smaller, specialized, non-retail audience, highly targeted efforts that look less overtly like campaigns may be more fruitful.

A liquid alts manager seeking to break into the institutional market might produce a series of institutional-level content relating to its philosophy and approach—then share it over time with a growing set of highly selected institutional investors, consultants, reporters, and other influencers. And share similar content created by trusted third parties.

Campaigns like this require time, content, coordination, and cooperation from its more social media-savvy mid-level and senior employees, who would be expected to share the same content with their networks.

Hey, I didn’t say it was easy. But as a researcher on peer influence at MIT Sloan School of Management said, “most human behavior is the result of learning from other humans.” Especially in today’s hyper-connected, super-cynical environment, asset managers may do well to learn from their bank brethren.

Marketing wealth management to women with Charlotte Beyer

January 18, 2018/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

You know that women present an attractive audience for your wealth management or other financial services. “Women with Wallets,” a chapter of Charlotte Beyer’s Wealth Management Unwrapped: Unwrap What You Need to Know & Enjoy the Present, made me think about how you should market to women. Her book targets your potential clients instead of advisors.

1.Don’t treat all women as the same

Beyer points out that women are not all the same. Women who are newly widowed, single and highly successful in their field, married and staying at home with kids, newly divorced, or the beneficiary of a large inheritance will have distinctive needs. She tells women considering a firm to ask themselves if they feel they will be treated as an individual, not a stereotype.

To avoid gender assumptions, here’s what Beyer suggested in an email interview with me, “Look at each woman first as an individual, then discover her goals, her comfort with securities markets, and her hoped-for outcomes, both tangible and intangible.” She also suggests asking questions such as “How much do you know about securities markets?” and “How much time do you want to devote to your finances?”

2. Your employee policies matter, too

Showing respect for women clients and prospects isn’t enough. Your firm’s respect for women should permeate your firm’s culture.

Think about how your firm would fare if potential clients follow these four suggestions by Beyer:

Request that a diverse team be assigned to you. This team should include younger and older, male and female, and ethnic variety as well.
Inquire about the representation of women on the firm’s board and at senior levels, as well as the annual turnover/promotion of women professionals versus men.
Find out how maternity leave policy works at the firm. Ask about flextime, paternity policy, and elder care leave.
Ask what training or educational workshops are offered to women clients. Also ask what professional skills training is offered to women professionals in the organization.

In her email to me, Beyer said, “While many firms may not have answers that will satisfy the client, the willingness to examine current policies and be open to change is appreciated by clients. Cultural change comes slowly, and these questions can speed up the process.”

In addition, she said, “If a firm is proactive and begins to tackle these questions before they are asked, this shows a genuine desire to analyze gender issues. That will be detected quickly by clients and seen as a positive—even as the firm struggles to bring in more women advisors, for example. The turnover of women in financial services is well known. If a culture is not welcoming what women will remain with this firm? Good news: just asking the tough questions internally benefits that firm.

Looking for more book recommendations? Check out “My 2017 reading, with book recommendations for you.”

Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I provide links to books only when I believe they have value for my readers.

Learn more about my financial blogging class!

Have you ever…?

August 22, 2017/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Have you ever struggled to interest a prospective client in your investment, wealth management, or financial planning services? It’s not easy.

When speaking with prospects, a good “have you ever” question can help you to engage them in a two-way conversation. If you touch on a topic that means something to them, you’ll learn information that can deepen your relationship. Try it to see what they tell you about their challenges, fears, and strengths.

Looking for another example?

My intro gave you one example of a “have you ever” question. Here’s another idea, inspired by Marie Perruchet’s One Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Your Idea, Your Product, Your Business–or Yourself (Business Books). In her book, she quotes someone talking about how they help clients, saying “We tell our companies about the bad days—and there will be bad days—and how we will help them through.”

I think that person should ask prospects, “Do you ever have a bad day?” Then, they should wait for the answer, as Perruchet suggests, before diving into their pitch. Your pitch is more powerful when you can tie it to your prospect’s pain as explained in their own words.

As I’ve said elsewhere, your marketing will go further when you focus on your prospects, instead of how great you are. Talk about your readers’ WIIFM (what’s in it for me). You’ll increase their interest in whatever you say.

If you’re writing something, consider taking the approach I discuss in “Make your writing easier with my fill-in-the-blanks approach for structuring articles,” which focuses on your readers’ problems.
Disclosures: I received a free copy of this book from McGraw Hill in return for agreeing to mention it in my blog. If you click on the Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I only link to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Webinar lessons from my annual webinars

August 8, 2017/in marketing, presentation/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Mastering the technology for my first webinar in 2014 was hell, as I have shared in “Tech tips for your educational webinar—learn from my experience.” Things have gotten easier since then, especially because I’ve stuck with GoToWebinar, but things can still go wrong. If you’re an infrequent webinar presenter like me, you can learn from my experience presenting my annual investment commentary webinar.

Lesson 1. Stick with the same software

There may be webinar software that’s better or cheaper than GoToWebinar. But over four years of annual webinars, I’ve learned how to manage its basics. Also, the branding and some other settings that I’ve established in past years carry over from year to year. That saves me time.

You may think that all webinar software functions basically the same. My 2014 experience shifting to GoToWebinar from an awful low-cost provider suggests that’s not true. However, I only have experience with two providers.

Lesson 2. Plan to practice early and often

Things will go wrong with your webinar software. At least, that’s true in my experience. So run practice sessions—including sessions with simulated viewers (and co-organizers, if relevant).

In my experience, moving the cursor is often a source of problems. So, manipulate it a lot. Sabotage yourself, and then practice recovering. Then, if something goes wrong in your live presentation, you’ll recover more rapidly.

By the way, if you’re only moving from slide to slide, you may be able to skip moving your cursor because you can advance slides using an arrow key. However, this means you’re not using tools like polls or highlighters. Nor are you reviewing and managing participant questions or comments. By not using those tools, you lose opportunities to engage your audience. That may hurt the effectiveness of your webinar.

If you uncover problems early enough, you can work with the webinar provider to find a solution that minimizes them. Through multiple exchanges—on the telephone and in the online support community—this year I found a less trouble-prone way to advance my slides.

Lesson 3. Be aware that software may change from year to year

Software changes. There may be “improvements” or the software may change to accommodate new operating systems, like Windows 10.

For example, I believe that, back in 2014, the lines that I drew using GoToWebinar’s drawing tool disappeared when I clicked to the next page. That was convenient. But now I have to erase those lines. That’s an extra step that slows me down so I’ve stopped using the drawing tool.

In short, you assume at your own risk that what works one year will work again the next year.

Lesson 4. The experience of your helpers matters

I’m lucky to have worked with some wonderful helpers on my webinars. One of my helpers had lots more experience in webinar presentations and technology than the others. Her experience made my experience more relaxing.

I highly recommend using helpers to manage your introduction, Q&A, and behind-the-scenes logistics. They’ll improve the experience for you and your audience. However, if you’re a worrywart like me, you’ll also do some practice sessions in which you play all of the roles. In a pinch, I could have introduced myself, launched my polls, and handled technical problems and Q&A on my own. Sure, I would have felt like an anxious mess. But I could have blundered my way through the presentation.

Consider these lessons to give yourself and your audience a better webinar experience.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

How I named my website—and the lessons for you

July 18, 2017/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

I’m reading One Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Your Idea, Your Product, Your Business—or Yourself. Author Marie Perruchet says, “Very often, a startup’s name tells much more about the company’s story.”

That made me wonder, what does my naming story say—and what lessons might it offer for naming your financial services firm?

Here are my lessons for you.

1. Personal vs. generic name

Do you want a name that’s specific to a firm headed by you, as with SusanWeiner.com? Or, do you want a generic name?

I started out wanting to use my own name to make it clear that I’m the only person who does my firm’s writing, editing, and training. As Perruchet says, “Audiences are smart and can easily detect what is fake. There is no reason to inflate or transform the truth.”

However, think differently if you plan to build a firm with employees—a firm you may eventually wish to sell. You might prefer a more generic firm name that doesn’t use your surname. You can still personalize by using words or images that resonate with you and your target audience.

For example, I love the spinning classes at my gym. If I were starting a writing business aimed at companies offering spinning-related classes and products, I might call it Spinning Words.

2. Grab your desired name ASAP

I wanted to use SusanWeiner.com for my website. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available when I started. I faced much less memorable variants that involved inserting hyphens or underscores into my name.

As you consider names for your investment, wealth management, or financial planning firm, see if your candidates have already been taken by someone else. The Small Business Administration offers advice on how to check that your business name won’t infringe a trademark or if another local business has already incorporated under the name.

Think about your website name, in addition to your firm’s name. If a couple of short, memorable names are available, consider reserving those website addresses. It’s fairly inexpensive. For example, it’s about $15 per year for a URL on GoDaddy.

3. Crowdsource

What if the name you want isn’t available? That’s what initially happened to me with SusanWeiner.com.

My first thought was to use InvestmentCommunications.com because my title at my previous corporate job had been director of investment communications. Unfortunately, that website address was already taken.

I asked my web designer for advice. His suggestions included InvestmentWriting.com. In retrospect, I’m glad I was forced into using something other than SusanWeiner.com. InvestmentWriting is more memorable and more easily spelled, especially since I pronounce my name WEE-ner, instead of the more common WI-ner. Also, Investment Writing identifies my key skill. That’s priceless.

If I ran into this problem today, I might crowdsource my naming dilemma. I might ask for ideas on social media, as I did for my book cover. Or, I might ask a select group of colleagues. Your choice will depend on how comfortable you are with these options.

4. Don’t give up on your ideal website address

Remember how I wanted SusanWeiner.com? My web guy kept his eyes open. We snared that address once it became available. Now it rolls over to InvestmentWriting.com.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of One Perfect Pitch from McGraw-Hill in return for agreeing to write about it. Also, if you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I only link to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Dare to be different in your financial marketing

July 11, 2017/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

On my bicycle close to where I first glimpsed the Robolights

The Robolights house grabbed my attention. Its colorful sculptures stood out as my husband and I bicycled around the sleek modernist houses of Palm Springs’ Movie Colony neighborhood.

We were just one block away from Frank Sinatra’s house, where we glimpsed the pool side entrance as men set up for a party. We’d been biking and driving around, guided by a map of modernist architecture in Palm Springs, California. The colorful Robolights sculptures contrasted with the subdued earth tones that we saw around it in other homes and the landscape.

More Roblights sculptures

I saw no garish colors as I peeked in the back entrance to Frank Sinatra's house

Looking in the back entrance to Frank Sinatra’s house

Another modernist home

Lesson for financial marketers

Too many marketers for financial services firms produce messages and materials that look the same. That’s okay if you don’t want to stand out from the crowd.

If you DO want to stand out, try becoming the Robolights house of your niche. Embrace a different appearance.

Sure, some people will shy away from your differences. I saw some nasty comments about the Robolights house.

On the other hand, other people will become passionate fans. Don’t you want to attract people who appreciate the real you?

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy 6 ways financial advisors can differentiate themselves or You vs me — or we: A rant on financial marketing.

Be specific about your advantages, or lose prospects

May 25, 2017/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

It’s hard to stand out among financial firms offering similar services and products. That’s why I agree that you should be specific about your advantages, as suggested by Marie Perruchet in One Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Your Idea, Your Product, Your Business—or Yourself. Learn and share your differentiators.

Perruchet says:

A key differentiator should be specific. All customers expect good value, fair prices, excellent customer service, and reliability, to name a few. You are bringing unique value to your market. You solve a unique problem for your customers. That’s the key differentiator.

Find your differentiators

How do you identify your differentiators? While Perruchet’s book is geared to entrepreneurs pitching to investors, some of her questions for uncovering uniqueness can help financial advisors, too. Here are some of them:

“Remember your last interaction with a client who loves your product. What made him rave about it?”
“Remember the last time a client, user, or partner told you about your product’s efficiency. What did the person say?”
“Who is the human resource who stands out and affects your product the most?”

After answering Perruchet’s questions, can you quantify the contribution that your differences make to the results or experience of your clients? If you can, that’s powerful.

Still struggling to find your differentiators? In an email interview with me, Perruchet suggested that you ask your clients why they’ve enjoyed working with you. Ask questions such as, “Why would you recommend me to your friends? Can you tell me of situations where I have really made a difference?” Push your clients to be as specific as possible. Next, share what you’ve learned with your leads to see how well it resonates with them.

Perruchet suggests that you tell a customer story. Create an imaginary character. Walk us through his painful day. Show him experiencing real problems that are solved by your (new) product features. Consider using client testimonials or case studies, if you work in an area of financial services where that’s allowed. Check with your compliance officer to see what’s allowed. However, you’re not likely to have much luck if you’re an investment manager.

Perruchet’s take on advisor mistakes

Knowing that Perruchet has worked with some financial advisors, I asked for her insights specific to that experience. She kindly shared her list of the top mistakes that financial advisors make when pitching to prospects. By the way, I love her tip about trying your pitch on your friends. I suggest a similar technique for testing your writing.

Here’s Marie’s take on advisor mistakes:

Mistake 1. Not simplifying the pitch
Problem: A pitch should be simple enough that the person who hears it can remember and tell it to others in their own words. The leads you pitch to today may not become your clients, but they may have friends who are shopping for a financial advisor and are a perfect fit for you. What should they tell their friends about you? How can you give them the elements to pitch for you to their friends?

Solution: Practice with friends who are not in your field (or co-workers) and ask them for feedback on your pitch (for example, ask if it is clear and specific). Ask them to put your pitch in their words. You will spot the mistakes right away.

Mistake 2. Not discussing specific problems they enjoy resolving for clients
Problem: You need to discuss the main problem you resolve for clients. Generalizations don’t work.

Solution: Give examples as many times as possible and use simple English. For example, do you enjoy working with people who want to buy a house in the next three years, who have moved from a foreign country so they don’t understand the U.S. financial system, or who don’t know how to start saving in their first job out of college? Or maybe you prefer clients who just sold shares of their start-up and don’t know what to do with the proceeds, or who need to start saving for retirement? Be specific so people retain images in their heads. For example, make them visualize their retirement in Palm Springs.

Mistake 3. They have a great 15-minute script, but they don’t do their homework about their leads.
Problem: Your pitch won’t resonate with your prospects if you repeat it by rote or fail to provide situations that are relevant to them.

Solution: Do research about your prospects before you meet them. A great deal of information is available via the internet or social media. Then you can refer to their specific situation. For example, you can say, “as you have a new kid,” or “as you have just changed jobs,” or “as you have just refinanced your home.” When you understand the struggles they face, you can tell them about clients who faced the same and similar situations, and how you helped them. People think they are unique but they are going through universal problems.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of One Perfect Pitch from McGraw-Hill in return for agreeing to write about it. Also, if you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.

Keep on clicking links, or make unhappy discoveries later

May 23, 2017/in marketing, newsletter/by Susan Weiner, CFA

Do you ever get tired of clicking links in your online and emailed publications to make sure they go to the right place? I do.

It’s frustrating to click, click, click because 999 times out of 1,000 the link goes to the right place, and I see what I expect to see there. But what about the 1,000th time?

My shock from clicking a link

As I worked with my virtual assistant on my marketing emails for my upcoming investment commentary webinar, I thought, “I don’t need to continue clicking links to my registration page on EventBrite. We’ve used these emails and links forever. What could go wrong?”

After all, my assistants and I have used EventBrite since 2012. Over the years, each assistant has quickly gotten the hang of updating the dates and fees on the registration page, while repeating the same formatting.

I clicked anyhow, expecting to see the usual formatting with my logo at the top. Instead, I saw something similar (I didn’t think to save a screen shot) to the following:

My logo and some of the usual text had been stripped out of my event registration page, apparently due to an “upgrade” in EventBrite’s software.

I tweeted to EventBrite to learn about the changes, and emailed my VA for help. Luckily, both responded quickly. Now I have a new registration page with my logo and some color, as you’ll see below.

What a difference clicking links makes! As a result of clicking the links, I found a problem that would have embarrassed me if I’d waited for my readers to discover it.

Clicking links lesson for you

What’s the lesson for you? Keep on clicking links to check that they meet your expectations.

After this experience, I think I’ll check more links than I used to. I must resist the urge to assume that everything is OK.

To learn more about my investment commentary webinar

Want to learn more about writing investment commentary? You’ll find the details of my webinar on my website and you can register for the webinar.

Not sure if you’ll be available at the time of the webinar? Don’t worry, you can watch a recording.

Financial call transcripts: Are they good for marketing?

May 9, 2017/in marketing/by Susan Weiner, CFA

In my last staff job for an investment manager, I ran a weekly conference call with portfolio managers and other investment experts. Relationship managers and other portfolio managers dialed in to hear our experts’ views on the market and specific asset classes. My experience with those calls prejudiced me against using financial call transcripts for marketing. I’ll you why. But I’ll also share tips for getting more out of transcripts, if you use them.

My experience with a fixed-income call transcript

I remember a relationship manager asking me to order a call transcript to share with his colleagues and, possibly, some clients. I said “no.” Anyway, a few days later, I was surprised to receive a transcript in my email inbox. How did that happen? The relationship manager went behind my back to order a transcript. The company sent me a copy because I managed the call.

The relationship manager got his transcript. However, he didn’t really get what he wanted. After reading the transcript, he realized that it wasn’t useful. Even with editing, the transcript wouldn’t be compelling.

With that introduction, I’ll explain why financial call transcripts often aren’t good for your marketing.

3 reasons financial call transcripts may not work

Reason #1: Calls may not be as meaty as written documents

A spontaneous, unplanned call may bounce around and fail to go into depth on any one topic. This may work for some audiences, especially if audience members feels they are getting special access to normally inaccessible experts.

However, this type of call may not translate well into a transcript. It may be difficult for readers to glean useful information.

For example, imagine that your expert sprinkles tips about emerging-market stocks, investment-grade bonds, and tax planning advice throughout a call. Your expert’s wanderings are likely to irritate your transcript’s readers.

Your transcript readers are also likely to be turned off if your expert fails to fully develop any topics. A transcript full of one-liners gets boring. that’s true even if your speaker is a top comedian. Most financial professionals don’t have comedians’ gift of gab.

Reason #2: A conversational style may not translate into writing

You can ask your transcriptionist to delete ums, ahs, and other meaningless fillers. That’ll make your transcript more readable.

However, there are other practices that work well in conversation, but poorly in writing. A conversational style tends to use more words than a good written document. For example, when speaking, a person may say “I’m going to talk about this and then that.” In contrast, a document may go directly to “This and that are important because…”

I believe that most written communications in the financial world benefit from passing my first-sentence test. However, a discussion that passes this test might sound stilted and unnatural.

Reason #3: Typos abound

Many factors can prevent an accurate transcript:

Speakers may not enunciate clearly.
The technical quality of the recording may be poor.
The transcriptionist may be sloppy or not know your industry. For example, I read a transcript that included the term “coverts,” as if it were referring to espionage. In fact, it should have said “converts,” a short form of “convertible bonds.”

3 ways to get more mileage out of recorded calls

1. Create speaking notes for your speakers

Provide some structure for your speakers before they get on your call. This will give your call more structure than a freewheeling conversation.

Here are two techniques to consider:

Use a Q&A format. Draft questions that your moderator will ask on the call. It’ll help if the questions build in a logical order. Of course, a good moderator doesn’t stick 100% to the predetermined questions. It’s good to respond to the answers your experts give. Consider giving the questions to your expert in advance. It’ll help tongue-tied guests like me. On the other hand, some speakers may over-script and over-rehearse their answers. When you know your experts, you can manage them in the best way.
Use speaking notes. I don’t recommend writing a word-by-word script. Detailed scripts tend to sap your speakers’ energy. Your speaking notes could be a list of topics, or the notes could go into more detail. Sometimes it’s good to provide bullet points for powerful statistics or stories. Stories tend to stick in people’s minds long after the facts disappear.

2. Proofread, copyedit, or rewrite transcripts

At a minimum, someone who listened to your call and someone who knows English usage rules should proofread your transcript. This will help you to avoid embarrassing mistakes.

Do you want to go beyond proofreading? There’s a spectrum from simple copyediting to rewriting the content to make it flow better.

3. Add headings

A transcript typically presents pages of text broken up only by the start of new paragraphs. When you add headings, you add visual variety. You also make it for readers to skim the document. They can figure out if the transcript touches on a big topic that interests them.

4. Create a highlights document

Back when I managed the weekly investment call for my employer, we didn’t use transcripts. Instead, I created a document that shared the highlights of the call.

Since my document was for internal use only, I wrote the highlights as bullet points. That meant it didn’t take as much time as writing in full sentences in a document that would pass my first-sentence check.

Bonus tip for working with a transcriptionist

Consider giving your transcriptionist a list of the technical terms that appear in your transcript. That may avert some mistakes.

YOUR tips?

Do YOU have tips to help marketers get more out of financial call transcripts? Please let me know.