“Stop Sending ‘Dear Valued Client’ Emails”

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When you address your correspondence to “Dear Valued Client,” you send the wrong message. It says you don’t care enough to personalize your message.

So, check out the email solutions described in “Stop Sending ‘Dear Valued Client’ Emails” by Bill Winterberg on his FP Pad blog. He suggests using a service like Constant Contact, which I use to send my newsletter, or mail merge, like the function available in Microsoft Outlook.

Allow plenty of time to get the hang of mail merge. It’s complicated. At least, that’s my experience.

And, be sure to test your mail merge on non-clients before your first email to clients. 

I discovered some unexpected problems the first time I used Outlook’s mail merge function. Luckily, I’d used my husband as my mail-merge guinea pig. So none of the prospective clients for my writing and editing business had to suffer through my mistakes.

March 13, 2017 update: The number of newsletter services has multiplied since Bill and I originally wrote about this topic in 2008. If I were starting my newsletter today, I’d look at MailChimp (free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month) and other competitors to Constant Contact.

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy “Personalized subject lines can backfire in emails.”

Vary your paragraph length like NYT columnist Floyd Norris

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It can be painful to read a page full of long sentences and longer paragraphs. That’s why, when I teach “How to Write Investment Commentary that People Will Read,” I suggest that people vary the length of their sentences and paragraphs.

New York Times columnist Floyd Norris illustrates this nicely in the print version of his article“No Profit Without Risk.”

In the print version, a two-line paragraph follows an eight-line paragraph and a 10-line paragraph. The contrast between two vs. eight and ten in the print version is starker than what you’ll see in the online article. By the way, the online article goes by a different title than the print version, so please don’t tell me I got his title wrong.

The short third paragraph comes as a relief. It gives the reader a chance to breathe. Plus, its shortness emphasizes the contrast between the content of the first two paragraphs and third.

In fact, Norris’ opening three paragraphs illustrate a classic article approach that goes like this:

People thought blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

They were wrong.

So, think about mixing up your sentence and paragraph lengths the next time you write. Your readers will reward you by paying attention longer.

Morningstar’s new bond market commentary is an online "Don’t"

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Morningstar has introduced monthly bond market commentary. 

The August 2008 issue of Morningstar Bond Market Commentary has many nice features. But it also illustrates an important “Don’t” of online publishing.

The commentary is almost impossible to read online. Why? Because it’s formatted in three columns instead of one. 

The bottom line:If you want people to read your commentary online, format it in one column. Otherwise, you’ll lose many readers.

By the way, Morningstar says its bond commentary is designed to be printed out. A three-column layout works fine in hard copy.

"Why the Big Company Financial Brands Don’t Work Any More"

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I’ve worked for a big financial company, so I was interested to read “Why the Big Company Financial Brands Don’t Work Any More.”

Blogger Dan Taylor says, “The value of the big brands in fading.  No one under 40 gives a hoot whether their money is at Merrill [Lynch] or in Moab.” The implication is that no matter where you work, you’d better invest time in packaging yourself for clients.

He’s even more provocative in “Your Brand Never Lies to Clients,” saying “The reluctance of Broker Dealers to allow their representatives to brand themselves is more about protecting their turf instead of your future.  If you notice, the big brands are the ones that you always have to apologize for….” 

What’s your take on this topic?

"Tired of having too much money at the end of the month?"

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Sometimes you have to say something unexpected to grab your reader’s attention.


Something like, “Tired of having too much money at the end of the month?” That’s a headline that snared me recently. Aren’t you usually concerned about the opposite problem, of having too little money at the end of the month?

In Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath say, “The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns.” 

“Surprise jolts us to attention,” as the Heaths say.

Can you use surprise in your next client communication? PIMCO’s Paul McCulley did it in “A Kind Word for Inflation.”

What should you call your white paper?

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“Should you always label a white paper with the term ‘white paper’?”


Michael Stelzner asks this question on his Writing White Papers blog.

My answer: it depends.

When you say “white paper” to financial advisors, they probably know what you’re talking about. In fact, the term conjures up the image of a helpful tool.

Say “white paper” to an ordinary investor and you’re likely to get a blank look. In this case, it’s far better to call it a “special report” or even just an “article.”

What do you think?

"The Top Seven B2B Communications Mistakes"

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“The Top Seven B2B Communications Mistakes” offers some useful advice for investment and wealth management marketers, whether you’re targeting businesses or individuals.


For example:

  1. Your content should reflect your prospects’ top concerns.
  2. “Don’t sell. Inform.”

When I review investment and wealth management firms’ content, I often find it focused on them, not on their clients. It takes a mighty motivated buyer to plow through content that takes that approach.

As for informing instead of selling, I don’t think you can follow this rule 100% of the time. But many firms could benefit from taking this advice more frequently.

"Thought Leadership: Are You Making It or Faking It?"

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Plenty of investment and wealth management firms try to distinguish themselves as so-called “thought leaders.” Many will fail.

“Thought Leadership: Are You Making It or Faking It?” by Fiona Czerniawska says that clients seek:

1. Something relevant to challenges they face
2. Something new and different
3. Something that is supported by hard evidence – a single case study or recycling second-hand ideas is not enough

When you write white papers, make sure you show how your ideas can impact the things your clients care about. If you fail at this, your reader may not progress beyond your first paragraph.

If you can also say something different about a topic that’s in the news, that’s even better.

Don’t use your white paper to pitch your product or service. As Czerniawska advises her consulting firm clients: 

In this context, a call-to-action – perhaps some benchmarking data for clients to compare themselves to or a tool for evaluating their performance – is more likely to result in consulting work in the long-term because it doesn’t try to sell too unsubtly in the short-term.

"Relevant and useful content earns trust. And trust sells."

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“Relevant and useful content earns trust. And trust sells.”


I love this tag line from Bob Leonard’s Bolen Communications.

It reminded me of why newsletters are so powerful. Why? Because newsletters that convey a sense of who you are–and that provide relevant and useful content–build trust. And trust sells, just as Bob Leonard says in his tag line. 

Another thing about newsletters. The importance of building trust through relevant, useful content argues against putting a lot of promotional copy in your newsletter. Sales writing may interfere with your building your relationship with your audience.

 

Wealth managers should specialize by affinity, NOT demographics

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“In my opinion, a successful segmentation will be less demographically driven (e.g., net worth or income striations) and more affinity driven (tapping into a deep pool of investors who share a common passion — auto racing, yachting, the arts, religion, and so on).” writes Scott Welch of Fortigent, LLC in “Differentiating When Consulting to the Ultra Affluent,” an article I blogged about on August 25.


Are you tapping a common passion among clients of your wealth management practice? Share it in the “Comments” section of this blog post.