What students say about “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read”

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The investment and wealth managers who’ve taken my writing class, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” have enjoyed it. Here’s a sampling of what my students have said on their evaluation forms and in phone calls with me.


*  What was valuable for me was the structure. The handouts, the thesis statement, the rules.

*  Your class delivered exactly what it promised.

*  The best part for me was having my work edited and critiqued by a professional.

*  Susan is onto something unique. There’s no one else doing exactly what she does.

*  The class is great! I’m really getting a huge amount of value — there really is a process to writing.

*  Any advisor who’s serious about blogging should take this class.

*  Susan’s coaching is a classic case of “under-promise, over-deliver.” I highly recommend her as a writing coach or teacher. Her coaching has improved the quality of writing in my blog posts. My writing skills were very rusty when we started. Susan’s practical, insightful suggestions–along with her Blog Post Preparation Worksheet–have been an incredibly valuable resource.

*  I have Susan’s checklist out on my desk to help me review my blog posts.

*  You really helped me with how to organize my thoughts before writing.

* I liked how you gave us outside-the-box ideas.

* You really helped me by saying that not everyone can immediately write everything down right

*  I would sign up for another class with you. Have you thought about offering a class about writing emails?

Register for How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Writing Teleclass for Financial Advisors in Once-a-week telephone conference call for 5 weeks, April 22-May 20 on Eventbrite

I’d like to thank the great students who made teaching this class such a pleasure!

This post was updated on April 25, 2010, and June 10, 2011.

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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Poll: Would you hire a ghost blogger for your company?

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Investment and wealth managers have great skills. But writing isn’t necessarily one of them. So what’s a financial professional to do now that blogging is an important part of marketing?

Some companies hire ghostwriters to write their blog posts for them. Ghostblogging can encompass everything from coming up with the ideas, doing the research, writing, formatting posts, and even responding to comments in the voice of the company. Or it can involve a much bigger contribution from the client whose name goes on the post.

Critics say that hiring a ghostblogger is bad. In “The Ghost Speaks,” writer Michael Janofsky quotes communications consultant Shel Holtz, “I’m a huge fan of transparency. My advice to executives is: If you don’t take the time to write yourself, find another channel of communication.”

What do YOU think? Please answer the poll that will run in the  right-hand column of this blog until I replace it with next month’s poll. I’ll report on the results in my May e-newsletter.
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Sign up for the next session of “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A Five-Week Teleclass for Financial Advisors” starting April 22 or join the mailing list for my free monthly newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

The power of analogy: U2 and alternative investments

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What could the band U2 and hedge fund-style investing have in common? 

This unlikely combination came up in a March 15 presentation to the Boston Security Analysts Society by Robert Kaimowitz, CEO and portfolio manager, Bull Path Capital Management.  

Kaimowitz asked the audience, “How many of you think U2 is an alternative band?” No hands went up. The band is mainstream now. Yet it was considered an alternative band when it first emerged.

So-called “alternative investments” will follow a similar path, suggested Kaimowitz. They’re new and poorly understood, so they’re considered “alternative.” That will change as they become accepted. He figures alternatives will become mainstream partly because a long-only fund can’t be conservative because it’s 100% exposed to the market.

Kaimowitz’ comments about U2 and alternative investments demonstrate the power of analogy. They stuck with me long after the details of his fund’s performance faded.

If you’re trying to convince your clients to adopt alternative investments, consider trying this U2 analogy on them. I’d like to hear if it works for you.

Tip for organizing information in your blog posts and articles

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“Group similar points together. They gain power from consolidation and lose power from interruption.”

–Francis Flaherty, author of The Elements of Story, p. 89

 

Tip for bloggers from novelist Will Self

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Bloggers should constantly be on the lookout for topics. Inspiration often hits at awkward times. That’s why I like the following advice from British novelist Will Self.

Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.

I recently wished I’d taken a notebook onto the elliptical machine. A women’s magazine sparked a new blog post idea. I was so worried about forgetting the idea that I didn’t enjoy the rest of my workout.

Self was quoted in “Ten rules for writing fiction (part two),” which appeared in The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper.

Financial writers clinic: Lessons from Floyd Norris of The New York Times

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I’m a big fan of New York Times columnist Floyd Norris. His Feb. 27 column illustrates techniques you can use for your financial articles and blog posts. 

Lesson 1: Make your title provocative–and consider giving away your conclusion. “Think Banks Are Out of the Woods? Maybe Not,” says Norris’ title. 

The title achieves two positive results. First, it challenges a growing number of pundits who believe banks are in much better shape than one year ago. That’s provocative. Folks will want to know the reasons behind his statement.

Second, the title gives away the article’s main point. Making your conclusion clear up front will attract more people than a title that doesn’t express an opinion, such as “Percentage of bad bank loans” or even “Bad bank loans soar.” Busy people want to get a sense upfront of whether an article will justify their spending the time to read it. 

Lesson 2: A startling fact will hook your readers in your opening sentence. Norris opens with “More than $1 in every $10 that American banks have outstanding in loans is lent to a troubled borrower, a ratio far higher than previously seen in the quarter-century that such numbers have been compiled.” I had to continue reading after that opening. 

Lesson 3: Lead with your message, not your source, as I’ve written on this blog. Norris didn’t mention the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation report that’s the source of his data until his third paragraph. Naming your source boosts the credibility of your article or blog post. But it’s usually not a particularly interesting piece of information. 

Lesson 4: Use graphs or some sort of graphic. A non-text element attracts the eyes of people who might otherwise skip an article. However, Norris’ graphs could have been stronger if they were integrated into the layout of the article and carried more descriptive text. 

Lesson 5: Your ideas count. Norris always has something interesting to say. I might read his articles even if they weren’t well organized.

Image courtesy of pakora at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Related posts
*  Vary your paragraph length like NYT writer Floyd Norris
*  Financial writers clinic: Getting rid of “mitigate”
*  Financial writers clinic: Rhythm can help you 
*  Financial writers clinic: Great title, lousy intro

Guest post: "The Lost Art of the Thank You Card"

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I’m a big fan of saying “Thank you.” So I’m delighted to feature this guest post by Suzanne Muusers of Prosperity Coaching. Suzanne is a consultant to financial advisors. I met her through Twitter.


The Lost Art of the Thank You Card
By Suzanne Muusers

What would happen to your referrals if you wrote five thank you cards per week? Would your client relationships deepen? Would you spread goodwill and kindness?

I’ve been sending out a lot of hand-written thank you cards lately. I find really nicely designed thank you cards at Trader Joe’s and AJ’s and I just get the urge to send them. You wouldn’t believe the response I get when the recipient receives the card. I usually get a phone call from them gushing about “taking the time to send a hand-written card” and “thank you so much for thinking of me.”

We have become such a digital world we forget about the impact such a simple action can have.  We now have email, ezines, newsletters, evite.com, and the like.  While it’s nice to save paper on such niceties and be “green,” getting a card in the mail is like getting a present.  When you send someone a card through the mail, I am betting that it stays on their desk for quite some time.

As I glance over my desk, I see a hand-written card I received from a financial advisor I met last month at the Financial Planning Association meeting. He asked me for advice on where he should get coach training. I gave him a few choice pointers and several days later received a beautiful zen-like card from him thanking me for the tips. You can bet that I’ll keep that card for a long time.

So how can you use thank you cards in your business? What occasions would be suitable for a thank you card?

How about:

  • Birthday cards
  • Nice to meet you cards
  • Thank you for the referral cards (as part of a written referral program)
  • Congratulations for your achievement
  • Sympathy cards
  • Wedding cards


Maybe thank you cards should be part of your Marketing Plan and part of your week!

Suzanne Muusers is a business coach, marketing expert, and a sales and marketing speaker based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her coaching program for financial advisors, The Prosperous Advisor™ , focuses on revenue-building activities.

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
If you’re struggling to pump out a steady flow of good blog posts, check out my five-week teleclass for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Can you over-use "you" in your marketing materials?

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You may be surprised by my suggestion that you can overuse “you” in your written communications. I’ve said many times that investment and wealth managers speak too much about “we,” the firm, and too little about “you,” the client or prospect.

Writing reader-focused text is important. However, dropping “you” and “your” multiple times in every sentence is overkill.

Here are some usage suggestions that emerged from my conversation with designer Margaret Patterson, author of the popular pitch book posts on this blog.

  • Don’t use “you” when it isn’t clear who “you” is. Make it clear whether “you” refers to the client, financial advisor, consultant, or some other individual or group.
  • Don’t use “you” prematurely. Writing “We help you reach your financial goals” isn’t appropriate when you’re addressing a prospect who may never become a client. “We can help you reach your financial goals” would be okay. Better yet, “We help clients reach their financial goals.”
  • Simply using “you” won’t convince your clients that you care about them. You must back up your words with actions.
  • Don’t write “you” in fancy fonts that are hard to read. If used too much in any font, “you” makes a document tedious.

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
If you’re struggling to pump out a steady flow of blog posts, check out my five-week teleclass for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Financial writers clinic: Getting rid of “mitigate”

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Words with Latin roots, such as “mitigate,” drain life out of  your writing. Let’s spruce up a sentence by deleting “mitigate.”

Here’s a sentence from Gretchen Morgenson’s “Credit Cards and Reluctant Regulators“:

Alliance is not the only company working to mitigate the effects of new credit card restrictions.

I’d rewrite it as

Alliance is not the only company trying to work around new credit card restrictions.

What do you think? Better or worse? Clearer or more muddled?

 

"You" can help your job hunting "thank you"

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Which “thank you” are you more likely to read? The note that opens with 1) “Thank you for meeting with me” or 2) “Your company’s disciplined approach to…”?

Number 1 makes me yawn. “Another lame thank you note,” I say to myself, although I’m impressed the writer bothered to write when so many people don’t.

Number 2 makes me think, “Hey, this person listened to me! They’re writing about one of my company’s key messages.”

Recruiters and career counselors tell job hunters their communications should focus on the company that they’re pitching instead of on themselves. One way to achieve this is to start your “thank you” note with the words “you” or “your,” and then convey your appreciation later.

A friend tried a variation on this when requesting an informational interview from a senior executive. He opened by citing an article that had quoted the exec. “You said ‘…’ in this article, which interested me because…’ ” He got the interview.

The power of “you” isn’t just for job hunters. It boosts the power of most communications–blogs, brochures, articles, websites, white papers, and more. Try it and see!


Related posts
*  Which topic should you discuss in your client email’s first paragraph?
*  Your mail has three seconds to grab your reader’s attention
* To “dear” or not to “dear” in your email

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
If you’re struggling to pump out a steady flow of good blog posts, check out my five-week teleclass for financial advisors, “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read,” and sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved