Tag Archive for: communication

Please, no tiny fonts on your PowerPoint slides

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You don’t want to make your audience strain their eyes, so make the text on your slides sample slidebig enough.

Savvy friends have told me to go no smaller than 28 points in my PowerPoint slide text. This squares with what Nancy Duarte says in slide:ology:

For keynotes, don’t go smaller than 28 pt. If you are consistently reducing your point size to under 24 pt and using third-level bullets, you have officially created a document and not a slide.

The Financial Planning Association has similar standards, as I learned preparing for FPA Experience.

Slide:ology presents a handy tip for your slides’ visibility: “Put your file into slide sorter view. Look at the slides at 66 percent size. If you can still read them, so can your audience” (p 152). Of course, if you have unusual eyesight, like a former employee who said she had “fighter pilot eyes,” with vision better than 20/20, you may need to adjust accordingly. 

Email writers, boost your effectiveness with this quote

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Think about your reader if you want your communications to get results.

When you want the recipient of your email or letter to act on your information, heed the following advice from Lee Wood, as quoted by Kenneth W. Davis in The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication.

 

…give me the information in the order I can use it.

—

For example, don’t start by talking about the envelope you’ve enclosed with your letter.

Instead, first ask your client to read the form and then sign it in the spots you’ve marked with a big red X. Only then should you ask the client to mail it in the self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Be kind to your readers. It’ll pay off in better results and relationships.

Want to learn more about writing better emails and letters? Check out my presentation, “Writing Effective Emails.”

Bring your questions and writing implements to my FPA Experience session

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You’ll get the most benefit from “Writing Emails and Letters People Will Read,” my September 29 presentation, if you bring your questions, writing implements, and a printout of my handout.

I will ask you to write down some things so you can work on them in our interactive session. People learn best when they apply new information right away.

Meanwhile, feel free to post your email-related questions here. I may use your questions to jump-start my session’s Q&A. If I don’t get to them in the session, they may inspire blog posts.

Looking forward to meeting you at FPA 2012

If you have trouble commenting on my blog, you may find it easier to comment on my Facebook page. I’d like to hear from you.

Monetary policy in plain English–Can you do better?

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Monetary policy. If you’re a financial advisor or investment manager, you know exactly what that means. But what about your clients and other readers of your communications? Do they get it?

Sometimes it’s useful to give a brief explanation of technical terms, as I described in “How to make one quarterly letter fit clients at different levels of sophistication.”

Plain English may not come easily to you. If not, look elsewhere for ideas. The Wall Street Journal is a good source for explanations of such terms.

For example, here’s how columnist David Wessel explained monetary policy in “Central Bankers’ Political Conundrum“:

. . . the interest rates the Fed controls and its ability to print money and buy assets.

I like Wessel’s brief explanation. Sure, he could explain more, but writers must strike a balance between clarity and length.

How would YOU explain”monetary policy”?

There are other ways to explain “monetary policy.” If you have an equally good or even better explanation, please share it below.

If you have plain English challenges

Are there financial terms that you struggle to explain in plain English? If you share them below, I’ll consider them as the topic of a future blog post.

Don’t make this mistake in your email subject lines!

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A quirky email subject line made me think my husband was spamming me. He graciously allowed me to use his example to remind you to choose your subject line’s first words carefully.

Bad email subject line

Here’s the email subject line as it appeared on my screen:

Can you see why I was concerned that my husband’s email account had been hacked?

The problem: Your subject lines get cut off

Most people don’t see or absorb your complete subject line. Why?

  • Email software typically shows about 50 characters of your subject line on a PC
  • Mobile devices shorten subject lines even more than computers
  • People pay the most attention to your email subject line’s first words. This is why I suggest that you:
    • Put the most important part of your subject line first
    • Put an action verb near the beginning if you’re asking the recipient to do something for you. For example, “Please tell me if you can attend July 11 meeting.”
    • Start with an informative noun if an action verb isn’t appropriate. For example, “FYI, next committee meeting is August 22.”

A better subject line for my husband

I’ve been mulling over better subject lines for my husband’s email. I think the following would work better:

  • Shredder question: Does yours use oil or lubricant sheets?

YOUR subject line questions

What questions do you have about email subject lines? Your questions will help me prepare for my email presentation at the Financial Planning Association’s conference in San Antonio this fall.

Image courtesy of Kookkai_nak at freedigitalphotos.net.

Reader challenge: Can you explain duration better than The New York Times?

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The duration of a bond isn’t easy to explain in few wordsTiny Yields Pose Risks for Bond Funds. This is why I was delighted by the brief description I found in The New York Times.

Author Carla Fried wrote, “For the most part, managers seem to agree that it is best to limit a fund’s duration, or sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The longer the duration, the more yield you get today, but with the trade-off of a bigger price decline if rates rise.” This paragraph appeared in “Tiny Yields Pose Risks for Bond Funds” on July 8, 2012.

Can YOU explain duration better?

I’m interested in alternative explanations of duration that an ordinary American can understand. Please leave your suggestions below.

InvestmentWriting.com is one of “7 Financial Advisory Blogs that Rock”

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What a delight! The Investment Writing blog has been named one of “7 Financial Advisory Blogs that Rock” on the ClientWise blog.

My blog was singled out for its “mission to bring clarity to the sometimes arcane and confusing world of financial writing, especially when done by financial advisors, investment advisors and wealth managers.”

More financial blogs that rock

I’m honored to be in the company of outstanding bloggers named by this ClientWise post. They include

What YOU can share with another winning blogger

One of the seven bloggers who rock has taken my blogging class tailored to financial advisors. You can, too. But you’d better act soon. The class starts May 16. I don’t plan to offer it again until 2013. Plus, I plan to raise the price significantly next time.

Register now for “How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Lesson Writing Class for Financial Advisors.“