How to get a portfolio manager's attention and other email tips from an investment marketing consultant

It's not easy getting portfolio managers to open your emails. That's why investment marketing consultant Jen Dunning sometimes writes her email subject lines completely in capital letters.

"INVESTMENT COMMENTARY - PLEASE APPROVE BY JUNE 30" grabs the reader's attention where a meeker "Please approve by June 30" would not. Note that she puts her key action verb, "approve," and its object, "investment commentary," in the subject line. That also boosts her emails' effectiveness.

But limit your use of all-capitals subject lines to rare instances of pressing need with people who work for your own organization. You risk irritating your recipient if you use all-caps too often. It flouts the rules of email etiquette and is considered "shouting."

Some additional email tips from Dunning:

• Save your pleasantries for the end of your email because busy readers want to get to the point right away
• Before you attach an Excel file, name it and insert page breaks and headers and footers, including page numbers and total number of pages
  

_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Thank you, Boston Women in Finance!

Members of Boston Women in Finance made my experience enjoyable when I presented my one-hour workshop on "How to Write What People Will Read about Investments" yesterday.

Here's some of their feedback on my presentation:

• "Although brief, packed with very useful takeaways!"
• "Susan was able to fit in an hour what people spend days learning in conferences"
• "Susan reminded me to remember my audience and to listen to my ideas"
• I learned "a new thought process for brainstorming" and "ways to make my market piece more direct and to the point"
  

Register for my May 14 presentation to Boston Women in Finance

You can register for “How to Write What People Will Read About Investments,” my May 14 lunch presentation to Boston Women in Finance to learn techniques that will make your audience more likely to read what you write.

Writing about topics that will interest your clients, and packaging them in a reader-friendly way, will boost your return on investment. This interactive program will use examples from investment commentary to help you to understand your reader’s perspective on your writing. It will also suggest techniques for brainstorming, formatting, and editing your writing.

Please note that this is a little different from the presentations I deliver for the CFA Institute because the audience is more diverse.

Morningstar gets the WIIFM

Before your readers dig into your written materials, they want to learn the WIIFM--"What's In It For Me?" If you can't convince them they'll get something out of it, they may not read it.

Morningstar's newsletters do a nice job of communicating the WIIFM. Consider, for example, this title of a Morningstar Fund Spy article: "Dissecting the Ultrashort Bond Fund Mess: What should you do if you own one of these funds?" If you're in a "mess," wouldn't you want to learn what your next step should be?

Here's another example: "Take the Greatest Advantage of the World-Stock Group: There are many good global funds, but you still need to choose carefully." The title promises not only that you can maximize your gains, but you can also avoid pitfalls.

Notice how both titles use the text after the colon very effectively. I often advise my clients to use subtitles and subheadings--rather than just titles and headings--to draw more readers into their investment commentary and other writing.

_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

"How to write investment commentary that people will read": Attend one of my upcoming presentations

I'll deliver presentations on "How to write investment commentary that people will read" in:

• Naples, Fla., for the CFA Society of Naples, on April 8 at 12 noon
  
• Edmonton, Calgary for the Refining Wealth Management conference put on by the Edmonton CFA Society on April 24 at 1:15 p.m.

Also, I'm tentatively scheduled to give a lunchtime presentation on writing on May 14 to Boston Women in Finance.

You can highlight market turmoil's silver lining

Tired of giving bad news about the stock market to your clients? Follow the example of The Wall Street Journal to talk about "How Market Turmoil Creates Opening to Enrich Heirs" (March 15-16, p. B1).

In short, the market's decline enables your clients to give your heirs more shares of stocks or mutual funds and to get more mileage out of grantor-retained trusts.

By the way, if you read the article, notice the "The Market's Gift" box. Using a box--known as a "sidebar" in the lingo of layout professionals--to highlight your article's main takeaways can snare the attention of readers who skim. Try it some time.

One firm's approach to managing client fears

Wondering how to address your clients' fears during challenging markets?

Get ideas by looking at what others are doing.

For example, Forefield Inc., which provides educational content to advisors, recently sent an email suggesting advisors use their articles about:

• Handling market volatility
• Monitoring your portfolio
• Balancing your investment choices
• Understanding risk
• Evaluating volatility
• Dollar cost averaging
  

Have you discussed those topics recently with your clients? If not, maybe now is the time to do it.
________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Lousy headline, provocative first sentence

I nearly didn't read an interesting article about stocks in The New York Times.

Why?

Because of the bland headline: "An Ear to the Ground on Stocks." The article could have been about anything. Perhaps college students who pick stocks for a class. An investment club. A well-known equity portfolio manager. But the real topic was more intriguing.

The first sentence of this article by Mark Hulbert grabbed my attention. It said, "Investor sentiment suggests that the bulk of the stock market’s decline is now behind us." Now that's provocative. The author takes issue with what most people think.

I also like how Hulbert summarized his argument--and set up the structure for the rest of his article--in his next paragraph:

This conclusion is based on an analysis of two very different groups. The first is investment newsletter editors, who, on average, are usually wrong about the market’s direction; they are currently bearish. The second is corporate insiders, who usually get it right, and they are mostly bullish

From there, Hulbert discussed the behavior of newsletter editors, and then of corporate insiders. He spent four paragraphs on editors and five on insiders. The equal weighting between the two topics reflected his good organization. If he'd had six on editors vs. one on insiders, he probably should have emphasized the editors more in his summary.

Lessons for writers:

• It isn't enough for your headline to be accurate, it has got to attract attention.
• State your main idea--and your main supporting points--clearly at the beginning of your article.
• The body of your article should follow the organization that you set up in your introduction.
• Compare the number of paragraphs you allocate to each main point from your introduction. If they're roughly the same, then your introduction probably gives the right weight to each point. If not, you may need to tweak your introduction or the body of your article.

_________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Five writing lessons from New York Times economic article

If you want your clients and prospects to actually read your investment commentary, you can learn some lessons from "No Quick Fix to Downturn: Some Fear Stimulus Is Already Too Late," an article on the front page of The New York Times (January 13).

1. Create a headline that blares your main message.
In this case, it's "No Quick Fix to Downturn." I'd prefer "No Quick Fix to Economic Downturn," which is the title the Times uses on the website version of this article. I think that column width constraints squeezed out "economic" in the print version of the newspaper.

2. Get more specific in your sub-headline.
That's "Some Fear Stimulus Is Already Too Late."

3. Deliver your main message quickly in the body of your article.
Co-authors Peter S. Goodman and Floyd Norris lead with "As leaders in Washington turn their attention to efforts to avert a looming downturn, many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year, if not longer."

4. Keep your paragraphs short.
Like many newspaper stories, this one begins with a one-sentence paragraph. You needn't be as brief. However, an occasional one-sentence can provide a welcome change of pace.

5. Quickly answer the "So what?" question.
Most readers will ask "Why should I care about what you're telling me?" I found my answer within the first 130 words of this 1400-word article. The authors write that the answer to "how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.... could be a defining factor in the outcome of the fiercely contested presidential election."

Your readers face competing demands on their attention. If you make easy for them to understand what you're discussing and why, they're more likely to stick with you. Also, they're more likely to go away understanding the main thrust of your article.

If you saw the Goodman-Norris article, did these writing techniques help snag your attention?

_____________________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Strong analogy for Federal Reserve policy

Clean writing will make your investment commentary writing easy to read. Strong analogies will make it memorable.

I like this analogy for Federal Reserve policy from "Larry, Curly, Moe and the Economy" in Ben Stein's Jan. 13 column for The New York Times (note: free registration may be required to access the article).

...punishing the United States economy because oil prices are high is attacking the wrong culprit. It’s sort of like a Three Stooges movie in which the wrong person keeps getting hit on the head.

The Three Stooges image will make Stein's point last longer in the minds of many readers.

_____________________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

For better investment commentary, read it out loud

Your investment commentary will pack more pop with a conversational tone. Individual investors will find it more intelligible and intriguing.

How do you know if your writing sounds conversational? Read it out loud.

When you read out loud, you'll also:

• Discover typos that you might have overlooked
• Become more aware of your writing's rhythm--The right rhythm can help keep your reader on track
  

_____________________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Nice analogy about large caps vs. small caps

I like this analogy from "A Rough Ride on the Risk Curve" from The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 26):

"Because of their deep balance sheets and diversified businesses, large caps can often ride out storms like cruise liners, while small caps are tossed about like sailboats."

_____________________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Know your audience before you write investment commentary

Think about your audience before you begin writing your investment commentary.

Identifying your audience will help you choose the topics, tone, and language that will glue readers to your commentary.


It's all about your reader

What's the typical reader's favorite word?

Some portfolio managers suggest "outperformed" or "beat the benchmark" when I ask this question in my investment commentary writing programs. These terms probably run a close second behind the winner.

The winner is "you." Using the word "you" will help to attract readers' attention. They also like content that is tailored to their needs and style of communication.

Think about your clients, prospects, and referral sources.

Are they:

• Emerging affluent, high net worth, institutions or consultants?


• Sophisticated investors, newbies or somewhere in between?


• New college grads, young families, entrepreneurs or creators of wealth, planning for (or living in) retirement?

When you meet in person with your clients, you quickly discover their different interests and levels of understanding. You should reflect these characteristics in your writing as well as in your face-to-face meetings.

Emphasize impact on client portfolios

Your clients will zoom in on "What does this mean to me?" Especially, "How does it affect my portfolio?"

If you manage all client accounts identically, you can easily discuss the impact of market trends--and even specific stocks--on their portfolios. Be sure to make that connection explicit in your commentary.

It's not so easy to tie your commentary to client portfolios when accounts vary due to differing investment styles, managing for tax efficiency, timing of cash inflows, and other factors. But you can still do it.

When you've got account dispersion, you can still personalize your commentary by talking about:

1. Asset classes (and maybe even sectors) instead of specific securities


2. Where you're looking for new opportunities or where you foresee weakness


3. Address questions your clients ask


4. How account performance may vary because you customize your portfolio management to client needs

Choose topics that interest your readers

When I first wrote investment commentary at Fleet Investment Advisors (now Columbia Management Group), I focused on recapping the past quarter's events, just as my predecessors had. Nobody complained. At least, not in the beginning.

However, as I got to know the portfolio managers in the field, they warmed up enough to tell me the truth. "We can read this in The Wall Street Journal," they said. "What can else can you say?"

I discussed one response earlier: Talk about what you see coming in the future. Be sure to relate it to how you'll adjust your client portfolios.

Another route is to answer a popular question, such as "How can I generate more income in this low-return environment?"

Or, you can take a stance on a controversial topic. Some good sources for topics:

• The Wall Street Journal and other publications read by your clients
• CFA Magazine, Financial Analysts Journal, and other specialist publications
• Brokerage research

One benefit of using the abovementioned sources is that they'll provide documentation that you can use to satisfy the compliance professional who reviews your commentary.

Write for your clients' level of understanding

You may be able to toss around terms like duration, contango, and reversion to the mean without confusing your investment colleagues. That's not true for the typical individual investor. So, simplify your vocabulary for them.

I like Warren Buffett's advice. He suggests, "Write with a specific person in mind. When writing Berkshire Hathaway's annual report, I pretend that I'm talking to my sisters.... They will understand plain English, but jargon may puzzle them." Buffett made this comment in A Plain English Handbook: How to create clear SEC disclosure documents, an excellent resource for investment commentary writers.

Follow these tips and your investment commentary will keep your readers' attention.

_____________________________
Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

How to cut excess words from your investment commentary

Fewer words and more punctuation can give your investment commentary more impact.

Below you'll find a before and after example.

BEFORE
With only two more Fed meetings remaining in 2007 (on Oct. 31 and Dec. 11), the issue remains whether the Fed’s unexpectedly aggressive 50 basis point cut in the fed funds rate last week was intended to shock the markets to restore confidence or, they are concerned that the underlying economic conditions are worse than most of us think.

AFTER
The meaning of the Fed's 0.5% cut in short-term interest rates is not clear. The Fed might have made this unexpectedly large cut to restore confidence. Or, the Fed might be worried that the economy is in worse shape than most of us think.

The Before sentence is fine if it's only read by investment professionals who want to extract its meaning. They can get it in one reading. But unsophisticated readers will struggle. Why? Because the sentence is long. It also includes superfluous information and technical language.

In my After sentence I

• Deleted unnecessary information about the Oct. and Dec. Fed meetings
• Paraphrased my way around references to fed funds rate and basis points
• Broke one sentence into three sentences
• Referred to the Fed as it instead of they