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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.

Writing Sample: "Don't Get Stuck Paying Extra Taxes"

The subject line "Don't Get Stuck Paying Extra Taxes" compelled me to open the e-mail.

That's the power of a subject line that tells the reader "what's in it for me."

I opened the latest e-newsletter from Westchester Mortgage even though I was pretty sure I'm not making any dumb tax mistakes with my house. I was right. The article warned readers to be careful when using money from a retirement account to buy a house. Luckily, I don't have to worry about that. I've been in my house more than 15 years.

Try to put yourself in your readers' shoes when you compose an e-mail subject line. Your effort could increase your readership.

_________________
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.Wr

"Is Spelling Overrated?"

Direct marketing guru Bob Bly recently asked "Is Spelling Overrated?" on his blog.

I don't think so. Good spelling won't win over new clients. But sentences rife with misspellings may make the reader wonder if you're similarly sloppy with their money.

It's one thing to have typos in the quick emails you send to your employees, as Bly points out. Quite another to tolerate them in formal communications to clients and prospects.

People often write "it's" where "its" should be. "It's" is short for "it is." "Its" is the possessive form of "it." This trips up many people because of the exception to the rule that you form a possessive by adding an apostrophe followed by the letter "s."

English is a challenging language for spellers. Get someone else to proofread your most important written communications.

_________________
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.

Tips for writing case studies

Case studies can be powerful tools for the wealth management professionals who're allowed to use them.

A case study typically starts with a presentation of a client problem--something that's causing the client pain. The problem is followed by the solution, and then the client results. When prospective clients recognize themselves in the problem, you've grabbed their attention.

In "How to Write a Case Study" (available for download without registering) consultant Toby Younis lays out the steps for writing a case study. If you'd like to try doing it yourself, you may find his list of questions on page 12 particularly helpful.

However, don't write an investment management case study. That falls under the SEC's prohibition against testimonials.

_________________
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"
  

Use personal stories in your communications

"In a sea of competition, you’ve got to capitalize on what makes you unlike anyone else."

This advice from "Feel Great Naked: Confidence Boosters for Getting Personal" is aimed at bloggers. The author urges them to share personal stories. But also applies to financial advisors, especially solo practitioners or small firms, when you communicate with your clients and prospects.

Sharing your personality--and even a bit of your personal story--can help you connect with your clients.

For example, in a sales letter, one salesman shared his story of how his family had suffered needlessly because of an estate planning mistake. That mistake fueled his passion for bringing new clients to his firm. After sharing that story, the letter shifted to discussing the benefits his firm could offer his prospects. I'll bet that personal story prevented some prospects from dropping his letter into their wastebaskets.

Don't focus your communications exclusively on yourself. Ultimately, your client or prospect will care more about the WIIFM ("what's in it for me"). But a bit of sharing can create a connection that goes deeper than dollar and cents.

Any financial advisor can heed this advice in one-on-one meetings. It's more challenging when you work for a large firm and you get into written communications. There'll probably be a company-wide communications policy that sets an impersonal tone. This gives an opening for advisors with smaller firms to outmaneuver their colleagues at larger firms.

Have you tried taking a personal tack? I'd like to learn what your experience has been.

Does your auto mechanic communicate better than you?

"Nearly three-fourths of the 1,203 adults polled said their auto mechanic uses clearer English than their financial professionals," according to "Financial Jargon: You Just Don't Understand" by Cathie Gandel in AARP Bulletin Today.

Are you one of those confusing financial pros? And are your clients suffering as a result?

Learn more about the results of a survey by AARP Financial about consumer understanding of financial jargon.

More options for mind mapping

Some of the participants in my "How to Write Investment Commentary that People Will Read" presentation say that learning mind mapping is one of the best parts of the program. It makes them feel they can organize their thoughts better before sitting down to write.

I recently learned about more web-based mind mapping tools that help you create and save an electronic version of a mind map. "Map your mind 2.0" by Rafe Needleman reviews Spinscape and devotes a paragraph apiece to competitors called MeadMap, Mindomo, MindMeister, and bubbl.us.

Needleman doesn't care for Spinscape, but he's not a fan of mind mapping. He seems to like MindMeister best.

I've written earlier about "Mindmapping for financial advisors."



_________________
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.

“The Top Four Investment Strategy Challenges for Financial Advisors”

One year ago it seemed as if the good times would never end. Today, many investors go to bed wondering what bad news will greet them in the morning. In this volatile environment, Advisor Perspectives asked financial advisors to identify their greatest investment strategy challenges.

Continue reading my article, “The Top Four Investment Strategy Challenges for Financial Advisors,” in Advisor Perspectives.

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 praises Putnam's "plain English" and provides tips so you can write in "plain English," too

Writing in "plain English" is easier said than done. So I was intrigued when Morningstar singled out Putnam for "plain English" prospectuses in "Letter to SEC: Short Fund Prospectus Helps Shareholders."

For example, the author liked this description of Putnam Voyager's strategy: "We invest mainly in common stocks of U.S. companies, with a focus on growth stocks. Growth stocks are issued by companies that we believe are fast-growing and whose earnings we believe are likely to increase over time."

Here are some "plain English" writing tips I extracted from the Morningstar article:

1. Get specific about strategy. Instead of describing your investment objective using terms like "capital appreciation" that don't mean a lot to ordinary folk, get specific about "the types of securities the fund usually owns and the criteria a fund manager uses when buying and selling securities."
2. Use graphs.
   
3. Put returns in context by comparing them with the fund's benchmark. Don't make your readers struggle to understand returns without any basis for comparison.
   

_________________
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.

A Post A Day for the Month of May

I'm engaging in a blogathon called "A Post A Day for the Month of May," initiated by Michelle Rafter of the WordCount blog. As befits a business blog, I plan to post once every business day.

Are there topics you'd like me to write about? Please tell me about them in your comments.

Visit Michelle's blog for links to the other blogs participating in the blogathon.


_________________
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.

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.

Your privacy policy can become a marketing document

ING Direct's e-mail about their privacy policy made me feel good about being their customer. Why? Because they made me feel they value communicating clearly with me.

Here's how the e-mail started:

"Below is some important information that we're required to send you each year. It seems like a lot of legal stuff, but we promise, it will only take a few minutes. Give it a look."

Also, their opt-in policy made me feel that they care about me more than they care about cross-selling.

"Did you know our Privacy Policy EXCEEDS government standards? In 1999, Congress passed a law requiring financial institutions to give Customers the ability to "Opt-out" of information sharing. At ING DIRECT we went the extra mile to provide you with an "Opt-in" Privacy Policy, which means we won't share your information with any other company or partner unless you ask us to."

Are you missing marketing opportunities by writing your legally required disclosures in legalese?
_________________
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.

Mindmapping for financial advisors

"Mind Mapping: Some financial advisors find mind mapping software helpful in analyzing issues," an article by Joel Bruckenstein in Financial Advisor (April 2008) caught my eye because I recommend using mind mapping to help organize your articles in my presentations on "How to Write Investment Commentary that People Will Read."

I draw my mind maps using pencil and paper. Bruckenstein says mind mapping can be even better if you use software. He particularly likes Mind Manager Pro 7, which offers a 21-day free trial.

In addition to Bruckenstein's article, you can check out Joyce Wycoff's book, Mindmapping: Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving, which I was introduced to by presentation coach Cheryl Dolan.

"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.

Write your own newsletter or buy a canned newsletter?

You've decided to send a newsletter to your clients. Which route should you go? Write it yourself or send a canned newsletter provided by a third-party service?

Do it yourself, said most of the advisors who responded when I posted this question on LinkedIn.


The pluses of writing your own

"Writing your own newsletter is the most timely and cost-effective method," wrote Ike Devji of The Wealthy 100.

Assabet Advisors' Lisa Phelps likes having complete control over topics. She said, "I can pick topics for which I have a particular interest resulting in an article with a bit more depth or excitement than normally found in such newsletters." Plus, she can mix in insights from her own practice.

Brian Langenberg of Langenberg & Co. said that newsletters don't require a big investment of time--just a few hours per issue in his case. Moreover, "It is a great way to reach a broad audience, give them your thoughts, and stimulate awareness." I'm sure the investment of time varies by advisor. Some would find it much more time consuming.

Another plus of writing the newsletter yourself: It gives your readers a sense of who you are, especially if you're a good writer. It helps you to create a personal connection with them.


Why choose a canned newsletter

Russell Lowry of Sagemark Consulting prefers to talk directly with his clients, so a personally written newsletter would be overkill for them. He uses a canned newsletter to stay in touch with prospects.

Assabet Advisors' Phelps understands that some advisors prefer a canned newsletter because they "lack the time or skill to write a newsletter themselves."


A newsletter is a great marketing tool

Whatever route you take, a newsletter is a great way to keep your name in front of clients and prospects. Of course, a third option is to hire a writer or editor to help you produce a polished newsletter.

What route are YOU taking? Please leave your comments.





_________________
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 in credit default swaps article

Sometimes my head hurts when I try to understand credit default swaps. That's why I smiled when I read this analogy in Gretchen Morgenson's "Arcane Market Is Next to Face Big Credit Test" in The New York Times.

"It would be as if homeowners, facing losses after a hurricane, could not identify the insurance companies to pay on their claims. Or, if they could, they discovered that their insurer had transferred the policy to another company that could not cover the claim."

You'll have to read the article to appreciate how nice this analogy is.

_________________
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.