Susan B. Weiner's Blog, page 72

Email lessons adapted from Hootsuite’s CEO

Email overload bothers everybody, but some people go too far in their efforts to manage their inboxes. For example, there are the “5 Hacks to Combat Email Overload” proposed by Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite. However, you can adapt some of his suggestions. Holmes’ suggestions are to:

Limit your emails to three sentences in length
Use the Sanebox service to filter out less important emails
Shift conversations to social media
Use autoresponders
Use Gmail’s Canned Responses feature

Here’s my take on Holmes’ suggestions:

1. Keep your emails short

If you focus each email on only one topic, it’ll be easy to keep it short. But don’t make it so short—as in limited to three sentences—that you omit essential information. If you use email tips I’ve shared in other posts, your emails will be easy to skim and absorb.

2. Filter your emails using some system

It helps to have a system that filters out less important emails. It doesn’t have to be Sanebox, which I’ve never tried.

For example, I use rules in Microsoft Outlook to make many notifications go directly into folders. I target some of those folders for review daily or weekly. Others are simply for potential reference.

If you use Gmail, you can take advantage of its filtering emails in three categories: primary, social, and promotions.

3. Use the appropriate medium

Holmes likes social media. That works sometimes. However, sometimes a phone call, a face-to-face meeting or even email is even better. It depends on your target’s preference and the nature of your message.

4. Make it easy for people to find the information they need

Holmes uses an autoresponder to connect the senders of incoming emails to the right individuals or departments. I wonder if he’d need that if the contact information was easy to find on the firm’s website. This use of an autoresponder sounds cold and impersonal. However, it would be helpful to provide this information as part of a standard response to relevant inbox messages.

5. Create standard responses

Holmes uses the Canned Responses feature of Gmail. Other email programs have similar features, or you can create standard messages in your word-processing software and then copy-paste them into your emails.

 

How do YOU manage your inbox clutter? I’m always interested in your tips.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

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This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Email lessons adapted from Hootsuite’s CEO appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Two quick ways to boost your e-newsletter’s reach

Getting more from your existing e-newsletter is a winning tactic. A friend’s e-newsletter made me think of two simple steps you should take, if you haven’t already acted.

1. Make your e-newsletter viewable as a web page

You want your readers to see your newsletter at its best. But that doesn’t happen when they view email in a text-only format or with images blocked. Here’s what an excerpt of my my newsletter looks like in text format:

 

It looks much better with HTML enabled or in webpage format:

 

Constant Contact makes it easy to add a link that folks to click to read your newsletter online. Other e-newsletter programs should offer something similar. You’ll end up with a link that looks something like the image below.

 

“Click to read online” link and social sharing icons

 

2. Add social sharing buttons

It’s important to make your content easy to share on social media. Why? Because many people prefer to discover content via social media instead of e-newsletter subscriptions. Personally, I’ve cut way back on subscriptions, but I check social media daily.

Your e-newsletter program should make it possible for you to add social sharing buttons to your newsletters. Your readers can simply click to share in their preferred medium.

On a related note, your e-newsletter program should also automate the push of your newsletters to social media. I try to go an extra step by customizing the content of the automated status updates generated by Constant Contact. The words that work as a newsletter title make not make the most compelling status update. Also, Constant Contact automatically inserts the hashtag #constantcontact into tweets, which I find annoying.

Your tips?

If you have easy tips for boosting your e-newsletter’s power, please share them. I always enjoy learning from you.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

All rights reserved

This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Two quick ways to boost your e-newsletter’s reach appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Make an email sandwich for introverts

Introverts like to think things over before they speak.

If you cater to their needs with an email sandwich, as suggested by Jennifer Kahnweiler in Quiet Influence: The Introvert’s Guide to Making a Difference, you’re likely to have more productive exchanges.

Here’s what Kahnweiler suggests when you schedule a meeting or phone conversation:

Step 1. Write and send in advance an email with “all necessary background information for a discussion.” This lets your readers think about your agenda or ideas prior to your conversation.

Step 2. Discuss the topics with the other person in person, on the phone, or in some other “live” format.

Step 3. Send an email summary of your conversation’s key points. This helps the reader reflect “before committing to action,” as Kahnweiler says.

This email sandwich creates “thinking space for others,…especially…introverts,” says Kahnweiler.

As an introvert, I heartily endorse the email sandwich. I wish everyone would use this technique.

On the other hand, crafting an effective email sandwich takes time. You may choose to reserve it for high-stakes meetings or discussions that benefit from reflection. In addition, sometimes a quick phone call works better than an email.

If you’ve used an email sandwich with clients, prospects, or other important individuals, has it worked for you? I’m interested in learning from your experience.

 

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

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Wealth manager blogs that my readers like

“Which blogs written by wealth managers do you admire for their ability to connect with clients or to share insights about markets and wealth management?” This question by one of my newsletter readers prompted me to ask whom you recommend.

Below are some of your answers. I’ve shared some of your comments about the blogs, naming the recommendation sources when you’ve given me permission.

Mike Lipper’s Blog —”Mike Lipper has me hooked! I look forward to receiving his blog EVERY Sunday evening. After I’ve read it, I make sure to discuss it with my closest colleagues–and with my husband, too!”—Janet Mangano
The Big Picture by Barry Ritholz—suggested by Joe Clemens
The Reformed Broker by Josh Brown—suggested by Joe Clemens
“I find the syndicated writer Scott Burns of Assetbuilder to be an excellent communicator. His writing style simplifies sometimes complex principles for popular consumption.”—Hugh Gallagher
“I like Mariko Gordon’s newsletter for Daruma Capital Management. Here’s a link: http://www.darumanyc.com/newsletter/Daruma_2013_09.html to the most recent one entitled ‘Van Halen, Tattoos and Brown M&Ms.’ As you can tell from the title, it’s a little spicy. Please share one you like.”

Which great wealth-manager blogs are missing from this list?

I see this list as a starting point. Some influential bloggers, include Michael Kitces, who explained his approach to blogging in a Q&A with me, are missing. Please chime in with additional suggestions.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

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This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Wealth manager blogs that my readers like appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Quarterly client letter poll: Where do you put performance?

Performance is an important component of quarterly letters to asset management clients, so I wasn’t surprised to hear the following question at an investment commentary workshop: “Where should you discuss performance—at the beginning or end of your quarterly letter?”

Here is what I think:

Either spot can work but your placement should be consistent from quarter to quarter. This lets your clients know where you answer the question of “How am I doing?”
It’s good to relate performance to your market commentary no matter where you place your clients’ performance.

Please answer my poll:

I look forward to hearing from you. I’ll report the poll results in a future issue of my newsletter.

______________________________________________________________________

Receive Investment Writing Top Tips, a free e-book with client communications tips, when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

All rights reserved

This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Quarterly client letter poll: Where do you put performance? appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Guest bloggers: 2013 in review

I’m thankful for the knowledgeable and talented professionals who have contributed guest posts to my blog this year.

Here’s a list of guest posts, with links to the bloggers’ websites and Twitter accounts.

Blogging

Do longer articles really get shared more often? by Angelique Geehan
Momentum Tricks for Bloggers  by Laura Laing (@MathforGrownups)

Communication

5 Tips for getting your experts’ cooperation when you need it by Anne Banks
The FVP—The Fee Value Proposition by Richard Rosso(@rr0710)

Marketing

Rethinking the Traditional Content Process by John Refford (@iamreff)
Techniques to boost your white paper’s visual appeal by David Williams
The Future of Marketing is a Newsroom Mentality by Jesse Mark (@econchatter)
The Six Keys to Confident Presenting by Beverly D. Flaxington (@BevFlaxington)

Writing

Got Metaphor? by Anne Miller (@annemillerny)
The Copywriter’s #1 Secret…Revealed by Krista Magidson (@KristaMagidson)

 

I also hosted some wonderful guest bloggers last year. See “Guest bloggers: 2012 in review.”

______________________________________________________________________

Receive Investment Writing Top Tips, a free e-book with client communications tips, when you sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

All rights reserved

This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Guest bloggers: 2013 in review appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Q&A with Michael Kitces of Nerd’s Eye View

Blogging can help advisors attract and retain clients. I’ve decided to collect stories from advisors that illustrate this.

I’m starting a Q&A series with a contribution by Michael Kitces author of the Nerd’s Eye View blog and Pinnacle Advisory Group . Blogging has brought him more visibility, which has “ helped to bring clients and cement relationships with centers of influence, ” as he explains below.

 

1.  When did you start your blog, Nerd’s Eye View ?

The Nerd’s Eye View blog first launched in March of 2008, at the same time that I launched my advanced educational newsletter for financial planners. My vision at the time was that the newsletter would be where I provided content eligible for CFP CE credit – which has a certain length requirement – while the blog was where I would publish “shorter” discussions of technical topics (that didn’t merit a full newsletter issue) and cover practice management ideas (ineligible for CFP CE credit) that I wanted to share.

However, the reality at the time was that the blog had no visibility and generated no traffic, and I generally found it very unrewarding! As a result, I actually stopped writing for the blog altogether after just a few months, and it lay dormant on the site for about two full years.

In the fall of 2010, I “revived” the blog again. The light bulb that had gone off in my head at the time was the rise of social media; in point of fact, Facebook and LinkedIn had been out several years already, and Twitter was almost two years old, so social media wasn’t exactly “new” even at that time. But I realized that, while the challenge of writing a blog is that it’s hard to build an audience, social media provides an opportunity to get the word out about the content. So at the suggestion of advisor tech guru Bill Winterberg, I started up on Twitter (and invigorated a LinkedIn profile which up to that point had been little more than an online resume), and the synergy of the blog and social media has just grown exponentially from there!

 

2.  How has your blog brought you new business or improved your existing client relationships? Please explain and quantify, if possible.

The combination of the blog and social media presence has been absolutely incredible for business, though I will confess that one-to-one situations – “this tweet got me this client” – are almost impossible to track.

It’s important to bear in mind that the blog (and social media) started as something that was attached to my newsletter and then-nascent (in 2008) and growing (in 2010) speaking business, so I measure my business results first and foremost in that context.

My net newsletter subscriber count (plus growth, minus some natural attrition) has grown steadily at a pace of about 15%-20% per year for the past five years, and the only means I have for making the newsletter known is my website (which people visit via the blog and social media).

The speaking business has grown even more dramatically, and there I can often track new business/conferences directly to engagement via social media. I have been invited to speak at conferences through relationships I formed online, and have even been hired to keynote a conference through a series of a half-dozen Twitter direct messages (DMs)! Overall, I have more-than-doubled my speaking fees since I re-launched the blog and started on social media, and despite those price increases my speaking engagements are up 60% from 3 years ago.

Notwithstanding what was originally a focus on the newsletter and speaking engagements, my blog and social media presence has started to significantly “spill over” into marketing for Pinnacle Advisory Group, the financial planning firm where I am a partner. The blogging and social media activity has generated an incredible flurry of media activity; I’m typically fielding three to five media inquiries per week from industry and major consumer publications (and a handful of smaller publications), and my visibility on social media has helped cement several highly visible consumer media opportunities, including becoming a Marketwatch RetireMentor, one of the WSJ Wealth Management Experts, and a member of the CNBC Digital Advisory Council. In the end, we could have hired a media/PR firm for tens of thousands of dollars every year and still not gotten the firm the visibility that I’ve been able to generate “for free” through blogging and social media.

And ultimately all that PR visibility has helped to bring clients and cement relationships with centers of influence. It also bolsters referrals from existing clients; it’s one thing when a client says “work with my advisor, he’s great,” but it’s another when the client says “work with my advisor; did you see the article about his research in the New York Times yesterday?”

 

3.  What blogging techniques or topics have most helped your business —either at Kitces.com or Pinnacle Advisory Group?

This varies a bit by which business I’m using to measure results. In terms of my core writing and speaking business, my technical articles on advanced planning techniques have been most effective at demonstrating and cementing my brand as a financial planning expert. This has helped generate newsletter subscriptions and speaking engagements.

Notably, though, my technical articles have also helped me to build a following of reporters who want to keep up on the latest material I’m studying, researching, and writing about. As a result, the technical articles also lead to a great deal of consumer media exposure.

The content I write on practice management and industry trends has been most effective for reaching our industry press, which indirectly helps to support my brand as a speaker. It has actually been so successful in building my credibility on these issues, though, that it now helps to support several related businesses, including our recruiting firms New Planner Recruiting and Experienced Advisors Recruiting, our investment outsourcing business for other advisors (Pinnacle Advisor Solutions), and what is now a growing series of technology firms I work with on a consulting basis about how to understand and reach advisors.

Overall, I’ve found that the key to success with blogging and social media is sheer consistency. Good articles come and go; I try to make every one a winner, but the data are very clear that… some are better received than others. Balancing content that I create with content that I share has also been key. On social media channels, less than 20% of the content that I share is my own, and I’ve grown a significant following with my “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” series, where I highlight the best dozen articles I read for the week, with summaries of each and links to click on to view the full article.

Ultimately, the key is to be a resource. Yes, I hope that my content is a resource, but it can’t be the only resource. So I share as much as I can to be helpful to everyone in every way possible; and I hope it’s appreciated that some of it is content I created myself!

 

4.  What are three of your favorite—or most effective—blog posts? Provide the titles, URLs and a comment about why you included them.

Whew, this is a tough question; I’d like to think that everyone I try to create is effective, and I hate to pick favorites!

In terms of overall results and impact, I’d say my top three are:

1) Financial Planning Implications Of HR8 – The Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. This article was a summary of the fiscal cliff legislation that passed at the very end of 2012. The Senate passed the final version of the legislation a few hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve, the House took it up on New Year’s Day, and the president signed it into law on January 2nd. Anticipating that the House was to pass the legislation and not push us off the fiscal cliff, I actually spent New Year’s morning reading up on the legislation and posting my own “first look” commentary. Despite the fact that article didn’t even post until the early afternoon, and it was a holiday, the post was so widely shared that January 1st of 2013 was the biggest traffic day the site has ever had; and the second biggest day ever was the follow-on traffic on January 2nd! It’s pretty amazing what happens when you publish timely content on an important issue!

2) Should Equity Exposure Decrease In Retirement, Or Is A Rising Equity Glidepath Actually Better? – This article was actually a write-up of some recent new retirement research I did with Wade Pfau. The article received such a strong reception that the blog post alone, and the buzz it created, resulted in coverage in several national publications, including the New York Times, Kiplinger, and AARP. Not only was this great general publicity for the firm, but I’ve been able to track several new business opportunities directly to the publication of this single blog post!

3) Weekend Reading For Financial Planners. About a year after the blog had launched and my social media activity was increasing, I started getting questions from other advisors, basically along the lines of “what do you read to keep up on information the way you do?” I got the question so much, I decided that perhaps I should just start making a list of the best articles I’d read each week. Modeled after the “linkfests” popular in the finance/econ/investment world – but recognizing that there just isn’t nearly as much “news” in financial planning every week – I launched my weekend reading column. Over two years and 100 weekly-reading-summaries later, this continues to be my most popular ongoing content on the blog.

 

5.  What’s your best tip for advisors who blog? Personally, I would love to know the secret of how you manage to spark so many conversations.

I’ve got to give two tips here, as the answer to your question has two key components.

The first tip is that if you want to succeed with blogging and social media it requires consistency, and the only way consistency happens is if you make it habit, and the only way you can create a habit is to make a commitment to a schedule of how often you’re write, with deadlines, and hold yourself accountable to meeting it. I’ve varied my publishing schedule a few times over the years; for a while I was posting once a week, then twice a week, then three times a week, eventually five times a week, but then backed off to three times a week and have stayed there. I now have a pretty consistent routine to manage that consistent publishing schedule; I capture topics I want to write about in a never-ending Evernote list so I will always have lots of ideas when I sit down to write, and I’ve got a process for carving out the time to do it. Granted, I don’t think most advisors “need” to blog as often as I do, but the principle is the same whether you’re trying to write three times a week or just once or twice a month. Have a schedule, set deadlines for yourself, commit to keeping them, and make it a habit.

My second tip is that to be able to create a steady stream of compelling content, focus, focus, focus on your target audience. Think about what their issues are. Read the publications they’re reading. Talk to them constantly (they’re your clients, so hopefully you are, but make sure you’re taking the time to listen to what’s on their minds). Virtually all of the content I write is inspired by a conversation I have at a conference, a question someone emails me, or a question/issue that a client raises. The trap I see most advisors fall into in this area is either that they don’t keep a focus at all – they’re sharing everything from things that matter to their clients, to things that matter to them (which is not always the same thing!), to things that are just plain irrelevant – or they don’t have a clear focus on who their reader is supposed to be and how they can differentiate. Ultimately, this is why having a niche is so important; as financial advisors, few will be capable of differentiating themselves and creating unique content by publishing the same generalized financial information that can be found via Kiplinger, MarketWatch, CNBC, Money, etc. There are lots of generalized consumer financial sites out there, not to mention an already crowded personal finance blogosphere. But with a niche, you can truly specialize; you might be the only one blogging about the latest issues for executives at a particular technology or pharmaceutical company making options decisions, or about a new strategy to manage malpractice insurance costs for OB/GYNs, or about the latest tip for young upwardly mobile female entrepreneurs. Having a focus – having a niche – is a way to stand out from the rest; your audience might be smaller than “everyone” but you can be highly differentiated and clearly stand out as an expert for all the people in that niche. And given that most financial advisors “top out” somewhere around 100-150 active and engaged clients (if not fewer), the reality is that virtually any niche is capable of working when those are all the clients you need for a wildly successful practice!

If you have a great blogging success story worthy of being featured in a future Q&A, please contact me. I’d like to hear from you.

______________________________________________________________________

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

All rights reserved

This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Q&A with Michael Kitces of Nerd’s Eye View appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

Hyphens matter

Hyphen, shmyphen, who cares whether you use hyphens? A Facebook ad drives home the lesson that hyphens’ role as connectors is important.

“Imagine life pain free,” said the ad. This hyphenless sentence could be interpreted as “Imagine getting ‘life pain’ at no cost.” No, thanks, I’ll pass on that offer.

The advertiser should have written, “Imagine life pain-free.” This makes it clear that “pain” relates to “free,” not life. It’s important to use hyphens if their absence changes your meaning or makes it unclear. This is true even though compound modifiers usually aren’t hyphenated when they follow a noun.

In the financial world, the following phrases typically use hyphens:

closed-end fund
risk-adjusted returns
sub-advised funds
target-date funds
time-weighted rate of return
year-to-date period

For more on hyphens, check out these resources:

“Hyphens” on GrammarGirl.com
“Hyphen Use” on Purdue OWL
“Hyphens” on GrammarBook.com
“Should you hyphenate ‘fixed income’?” on InvestmentWriting

 

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

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This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post Hyphens matter appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

How to handle “the Fed” in your writing

“The Fed” often pops up in market and economic commentary. This made me wonder about the best way to introduce the term as a nickname for the Federal Reserve.

From “Federal Reserve” to “Fed”

Here’s the Associated Press Stylebook’s take on the Federal Reserve, with thanks to Deb Mackey for providing it in a LinkedIn discussion:

The central bank of the United States. It comprises the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates; the Federal Reserve Board, the regulatory body made up of Fed governors in Washington; and the Federal Reserve System, which includes the Fed in Washington and 12 regional Fed banks. Use Federal Reserve on first reference, the Fed on second reference.

Note that the Stylebook uses “Federal Reserve,” not “Federal Reserve Board” or “U.S. Federal Reserve” on the first reference.

How about the FOMC?

If you’re writing market commentary, you’re probably discussing the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), rather than the overall Federal Reserve, as writer David Lufkin noted in a LinkedIn discussion. After all, it’s the FOMC that sets monetary policy. The FOMC’s role raises two questions for me:

When do you refer to the “Federal Open Market Committee” instead of the “Federal Reserve”?
How do you abbreviate and introduce the abbreviation for the “Federal Open Market Committee”?

I give my take on the answers below.

FOMC vs. the Fed

Should your commentary specify that you’re discussing the Federal Open Market Committee?

It does if you’re discussing different parts of the Federal Reserve. Then, you need to distinguish between the FOMC, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Reserve System, and the 12 regional banks.

If you’re only discussing monetary policy, then sophisticated investors will know you’re talking about the FOMC. Less sophisticated investors probably don’t understand the distinction between the Federal Reserve and the FOMC. Also, they probably don’t care.

Look at how newspapers deal with this issue. They often stick to discussing “Federal Reserve policy.” If they get more specific, they refer to the “Fed’s policymaking committee,” rather than the FOMC. This is similar to what I discussed in “Quantitative easing for regular folks: 3 lessons from The New York Times.”

In my opinion, you don’t need to specify FOMC—at least, not in most situations.

Introducing FOMC as an abbreviation

If you discuss the Federal Open Market Committee repeatedly, you’re probably abbreviating it as FOMC after the first reference. You have two options for how to introduce the abbreviation:

Use “Federal Open Market Committee” the first time you refer to the Fed’s policymaking committee and “FOMC” for the second and subsequent references.
Write “Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)” the first time, and then switch to FOMC.

For common abbreviations, the first approach seems to prevail. I think going direct to FOMC works best when you’re writing for readers who immediately recognize the term FOMC.

I prefer the second approach when writing for an audience that’s less familiar with the FOMC. I agree with Bryan Garner, who says in Garner’s Modern American Usage:

…the best practice is to give the reader some warning of an uncommon acronym by spelling out the words and enclosing the acronym in parentheses when the term is first used…. On the other hand, well-known acronyms don’t need this kind of special treatment—there’s no need to announce a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting.

Go easy on abbreviations

I rarely see “FOMC” in newspapers that refer to the Federal Market Open Market Committee. Perhaps that’s because they’ve taken to heart the idea that too many abbreviations make articles hard to read.

Garner says, “One of the most irritating types of pedantry in modern writing is the overuse of abbreviations, especially abbreviated names.” He also says, “Abbreviations are often conveniences for writers but inconveniences for writers. Whenever that is so, abbreviations should vanish.”

______________________________________________________________________

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

All rights reserved

This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post How to handle “the Fed” in your writing appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.

“Cut off its head!”—An editing tip

When editing your first draft, consider cutting off its head, in the sense suggested by Kenneth Atchity in A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision. Here’s what Atchity says:

When you clean a fish, the first thing that goes is the head. Generally manuscripts should receive the same treatment.

Atchity is suggesting that you throw out the beginning of your manuscript. Why? Because writers are often just “warming up” when they start writing. This may take the form of “overly long introductions that give the reader no credit for being able to figure out perspective or content,” says Atchity.

In financial services documents, I see introductions that go on and on about theories or processes without telling readers why they should care about the topic.

If you have a white paper or other document that doesn’t flow well, ask if you should cut off its head.

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Copyright 2013 by Susan B. Weiner

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This content may not be reposted without the author’s written permission.

The post “Cut off its head!”—An editing tip appeared first on Susan Weiner's Blog on Investment Writing.