On the Investment Writing blog during October

Here's what I covered on my InvestmentWriting blog during the previous month:

• Lessons from “Presentation Skills for Investment Professionals”
• Six tips for snaring reporters with your market commentary
• Guest post: “What’s a tomato got to do with getting your fund discovered?”
• Guest post: “Investment analysts and social media”
• ISI’s Straszheim: China’s interest rate hike is “tapping the brakes”
• Cautious optimism on emerging market stocks from SSgA’s Hoguet
• Bubble? — Emerging markets scrutinized by CFA Institute conference
• Notable quotes from the CFA Institute’s emerging markets conference
• LinkedIn’s fatal flaw for financial advisor compliance
• Do the robin, the reindeer, and the building sing the same song?

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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

October updates to the Investment Writing blog

If you’re not visiting my InvestmentWriting blog in its new location, you’ve missed the following posts over the last month:

• Should the Morningstar style box go 3-D? Quality counts, says Atlanta Capital
• Poll: “Investable” or “investible”–which spelling is correct?
• My five favorite reference books for writers
• no, No, NO: My business card shouldn’t add me to your e-newsletter list
• Guest post: "How Seeking Alpha Can Build Your Professional Reputation"
• Your spell checker doesn’t work, so you must proofread
• Effective writing and blogging is faster with a plan
• Four lessons from Wasatch Funds on reporting underperformance
• Guest post: “Would you like to know how financial advisors are choosing products?
• Blogging buddies: Financial bloggers’ secret weapons

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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

New posts on my NEW Investment Writing blog

If you’re not visiting my InvestmentWriting blog in its new location, you’ve missed the following posts over the last month:

• Should the Morningstar style box go 3-D? Quality counts, says Atlanta Capital
• Guide to e-newsletters
• Guest post: “Generate Quality, Low Cost Leads with Facebook Ads”
• Great blog posts don't matter...
• E-newsletters: Great marketing tool for financial advisors and writers
• “CFA credential implies a standard of care not always upheld,” says Forbes opinion piece
• A top technique of financial advisors who blog successfully
• Introverts, steal this idea for your next conference!
• Poll: Should you make investment predictions that can backfire?

Also, you still have time to sign up for "How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read: A 5-Week Teleclass for Financial Advisors" starting Sept. 23.
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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

What you're missing, if you haven't visited my new Investment Writing blog

Come join me on my new Investment Writing blog! It's part of my website.

Here are links to articles you've missed since the beginning of July:

• "CFA credential implies a standard of care not always kept," says Forbes opinion piece
• A top technique of financial advisors who blog successfully
• Three writing lessons from "One Trader's Binge on Cocoa Wraps Up Chocolate Market"
• Audiocast: "How to Guest-Blog on Personal Finance or Investments"
• RIAs, are you ready for plain language in your Form ADV "brochure"?
• A great financial article isn't enough
• Great lines from Raymond James
• First, pick your target market and niche
• FINRA/SEC compliance guidelines for bloggers
  
• How NOT to toot your horn about investment publications
  
• Help me pick a better title for my financial blog post critiques!
  
• Press release: How to Write Blog Posts People Will Read, A Five-Week Teleclass for Financial Advisors Starts September 23
  
• Guest post: "Adding video into the Communications Mix"
  
• Thomas Jefferson's writing wisdom

My May blog posts by category: Blogging, economy/investments/wealth management, marketing, social media, writing

Did you notice that I went wild in May, posting every day as part of the Word Count Blogathon? For your convenience, I'm listing my May posts by category.


Blogging

• The two most important words are...
• Financial bloggers' posts may violate copyright law
• Spice up your blog with free or low-cost photos
• Setting myself a challenge: A May Blogathon

Economy, investments, and wealth management

• "Have mutual fund fees gone up or down?"
• Poll: Which should investors fear most? Which #CFA2010 speakers were right?
• R Koo, "Lessons from Japan: Fighting a Balance Sheet Recession" from #CFA2010
• GMO's Jeremy Grantham on "The Ethical Hole in Finance" at #CFA2010
• Dan Ariely says disclosure may hurt investors: Report from his #CFA201 talk
• Roger Ibbotson attacks asset allocation "folklore"
• Hear Roger Ibbotson on asset allocation
• Morgan Creek Capital's Yusko riles up Tweeters with comments on investment fees
• Morgan Creek Capital's Yusko on investing
• Small-cap investing opportunities according to Artio's Dedio

Marketing

• My Boston-area networking suggestions
• Tip for how to connect with your workshop attendees 
• If you enjoy my #CFA2010 tweets
• Top four email mistakes to avoid when you've got a referral
• Timely, creative financial ad from Northwestern Mutual
• How to improve your financial planning client relationships
• Your customers, your inspiration

Social media

• Using CFP in your Twitter name--Read the CFP Board's position
• The compliance-constrained advisor's guide to LinkedIn, Part II: Status updates
• Can you help with my Facebook dilemma?
• How I've benefited from Twitter

Writing

• Plain English can bring your financial topic to life
• How to write subheads that command attention
• Executive's lesson for your communications with clients and prospects
• Start with a good lead, or lose your reader
• Guest post: "Correct Grammar Errors in Your Writing Quickly and Easily"
• 10 blogs I can't live without: Writer's edition
• Financial advisor poll: How do you sign your business emails?
• Whoa, insurance=spam?

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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Six tips for slogging through blogging: Lessons from the Blogathon

“How can I force myself to blog regularly?”

The investment and wealth managers in my blogging teleclass often ask this question. I grappled with this challenge during the Word Count Blogathon, for which I committed to post daily. So now’s a good time for me to share tips with you.

Tip 1: “Set it and forget it.” Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule blog posts in advance. This potentially lets you put your blog on auto-pilot when you’re busy. During the Blogathon I learned how to take automation one step further. I set HootSuite to tweet my blog posts without human intervention. Read about "How to Add an RSS Feed" using HootSuite.

Tip 2: Blog when the spirit moves you, whether or not your schedule requires you to post. It’s much easier for me to blog when I’m in the mood. On a good day I can push out three or more blog posts. To help me write regardless of location, I always carry a spiral-bound notebook or pad of paper. It’s worthwhile jotting down blog ideas, not only full-fledged posts. It’s much easier to blog when you don’t face a blank PC screen or piece of paper.

Tip 3: Write posts that are “evergreen” or tied to a future event, so you’ll have material to post when you’re too busy to write. “Evergreen” articles aren’t time-sensitive. Like a pine tree, they don’t lose their attractiveness with the changing of the seasons.

I scheduled a bunch of evergreens to run between May 16 and May 31, when I was distracted by attending the CFA Institute’s annual conference and going on vacation out West.

Blog posts tied to events such as the April 15 tax deadline or the August-September “back to school” season aren’t evergreen. But they can be written and scheduled long before a timely date for posting.

Tip 4: Keep it short. Short blog posts are okay. Just pick one point and explain it. This is how I dealt with Jeremy Grantham’s wide-ranging presentation to the FA Institute’s annual conference. Having trouble writing economically about your topic? Slice it narrower.

Tip 5: React to online articles or blog posts. Notice when you have strong feelings upon reading something. Your passion makes it easier for you to jot down a quick blog post that links to the original article. Links spare you the need to describe the other author’s position in detail. However, it’s kind to your reader to briefly summarize what sparked your blog post.

Tip 6: Hire someone to type your blog posts if you dictate or write your drafts on paper. I drafted this post on a plane to Las Vegas. Later I scanned it for my virtual assistant to type. Or follow the suggestion that Bill Winterberg of the FPPad blog gives in the comments below.
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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Executive's lesson for your communications with clients and prospects

Financial advisors who want to communicate effectively will follow the example set by Bill Carter in "The Scoreboard Can't Tell You Everything." Carter's lesson boils down to this: Put yourself in the mind of the person with whom you're communicating.

Here's what Carter, partner and co-found of Fuse, said in his interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times:

In terms of communication, I think that I do my best to try to step away from my own belief system and my own priorities, which are the priorities of a 41-year-old man who’s married and has a young daughter. Instead, I try to evaluate decisions based on what the 25- to-32-year-olds in our office are trying to get out of their career, what they want in a workplace. 

Your articles and conversations will be more persuasive when you phrase them in terms of what your clients, prospects, and referral sources care about. 

For example, say "Your interests come first because we don't accept payments from product providers" instead of "We are a fee-only financial advisor."

Do you apply this rule to your communications? Please share your examples.


Related posts
* Focus on features, not benefits, in your marketing
* Encourage good communication or lose your multi-generational clients

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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

"Have mutual fund fees gone up or down?"

Investment expenses have been on my mind this month, as you know, if you've read "Morgan Creek Capital's Yusko on investing," "Morgan Creek Capital's Yusko riles up Tweeters with comments on investment fees" or you follow me on Twitter.


This prompted me to revisit my article, "Have mutual fund fees gone up or down? Are they fair or unfair? It depends on whom you ask." 


Many of the points raised in this 2006 article still apply.

•  For most advisors, it’s a no-brainer to pick the fund with lower expenses, assuming the fund’s style, market capitalization and other major factors are equal. 
• Controversies swirl around several topics related to fees, including their fairness, their correlation with higher fund returns, whether they’re rising or falling, and whether fund firms are responding adequately to advisor demands.
• Some financial advisors say both critics and boosters of mutual funds may be missing the point by focusing on disclosed expense ratios. 
• One thing seems clear: Advisors will continue to gravitate toward low-cost funds that also meet their other investment criteria.

One change since my 2006 article: The Investment Company Institute's research no longer shows that overall mutual fund expenses are dropping. The headline for its latest study says, "Mutual Fund Expense Ratios Ticked Up in 2009, While Total Fees and Expenses Remained Steady." Morningstar Advisor put a more negative spin on fees in "Mutual Fund Expense Ratios See Biggest Spike Since 2000."

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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved

Tip for how to connect with your workshop attendees

Advisors, you can deepen your connection with folks who attend your investment or financial planning workshops using a technique I observed at the Financial Planning Association of Massachusetts annual conference on May 7.

Consultant Shari Harley, whom I wrote about in "How to improve your financial planning client relationships," handed out postcards to her audience. There's nothing unusual about that. But what she said next grabbed my attention.

Harley asked us to write on the postcard (shown in the photo above) at least one thing that we learned from her presentation that we'd like to apply. Then she promised to mail the postcards to us in one month, if we dropped them off on our way out of the auditorium.

I like Harley's postcard idea because

1. Her question spurs the audience to think about what was most valuable in her presentation.
2. She gains valuable feedback when participants hand in their cards.
3. She reminds potential clients of her existence--with their permission--when they receive their cards one month later.
4. If audience members haven't acted on their goals by the time they receive the cards, they may say, "I need a consultant to help me act on this."

This postcard technique should work nicely as follow-up to any sort of financial seminar or workshop.
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Copyright 2010 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved