5 Rules for Manager Website Writing “I am sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.” -Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) This week we are going to visit the subject of writing for manager and advisor websites. The above quote implies that writing succinctly has more impact yet is more difficult. It takes significant effort to hold the short attention span of typical website readers. A key element of InvestCloud’s website design is our ability to transform dry, long-form financial content into engaging, easy to digest content. An attractive, image rich site will attract attention, but that will be wasted if you don’t deliver a concise and memorable message. You must leverage that attention to briefly communicate who you are and why the reader should care. After developing content for hundreds of advisor and asset manager sites, we know that most managers fail to grasp their readers’ attentions. Common flaws include too many words, complex phrases and financial jargon. These websites are often written as if financial managers are writing to their peers rather than to prospective clients in need of persuasion. This week, we will review 5 rules to writing financial content for the web. These key points offer some universal truths about how people learn in our age of short attention spans. They will help you to not only write better core page content, but also better blogs, and even better live presentations. 1: Know Your Objective. Whatever your investment approach or discipline, there are only 4 characteristics that any firm needs to communicate through their website, which are Competency, Effectiveness, Experience, and Passion. These 4 characteristics answer the primary question that every prospective client asks: “Why should I trust you with my money?” Everything you write should evoke trustworthiness. 2: Headlines and Hooks. People read the web in a similar way to reading a magazine. They mostly skim for impressions rather than read everything. They will typically glance at a page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest. This means that creating good web content is more like writing for a newspaper (remember those?) than for long articles or books. Use headline and outtakes. Get to the point in the first paragraph and then expand upon it. Each paragraph should focus on just one idea. 3: Be Personal, Clear and Concise. Write clearly and simply and explain your technical terms when necessary. Make it easy for non-experts to understand your point without being condescending. Use strong adjectives and active verbs and avoid the passive voice. Consider the following two statements, both essentially the same. Which
one does is easier for the client to comprehend and personalize? Our firm focuses on maintaining a consistently disciplined, multi-factor risk management process that we apply to all client portfolios. On a daily basis our firm proactively monitors every holding in your portfolio. This allows us to determine if changes in earnings outlook or market sentiment merit reducing exposure to limit risk. No matter what story you tell, the main character is the reader. Make “you” your most used word. Who specifically are you are writing for? What are their needs? What is their level of expertise? Build a profile of your various audience groups. Focus your content around your users’ needs and tasks, not around yourself or your firm. 4: Highlight Differentiators – Be Specific. If your wealth management process involves detailed cash flow planning, say so and explain how you do it. If your research process elicits a particular type of company, describe valuable characteristics and notable historical results. Do not neglect your expert knowledge as it helps to build credibility as an authority on your subject. There is no need for an essay, just write enough to illustrate your point. Provide links and drill downs for more information. 5: Use meta descriptions: The meta description is the snippet that appears below the blue link in Google search. Words that matched the user query get pulled out in bold. Meta descriptions are 156 character descriptions of your content, which are key for optimizing your search results. They are also the first words that anyone reads about you when they type your name into a search engine. The value of these important 156 characters is often neglected. If you would like to know more about InvestCloud’s website content and design services we invite you to let us do a cScore of your website. The cScore is our 100point system, which scores 45 site elements in 10 key areas. It covers basic elements like aesthetics and core content, as well as advanced elements like SEO and video media. We examine both internal and external content and services integration. If you would like to learn more, visit us at www.investcloud.com or click here to request a demo.