Writing for Busy Clients

If you haven’t read Writing for Busy Readers, I would put it on your list for a future read.  It is an excellent guide on why and how we should be writing differently for today’s audience.  Whether you’re writing client emails or blog posts,  you are probably falling victim to some habits that turn off your readers.  I’ve taken some of the main lessons from the book and added some advisor-specific advice to make these lessons as applicable as possible to financial advisors, coaches, and other financial writers.  

Buy the book here.

Less is More

The next time you are writing, think about saying less.  

1. Use fewer words overall

2. Include fewer ideas

3. Make fewer requests

Financial advisors by nature, want to be thorough.  Clients’ questions and concerns can be complicated and nuanced.  No two situations are ever exactly the same.  

However, huge blocks of text can be a huge turnoff.  How often are your messages written in multiple paragraphs? Or lengthy lists meant to capture everything covered in a meeting?  

When clients see a message like this, they may want to read it.  They may intend to read it.  But all the same, they might file it away for another time and then they may never get to it. 

Limiting both the number of words and the imposing nature of the message can make your words more likely to be read, which is the whole point.  

Make Reading Easy

Don’t make your audience work for it.

1. Use short and common words

2. Write straightforward sentences

3. Write shorter sentences

Employing prodigiously formidable and obfuscating lexemes shall not accrue for you any appreciable audience of readership.  

In other words...Using hard-to-read words won’t attract readers.  

The same is true for long and complex sentences.  Make your ideas easy to digest.  If you have long sentences that are hard to follow from start to finish, then readers will simply give up.  

Financial advice can be tricky to communicate without jargon and formal language. The best advisors find a way to simplify.  Don’t worry about sounding intelligent.  Your clients are with you because they trust you. Not because they expect you to win a Nobel Prize in literature.    

Design for Easy Navigation

Place your message on a silver platter for the reader.

1. Make key information immediately visible

2. Separate distinct ideas

3. Place related ideas together

4. Order ideas by priority

5. Include headings

6. Consider using visuals

Readers are more likely to scan for information before they ever read it.  Drawing their attention will make them more likely to read your whole message.  If they don’t, they will see the message conclusion right at the top of the page. 

An underutilized but essential part of proofreading is reordering and reorganizing ideas.  After crafting your message, take another pass through the text to move sections or sentences.  Place critical ideas first and combine repeated ideas to limit length.

Use Enough Formatting (but No More)

Too much formatting can be just as repellant as too little.  

1. Match formatting to readers’ expectations

2. Highlight, bold, or underline the most important ideas

3. Limit your formatting and keep it consistent

There is no need to be cute with formatting. A little goes a long way and a lighter touch will focus readers’ attention on the most critical points.  

Embedded Links

With the growth of platforms like Substack, advisory newsletters, blogs, and thought pieces are getting more sophisticated.  With these improvements, there has been an increase in the linked references either to show sources or prove the author’s vast information network.  

Links are part of your formatting and should be used carefully so your writing doesn’t appear as a bad bruise: all black and blue.  When using links, minimize the length of linked text for readability.  

Reading a sentence that has a very long link will be much harder to read than choosing to only use a single word as the link.  

Nested Lists

Lists are one of the most powerful pieces of formatting writer can use.  It tells clients what to do, how to do it, and in what order.  I doubt there is a single reader who doesn’t include lists in client communication.  

However, the more complicated a list gets, the more likely it should be broken up into multiple communications.  If your list has more than one item with a subsection, rework that list. 

Tell Readers Why They Should Care

Be ART-ful with your communication: Actionable, Relevant, Timely

1. Emphasize what readers value (“So what”)

2. Emphasize which readers should care (“Why me?”)

Take extra care with the title of your post or the subject of your email.  From the beginning, readers should know why this message is worth their time.  Cliché clickbait titles don’t belong here.  Readers today are too numb to those tricks and it dilutes your message.  

This is equally important in the introduction of the body of your message.  As we discussed in the section on navigation, place the conclusion of your message at the top to anchor the reader to the most important takeaway.  Explain to the reader what the point is and why they should care.  

No matter how much they trust or appreciate you as their advisor, every client is still allocating their minimal time.  Particularly important for outbound client messages, focus on topics that are ART: Actionable, Relevant, and Timely.  

Often, setting the stage for seamless communication takes place in the months or years before a specific piece of communication is made. Understanding what to send is just as important as who it is sent to.  Thorough client notes and categorization will make it easier to send only relevant information.  

Make Responding Easy

The easier it is for clients to reply, the more engaged they will be.   

1. Simplify the steps required to act

2. Organize key information needed for action

3. Minimize the amount of attention required

Spending time on preparation to minimize your audience’s required action will increase engagement.  Client segmentation is key here and maintaining engagement may require drafting multiple messages instead of drafting one with all the relevant information for everyone.  

Readers unconsciously view the length of a message as an indication of how time-consuming it will be to complete.  Writing concisely or utilizing well-placed links or attachments can improve open rates and response rates.  Any upfront work is likely to save you and your clients time in the long run by minimizing follow-up messages or miscommunications.  

Consider a reader who receives 30+ personal emails daily which they will review after putting their children to bed at night.  Review the example below and decide for yourself which is more likely to be read quickly.  Pay close attention to the message subject, formatting, and length.  

No matter what you are writing or communicating, it is imperative to remember the flood of information clients are receiving.  An advisor's job is to cut through the noise.  Pay attention to how you communicate so you can communicate most effectively.