4 ways to keep your clients excited about financial planning

It’s the job of the professional adviser to get their clients excited about investing so they maintain an active interest. This can be relatively easy at the beginning because it’s all new to the client, but what happens as the years pass and your clients start to get ho-hum about their investments?

How do you sustain their interest? And just as importantly, how do you keep them reading the information you send them?

It’s not easy, but it can be done. Here are four tips to help make your communication about market economics, investing, estate planning, and other potentially “dull” topics more interesting…

 1.  Have a chat

Can you imagine saying this to a client in a conversation?

“Between 1986 and 2016, China’s gross domestic product per head rose by 8.1%pa. This compares with the growth in Japan’s GDP per head between 1955-1978 of 9.2%pa, and South Korea of 8.6%pa between 1968-1990."

You might think we're exaggerating but this is very similar to an article we read in a financial planner's newsletter. Is it any wonder clients (or anyone else for that matter) don’t read economic reports!

The only way you can get people to read the material you send to them is to make it relevant and interesting. People need to know how these things affect them personally. How many people actually know what GDP means?!

2.  Tell a story

Most people love stories – especially about other people! Use case studies to convey difficult or technical information. As the author you can make them as exciting as you like! Spice it up, use humour, or perhaps drama (everyone loves a soap opera!). Here’s an example...

Mike and Kathy had been happily married for 36 years. At least Kathy had thought so before Mike died suddenly while on a fishing trip. (“It was the biggest marlin we’d ever seen,” swore his fishing buddies. “It dragged Mike over the side of the boat and he skiied along behind it for about 50 metres before he finally got dragged under and disappeared! He’s probably on his way to China now, underwater!” they surmised of his demise.)

It wasn’t until Kathy met with their family solicitor that she learned about her husband’s other life. In addition to three of their children, all now adults, Kathy discovered that Mike had fathered two more children to two different women! And, what was worse, Mike had bequeathed a share of his estate to these strangers!

Her solicitor recommended that she meet with her financial adviser to discuss the implications this would have on their investment strategy...

And then you could introduce the serious side of estate planning or whatever technical area your article was to explain. By then you’ve got your reader hooked (pardon the pun) and they’ll be more inclined to keep reading.

3.  Keep some secrets

You don’t need to give out every detail in your articles and posts. Tell just enough to grab your readers’ interest. If you’re using a case study, as they say in the classics, “don’t ruin a good story with too many facts”. Give them a little bit and finish the article with a strong call to action. Make them want to contact you for more details.

4.  All work and no play makes your client communication dull

Balance your technical articles with lifestyle content or humour. Maybe some of your clients read your newsletter only for the lifestyle content, but while they’re reading them they probably take in the serious stuff too.

Above all, writing should be fun. If you struggle with writing your client communication, your readers will feel it and all that time and money you’ve invested will be a total waste. We hope the above tips encourage you to try something different!

If you don’t have time to write articles your clients will read, have a look around our Financial Articles Library. There is a treasure trove of fully researched articles to share with your clients. Join the library and you will have full access. Or sign up to receive our newsletter full of handy tips. You are most welcome to linger longer.