The following post is courtesy of Diane Harrison who is principal and owner of Panegyric Marketing, a strategic marketing communications firm founded in 2002 specializing in alternative assets.
Looking back over the past 40 years I’ve been in business, the ways in which business communication has changed is huge. Back in the 80s and 90s, research reporting and traditional white papers (25-50 pages average length) were the industry standard in finance and investment management. More was more in every sense; my company had a full-time librarian tasked with the sheer organization and distribution of reams of daily published material that was circulated and archived regularly.
In the days before widespread internet usage, we even had a daily paper report called the ‘clipping service,’ which was literally a copy report of news snippets gathered by overnight employees, who pulled from international papers, Bloomberg, financial publications, and the like. Each morning a stapled batch of these clippings would be dropped in our desk inbox by a mailroom clerk and you were expected to read them, digest the information and how it pertained to your job role, and then act upon it. Looking back, it seems quaint how long it took to create these information packets and activate them across the company, given how voluminous and instantaneous such news, which is accessed electronically, is now.
Today, news is insidious and the delivery of it seems to be a constant. You can’t escape electronic news crawls on every channel, numerous radio and programming choices cluttering our think space to the point of a mind-numbing news crawl. The phrase ‘doomscrolling’ is an apt one; it’s difficult to actually stimulate readers without ever more sensationalized updates on virtually any topic. So how can an investment manager develop a communication plan that actually piques the interest of their audience? A few tips on getting noticed in a positive way follow.
1. BE FOCUSED. If you have something topical and timely to offer to your clients and prospects, then by all means create that content and get it distributed. A solid example of such would be an investment manager outlook report, explaining how the world news is currently impacting the investment activities within the fund or firm. Keep the focus on how global or current news is directly influencing the decision-making within the firm. This focus will ensure your readers actually read what you’re sending.
2. BE ORIGINAL. In the morass of media, you need to be unique, maybe funny, informative, and perhaps evocative to get your message across. This is where employing some form of marketing or communication assistance can pay off for smaller firms who may not have adequate resources internally. Creating a podcast discussion panel that has a scripted format to address key topics your firm wants to be heard on is one such way to elevate the communication effort above a dry letter or research recitation of the same information. The dynamics of an oral delivery can help you emphasize those points you want to make and infuse some personality in a way that cuts through.
3. BE BRIEF. Perhaps nothing is more important in today’s media world than to be as brief as you can be while still getting the message out. Conciseness, not word-salads, is the key to being heard. Gone are those days of 30-page white papers. Even the 3-page quarterly report feels quaint. More frequent 3-minute clips on the web with updates from key personnel about industry news and fund activity feels natural and current in today’s sound bite situation. As each of us struggles to find the meaning in the mountain of news we are faced with, let’s all try to create ways of our own to connect with our audience with methods that balance brevity with clarity.
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