Three tips and five actions that won’t take a lot of time, but can make a big difference to engaging your audience.
You’re not a writer. That doesn’t mean you don’t write well. But it’s not your primary expertise. You’re a portfolio manager, an analyst, a strategist, an economist or some other professional in the financial industry. And yet, you’re called upon to write reports, updates and commentaries—and it’s one of the most important things you do.
These written pieces might become website content, blog posts and social media posts. Given your large readership, you’d like to improve your writing skills, but it’s hard to find the time. Yet, even a few small tweaks can turn a boring report into useful, shareable content.
These three tips and five actions don’t take a lot of time, but can make a big difference to your writing:
Draw readers in
First impressions are important. If people don’t read your first sentence, they’re unlikely to read the rest of your piece. Your first sentence should move people to the second sentence.
Think of it as a headline and make it short; advertising copy provides a great model for this. Don’t make readers slog through a glorious multi-clause summary of the entire world economy to get to the rest of your report.
In your first paragraph, think of your intended audience and what they care about. Retail clients may need assurances, while advisors may want ideas for actions to suggest to their clients. If you can provide assurances or investment recommendations in your first paragraph that are supported by the rest of the report, then you make the piece relevant to your audience—and they’re more likely to read it.
Action 1: Shorten the first sentence.
Action 2: Relate the first paragraph to your audience.
Get rid of weasel words
Removing weasel words will make your writing more authoritative. A ‘weasel word,’ according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “an equivocating or ambiguous word which takes away the force or meaning of the concept being expressed.” Examples include: rarely, often, few, a bit, many, various, probably, likely and interestingly. There are (growing) lists online if you want to look up more.
It’s difficult to fully remove weasel words from financial writing because legal compliance places limitations on the use of definitive statements. But you can avoid stacking qualifiers. You’ll have to work with your compliance department on whittling these down but, as an example, a statement can be qualified with “may” or “possibly,” though it doesn’t need both.
You can reduce your reliance on weasel words by being specific. Provide numbers instead of using ‘many’ or ‘few.’ Instead of ‘many,’ use a percentage. If something happens ‘rarely,’ then tell readers that it has happened, for instance, “twice in the past 150 years.”
Action 3: Make vague words specific.
Make it accessible
Appearances matter. I’ve seen online economic updates so dense they look like the instructions on a pill bottle. Readers won’t stay on a page that’s challenging to read—especially when your competitor is reporting the same economic statistics in an easy-to-read format.
You may not be responsible for how your piece looks in a report or online, but to the extent that you can control these factors, here are a few tips:
- Break up your paragraphs and keep them short
- Use subheadings
- Use bulleted and numbered lists
- Use white space
- Choose an easy-to-read font style
- Use a large font size
Action 4: Break up your paragraphs.
Action 5: Add subheadings.
In this era of information overload and constant content, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle, even when writing to existing clients. Improving the quality of your written pieces with these three simple tips can immediately improve your writing and help set you apart.
Douglas Warren is a co-founder of Walmer Road Writing. He’s a corporate writer with expert knowledge of financial markets, economics, insurance and commercial real estate.