One of the more lamentable developments in business, particularly in the financial space, is the growth of content. Something I’ve described elsewhere as:
An uncharitable, but probably accurate assessment of content, is being little more than the end of a massive sewer pipe with unrelenting flows that cannot be controlled or curbed.
An overwhelming number of financial businesses of various stripes are now indulging in monthly, even weekly, economic and market updates. Now it’s all very important and serious and you should take note because they’ve got a social media person who needs to create content and an economist, CFA, PhD on staff who can deliver the message with these right credentials and sound credible on such matters.
Obviously there’s a little more to it. Part of it is they want people regularly tuned to them as their source of truth for financial matters. They need to keep pumping this stuff out and get in front of peoples’ eyeballs for when the real calamities turn up. At that point they have your trust and can soothe all your concerns.
The problem is the contradictory nature of all this. They’ve dedicated a lot of effort talking about this week or this month, when it’s an utterly disposable message. It’s devoid of any interest or relevance and won’t be remembered in three years time, let alone three days.
BUT…
In doing so, they’ve conditioned you to think in the short term. And what happens when the market goes down? The inevitable foghorn repeating the pre-programmed lines begins: LONG TERM, TURN OUT THE NOISE, STAY THE COURSE, DON’T LISTEN TO THE MEDIA!
As pointed out, it’s a contradiction. Worse, it’s tough to howl about the media’s incessant focus on what the market did, when you’re shortening your own horizon to regularly look back on what happened this week or this month. It’s not great for clients or the general public who see it. They inevitably come to expect it as a requirement to be seen as engaged and having your finger on the pulse.
One of the benefits (and sometimes frustrations) of working at a smaller business is I’m asked to do a variety of jobs. This can lead to me engaging with clients, without actually engaging with clients. One is seeing prospective client messages when they come through the website. Other times it might be processing a digital copy of a meeting.
Because part of my job is also on the content side of things, understanding how people think and behave is important. It can offer lessons for other clients and reminders for advisers.
An adviser once pointed me to a meeting with a prospective client group. They were coming as a package. There was one particular individual in the group who was reasonably vocal. When it came to interactions with the business, they were really needing to know often updates would be coming their way and noted how important it was to be updated “given what was going on in the world”.
Sure, there are some concerns, but today is no more uncertain than any other time in history. What would more information and updates do for this person? Likely make them more unsettled, leading to them to demand changes, more fiddling and an expectation to react on their say so. Inevitably, a frustrating and fruitless relationship.
Similarly, another prospective client was keen on being active and hands on in the process. Making monthly alterations to their portfolio after consulting with the adviser and assessing what was going on in the world.
For an adviser it’s still hard to get clients to understand one of the biggest value adds is helping them do nothing. It might be fun to press buttons and pull levers on a monthly basis after assessing Putin’s latest move, but he might do something unexpected tomorrow. In that case, your own personal value add was rendered useless. Pandering to people doesn’t help them.
I’m certainly not saying don’t create any client material. Do something original and engaging, then persist. Looking around and resolving to mimic the most banal stuff, unless you’ve got a witty take on it, will work against you.
If you’re telling clients about the long term, why clutter them up with what the market did last week or last month? We do a quarterly, and sometimes I think it’s too much. Trying to constantly engage people with nothing content only becomes another obstacle stopping them from what they need to be doing: which is nothing.
Don’t encourage bad behaviour because you see others doing it.
This represents general information only. Before making any financial or investment decisions, I suggest you consult a financial planner to take into account your personal investment objectives, financial situation and individual needs. Don’t make financial or investment decisions on the basis of blog post or sourcing advice from internet forums, if you’d like a introduction to investing, please consider reading Your Investment Philosophy, which offers an evidence based primer for building your own investment philosophy.
