Involved in the commentary process? Ask these questions.
Although your commentary deliverables – from monthly marketing commentaries to annual MRFPs and everything in between – are always changing, one thing stays the same: they cause stress.
Timelines are rarely in your favour. And you’re likely juggling many cross-functional relationships. Add in tight budgets and global offices and you’re going to reach for the headache medication.
The commentary pros at Ext. Marketing Inc. are here to help. They’ve put together a series of questions to get you thinking proactively about your commentary deliverables:
1. Are you including the right information in your content requests and your output?
2. Keeping in mind that different commentaries may have different timelines, do you have enough time to deliver?
3. How can you get the information you need, faster?
4. Are you delivering the highest-quality work on a consistent basis?
5. Given the collaborative nature of the commentary process, how can you get everyone working together better?
6. Looking back at your last run through, is there a better way to manage this project?
7. Do your commentaries interrupt other marketing initiatives?
The most significant problem with regulatory work is that it’s both time consuming and time sensitive. That’s a bad combo that can result in significant challenges.
Another big issue with commentary work is that it’s cross functional. Your fund accounting, legal, compliance, investment, marketing, product and operations teams all likely have a hand in the process.
Finally, we get to the big, overarching question:
8. How can you improve your commentary process?
Although they may not be easy to answer, these eight questions will definitely help you focus on the right answers. And help you make dramatic improvements to your commentary process.
Contact us at 416.925.1700 or info@ext-marketing.com for more insights into creating a highly efficient commentary process.
Jargony phrases – and ways to keep them out of your commentaries
We all tend to use some jargon in conversation. But it’s best to keep that jargon – including highly technical terms – out of your commentaries.
If you’re having trouble finding the right words to describe financial concepts without using jargon, don’t fret. We’ve got investor-friendly alternatives that you can use.
Here are seven economic- and investment-related phrases that we find in commentaries all the time – along with some useful substitutes.
1. Headwinds and tailwinds
There’s an easy fix for these two troublemakers: replace headwinds with challenges (or negative conditions) and tailwinds with opportunities (or positive conditions).
2. Risk investments
We prefer to hedge the language and add an example.
Instead of saying “Investors moved their money out of risk investments…”, we write “Investors grew increasingly risk averse during the period, and moved their money out of what are generally perceived as ‘riskier’ investments.”
The solution is a bit more verbose, but it spells out exactly what happened.
3. Attractive valuation
This one may be obvious, even for a retail audience, but it has been questioned by one or two compliance officers. You can change it to: “Given our expectations for the company’s growth, its share price appears reasonable at this time.”
4. Easy monetary policy
It’s probably best to avoid getting into the complicated details of monetary policy. We often write something like, “The central bank maintained its low interest rate to encourage economic growth.”
5. Rates remained range bound
We say: “Interest rates didn’t move much during the period, and traded in a tight range of between 1.00% and 1.10%.”
6. The belly of the curve
“Mid-term bonds” is a little more investor friendly.
7. Tenor (as in “short-tenor loans” or “the loan has a tenor of two years”)
Tenor really means “time until a loan is repaid.” A loan might be issued with a five-year term to maturity, but after two years it has a three-year tenor. If you believe tenor isn’t appropriate for a retail audience, you can use “time until a loan is repaid.”
By simplifying your commentary language you may have to add a few words here and there, but we think it’s worth the effort to keep your retail clients – and your compliance team – happy.
Let us know if you have other examples of investment terms or jargon that you’d like help simplifying. Contact us at 416.925.1700 or info@ext-marketing.com.
Are you making these mistakes in your writing? Part 3
Our previous “writing mistakes” posts dealt with solely with homophones and near homophones – Part 1 and Part 2. To keep things interesting, we’ve expanded our reach to include words that have confusing usage.
If you’re interested in sharpening your writing tools, then take a look at these five mistakes:
Bimonthly vs. semi-monthly
Both “bimonthly” and “semi-monthly” mean twice a month – but bimonthly also means every two months. Your best bet is to avoid the terms all together and use “twice a month” or “every two months” in their place.
Comprise vs. compose
“Comprise” means include and consist of: Does your portfolio comprise stocks and bonds? “Compose” means to make up: Equities compose your entire portfolio.
Dependant vs. dependent
“Dependant” is a noun that means one who relies on another: Do you have any dependants? “Dependent” is an adjective that means depending on: Some investors do not like being dependent on advisors.
Fewer vs. less
“Fewer” refers to individual units, while “less” refers to bulk measures: Therefore: There will be fewer shocks to the market this quarter; People will enter retirement with less money.
Nation vs. country
“Nation” primarily refers to a country’s people: The nation faces ongoing political uncertainty. “Country” refers to a territory with its own government: Gross national product is growing in that country.
That’s all the writing mistakes we’ll cover for now. Happy writing!
If you want writing and editing advice, contact us today at info@ext-marketing.com or 416.925.1700.
A proofreading checklist for commentary writers
If you write monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual commentaries for use in marketing tools, MRFPs, fund sheets or newsletters, this post is for you. It’s a proofreading checklist tailored for all us financial services commentary writers.
As we’ve written before, there’s nothing better than having your work reviewed by a professional editor or proofreader (like those at Ext. Marketing Inc.). But we also know that’s not always possible. So keep this checklist on your desk and catch any sneaky errors that may have slipped by you.
Copy
- Do a thorough spellcheck (and double-check whether it’s supposed to be in Canadian or U.S. spelling
- Check grammar for consistency (in document and across all commentaries)
- Check that sentences read correctly and paragraphs make sense from a structural standpoint
- Verify reporting period
- Confirm data in tables is correct
- Verify benchmarks, fund names and portfolio managers/advisors
- Confirm that performance numbers are correct and in the right currency
- Verify addresses, phone numbers and any other important contact information, if necessary
- Keep a running style guide. If you decide to use an upper case “F” on “Fund,” for example, write it down in your style guide so you never forget that rule
Layout
- Circle obvious widows and orphans (widows are single words that dangle alone at the end of a paragraph, orphans happen at the beginning of a page)
- Check text and paragraph alignment, removing frequent word breaks
- Verify the fonts used are correct
- Make sure any publication names are italicized and headings are bolded properly
- Verify colours (or gray scale) are correct and consistent
- Check overall alignment of all elements, including tables and graphs
Writing commentaries is a lot of work – editing them shouldn’t be. With just a few extra minutes – and this list by your side – your commentaries will be cleaner and easier to read!