2020 was quite a year! The crisis was an opportunity for advisors to rise to the occasion or shrink. Unfortunately, many shrank because they lacked timely and effective messaging to connect deeper with clients and show their value to prospects.
Many advisors sign up with marketing libraries and website services that provide content that is attractive, but not effective. Advisors love that these ineffective pieces of content are shared automatically on their social media, but then wonder why they aren’t getting any results (unless the desired result is to contribute to all the other noise out there).
Quality and unique content is king, and 2020 was a year to show it off. Actually, every year is an opportunity to show it off.
In this post, I highlight several pieces of behavioral content that advisors used in 2020 to navigate their clients and help them remain calm and make good decisions during the heights of the pandemic fear. Not only was this content well received by clients, but many of the clients also shared it with their contacts – further benefitting the advisor.
2021 is another year and another opportunity to shine. If you can benefit from behavioral finance content, tools and coaching, click to email me. We can schedule a call and I will show you all the behavioral tools, resources and additional content that is reserved for only 100 members of The Behavioral Finance Network. You can be one of them.
The following is a sampling of less than half of what I produced for advisors during the first six months of 2020. As you will see from the dates, most of this content was proactive. Behavioral Coaching is much easier and more effective to do proactively than reactively.
January
- 1st – “A Reliable Forecast for 2020” A fun forecast based on investor behavior. Two timely points made: the investor will be surprised and tempted to abandon their plan
- 28th – “Coronavirus: A Healthy Perspective”. Ghostwritten article highlighted what was a recent headline in the media. Cautioned investors that if it worsens, the market could sell off.
February
- 3rd – “Responding to Coronavirus Concerns” A coaching message with talking points on how to have an effective discussion with clients about the Coronavirus (to follow up with article sent out the previous week)
- 24th – “The Coronavirus Has Legs”. Another coaching message telling advisors this thing could become something big and we could see the market start to price in an economic slowdown. Client talking points provided.
March – Lots of Extra Content
- 2nd – “Investing: Simple, Yet Difficult” Ghostwritten article highlighting how difficult investing can be with volatility. Highlighted JP Morgan research that many of the market’s best days comes within weeks of its worst days.
- 4th – “Having a Consistent Message for YoYo Markets” Coaching message on creating simple and consistent advice to use during volatility with ideas on what to say to calm investors.
- 9th – “Send This To Your Clients” An email written for advisors to send to clients acknowledging the losses, stating that losses may get worse and reinforcing a few important perceptions.
- 17th – “Fear, Perspective & Opportunity” Ghostwritten article putting fear into perspective and how to mentally prepare oneself to take advantage of the opportunities.
- 23rd – “Volatility & Fear – Your Chance to Grow” Coaching message on what BFN advisors can do to take advantage of the situation to demonstrate to clients and prospects that they are different and superior to their competition.
April
- 1st – “Preserving Your Mental Health” Ghostwritten article with tips to find peace and stay sane in our new locked down society (I received very strong feedback from advisors – their clients loved this.).
- 6th – “Strategic Ignorance”. Ghost-produced video (and article) extolling the virtue of ignoring certain information (i.e. market movements).
- 13th – “Staying Productive” A coaching message about how advisors, in this new world, can stay productive – how, when and what talking points when reaching out to clients and prospects.
May
- 1st – “The Virtue of Optimism” Ghostwritten article on how to stay optimistic when it feels like life is crashing down on us. (Can you see how this is more impactful and valuable than sending a market forecast?)
- 5th – “Shock, Awe & Perspective” Ghost-produced video (and article) highlighting the unprecedented shock we just went through and some productive perspectives to maintain going forward.
- 13th – “Send This Email to Clients” Acknowledging we don’t know where things will go from here and providing three things our clients should do now to prepare for whatever may come.
June
- 1st – “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” Ghostwritten article highlighting two recent investments that claimed they would benefit from greater volatility actually blow up when we had greater volatility.
- 22nd – “What Will Be So Obvious in Hindsight 12 Months From Now?” Coaching message on what we should be discussing now with clients of all that could happen and what our plan is.
- 25th – “Market Whiplash” Ghost-produced video (and article) highlighting the fact that we have experienced a V shape market recovery and why its so important to ignore price moves and remain disciplined to plan.