| Greetings!
Investors (and the financial services companies that serve them) are enjoying a respite from the brutal bear market of last winter. But it's no time to become complacent. In fact, now is a great time to step up your communication and education efforts. Help your customers, participants, or members learn from past mistakes and achieve their goals. If your marketing department is short-staffed, contact Bull's-eye for professional writing and design services for newsletters, whitepapers, articles, and marketing collateral. |
| 3 Surefire Ways To
Rev Up Email Readership |
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For your email marketing messages to have any chance of breaking through your target audience's daily deluge of emails, text messages, and direct mail, your subject lines must immediately grab readers' attention. Just as with direct mail, nothing good can happen if your readers don't "open the envelope."
Effective subject lines, headlines, and titles can help your newsletters, whitepapers, and even your internal email correspondence stand out from the crowd. Follow these three tips to give your subject lines some pizzazz:
Get to the point-now! Studies show that most email readers are so crunched for time that they focus on just the first two words of a subject line before deciding whether to read the rest or move on. So, instead of a subject line that says "October Newsletter," or something similarly uninspiring, try highlighting the benefits of your content. Keep it short, because after 40 characters or so, many email programs simply show a series of dots.
Offer immediate benefits. Convince your audience that your email is even more valuable if they open it now. Answer the all-important question: what's in it for me? Rather than "ABCs of Roth IRAs," try "Get Tax-Free Growth With Roth IRAs."
Appeal to emotions. Most decisions-especially purchase decisions-involve some degree of emotion. Email marketing expert John Arnold suggests you "write your subject lines toward passion or away from pain." "Safeguard Your Retirement Dreams" works better than "Are Annuities Right For You?" |
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Industry News Retirees Get Relief From
Unwanted Distributions |
In response to last year's financial crisis, the IRS announced last December that retirees age 70 ½ or older could skip their 2009 required minimum distributions (RMD). Unfortunately, this change caught many plan sponsors, participants, and IRA owners off guard. As a result, many people took unintended RMDs this year. On September 24, the IRS announced that plan sponsors, participants, IRA owners, and spouse beneficiaries can retroactively roll over unwanted RMDs for 2009. Individuals generally have until the later of November 30, 2009, or 60 days after the date the distribution was received, to roll over a distribution. For IRAs, the one-rollover-per-year rule remains in effect. More details are available at the IRS website. |
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Industry News
Many Workers Forced to Retire
Earlier Than Planned |
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The Employee Benefit Research Institute reported that many American retirees are forced to leave the workforce earlier than they had originally planned. Overall, 47% of retirees left their jobs earlier than planned. Reasons for retiring early varied, including:
- Health problems or disability (42%)
- Companywide downsizing or closure (34%)
- Caring for a spouse or another family member (18%)
- Outdated skills (13%)
While many financial services companies have worked to educate their customers about inflation, healthcare costs, and other risks to retirement income, workforce longevity is a subject that deserves more attention. Too many people labor under the misconception that they can make up for savings shortfalls by simply working longer. |
Recent Bull's-eye Projects:
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- Wrote the September issue of Fidelity StockSense newsletter for stock plan administrators
- Wrote the September issue of Fremont Bank's e-newsletter
- Completed a Fidelity Viewpoint article on Roth IRA conversions
- Drafted article on donating appreciated real estate for American Endowment Foundation
- Contributed several articles for Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services' September advisor newsletter
Work smarter, not harder! Outsource your financial writing projects to Bull's-eye. For a free, no obligation quote, call me today at 774-719-2324 or visit www.bullseyecommunications.net.
Sincerely,
Neil Rhein
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- Financial Communications
- Newsletters
- Content Development
- Whitepapers
- Marketing Collateral
- Creative Design
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| Today's Buzzword: |
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Social Notworking:
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| Bull's-eye Poll Question |
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At what level will the Dow Jones Industrial Average end the year?
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