In the new February/March issue of Morningstar Magazine you can see how fees can be a consistent predictor of performance, if a company can be measured solely by its stock returns and whether ETFs or index funds offer investors the cheapest price tags.
Read the latest Morningstar Magazine
In the new December/January issue of Morningstar Magazine you can see how history will view the fund industry’s current embrace of alternatives, how investors are finding the long-term growth in Africa hard to ignore and how accelerated stock-price increases can lead to drops and poor future performance.
Read the latest Morningstar Magazine
Morningstar has investment experts in 27 offices around the world. We are bringing together their insights into a global Morningstar magazine aimed at all types of financial professionals including advisers. The magazine reflects our global reach, demonstrating the full scope of our independent thinking and original research. In the latest issue you can among other things learn more about the behaviour gap or learn about why Japan is heading in the same direction as Greece.
We’re excited to launch a number of new features. We added a global investment roundup and a new column from John Rekenthaler. In the next few months, we’ll also be launching an interactive tablet version of the magazine. Access the online Morningstar Magazine
Gareth Thompson of [codepotato] outlines the essential steps to building–and maintaining–a great financial adviser website. View on Morningstar.co.uk
Next year, the 7th annual Morningstar Investment Conference will take place on the 14 and 15 May 2013 at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London.
At next year’s event you can expect to see an agenda focused around educational insight covering a broad range of investment-based topics.
For a look at the 2012 event, please click here
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I love to learn about digital marketing and I subscribe to goodness knows how many marketing blogs and newsletters. But sometimes the information can be depressing… And then inspiring!
First the Bad Stuff then The Really Good Stuff (F-shaped Reading Patterns)…
I recently visited a new source for me, Nielsen Consulting, who do website usability research. They had research proving that a huge amount of people don’t scroll down web pages. And those that do scroll down web pages or emails are most likely only scanning my carefully crafted prose for the key facts.
I instantly increased my productivity by becoming less of a perfectionist right there and then.
The Really Good Stuff (F-shaped Reading Patterns)
After a wave of disappointment and career reassessment I read a little further and found the good stuff.
People scan communications in an F-shaped pattern!
What does that mean?
1) That means people read more of the first line of your communication than anything else
2) They scan down the left side of the writing for things that catch their eye
3) They read more of the first line of a paragraph than the second line.
This means we need to put our key messages at the top of the page, on the left hand side, and put secondary, tertiary messages etc at the start of new paragraphs.
All fairly obvious stuff when it’s pointed out? But, when I review some of the emails I have sent out over the years I definitely haven’t optimised the communications for this reading pattern.
Here’s an example of a draft email I wrote to tell people about OBSR ratings being added to Morningstar Adviser Workstation. It doesn’t matter about the specific subject just take a look at the position of the key messages, highlighted in yellow.
Not "F-Shaped"
Not optimized for F-shaped reading is it… So I reworked the draft to move the messages around. See the second version.
"F-Shaped" text
Example 2 is above and you can see the key messages have moved in to the prime positions that fit the F-shaped reading pattern. Thank goodness the English language is so flexible. It allowed me to quickly move the messaging around with very little change to the text.
Does it work? That is yet to be determined as, at the time of writing, the message hasn’t gone out yet. But, I believe it will make a difference.
Will it mean 30% more interest? I’m not sure, but what I do know is each time I test and prove that something makes a slight difference our campaigns become more effective. The compound effect isn’t just for interest you know!
This improvement, plus all the rest I have made over the years, means email marketing provides me with a far better return for my time than it did at the start.
Why not optimise your next communication for the F-shaped reading pattern?
Do you have any tips for making emails, or other communications, work harder for you? Please share them with this community in the comments section below. Or email me at jon.standring@morningstar.com.
Regards
Jon
Read more about F-shaped reading patterns and see some stunning eye-tracking images that visually show the patterns at Jakob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html