There’s a fair chance you were consuming industrial levels of caffeine, after a long night watching the General Election results. I know I was!

But once you finished your restorative cup of coffee or tea, what did you do next?

(a.) Went back to bed

(b.) Went to the office as normal

(c.) Took time out to write to your clients, explaining how the result might affect their personal finances AKA wrote a financial adviser newsletter

If you chose (a.), frankly I don’t blame you, I know I was tempted.

I can understand why you might have chosen (b.). There’s a school of thought that most clients are more accepting of market volatility, and are therefore perhaps less nervous about the effect of ‘events’, making adviser communication less relevant.

But, even if this is the case, I still believe advisers should communicate with their clients after significant events, such as those of last Friday morning.

Biased? Me? Never!

Yes, I could be accused of bias. After all, I run a business partly based on helping advisers communicate with their clients through a financial adviser newsletter. But, I firmly believe there are at least four reasons why (c.) was the right thing to do on Friday morning.

1. Whilst markets didn’t drop on Friday morning, it’s always useful to remind clients that knee-jerk reactions, based on ‘events’, are generally a bad idea
2. There are certain times when your clients will look to you for reassurance, insight and wisdom. The election result is certainly one of those. Last year we probably had three; the referendum result, Trump being elected and the property fund suspensions (amazingly, that was the second or third item on the BBC News at 10)
3. If you don’t communicate with your clients, others will. This potentially gives them an opportunity to put a foot in the door and position themselves as a trusted financial expert. If they don’t get the reassurance and insights they are looking for from you, clients may be tempted to look elsewhere
4. Finally, for those people on your database who are not yet clients (in other words, prospects) a timely update shows you are on the ball, gives a chance to impress, provides a further reminder of your existence and continues to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise

The early bird…

If you’re going to produce content following events such as the election, or even the Budget, it’s crucial to be quick off the mark.

There are very few ways to differentiate the content of, for example, the Budget. But delivering it accurately and quickly is one of them.

I know from experience that Budget reports are well read if they are received quickly. Send them one, two or even three days later, your open rate will fall through the floor and you will be seen as irrelevant.

Producing content isn’t easy, but make the effort and I know you will be rewarded. If you can’t find the time to do it yourself, then outsource the job as you would any other.

Finally, a word to any sceptics who don’t these communications have any value. The clients of the advisers we work with received an update at 7.00 am and then another in the middle of the afternoon. The open rates are above average, proving that the updates were both useful and engaging. If you need help writing a financial adviser newsletter to your clients then contact us.