Traditionalists in your target audience may think of investing as buying and holding domestic stocks, bonds and cash. If so, they may be chagrined that, even if their investments gained value over the past few years, the decline of the dollar means they have lost purchasing power.

Many in your target audience may think that index funds are the smartest way to invest. Yet, if they got into the wrong index at the wrong time, their wealth may have participated in the downside of a market bubble.

Others may be more sophisticated. The thoughts of the mathematically minded may go to quantitatively driven absolute- return strategies. Still others may think of hedge funds that invest in things like distressed debt and equities.

Some of the people with whom you are communicating may be preoccupied with commodities. The thoughts of others may go to private equity or derivatives strategies.

If you're trying to bring more institutional assets under management, some of the people in your target audience may be more concerned about meeting fiduciary obligations than they are with earning superior returns.

Many in your target audience have heard so many competing and contradictory messages about investing that they no longer know what to think. They may be reluctant to believe anyone. Certainly they will be reluctant to believe claims and concepts that, in the past, have cost them outsized losses.

To persuade individual or institutional investors that yours is a superior investment strategy or portfolio- management strategy, your marketing communications must navigate complex psychological, intellectual, mathematical and competitive terrain.

To craft marketing communications that win your firm new business, your writer needs to have a broad and deep knowledge of investing. He needs to have the ability to grasp why yours is a superior investment strategy. He needs to have a sensitivity to investors' decision-making processes and the writing skill to slot your strategy into those processes in a convincing way.

To induce investors to think and invest in new ways, your writer needs the ability to educate and inspire.

Given the conjoined complexity of investing and investors' decision-making processes, I find creating marketing communications that persuade individuals and institutions to invest in new ways to be a fascinating undertaking.

In my writing, I have had some great successes. I have helped investment firms educate high-net-worth individuals about investing in derivatives and persuade them to do so. My writing has educated investors about the advantages of investing in global portfolios that include commodities, currencies and absolute- return strategies.

Pre subprime era— when the main worry was that homeowners would repay their mortgages too soon— my writing educated pension-fund trustees about and persuaded them to invest in collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs). My writing has helped persuade funds of funds and individuals to invest in a hedge fund's structural-arbitrage option-trading strategy.

My writing has convinced high-net-worth individuals around the world to invest in a globally balanced portfolio- management strategy that— regardless of market conditions— holds the portfolio's volatility constant and lets its expected return fluctuate with market conditions.

My marketing writing has always been well received. A client told me that, at the end of one marketing presentation I wrote for him, a theretofore unknown investor in the audience came forward and, on the basis of the presentation, asked to put $2,000,000 under management.

I also have written a book on Black- Scholes option pricing theory. It has a five-star rating at amazon.com. Emails I have received about the book convey how my writing style and use of graphics educates and inspires:

“Simply wonderful stuff!!”
Zvi Bodie, finance professor

“So many things click into place so quickly, it's marvelous. I feel I could go for the next Nobel prize myself!.”
Peter Stewart, accountant

“A deep insight into the price process pops out clearly.”
Lucio Geronazzo, finance professor

“I knew Black-Scholes' option-pricing model was important and used it every day in my trading, but never knew why or how it worked. Your book and CD-ROM provided me clear understanding.”
Dong-Wook Kim, futures and options trader

“I like your writing style. You express complex ideas in easy words.”
Ji Tuo, student (whose first language is not English)

“If I can appreciate and understand Black Scholes, anyone can. Now I feel that I am in the world of Einstein.”
Rochelle Auletta, retired high school teacher.

If your firm offers investment- management or portfolio-management services to institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals and you would like your marketing communications to educate and inspire as well as inform, then I would like to collaborate with you in the conceptualization and design of your marketing communications. I would like to participate in the formulation of your marketing strategy. I would like to write for you.

Chances are, I can meet with you and your colleagues and synthesize what your target audience will find most appealing about your strategy. I can explain your strategy in the context of your audience's beliefs, goals, wishes, dreams and concerns.

In other words, I can educate and inspire high-net-worth and institutional investors to think more the way you do, to believe more of what you believe and to invest the way you think is in their best interest.

Through my writing, you can begin conversations that your calling staff can continue in person— conversations that will lead to long-term relationships.

If you are ready to create marketing communications powerful enough to cut through the competitive clutter and bring more assets under management, give me a call or send me an email.

If you're still formulating your marketing strategy, I may be able to help you clarify how best to define your investment strategy and your marketing message. Invite me in to participate in your discussions as an hourly consultant.

If it's time to re-create your web site, talk to me about why you'll get a far better result and save a lot of money if you do the writing before you do the design.

If you're re-creating your web site and no one on your staff has managed large projects that require the collaboration of business executives, technological experts and creative people, I have. If you would like, in addition to doing the writing, I can manage the project for you.

If your firm offers a full range of wealth- management services to high-net-worth and ultra high-net-worth families and individuals, my writing can help convince your target audience to entrust not only their wealth but also their hopes, dreams and risk exposures to you.

Between what you know and what I know, we can create powerful marketing communications— powerful enough to persuade institutions and high-net-worth individuals to think and invest in a new way— your way.

Let's talk. Give me a call or send me an email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jerry Marlow, MBA
(917) 817-8659
jerrymarlow@jerrymarlow.com
www.jerrymarlow.com