By Mike Gabriele

Rule of thumb dictates that a novelist must hook readers in the first few pages or risk losing them.  A film director knows he or she must captivate viewers in the opening ten minutes to successfully win an audience.  No such luxury if you’re planning an investment seminar.  You have about three seconds with a seminar title to either sway or surrender a prospective attendee.  That’s how important the right topic is and how well the wording and presentation are on the invitation.  In a matter of seconds, your postage will either be worth its weight in gold, or a lost expense.

Your seminar topic must engage the reader or you will never get the opportunity to engage them in person.  It is your call to action.  The title of a topic is paramount in seminar planning because it is in skimming the title that people quickly decide to either continue reading or toss the card aside and move on to opening bills.  So how do you get them to “read on”?  First, you need to know what resonates with your desired audience.  Translation: what are their hopes, dreams and fears?  Touting that you’re an expert retirement planner will surely get your invitation folded and recycled.  But this doesn’t mean retirement planning is a bad topic.  It’s a great one.  That’s just not how you present it.  For example, which of these two seminar titles will most likely fill more seats?

• Plan an effective retirement.
• Will you outlive your money?

This first title is nothing more than a piece of paper telling readers to do something.  It’s non-emotional and not very effective.  The second one, however, makes them stop and think.  Whether they believe they know the answer or not, chances are they will continue reading because it has grabbed their attention and is playing on their emotions.  Forming your seminar title as a question spurs curiosity and engages readers to want to know more.  It should leave them hanging just enough that they become focused on the more fundamental details of your seminar and are more likely to RSVP.

Great copywriting only goes so far.  The topic itself has to be timely and strike the right chord with your prospective audience.  If your list is well thought out and targeted, you should know what topics will spark interest.  Retirement income planning (Crafting the retirement income spigot)  is always a meaningful topic for certain audiences, as can be other detailed subject matter such as business succession (How to avoid the most common traps to business succession)  or estate planning (What will be your legacy and how can you make it so?).  With the recent market upheavals and volatile economy, managing risk and conservative investment options are more topical than ever right now.

The key is to pick a seminar topic that plays to your strengths and experience, targets prospects interested in those issues, and leads with a title that entices them into wanting to learn more.  You may be an expert in the field of investment planning and wealth management, but not a copywriter.  Spending a little for a professional craft, your invitation may pay for itself a thousand fold if it helps pack the room to capacity.