Most of today’s population relies on email to work, communicate with loved ones, get discount codes on their favourite products, stay up to date on news, and so much more.
In fact, 99% of people check their email inboxes at least once a day.
Think about your own inbox, professionally and personally.
You probably receive hundreds of emails each week, if not daily.
While you may not be reading all of these emails, or even opening all of them, there are those few that catch your eye and hold your interest.
Whether it’s due to an exciting subject line, an email from your favourite brand, or a weekly update from a newsletter that you subscribe to.
What if you were providing your clients and prospects with the email that caught their eye, held their attention, and deepened their relationship with you?
Advisors who have incorporated email marketing into their digital strategy have experienced success.
According to a survey completed by Campaign Monitor, the average open rate for email is 21.5%, however, the financial services industry experiences an open rate of 27.1%.
If that doesn’t convince you to get started, consider this – for every $1 spent on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $36.
An email marketing strategy can be used by advisors to:
- Update clients on company and industry news
- Follow up with prospects and leads to boost conversion rates
- Share helpful information, resources, and tips with current clients to deepen existing relationships
Whatever your purpose is for launching an email marketing strategy, here are the steps you need to get started.
Step 1: Gather Content
To start, you should have an idea of what type of content you’ll be sending your email list.
Here are some examples of what you could include:
- Blog posts
- Industry news
- Client testimonials
- Quick financial tips
- Staff bios or fun facts
- Company updates and details
- Resources that you have created or find valuable
When considering the type of content that you want to share in your newsletter, consider your target audience.
Ask yourself: Who are my ideal clients? What information are they seeking?
For example, if your target demographic includes people in their 20s and 30s getting ready to buy their first home, you might include a blog post with steps to buying your first home, ways to save up for a down payment, or tips for understanding mortgages.
Maybe your audience is made of up entrepreneurs of all ages—in that case, you may want to include industry news about small business tax breaks, loan programs, and investments.
Whomever your audience is, the key is to provide them with useful and valuable content to build rapport.
If they trust you as a source of news and information, it’s more likely that they’ll trust you as their financial advisor.
Step 2: Collect Emails
Now that you have a better understanding of the type of content you’d like to send, it’s time to start collecting emails.
There are a few different ways to gather emails for your newsletter:
- Make a list of current client emails
- Add an email newsletter sign-up form on your website
- Include a call-to-action on your blog to sign up for emails
- Offer a piece of gated content on your website (more on this below)
- Post about your email newsletter on social media
- Include a link to sign up in the footer of your email newsletter (for those who’ve been forwarded the newsletter)
- Add a link to sign up for emails in your own email signature
It may be tempting to buy an email list, however, it is not worth it.
Those will be cold leads, who are unlikely to engage with your content and will either unsubscribe or report you for contacting them.
If you haven’t yet, take a second to review these email regulations to ensure you’re always compliant:
Collecting emails can be as simple as including a form in the footer of your website, but if you want to quickly build an email list, it’s a good idea to offer subscribers something valuable.
This method is called “gated content.”
Gating your content means that people will need to provide their email in exchange for access to the content.
Content that is gated needs to be valuable and relevant to your target audience — for example, if you work with millennials, you would gate an ebook titled “10 Things To Consider Before You Buy Your First Home.”
Step 3: Organize Newsletter Details
Once you have a list of emails and an idea of the content you’ll share, you can start thinking about newsletter specifics.
Here are some things to consider when thinking about newsletter details:
- How often will you send your newsletter? (Also known as “cadence”)
- Will you send a welcome email to new subscribers?
- Will your newsletter be heavily designed or mostly plain text?
- Will you be sending this email to your full list, or segmenting it based on certain characteristics?
Once you’ve figured out your cadence and design, you can create your first email.
When you’re writing your copy, be sure to stay true to your brand voice and write for your audience.
Be careful of tone, vocabulary, and imagery. If you’re trying to write an approachable newsletter but use too much financial jargon, you could alienate your subscribers.
It’s always a good idea to run your newsletter past a fresh set of eyes, as they may see grammar, spelling mistakes, or other formatting issues that you may have missed.
While creating your content, consider segmenting your subscribers into categories.
This will make it easier for you to target specific audiences with different content.
To start, you could segment your subscribers into a group of clients and a group of prospects.
From there, you can segment by location, income, marital status, etc.
Just remember, you’ll only have as much information as you ask people for in your sign-up form. If you plan on segmenting by demographics, you’ll need to be sure to verify this information in your form.
Step 4: Write Your Subject Line
Before you send your newsletter out to the masses, think carefully about your subject line—it’s the first thing your subscribers will see when your email lands in their inbox.
You want to provide a subject line that captures their interest long enough for them to click and open the email.
Here’s what we recommend when writing your subject line:
- Keep it short and sweet—under 50 characters is best
- Make it accurate to the content but maintain curiosity—don’t give too much away
- Address the subscriber directly by using “you” or “your”
- Stay true to your tone and know your audience
- Avoid phrases that could get your email triggered as spam (ie. free, $)
Key Takeaways
Deepening relationships with your clients and prospects through email is one of the most strategic marketing decisions you can make.
Email is not dead, and unlike social media, it is a content distribution channel that isn’t impacted by dreaded algorithm updates and changes.
These are the 4 main steps you need to take as you begin your email marketing journey:
- Gather Content
- Collect Emails
- Organize Newsletter Details
- Write Your Subject Line
Once you’re ready to take your email marketing strategy to the next level, use these 7 strategies we’ve compiled for financial advisors like you.
