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Written by: Samantha Russell
Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach your clients and prospects. According to Forrester, people are twice as likely to sign up for your email list as they are to interact with you on Facebook. A case study also found that 72 percent of consumers prefer email as their source of business communication. Email marketing should play a major role in the marketing strategy of a financial advisor, and a regular email newsletter should play a major role in your email marketing. A newsletter, whether it’s sent weekly or monthly, is the best way to keep clients updated on your firm and the industry while nurturing prospects with engaging content.
What Should be Included In a Financial Advisor Newsletter?
When writing a financial advisor newsletter, it’s important to include content that is relevant, informational, and attention-grabbing. In this case, financial advisors, newsletters should include:
- An attention-grabbing title
- Relevant and interesting information
- Current trends and topics
- Important updates
When you send out a regular email newsletter, you keep yourself top-of-mind and remind your audience they’re part of your circle of connections. You might have a prospect who quietly reads your newsletter for months, then finally pulls the trigger and gives you a call because of a fascinating article or update you sent. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results from your financial advisor newsletter – be patient.
8 Steps to Writing a Financial Advisor Newsletter
So you know a newsletter is important, but how do you write it? Just follow our step-by-step guide:
1. Select Topics
When creating your financial advisor newsletter, we recommend including a mix of topics. This could include:
- News about your firm (new hires, an office move, etc.)
- Industry news
- Community Information
- Summaries and links to insightful content
- Personal news
While the exact mix is up to you, depending on your tone, you should include both firm-related news as well as industry updates. This ensures that every reader will find something that interests them.
Some might be excited to open your newsletter just for updates about the community event you went to or a feature on an existing client. Others might only want to read the latest industry news and articles about the market. Both are okay! But if you only include one type of update in your newsletter, you risk alienating part of your audience.
2. Curate Your Sources
Your newsletter shouldn’t just be a mix of topics. It should be from a mix of sources as well.
Curating valuable content is less time-consuming than creating your articles, but it still is a great service to provide your readers. Remember to always credit the work and provide a little commentary on what they will read. Even though you aren’t driving traffic to your website, you are providing value, and that’s what counts.
3. Drive Traffic to Your Website
In most cases, you should not include full articles in a newsletter. It is better to tease the article so that the user decides to follow the link back to the source. Each item in a newsletter should include a short blurb, at around 2-3 sentences, a link to the full piece, and, ideally, a picture. This will help drive more traffic to your website.
This is the ultimate goal of your newsletter: take people to your site, where you have a better chance of converting them into a client. By driving readers to your site, you’re able to increase traffic, increase the chance they’ll read your other content, and eventually drive SEO and increase page rank. Also, be sure to include a newsletter sign-up on your website to promote your newsletter to site visitors.
4. Find the Right Tone
As you write the newsletter, ask yourself, ” Would I take the time to read this?” You want it to be informative, interesting, and to the point. Your clients are busy, just like you, and might get turned off by a newsletter that’s boring or too long. Your newsletter should tell your clients, “You’re part of our family,” while still providing them with valuable information.
Varying the source of your content can also add breadth to your voice. Some aspects of your newsletter can certainly be pre-created, such as the market insights you can find in your FMG Suite campaigns. For other parts, it should be written by you or another member of your team. This ensures your message feels personal and specific to your brand – not like it could have come from any other financial advisor in the world.
5. Use Simple Design Tools
You may think it requires a graphic designer to create a newsletter. Luckily, building the newsletter in your FMG dashboard is simple, no matter your design skill level, and only takes a few minutes. One great design tool that offers both a free and premium version is Canva. With a plethora of easy-to-use design tools, Canva does a great job of making it easy for financial advisors to design newsletters and much much more.
6. Create an Email List
Now that you have your email, who do you send it to? Start with the email addresses of your clients and staff. Then, look through your notes for all your prospect contacts. Look through the business cards you’ve collected, the connections you’ve made on LinkedIn, and referrals from current clients. Include their first and last name when you upload their information to your email provider so you can auto-fill their name when you send it out.
You might want to consider organizing your list by syncing it with a CRM system like RedTail. CRM allows you to segment your audience and track your relationship with clients and prospects. It syncs seamlessly with your FMG and provides you with everything you need to leverage your newsletter for growth.
7. Commit to a Delivery Schedule
It’s important to stay consistent in how often you send it so your readers know what to expect. Sending it during the first week of each month is a great place to start. If you notice strong open and click-through rates, you might want to consider sending updates bi-weekly. Just don’t get in over your head, as you may frustrate readers if you are too inconsistent.
Be cognizant of how many emails you are sending out. If you have a message you need to get to clients, try not to send it on the same day a newsletter is scheduled. Over-saturation of email messages results in unsubscribes and a shrinking email list.
8. Grow Your Contact List
And don’t forget to keep adding to your email list! If you collect some business cards at a community event, add them to your contacts. If you get an email from a potential prospect with questions about your business, make sure they get your next newsletter. Keep growing your list to turn more prospects into full-fledged clients.
If you want to take your newsletter growth to the next level, be sure to have a form installed on your site that invites users to add themselves to your newsletter list. This is a great way to keep your marketing machine going 24/7, growing your email list and expanding your audience.
Related: Maximizing Engagement: 5 Tips for Reaching Prospects During Tax Season