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Written by: Chayton Allen
First Things First
Email marketing is a common tactic that financial advisors use in order to communicate with clients and prospects. However, there are a few critical mistakes that turn off subscribers from financial advisors in the way you contact them through email.
Before we get into the tips for advisor emails, let’s make sure your emails are worth sending. The last thing an advisor wants is for their emails to go unread or thrown in the trash. According to our study, the average open rate on emails is 38-42%, showing that email is a very effective tactic and thus it needs to be used effectively. There are two major boxes that an advisor must check off before sending an email.
First is adding value, all content you put out and use in your emails needs to provide value to your clients. For example, if you are trying to engage people over email, what would they get out of booking an appointment with you? Is it security about their retirement fund? Is it knowing what they are going to do with their mutual funds in a year? The list is endless; the point of the matter is, “What’s in it for the client” should always be in your mind as the financial advisor. You need to build trust with your clients while maintaining a level of relevancy.
Second, a touch of personalization is important for any type of content but personalizing an email makes it stand out. You are differentiating yourself from the rest of your competition by simply adding their name to your email. You are showing your clients that you care about them and that they aren’t just a number.
7 Do’s and Don’ts for Email
1. No “No-reply email addresses”
No-reply email addresses are a HUGE turn off to prospects and clients. It makes an advisor seem faceless, cold, and impersonal. This tactic discourages interaction and forces one-way communication, where only you talk and the receiver listens. This is something you want to stay away from and you will be surprised how your email list will become interactive and engaging while giving you feedback along the way.
2. Don’t Automate Your Greeting
Automating your greeting can make an advisor sound generic and the message will eventually get tiresome to subscribers. If you have to constantly change your automatic greeting then there is no point in having an automating greeting. Consider the example of a holiday message when you forget to change it. It may make your content seem old and irrelevant. If you also ignore tip number 1 maybe you will have that same holiday greeting for months before you notice.
3. Segment Your List
After compiling your list of clients over time, you now need to segment them. Segmenting lists is important as you want to make sure that your emails are relevant to a particular prospect or client. In the end, you will have different segmentations filled with different clients while bringing different values to each of them. For example, a 65-year-old about to retire will be interested in receiving different content than a 28-year-old looking for a mortgage. In either case, your newsletters should deliver segment-specific, engaging, and relevant content.
4. The Subject Line
Subject lines matter; it is an insight into the email that is awaiting the person you sent it to. Make sure that you put a lot of thought into your subject line. If it grabs the attention of the reader, they will open and read the rest of the email and there could be a lead opportunity.
Even though you are trying to grab attention, as a financial advisor, you should NOT use deceptive subject lines. The last thing you want to be known for is clickbait. Your clients will stop trusting you and will unsubscribe.
5. Reduce Load Times
There is a very small window to capture the reader’s attention in an email, about 8 seconds. That’s why you need to optimize your images to reduce email load times. A picture will grab the attention of the reader and hopefully push them to keep reading. The longer the load times for your emails, the higher chance you have of people dropping off.
6. No Clear Call to Action
The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your audience and have an unclear message of what to do next. The Call to Action (CTA) needs to be clear, during, or after reading the email the reader needs to know the next steps. Multiple buttons linking to different things is okay but do not go overboard, try and make the CTA’s simple and spaced out. Don’t overcomplicate and overstuff your emails with information, sometimes it is better to send two separate emails with different information and different CTA’s, keeping the message clear and concise.
7. Unsubscribe Button
An unsubscribe button is important for two major reasons, first, it’s a legal requirement and second, you don’t want unengaged readers to feel trapped and report your advisor newsletter as spam. Sending emails to disengaged prospects and clients will tarnish your brand, while simultaneously impacting email deliverability.
Watch your open rates and unsubscribes. If there is an increase in unsubscribes look over your last newsletter. It may be any of the reasons above that caused people to drop off. Always give a way out to your email or newsletter, the value from email subscribers that want your information will be much higher.
The Takeaways
- No-reply email addresses are cold and impersonal and you do not want it associated with your brand.
- Don’t automate your email greetings, these are a waste of your time and usually do more harm than good.
- Segment your list, you want to make sure that your email is relevant to that particular prospect or client. It is not one size fits all.
- Subject line, you want something that grabs the attention of the reader but does not use the subject line to mislead.
- Load times, optimize your images to reduce email load times. You only have 8 seconds to capture the reader’s attention.
- No clear call to action, make sure your CTA is clear and concise and the reader knows the next steps.
- Unsubscribe button, people feeling trapped in an email loop is not the perception you want to convey for your brand.
Remember, email marketing is a common tactic that financial advisors use in order to communicate with clients and prospects. However, a financial advisor’s email strategy must be effective to gain subscribers throughout their emailing journey. When writing emails remember to have the purpose and your value proposition in mind. Planning in advance is needed to make sure that you are effective and providing valuable content to your audience. A personalized touch is always a nice thing for your emails to stand out. You are differentiating yourself from the crowd while showing your clients that you care about them. Remember, the average open rate on emails is 38-42%, as a financial advisor, you want to make sure your emails are the ones being open. An email is a powerful tool for financial advisors, and if used properly could have a positive ROI in email subscriptions.
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