Newsletters are perhaps one of the more traditional forms of communication for financial advisory firms. And while the delivery method has moved from printed newsletters to primarily digital email sends, the importance of newsletters has not changed. In fact, with the importance of content marketing for financial advisory firms, it could be argued that newsletters are more important than ever.
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Financial advisor newsletters can serve as a form of regular communication with both clients and prospects that offers insights and updates on financial news and trending topics. Newsletters can also be used to build brand awareness and generate leads, if people are reading them. Here are steps for creating financial advisor newsletters that your audience will want to read:
Using Timely and Relevant Content
Your financial advisory firm’s newsletter can serve to stay visible to your audience and provide engaging content that provides value to the reader. This content can include market commentary, general financial advising content, and news about your financial advisory firm’s accomplishments and activities.
These can be professional awards, certifications, accolades, or personal accomplishments that present your team members in a positive light. This could include community service recognition, charitable causes, and even achieving personal goals that demonstrate dedication and hard work.
All these things not only show the human side of your financial advisory firm but also make it easy for the audience to transfer those positive associations with how your financial advisory firm handles their financial interests. Other ideas for financial advisor newsletter content include:
- Themed newsletters where all the content shares a general theme or topic, i.e., “Estate Planning 101” or “401k Dos and Don’ts” as examples
- Guest interviews with relevant industry partners on trending financial topics
- Infographics and other engaging visuals can help make the text more digestible for the reader.
- Upcoming events and “coming soon” content
- Avoid superfluous content like recipes, kitchen measurements, and other “filler” content in your newsletter.
A Note on “Stock” Content
While there are services that allow you to use pre-written, generic, and evergreen content, this content should be used sparingly and not be the main content in your financial advisor newsletter.
Your featured content should be original and align with your financial advisory firm’s overall tone and brand. Additionally, using generic content can hurt SEO due to search engine algorithms identifying it as not original and therefore less likely to index it.
Delivering Newsletters Through the Right Channels
Digital is the predominant method of delivery for financial advisor newsletters, primarily via email. However, it should not be considered a regular marketing email as it has a different purpose and is not meant to be promotional in nature.
However, because it is still technically an email, the same best practices exist. These include a compelling subject line (to get them to open the email), an engaging intro or greeting (to keep them reading), and the types of high-quality content mentioned above that will keep them reading until the end. Additionally, all effective digital marketing includes a CTA where readers can take the next step for outreach.
If you don’t already have a digital marketing or email distribution platform, it’s highly recommended to implement one. This is for many reasons, the most relevant of which is the ability to manage your database effectively and measure campaign results and analytics. Other reasons include compliance (email platforms can manage unsubscribes and opt-outs on your behalf) and higher deliverability rates with trusted platforms.
Reaching the Right Audience
Depending on how well you have been managing contacts in your financial advisory firm’s database, you may have a sizable number of email contacts that will receive your newsletter emails, which is great.
However, you may be looking to grow this audience to include more prospects. This is not the only place to share your financial advisor newsletter content. This content should also be added to your website and can be shared as snippets on social media platforms.
Another consideration when it comes to the audience for your financial advisor newsletter is segmentation. Some financial advisory firms choose to segment their newsletter audience by prospects and clients. This allows the messaging for each newsletter version to be relevant to the recipient and can also help with lead generation for prospects.
Additionally, this prevents current clients from getting prospect messaging, allowing for their newsletter content to make them feel valued as a client.
Timing it Right
As with any email, timing can be a contributing factor to how well that campaign performs. And that timing depends on many factors, including the type of content, day of the week, and even how long you have been sending out emails on a particular platform. The good news is that many of these platforms offer AI-optimized recommendations for send times.
This can be a quick way to find that “Magic” window to send your financial advisor newsletters. Timing also matters when it comes to creating a cadence with which your financial advisor newsletters are sent.
If your goal is monthly, then choose a day of the month and create a schedule, and stick to it. If you’re regularly producing newsletters with high-quality financial advisor content and then get off schedule and start sporadically sending them, you risk losing the attention of a previously engaged audience. This can have even more of a downward effect if that audience is prospects who were engaged with that content but are now disconnected.
Testing, Measuring, and Improving
A key characteristic of any successful digital marketing effort is constant testing and measuring results with the aim of improving on the next endeavor. With analytics from your digital email platform, website analytics — or both — you can test different components of your financial advisor newsletters and see what performs best.
This can be with A/B testing subject lines, swapping out different images, and even comparing send days and times to optimize deliverability and open rates. By testing and measuring, you are then able to optimize future campaigns and improve upon or at minimum duplicate previous success.
