Here’s a surprising fact: email recently turned 40 years old. But while the technology may be approaching middle age, it still has a lot to offer. Using email marketing strategies to help manage existing clients and potentially attract new ones can breathe new life into a financial advisor’s business. However, the process can be daunting and complex — and getting it wrong could make you look like a spammer, damaging your reputation in the process.
Luckily, there are reputable email-marketing services you can use to help you navigate the process professionally and effectively. You can add email to your marketing strategy by using software on your PC or an Internet-based service that provides an arsenal of useful tools.
Effective email marketing consists of several steps: establishing a sales funnel, managing your email list and creating effective newsletters that provide real value to your clients. Tracking your email campaign’s performance also is crucial.
Here’s a closer look at the process:
> Funnelling Business
A sales funnel looks like any other, with a wide top and a narrow bottom. At the top, draw in large numbers of potential customers using a variety of online marketing mechanisms, such as participation in forums and social networking. The key is to get these people to visit your website and take an interest in your acumen as a financial advisor. Your website is where you offer visitors helpful information about RRSPs or financial planning for a child’s education.
Your website also is where you put your newsletter’s sign-up form, which enables individuals who are impressed enough with your website’s information to opt in and receive information on a regular basis. This opt-in process is important. Most email marketing systems — such as Mailchimp (www.mailchimp.com) and Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) — use a double opt-in system, in which visitors to a website enter their email address and then receive an email asking them to confirm they want to receive regular communication. This ensures that they want the information and separates legitimate email from spam.
You then can send email newsletters to your list of recipients on a regular basis. (But don’t make them too frequent, or you will annoy the recipients.) Your newsletters must always offer value while creating the opportunity for the recipients to do more business with you.
> Making It Look Good
Email newsletter design is a tricky business. Ideally, your newsletters should be sent using HTML, which is the markup language used to build most websites. This allows you to format your text more effectively and include images, which can make your emails look much more attractive.
Unless you have the skills and the time to design your newsletter on your own, you might be better off using a professional service such as Mailchimp to provide some basic templates that can be configured to suit your needs. Mailchimp also provides a service that lets you check your newsletter using multiple email programs to ensure that recipients will see the newsletter as it was intended. Also be sure to offer an option in plain text for recipients who don’t want HTML newsletters.
Smart advisors will use email not only to draw in potential new business but also to manage their existing book, staying in constant contact with their clients and generating new business opportunities.
> Smart list management
Automatic responders and effective email list management are crucial elements in any successful email marketing campaign. List management involves taking your entire list of email addresses and names and structuring them into sensible groups that enable you to target each of them with suitable messages. These groups will depend largely on how your business is structured.
For example, you might create one group for high net-worth clients and another list for younger investors who are just getting started. If you focus exclusively on HNW clients, try creating one group for aggressive investors and another more conservative clients.
You can then create auto responder emails that automatically contact these groups based on certain criteria. For example, one auto responder might automatically email a certain group with budgeting advice and money-coaching information at the start of January, when New Year’s resolutions loom large. Another auto responder might email HNW clients with an analysis of macroeconomic trends every two weeks. The content and the target audience depend on your business.
> Monitoring Success
You also need to measure the performance of your email blasts. Online marketing systems can measure key analytics, such as how many emails were opened. You can find out who has unsubscribed by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in their email (you are required to offer this option by law in Canada) and find out which emails are not reaching their destination.
This data can help you to tweak the effectiveness of future campaigns by using shorter titles or personalizing the emails. IE