Email marketing is one of the most successful marketing strategies for financial advisor prospecting. It’s a great way to nurture your existing relationships and build new ones. There are different emails for marketing, such as promotional emails, email newsletters, and welcome emails, that help to build your brand. But there’s one email you have to get right to build your business — the prospecting email.
From how to introduce yourself as a financial advisor to creating calls to action that get prospects to make the next move, successful prospecting for financial advisors requires expertly crafted email campaigns that are segmented, personalized, and engaging. Whether you’re targeting Millennials or the go-to Baby Boomers, your prospecting emails will convert if you use the right data and follow financial advisor prospecting email best practices.
How Do You Write a Financial Letter?
Writing a financial letter might seem daunting, but it’s actually much simpler than it sounds. The most important thing to remember is that the letter needs to be clear. That means doing things such as:
- Limiting request words like “please”
- Avoid words such as “quite, some, a bit, a chance, and possibly”
- If there are any deadlines, be sure to include them
- Include any important numbers to ensure there’s no confusion
Financial letters shouldn’t be daunting, they’re there to help both advisors and clients so be sure to make them easy for everyone to read and understand.
Prospecting Clients as a Financial Advisor: Emails and Demographics
“Email segmentation and personalization are certainly strong marketing trends, and the days of sending the same email to your whole email list are dwindling. Email is still effective, as long as your content is relevant to your audience.” –Forbes
Emailing Millennials
Millennials embrace technology and use it for entertainment, education, and to make buying decisions. 92% of millennials own a smartphone, and they use it frequently for texting, browsing, and emailing. One of the most relevant trends we’re seeing with this demographic is the popularity of video. Whether it’s using videos in financial prospecting emails or other marketing, video has become the medium of choice for most Millennials.
Research shows that by the end of 2019, the video will account for nearly 82% of mobile online content consumption. If you want to connect with the largest population in North America, you better focus on video with your marketing content. If you’ve been struggling with how to introduce yourself as a financial advisor to Millennials, using video links in your prospecting emails is the answer.
Emailing Baby Boomers
Over the next decade, the number of Americans aged 50+ will grow by 16 million. As a financial advisor prospecting for new clients, there are many opportunities within this age group.
While Baby Boomers weren’t exposed to technology or digital marketing until they were into adulthood, email is now an integral part of their lives. Baby Boomers may have evolved to adopt technology, but many of them still haven’t figured out how to plan for retirement. If you can help new retirees or help their adult children take care of their parent’s finances, financial advisor prospecting emails can help you get your foot in the door.
Here’s how to capitalize on the largest generations in history as well as other demographics with targeted prospecting emails.
Understanding What Prospecting Emailing Is
What Is a Prospecting Email?
A prospecting email is an email you send to warm leads to introduce yourself and start a conversation about their financial needs. This prospecting email will go to a referral from one of your current clients, someone who has engaged with you through email or social media, or a prospect who signed up for your email newsletter. This is your chance to make a first impression and you want to make sure it’s a good one.
The Importance of Prospecting Emails
Prospecting emails are an important part of the marketing funnel and they are what marketers consider “bottom of the funnel” strategies. For someone engages with a prospecting email, they are further along their buying journey and ready to make a decision. Most marketing funnels look something like this:
Awareness
The consumer realizes that their problem/need exists
Interest
The consumer is researching their options
Desire
The consumer has narrowed down their choices
Action
The consumer makes a decision
As with all marketing strategies, your email campaigns should address all stages of the buying funnel. Email newsletters, informational emails, and welcome emails address the top of the funnel. Promotional and financial advisor prospecting emails address the bottom of the funnel because they convince a reader to take action.
Writing Prospecting Emails as a Financial Advisor
There’s no denying the importance of a great prospecting email for financial advisors, but how do you create emails that get results? These tips will help you write the perfect prospecting email to attract future clients:
Keep Your Email Short and Sweet
The average office worker gets more than 100 emails every day, and most of those go unread and are quickly deleted. The best way to stand out and get your point across is to keep your email short, sweet, and to the point. Explain what you’re offering clients, why they should do business with you, and how you can solve their pain points.
Test Your Subject Lines
The subject line is the first thing your clients read, so you have to make sure it gets their attention. One way to make sure your subject line is as effective as possible is to A/B test different versions. Email scheduling platforms allow you to test different subject lines and look at the data to see which ones perform best. Don’t leave the most important part of your email to chance — use data to back up your strategy.
Don’t Make It All About You
A common email marketing mistake many businesses make is that they craft emails that are all about them. While this can be effective in some email campaigns, such as a newsletter, a prospecting email should be focused on your future clients. They want to read about how you will solve their problems, how they will benefit from working with you, and why they should choose your practice.
Personalize Your Email
In the past, busy financial advisors often used a “one size fits all” email strategy that focused more on quantity than quality. While this strategy is less time-consuming than a targeted email campaign, it won’t encourage prospects to take action. Instead, personalize your emails to create a real connection.
For example, if you are sending a prospecting email to a referral from an existing client, mention that connection and show that you are in tune with the recipient’s needs. You might say something like, “[Client’s name] mentioned that you might have questions about saving for retirement and if you’re getting the most out of your pension. Let’s put something on the calendar to answer your questions.”
Have a Strong Call to Action
You can craft a perfectly targeted prospecting email, but if your prospects don’t know how to take action, then your prospecting email won’t convert as well as it could. Make it easy for prospects to take action by including strategically placed calls to action that entice your recipients to call, email, or text for more information. Use tools like Calendly and YouCanBook.me that make scheduling meetings or following up on recipients’ calendars convenient.
Email Templates to Engage Potential Clients
Writing an email can be hard, especially with the changing landscape. So knowing how to start an email and finish strong can be difficult. If you ever feel stuck or need some inspiration, take a look at some of the email templates tips below:
To make it more personal, try using “Hello <first name>.”
Add value by providing a checklist of things that can help your client.
Use real stories about another client’s issues (changing names for anonymity) and how they affected you.
Editing note: This article was originally published on November 1st, 2019, and has been updated to ensure consistency.
Prospecting emails might be the piece of the email marketing puzzle you’re missing to drive conversions and leads. Make sure your prospecting email is to the point, has an engaging subject line, and makes it easy for your prospects to take action.
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