Is Email Marketing Effective for Financial Advisors?

Written By : Clifford Blodgett

There’s a resurgence in the online marketing world. You might even think of it as revolutionary if it wasn’t over 40 years old. Everyone has heard of it, nearly everyone uses it, and it’s one of the fastest ways for you to grow your business and your prospect list… if you utilize it correctly. It wasn’t created by a 20-something Ivy League genius and you don’t need to take a seminar to learn how to use it. In fact, it’s something you’ve been doing for the past two decades (or longer). Email.

Yes, I said email.

The problem, for most financial advisors, is that you have likely not been using it the right way. Chances are that you either have been too busy to set up a consistent email distribution to clients and prospects, or you’ve been using a fancy email newsletter that may have been effective at the turn of the millennium but has now lost its effectiveness because it looks horrible on a smartphone, downloads slowly, and screams “solicitation” when it hits a user’s inbox.

But like it or not, email is still one of the best ways to reach your target audience and offers at least three great benefits over Social Media.

It’s More Proactive

Email marketing reaches directly to your target audience and allows you to connect with them NOW. If you have a solution to a problem for your clientele, you can let them know immediately rather than posting information on a Social Media platform and hope that they stumble upon it or that someone happens to share it with them. With Social Media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc… there is always a “luck” factor involved. You can do everything right, but there is no guarantee that your client or prospect will see your information. Using email increases your odds of the right eyes seeing your content.

For advisors who work with retirees, email will generally reach your audience far more effectively than Social Media.

It’s Easier for People to Save

Have you ever received an email and said to yourself, “This is important but I don’t have time to read it now. I’ll save it for later.”? Then, later that day or even a day or two down the road you go back and read the information. You might even save the email for a week or longer knowing that it’s pertinent. When you’re ready to read it, typically it won’t be hard to find.

Try doing that with Facebook or Twitter. Locating a post or a Tweet that is 2-3 weeks old will cost you a half hour of your life that you’ll never get back. Maybe longer.

It Still Reaches More People

In a recent email statistics report, the research firm, Radicati, reports that there are currently 3.9 billion email accounts and 2.4 billion active users. Despite Facebook’s massive growth, their user statistics are still 75% less than the numbers reached by email. Not to mention the fact that if your target audience is business owners or individuals over the age of 50, you’ll stand a far greater chance of reaching them with email than you will with Social Media outlets.

Don’t Abandon Social Media

We aren’t advocating that you abandon your Social Media marketing efforts, but rather just looking to remind you not to forget that a strong email marketing campaign may still be the best way for you to reach your desired demographic. The real key is being consistent with a properly planned and structured content and a delivery method that maximizes open and click-through rates. The bottom line is that your emails should be driving traffic back to your website. Monitoring and tracking these visits is critical to your success and the determination of your ROI.

More information can be obtained on our email marketing page or by contacting us directly for a free overview of your current marketing strategy.

FOR INSURANCE PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR USE WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC DM-0088 2015/4/10

Filed under: Financial Advisor Marketing