How to Create a Newsletter as a Financial Advisor

Nurturing a sense of trust with clients can help increase retention rates and help you potentially gain new clients through referrals. Communication is central to that effort, and if you’re not leveraging the benefits of email marketing, you may be missing out on valuable opportunities to build deeper connections. Sending a weekly or monthly newsletter is a terrific way to stay on your clients’ radar and build engagement.

Ready to grow your client base? Learn how SmartAsset AMP can simplify your marketing.

What Is a Financial Advisor Newsletter?

A newsletter is a short and simple email message you send to clients on a recurring basis. If you’ve ever done any direct mail marketing, it’s roughly the same thing; you’re just sharing your message electronically.

A good financial advisor newsletter is interesting, engaging and tailored to your audience. When crafting email newsletters, it’s helpful to put yourself in your ideal client’s shoes to determine what type of content is most likely to grab their attention.

How to Write a Financial Advisor Newsletter

Drafting an email newsletter for clients starts with identifying your goals. In other words, what is the purpose of your message? Is it to inform, collect feedback, drive traffic to your website, or is it something else?

Once you know the end goal, you can get to work. Here’s how to write a financial advisor newsletter, step by step.

1. Choose a Topic

What will you write about? It’s a simple enough question, but one with numerous possible answers.

You might use your newsletter to:

Offer clients the latest updates or news about your firm
Highlight current trends in the market that your clients should be aware of
Answer some of the questions clients most often ask
Ask clients to complete a satisfaction survey or participate in a poll
Direct them to an article, blog post or case study you’ve published on your website
Embed the latest video from your firm’s YouTube channel, if you have one
Share a link to a financial tool you’ve recently discovered that your clients might find helpful

When choosing a topic, remember that you don’t have to repeat the same one over and over. That’s a proven way to bore your clients and make them less inclined to open your emails.

Changing up topics gives your clients something different to look forward to so they’re motivated to click when your message lands in their inbox.

If you find yourself struggling to choose a topic, try keeping an idea file. Create a document or spreadsheet where you jot down questions clients repeatedly ask and save links to interesting articles, blog posts or social media content you’ve come across. When you need inspiration for what to write, you can dip into your idea file.

2. Focus on Value

Any content you share with your audience should be valuable to them in some way. That’s true whether you’re providing links to your content or someone else’s.

It may seem counterintuitive to direct your clients to an article or blog post written by another advisor or financial expert, but clients will appreciate that you’re taking the time to find and share the best information available.

You can also pivot that into an opportunity to encourage clients to reach out to you for a chat.

For instance, say you’re sharing an article about a new law that’s set to affect retirement plan contributions. You could include the link in your newsletter, along with a brief description of what your clients will learn, then add a call to action encouraging them to schedule a call or meeting with you to discuss what it might mean for their retirement.

3. Strike the Right Tone

The tone you use to write your email newsletter is just as important as the content you include.

Using a tone that’s friendly and conversational, while also authoritative, can produce better results than a dry, boring email or one that comes off as condescending. Clients want to feel that they’re valuable to you, and the wrong tone can be off-putting.

Email marketing tools can make it easier to create personalized messages by including the name of the recipient. It’s a small thing that clients may appreciate more than a generic “Hello” or “Dear client” greeting.

4. Write a Compelling Subject Line

A good subject line can make or break the success of your newsletter campaign. A financial advisor newsletter with a boring headline is less likely to be opened and read.

Using a question format can help with engagement and pique a client’s interest so they open your email. Here are some examples of subject lines that can feed curiosity:

Are you making this mistake with your money?
Did you know about this tax break for investors?
Wondering what the best investments are right now? I’ve got the answers.

Your subject line shouldn’t be misleading in any way, but it should be designed to encourage your clients to find out what the rest of the message says.

5. Choose the Right Structure

Your email newsletter doesn’t need to be book-length; shorter is often better. In terms of how you structure your messages, you may stick with a set format or mix things up depending on what you’re discussing.

If you prefer a fixed format, then you might segment your messaging to include:

An opening, with a short anecdote or update about what’s going on in your life
Highlights on the latest market news (bullet points can make this section skimmable and easy to read)
Investment/financial planning tips relevant to your chosen topic
Links to valuable resources
Closing and call to action

You don’t have to follow this exact formula; it’s simply intended to be a guide. You might find that your audience is more responsive to emails that follow a storytelling format or include visual aids, such as images, gifs or videos.

Doing some A/B testing allows you to experiment with different formats to find out which structure resonates most with your audience.

6. Create a Schedule

One of the golden rules of email marketing is to be consistent. When your clients become used to seeing your emails show up in their inbox on a certain day of the week at a certain time, they may be more likely to open them to see what you have to say.

There’s no magic number of emails you need to send, and less can be more if your emails are packed with value. Sending too many email blasts could work against you if clients develop a blind spot and automatically send them to the trash folder.

If you’re just getting started with email marketing, you might aim for a weekly or biweekly schedule. You can then monitor your open rates and click rates to get a better idea of what frequency works best.

Using digital marketing tools can help. With SmartAsset AMP, for instance, you can create and send automated email campaigns to prospects. That allows you to build a rapport with investors who are ready to work with an advisor, but need more time to make a decision.

7. Include a Clear CTA

A CTA or call to action allows you to give clients specific directions about what to do next. For example, you might close your newsletter with any of the following CTAs:

Wondering what the dip in the markets could mean for you? Schedule a call today to discuss.
Interested in learning more about estate planning? Head to our website to download our guide on what to include in your plan.
Are you retirement-ready? Use our interactive calculator to estimate when you’ll be able to retire.

These CTAs work because they’re actionable and designed to encourage clients to reach out to you or visit your website. Your clients may be ready to act on financial decision-making but not know how to do it, and your CTA can steer them in the right direction.

Bottom Line

Starting an email newsletter is an excellent way to connect with your existing clients and reach out to prospective clients who could benefit from your services. If you’re not using email to market your financial advisor business yet, now’s the time to reconsider where it might fit into your overall marketing plan.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

Email marketing is just one tool you have at your disposal when promoting your advisory firm. Social media, digital ads and direct mail marketing can also help you spread the word about your business. If you’re looking for a simpler solution for generating leads, partnering with an advisor marketing platform could make sense. SmartAsset AMP helps you get matched with right-fit leads while leaving you free to focus on serving your clients.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) outlines acceptable email marketing practices for financial advisors and other businesses. Familiarizing yourself with what is and is not allowed can help ensure you stay compliant when sending email newsletters. You may also have this capability built into your RIA compliance software if you’re using one.